Falling

A walking disaster, a perfect description of the third-year student at Seoul Culinary Arts School Bae Joohyun. On first look, the girl literally glowed from head to toe with her sparkling round eyes and skin fair as snow, but beneath that perfect exterior was her true self, a hopeless klutz.

Cutting her fingers from slicing strawberries, always on the receiving end of burns from her nemesis the oven, and even toppling a whole freshly-baked cake on her instructor, that was Bae Joohyun. Speaking of the last incident, it was exactly what landed the poor girl in her current situation. Beside Kang Seulgi. As her partner for their Fondant Making 101 class. 

After that unfortunate incident when Joohyun threw her completed fondant cake onto her instructor after tripping on…wait for it…nope it wasn’t an inanimate object like a table or anything but yes Bae Joohyun tripped on her own two feet, she was forced to retake this module this semester if she wanted to graduate. Joohyun shuffled her feet as she sat quietly on her high stool, totally frozen in the presence of a certain nice-smelling girl beside her. Yes she was creepy like that.

Seulgi’s POV

Kang Seulgi, the genius second-year student, ideal type of every student in the Academy, female or male. The girl oozed charisma with her every step, with eyes that curved into beautiful moons when she smiled, she literally had the whole school enthralled. Her suitors lined from Seoul to Busan (no kidding), but the girl rejected all of them, of course politely as expected from the mannerly angel, all for one person, which she happened to be seated beside today.

As clichéd as it seems, it was almost love at first sight for Seulgi and the beautiful fairytale actually began on the younger one’s first day at the Academy. Coming from a family of chefs, with her parents owning a chain of bakeries and her siblings working as top pastry chefs at renowned hotels, Seulgi was naturally enrolled in culinary school with her exceptional talent in baking. Unknown to the older girl, the two actually met before, and it was that exact moment when Seulgi fell for Joohyun. Or rather, Joohyun fell ON Seulgi.

- Flashback –

Seulgi was calmly walking to her first class on her first day in Seoul Culinary Academy with her new books in hand, humming a pleasant tune as she admired the pretty architecture of the Academy. She was extremely excited to attend her first class in Seoul’s top academy for Pastry Chefs. With a spring in her step, she was about to turn a corner before she arrived at her destination, but little did she know that her life was about to change as she headed towards the junction.

Before she could even register what happened, she was sprawled on the floor, covered in crumbs and cream, which she believed used to be cupcakes before they met their demise.

“Oh my gosh I’m so screwed… Instructor Kim that old demon’s going to kill me if I go to her class without these…” the girl mumbled as she hurriedly recovered from her fall and stared at the remnants of her cupcakes, now all over Seulgi’s body. Seulgi could only stare at the beauty in front of her, how she was biting her cherry red lips as her brows creased together while she worried herself with dealing with a certain demon instructor, totally forgetting that she was currently covered in cream.

When the brunette finally snapped out of her trance and mumbles, she finally realized that her precious cupcakes landed on an actual person. Getting flustered all over again, she clumsily tried to wipe the cream off Seulgi with her bare hands while apologizing profusely. Wow I can listen to her voice forever… Totally enjoying the current situation was a certain Kang Seulgi, with a bright smile plastered on her face despite looking like a walking pastry on her first day at school. What a hopeless fool. Her happiness was short-lived thought, the bell suddenly rang, signaling the start of school and once again, the brunette flew into a state of panic with the continuous mumbles which sounded like “I’m so dead”, “demon kim” and some undecipherable words.

Seulgi could only stare in amazement as the brunette jetted off towards the stairs without even sparing her another glance. Thankfully the younger girl managed to sneak a peek at the brunette’s name tag before she scurried away. Seulgi was left rooted to the spot as she smiled like a fool to herself looking at the brunette’s back view. Bae Joohyun, I’ll remember your name.

After that fateful encounter, Seulgi always tried to look for Joohyun around school just so she could catch a glance of her ‘Clumsy Goddess’ as the younger one aptly named the brunette. Seulgi noticed how Joohyun was always tripping over nothing and even walking into walls just because she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. It was adorable to the younger one as she found herself falling more for the school’s klutz. She admired Joohyun like how she would with art pieces in museums; she never approached the older one and just looked wistfully from afar. Seulgi was a perfectionist, she wanted her first, or rather second meeting with Joohyun to be nothing short from perfect, so she never tried to talk to the girl and only observed her till she was confident enough to approach her. And with Lady Luck shining on Seulgi, she was finally given a chance to when Joohyun’s own misfortune brought them to their current situation, being beside each other as partners for the next three months.

