Joonmyun finds himself questioning Jongdae's sense of shame – or, more specifically, lack of it – for the umpteenth time when Jongdae suddenly appears in his peripheral vision, looking over Joonmyun's shoulder to peer at the screen of the computer Joonmyun's sitting by. “Have you ever heard of knocking?” Joonmyun asks, more out of curiosity than hostility. Perhaps Jongdae really isn't familiar with the concept.

Jongdae just waves a dismissing hand in Joonmyun's face. “It's much more fun to catch you off guard like this,” he says. “How else am I going to stop you from committing foolish acts such as...” He glances at the screen again and lets out a snort. “...baking chocolate souffle? Are you serious?”

Joonmyun frowns. “What's wrong with souffle? I like it.”

“Yeah, but do you know how to make it?”

Bashful, Joonmyun averts his gaze. “No.”

Jongdae tuts. “Didn't think so.” He browses through the other recipes open in different tabs while making noises of increasing disbelief. “Jeez, hyung. What are you even making this for?”

“Yixing is coming over tonight and he's going to make dinner for us so I offered to take care of the dessert,” Joonmyun says and adds with a slight pout: “I wanted to make something nice for him. The problem is I don't actually know how to make something nice.”

“Look at you, wanting to cook for your man,” Jongdae coos. “You are adorable.” Contemplatively, he taps a finger against his chin as he thinks. At the same time, he also completely disregards the glare Joonmyun shoots at him. “Souffle is really hard to make, though. Even my cooking teacher told us she has trouble whenever she attempts it. You should probably pick an easier task.”

“Cooking teacher?” Joonmyun mutters skeptically. “Is there any kind of class you haven't taken?” Once more Jongdae ignores him, this time in favor of typing something into the search bar. Joonmyun frowns harder. “What are you doing?”

“Since I'm such an amazing friend...” He glowers at Joonmyun when he scoffs at this. “...I'm going to find something that's so simple even you will have a hard time screwing it up.”

Moments later, Joonmyun finds himself looking at a picture of a box of cupcake mix, and once the implications strike him, a scowl takes over his features. “The amount of faith you have in me is astonishing,” he deadpans. “This doesn't exactly classify as 'something nice' to me, though.”

“Hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right?” Jongdae pats him on the shoulder. “Besides, I'm pretty sure Yixing is willing to eat just about anything you make out of pure adoration for you. It doesn't have to be all extravagant and stuff.”

“I guess not,” Joonmyun relents, figuring Jongdae probably has a point. Yixing isn't really the type to only want fancy things, anyway. “Thanks, Jongdae.”

Jongdae shrugs. “You know me. If you ever need someone to tell you to pull your head out of your , I'll be there in a heartbeat.” He pats Joonmyun's shoulder again and counters Joonmyun's disapproving stare with a smile. “Good luck with everything, hyung. Call me if you need help.”

After Jongdae has left the office, Joonmyun takes look at the cupcake mix he had recommended. It's one of those types where all you have to do is add water, eggs and oil and then bake them for a certain amount of time, and all in all it seems really simple. It shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Wrong. So wrong. Joonmyun stares in horror at what used to be a dozen perfectly fine cupcakes. Sure, they had come out a tad darker than the ones on the picture on the front of the box, most likely because he had let them stay in the oven a little longer than he was supposed to because he wanted to make completely sure they were done, but they weren't burned or anything and he had felt quite proud of his accomplishment as he decorated them with store bought frosting.

Except now the cupcakes look less like baked goods and more like a melted mess atop the kitchen counter. He had finished adding the frosting, went to clean the bowl, and when he came back, everything was chaos. Joonmyun doesn't know where he went wrong. He did everything the instructions told him to, double-checking to make sure he was doing things the right way. With a sigh, he runs his hands over his face, despairing at the wasted effort. All he wanted to do was make a nice dessert to impress Yixing. Apparently he can't even do that.

