[M] Blue Hour || Yeonbin

three: cook

Yeonjun's POV:

It was a struggle to carry everything back to their dorm, but we managed to do it with each of us carrying four grocery bags. Taehyun and Soobin helped me put everything away before I gave them each a tangerine and told them to go to their rooms. The last thing I needed was a distraction, and they both needed to take showers from practice.

I took a deep breath before looking through the kitchen cabinets. Whoever stocked this kitchen must've had a lot of money, because there were pots and pans of every size with knives and mixing bowls to work with. It made me a bit curious since I know neither of them use anything in here except for the microwave, but I just shrugged it off, knowing that I have a lot of work to do.

I grabbed a cutting board and a knife before getting the cabbage out of the fridge. I cut them in half and washed them before putting them into a large bowl with salt, knowing it takes a few hours for them to soften before I can make the kimchi paste. I started on their dinner next knowing that Soobin and Taehyun are probably dying to eat something. Tonight, is something simple: fried rice. It's one of those things that everyone likes, and you can make it a million different ways, and that's what I love about it. It's so versatile.

I quickly started the rice on the stove before grabbing a bunch of different vegetables out of the fridge along with some of the pork we got earlier and garlic, chives, and scallions for flavor. I started chopping away and I felt like I was floating, completely in my element. I missed this. I clearly miss cooking with my mom a lot more than I thought I did. I wish I could hear the sizzle of the pan. That's the best part. But at least I could smell the food. God, it smelled amazing.

I was letting the vegetables and the pork cook while I tossed the cabbage, feeling it starting to soften up. I noticed someone walking into the kitchen out of the corner of my eye and picked my head up, seeing Soobin smiling at me with wet hair and baggy sweatpants. He looked so cuddly right now.

I waved to him as I placed the bowl back in its spot on the counter. I quickly washed my hands so I could get back to the veggies, but when I turned around, I saw Soobin smiling at everything on the stove. It was adorable how he leaned forward to smell it better, seeing him say something to himself as he stood back up.

I walked over to him with a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him turn to me. I gestured to the pan and made a circular motion with my hand, trying to tell him I needed to mix up the vegetables and pork. He understood what I meant because he kindly moved to the side, letting me get back to work on the food.

I noticed that it was almost done, so now it was time to make the sauce that pulls it all together. I reached behind Soobin to grab the bottle of soy sauce and sesame oil, quickly adding it to the pan without hesitation. I walked around Soobin to get the brown sugar out of the cabinet, trying to give it a slight sweet taste. I could feel Soobin watching me, so I wanted to impress him.

I kept working like I was confident in what I was doing, even though I've made this with my mom a bunch of times before. I flipped everything around in the pan, not having to use the spatula I had beside the stove. I turned around and picked up the scallions and chives I had cut up earlier and threw them into the pan, flipping everything around again before letting it sit to cook some more.

I turned back to Soobin because I knew he was still looking at me. His lips were parted with wide eyes, not believing what he was seeing. It's fair though, nobody ever really sees this side of me. I smiled at him and took a step closer, gently reaching my hand up and placing it on his chin to close his mouth. I brought my hand higher to tuck his loose, wet strands behind his ear as he gulped, not knowing how to react. I saw his cheeks heat up and I didn't want to make him uncomfortable, so turned back to the food, checking if the rice had finished cooking.