Baekhyun's fingers flashed before my eyes once again when he snatched a fried piece of meat I was trying to put on a plate. It was already late - almost close to midnight now - but he'd insisted to cook a late dinner. After remembering his father's words and the taste of Baekhyun's porridge, I didn’t have a choice but to volunteer and prepare something that Baekhyun could stuff himself with in order to stop the complaints about how hungry he was. However, it was hard to get everything ready when he kept eating the side dishes I prepared to mix together.

Sitting on top of the kitchen counter, Baekhyun’s legs dangled back and forth as he watched me cook. I shot him yet another angry glare, frustrated that he kept on eating the meat I wanted to put inside the rice. Baekhyun smiled widely, showing off his pearl white teeth, as he continued to chew happily the piece he managed to snatch away from me. Knowing that scolding him for the tenth time wouldn't make him reflect on his actions, I could only heave a tired sigh as I went back to flipping the remaining pieces of meat on the frying pan with my chopsticks.

I listened to the sizzling sound of the fat, trying to ignore Baekhyun and prevent myself from stealing glances in his direction, and pretended to be preoccupied with cooking. It was hard for me to stay calm as my heartbeat sped up whenever Baekhyun spoke. Knowing that he was staying here for the night after my failed attempts to get rid of him caused me to feel extremely anxious around him.  As well, I ended up with enormous stings of remorse after Baekhyun explained how far he lived and how much he would've needed to spend on the taxi fare. If there was a competition on how to make an innocent person feel guilty for something you did wrong yourself, Baekhyun would've won without even lifting a finger.

"Who taught you how to cook?" He asked suddenly, playing with the fork I'd been using just moments ago. He lifted it up, eyeing the tines in focus. The way Baekhyun busied himself with useless stuff, like examining the cutlery or arranging the spices I had in small boxes on the kitchen counter, made him appear more like Baekbeom - cute and innocent. It was amazing how deceiving his look could be at times.

After not getting any response from me, he glanced up from the fork and our eyes met, giving me a small heart attack as I got caught staring at him. I cleared my throat, hurriedly trying to remember what he had asked me in the first place.

"My mom," I explained, looking away when I realized he was still observing me without any intention to break eye contact. I tried to return my focus on watching the meat sizzle, feeling a sudden embarrassing blush creep up my face. Baekhyun only hummed in amusement, not realizing my awkwardness around him.

Since the moment he'd told me the truth about him and Jihyun, I couldn't really look him in the eye without a strange feeling of anxiety and confusion twisting my insides. The unnecessary thoughts were already pilling up in my head, the motives behind Baekhyun's actions and words were beginning to clutter my mind, as I struggled to understand why these two were even together to begin with. At first, I'd thought they were just fooling around with each other because of , but my assumptions had gone down the drain when Baekhyun had told me the truth. Yet, I couldn't quite believe him, after all, I didn’t really see any rational reason of their actions - why would he risk getting caught by Jihyun's boyfriend if Baekhyun didn't even sleep with her? That simply didn't make any sense.

I felt a growing need to ask Baekhyun about the details of his relationship with Jihyun, but I didn't have enough courage to say it out loud, knowing well enough that it wasn't my business. However, withholding myself to not meddle in his affairs was a hard task when my brain was about to explode from all the secrets and misunderstandings.

A light kick to my leg made me snap from my thoughts and I looked down just to see Baekhyun's foot constantly hitting my left knee. When my eyes darted back to his face to get a proper explanation of why he was kicking me, I noticed one of his cheeks was puffed out as he tried to restrain himself from smiling. Having my own assumptions already, I hastily looked for the plate with meat.

"Baekhyun!" I yelled in irritation, seeing that half of the meat already disappeared. He couldn't hold back anymore as he covered his mouth, breaking into a loud laugh, almost falling from the kitchen counter he was sitting on. It was a miracle the boy didn't choke on all the food that was stuffed in his mouth. "You're dead," I muttered angrily, grabbing the nearest dishcloth I could find, as I began to smack his head.

"Okay!" He cried out. Still laughing madly, Baekhyun tried to shelter his head from my hits. "I give up! I'm sorry! I won't do it anymore, I promise!"

"Eat one more piece and you will sleep on the balcony," I threatened, breaking the attack with the dishcloth only because his yells could wake up Baekbeom. Trying to hide the small smile that began to pull up the corners of my lips, I faked disgust with his behavior, taking the plate with meat and placed it on top of the fridge, away from Baekhyun. He only giggled, not taking my words at all to heart, and reached for the bottle with beer that Sooyoung had left behind to take.

We both became quiet now, the sound of rice cooker being the only noise in the kitchen. I stole a few glances at him again, contemplating if I should ask Baekhyun about his parents. Would it be too much of a personal question?

"Ask," Baekhyun's voice rang in my ears, startling me slightly. He beamed at me encouragingly before taking another sip of beer, already reading me like an open book. "What do you want to know?"

"Your parents..." I said uncertainly, turning off the stove and avoiding any eye contact. "Where were they today?"

"They went to Ulsan for a business trip." He answered right away without hesitation, placing the bottle back on top of the kitchen counter. Then he turned to me, tilting his head slightly, observing me in interest, his hands flat on either side of his hips. "What more do you want to know?"

"Why are you suddenly so eager to answer everything I ask about?" I questioned, arching my brows in confusion. Baekhyun simply snorted, and slid down from the kitchen counter.

"You said you didn’t know me, so I'm giving you the chance to learn as much about me as you want," he made a few steps closer, standing right before me now. Without hesitation, he leaned closer, his chest almost touching mine, as he reached for the knife lying right on the cutting board behind my back. I swear to God, my heart almost burst from my chest at the unexpected contact; my blood rushed to my face when the smell of his cologne hit my nose. I immediately held my breath, afraid he would hear the mad beats of my rambling heart.

Fortunately for me, the contact didn't last long. Smiling triumphantly with the knife already in his hand, he leaned back, giving me the space I needed to cool down and shake the sudden shock he gave me. "Do you want me to cut the onion?"

"Y-yeah," I answered quickly, giving him the access to the cutting board. Clearing my throat awkwardly, I grabbed the nearest glass and poured myself some cold water, trying to convince my brain that there wasn't any reason to panic or overthink. That guy was a flirt after all. He