Joonmyun is considering the possibilities of running to the convenience store on the corner of the street to buy some kind of cake or perhaps just a tub of ice cream before Yixing arrives. He doesn't get the chance to decide whether or not to do that, though. Just as he has thought that thought to completion the doorbell rings, and Joonmyun almost panics, but quickly collects himself by inwardly repeating what Jongdae had said when Joonmyun called in a state of panic over which kind of oil he had to use: “Calm down. It's not like Yixing is suddenly going to hate you just because you don't know how to make cupcakes.” Joonmyun casts one last look at the evidence of his lack of dessert making skill. Then, after taking a deep breath, he goes to open the door.

Yixing greets him with an armful of shopping bags and a smile that only grows as he looks down at Joonmyun's body. “Cute,” he says. Joonmyun looks down as well and grimaces. He had forgotten he was wearing his apron, a pink one with a cute bunny on the front. His older brother had gotten him as a joke when he moved into this apartment, and Joonmyun hasn't used it before today, partially because he doesn't really do a lot of cooking, partially because it's a pink apron with a cute bunny on the front. He's not allowed any time to fret about it, though, because Yixing has already entered, and he kicks off his shoes and makes a beeline for the kitchen. Joonmyun follows him with apprehension, wringing his hands.

Unsurprisingly, Yixing does a double take once he notices the glob of disaster on the kitchen counter. He sets his bags down on a part of the counter that's not overflowing with an explosion of butter and sugar and goes to inspect the damage. Joonmyun walks over to stand next to him. “They're cupcakes, in case you couldn't tell,” he explains. “I really wanted them to turn out nice, but as you can probably see, my attempt wasn't very successful.”

“It's not so bad,” Yixing tries to assure him. “They're just a bit...”

“Horrible? Ugly?” Joonmyun lets out a short, wry chuckle. “I don't understand how this happened. I did exactly like it said on the box. I added vegetable oil and eggs and cold water and–”

“Did you put the frosting on them before they had cooled down?” Yixing interjects.

Joonmyun blinks. “You're not supposed to do that?” There's obvious amusement in Yixing's eyes as he looks at Joonmyun, and Joonmyun flushes, averting his gaze. “Oh.”

Yixing is smiling fondly as he cups Joonmyun's cheeks with his hands. “You're so cute,” he says right before he leans in to give Joonmyun a gentle kiss on the mouth, and all of a sudden a batch of ruined cupcakes doesn't seem very important anymore. Joonmyun mostly just feels silly for getting worked up over something so small.

“Hi,” Joonmyun mutters when they part, realizing they never actually greeted each other. Yixing's arms have slid down to wrap around his shoulders while Joonmyun's own arms are tentatively twined around Yixing's waist.

“Hi yourself.” Yixing pecks his lips again. He pulls Joonmyun even closer and burrows his face into his shoulder, inhaling deeply and letting the air escape him in a content sigh. “I missed you.”

Joonmyun snorts. “We saw each other just this Saturday, remember?” Joonmyun sure remembers, and with all the things that happened between them that night, he really hopes Yixing does too.

“So?”

“Today's Tuesday,” Joonmyun says. The way Yixing's breath tickles his neck when he decides to kiss a spot somewhere along Joonmyun's jaw has Joonmyun squirming and laughing.

“So?” Yixing repeats. “That gives me an entire three days to miss you. Far too long, in my opinion.”

“Oh wow.” Joonmyun scrunches up his face. “I think you just beat your own record. That is the cheesiest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“Please,” Yixing says with a grin that becomes evident when he pulls back to look at Joonmyun's face. “Don't even pretend like you don't like it.” Joonmyun has to admit that he really does.

Despite witnessing Joonmyun's failure, Yixing seems to think it's a brilliant idea for Joonmyun to help him cook so he can learn, and all it takes for Joonmyun to agree to the suggestion is a few more of Yixing's kisses. He's put on vegetable chopping duty because he's sure he at least knows how to use a knife. Yixing, once he has seen Joonmyun in action, begs to differ. At least if the way he's biting his lip to keep from laughing is anything to go by. “What?” Joonmyun huffs.