- End of Flashback –

Back to the current situation, Seulgi was literally trembling inside as she tried so hard to keep her calm and cool outer façade while being beside Joohyun. She hasn’t been this close to her ‘Clumsy Goddess’ ever since the unfortunate, or fortunate according to Seulgi, cupcake incident a year ago. The class was awaiting the arrival of their instructor, which so coincidentally happens to be Instructor Kim, or more affectionately known to Seulgi as Demon Kim according to her crush. Seulgi wistfully stared into space as she thought this must be fate, with Demon Kim being their Cupid, bringing them together.

Her daydream was brutally shattered when a low voice boomed and echoed through the entire classroom. She suddenly heard a thud beside her and she turned her head only to see her goddess sprawled on the floor. Yes, Joohyun got so startled by Instructor Kim’s sudden entrance that she fell off her high stool. Seulgi giggled even though she knew she probably shouldn’t be laughing at someone else’s misfortune but…who else could still look so adorable being all sprawled out on the floor? No one but her Clumsy Goddess.

Joohyun pouted as she tried to get up on her own, only to trip on her untied shoelaces again and no surprise, she fell again. But this time, a certain black-haired girl was fast enough to grab onto her forearm, saving the damsel from her distress, or rather just clumsiness.

“Are you okay?”

Joohyun’s POV

Wow this person has really soft hands…The older girl was about to thank her savior when she realized who it was. Kang Seulgi? SCA’s combination of brain and beauty? Am I hallucinating?

Joohyun looked up at the perfectly sculpted face created by God himself and spazzed silently when the younger one flashed her one of her famous eye smiles.

“Hello, earth to Joohyun-ssi? Knock knock, anybody there?”

She finally snapped out of her trance as she managed to hastily mumble a word of thanks shyly to the girl under the intense stare of Demon Kim, who was extremely determined to make Joohyun’s life difficult after she ruined her favourite shirt just last month.

As the klutz finally settled back safely on her seat, Instructor Kim cleared before speaking, wait scrap that, before shouting at the entire class. “As today marks the first lesson in your module of Fondant Making 101, it is probably your first time meeting me, at least for most of you…” Instructor Kim said as she side glanced in Joohyun’s direction. “I am Instructor Kim Yerim and I will be in charge of all you little fledglings for the next three months. I expect no monkeying around and please be careful with all the equipment in this room. I hope for an accident-free term so please cooperate with me on that! With that aside, the person you’re currently seated beside will be your partner for the whole duration of the module and your scores will be tabulated together for this term so as to encourage teamwork and bonding. Okay enough said, let’s begin! One person per bench please come up to the front to collect your ingredients for the day!!! We are learning to make basic fondant today!”

Somehow Joohyun felt that she would be the only one endangering the entire class’ wellbeing and safety this term and Demon Kim was indirectly speaking to her with her ‘threatening’ welcome speech. She was shaken out of her reverie when she felt someone nudge her from the side.

“Joohyun-ssi, I believe I haven’t properly introduced myself. I am Kang Seulgi, second-year student, and I’m extremely pleased to meet you!” Seulgi smiled as she reached out her hand to Joohyun. Joohyun couldn’t believe her luck, maybe she was finally going to escape the clutches of Demon Kim with Seulgi as her partner, I mean afterall she wasn’t labeled the Genius of SCA for nothing! She could only smile at that thought as she took Seulgi’s outstretched hand and shook it.

“I am Bae Joohyun, third-year student but repeating this module thanks to Demon Kim, oops I meant Instructor Kim over there. It’s a long story so I’ll save it for another time but she hates my guts now so…” Joohyun sighed and bowed her head down. The younger one broke into a smile at the sight of the dopey puppy in front of her as she used her other free hand to tilt the brunette’s chin up and gave her a silly grin.

“Joohyun Unnie, don’t worry! I’ll make sure you achieve more than a pass on this module! Oh wait…sorry I was too excited! I mean…I can call you unnie…right?” Seulgi looked at the brunette hesitantly, though her lopsided grin was still plastered on that perfect face.

Joohyun literally spazzed over Seulgi’s smile and the fact that she was still holding onto that warm extension of Seulgi just made her face turn into the same colour as red food coloring on Demon Kim’s table. Speaking of the devil, Instructor Kim suddenly shouted her name and Joohyun immediately let go of the younger girl’s hand as she hurried to collect the ingredients from the teacher’s bench.

Walking back to their shared bench, she was this close to placing the bowl of ingredients down but unfortunately, Joohyun tripped over the gas cable. Is this is? Am I finally going to be expelled by Demon Kim? Oh well, at least I held hands with Kang Seulgi today…I can die without regrets…

Joohyun expected herself to be covered in food coloring but all she felt was body warmth and soft flesh. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a pair of chocolate-brown orbs staring back at her.

“Gotcha.”

For the second time today, Kang Seulgi saved her. My knight