“Nothing nothing,” Yixing says quickly, pretending to go back to making the stock for their jjigae. He keeps shooting glances at Joonmyun out the corner of his eye, and when Joonmyun continues to glare skeptically at him, Yixing crumbles in the end. “It's just... don't you think you're cutting the pieces a bit too, you know... uneven? And big?” Joonmyun looks down at the chunky dices of carrot on his chopping board and he kind of sees Yixing's point.

So, as he goes on, he tries doing it slower, more meticulously. “Is this better?” he asks.

Yixing looks over, but judging by the grimace he makes, he's still not satisfied. “Maybe try doing it more like...” As if it's no big deal, he steps behind Joonmyun and puts his hand over Joonmyun's on the handle of the knife. “Like this,” he says, moving both of their hands together to demonstrate how to make the pieces neater and help Joonmyun get a feel of how to do it the way Yixing does.

And Joonmyun wants to learn, he really does, but he's more than a little distracted by the warmth of Yixing's chest pressed close to his back, the feeling of Yixing's fingers enveloping his own. More than anything else, he has to focus on keeping his breathing even. He feels like he's about to spew glittering butterflies from every single facial orifice.

Yixing seems to notice how rigid Joonmyun has become and almost simultaneously notices how intimate their current position is. He quickly steps away, muttering a bashful apology. Joonmyun takes a few steadying breaths. He smiles, but he has to clear his throat before he's able to mutter: “Thank you. I think I got it now.” His face is burning.

“O-okay, good,” Yixing says, his voice sounding nearly as shaky as Joonmyun's, and he goes back to doing his own thing. Joonmyun already misses the heat of Yixing's body pressed against his.

Fortunately, the sudden tension dissolves little by little as they go on with their cooking, and by the time dinner is ready and they're sitting down to eat, it's like nothing is amiss. It's no surprise that the food is delicious, Joonmyun's mouth had watered just from looking at it, but the taste is better than he could have possibly imagined. “This is amazing,” Joonmyun says with great feeling.

“I know, right?” Yixing says with a cheeky smile. “Definitely the best carrots I've ever had.”

Scoffing, Joonmyun rolls his eyes. When he looks at Yixing again, Yixing's smile has faded into a look of contemplation, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. Joonmyun frowns too, though he feels more concerned than anything. “Are you okay?”

Yixing nods. “Yeah. I'm just sorry. About what happened before.” He adds the last part to elaborate at the sight of Joonmyun's now confused expression. “I do these things without even thinking about it and I know that... that I might be going a little too fast for you. I'm sorry. I'll try to keep it in mind.”

“It's alright,” Joonmyun says with a strained smile. “Don't worry about it.” What he really wants to do is tell Yixing that no, he doesn't want him to slow down, that he actually wants him to touch him more, preferably all the time. But the words remain stuck in his throat with trepidation preventing their escape, and he doesn't get to speak his mind before the subject has changed, and by then it's too late, he'd feel awkward bringing it up again. Inwardly, he curses himself and his stupid fears.

(At least the cupcakes taste a lot better than he had expected.)

~*~

A/N: is it that time of the week again? indeedlydoo it is. :D and this time I actually managed to stick to my schedule! hooray! \o/

well... what can I say about this chapter? jongdae to the rescue as the sassy, straight best friend (as always... like, do I even need to do the hashtag anymore? I think y'all know by now that he wins at life and that he can do all the things - including cooking). if jongdae wasn't around, I'm pretty sure joonmyun would end up dying from stress and/or a heart attack. calm down. remember to breathe. do not use the sesame oil. everything is going to be okay.

now that the first kiss-part is out of the way, we have the next obstacle to overcome: Initiating Casual Skinship Without Making Joonmyun Freak The Out™. yeeeeeaaah. come along on this wondrous journey where zhang yixing & co. continue to coax joonmyun out of his shell, and kim joonmyun learns that consensual, mutual touches are actually pretty darn awesome.

last but not least, thank you for subscribing and thank you for all the nice comments. y'all are great. ♥

side note: I use "y'all" way too much for someone who has never even been to a southern state, hah. orz