Chaeyoung pouted at how Hank was rejecting the peanut butter treats that she attempted to make for him. The puppy licked the treat a little before leaving it to play with his toys instead. Chaeyoung sighed as she put the treat back in Hank's bowl.
"This can't be. I need his help.", she took her phone and decided to ask Jungkook.
She was typing the message before pausing and thinking, "I can buy from the store.." She nodded to herself before putting her phone away, "I don't need his help."
DING DONG!
"Oh my!", she jumped as she heard the doorbell rang.
Hank was quick to run to the door while she was telling herself to calm down.
"It's just the doorbell...", slowly, she got up from the sofa and walked to the door to see who was ringing her doorbell.
Hank was already barking with its tail moving excitedly.
"Shh...calm down, Hankie..", she told him before she peered through the peephole. "Oh no!", she stepped back quickly once she saw who it was. "Hankie, stop. Stop barking, please..", she hushed her puppy while the doorbell rang again.
Hank started to kick the door as if asking her to open it.
"Alright, alright. Calm down, Hankie..", she said as she slowly opened the door.
As the door opened wide, Hank quickly ran outside and jumped into Jungkook's arms.
"Oh, hey!", he swiftly picked up Hank before Chaeyoung asked him to give Hank to her. "He's so active.", he said as he carefully put Hank in Chaeyoung's arms.
"I'm so sorry, Jungkook.", Chaeyoung replied as she patted Hank slowly, trying to calm him down.
Jungkook just smiled, "It's alright, Chaeyoung. Actually I'm here because of him anyway."
"Oh?"
He took something out from his jacket and showed it to her, "I tried a new recipe. Cheese bacon treats."
Chaeyoung looked surprised to see the small packet of new dog treats, "Wow, that looks tasty!"
Jungkook chuckled, "Yeah, you can eat it too, but I don't recommend it."
She burst into laughter along with him, "I don't mean it that way, Jungkook."
He nodded, "I understand. If Hank could talk, he would say the same."
Chaeyoung put Hank down and took the packet from him, "Thank you for this, Jungkook."
"You're welcome. If it's finished, let me know. I'll make another for him.", he replied.
Chaeyoung nodded, "Yeah, about that...um, can I...ask you to teach me how to make them?"
"Oh...yeah, sure, of course. Why not?", Jungkook tried to stay calm even though he was delighted deep inside.
Teaching her means spending time with her, he cannot let the chance go away easily.
Chaeyoung smiled, "Okay, so...I will check my schedule and let you know when I'm free. Then, you can match yours before we set the date and time?"
Jungkook nodded a little bit eagerly as he listened to her, "Yeah, of course. Your place or mine?"
"Sorry?", Chaeyoung was caught off guard with his question.
"Where...do you prefer to do it? I mean...our houses are next to each other so..."
"Oh...yeah. Maybe at your place, since I'm not sure if I have all the appliances to make these, so maybe we could do it at yours instead.", Chaeyoung tried to say her reason to him.
He agreed, nodding, "Okay, sure. So, I'll wait for you to let me know your schedule?"
Chaeyoung nodded, "Yeah, I..will text you about it."
"Okay, cool."
"Cool, I'll see you next time, Jungkook."
"See you, Chaeyoung."
Jungkook silently celebrated right after Chaeyoung closed the door. However, he remembered the peephole and quickly made a way back to his apartment. While he continued dancing happily in his house, Chaeyoung was reacting oppositely to her own decision.
With the new cheese bacon treats in her hand, she went back to lie down on the sofa and started to wiggle her legs anxiously.
"Chaeyoung, what have you done? You said you're going to avoid him, but what was that? Urgh...", she scolded herself before Hank came to her biting the packet in her hand. "Alright, you really like his treats, huh?", she got up and put Hank beside her. "Okay, baby. I'll do anything for you, just pray for my heart to be strong when he's around, okay, Hankie?", she spoke to Hank as she tore open the packet to feed him.
♡♡♡
The laughter at the table in the secluded corner of GoldenGrove got Jungkook's attention as he entered the cafe that afternoon. He recognised the laughing voices before he walked over to the table to see Jieun talking with Taehyung and Jimin happily. It seemed like they were gossiping as all of them started to whisper to each other when they saw him.
"Alright, the boss is here. That means I should go back to work. Bye...", Jieun said before leaving the table.
She managed to smile at Jungkook on her way before Jungkook reached the table.
"What was that? What were you guys talking about?", he asked his friends as he had a fist bump with them.
The two of them giggled at him.
"Jieun noona shared a hot tea with us.", Jimin answered.
"Hot tea?", Jungkook asked as he sat down next to him.
Taehyung nodded, "Do you want to know what it's about?"
Jungkook looked curious before nodding, "What's it about?"
"It's about...you.", Taehyung replied, pointing at Jungkook.
"Me?", Jungkook pointed at himself with a frown.
Jimin nodded, "Yes, you."
"What..."
"She told us you have a crush.", Taehyung spilled.
"With your neighbourrr.", Jimin added with a teasing smile.
Their words led Jungkook to shake his head a few times, trying to deny them.
"Oh, come on. Jieun noona said you stuttered a lot to admit.", Jimin said.
"I- I don't. I mean I don't stutter and I don't know what noona told you guys.", Jungkook responded, slightly stuttering.
Taehyung chuckled before imitating Jieun, "I like her but we're not dating. Noona said that's your words, Jungkook."
Jimin reacted the same as him, "Jungkook, you're not a good liar. Stop shaking your head, bro."
Listening to him, Jungkook stopped shaking his head and sighed at his own misfortune.
"I shouldn't have come here.."
Taehyung and Jimin laughed at him.
"So it's true."
Jungkook nodded before standing up, ready to run away from their constant teasing.
"Where are you going?", Jimin tried to pull his hand.
"I- I got work to do. In the kitchen."
"Nah...you just got here. Hang around a little bit.", Taehyung patted the empty chair next to him.
Jungkook shook his head as he bowed down to them, "Please, enjoy your meal. I have other things to attend to."
"What? Yah, Jungkook. Come on.."
He ignored them as he ran away. They laughed at his reaction. He was surely in love, they could see it from his red ears.
♡♡♡
It was half past nine in the morning when Jungkook glanced at his watch when he was teaching Chaeyoung to make dog treats in his kitchen.
"Wait, how much of this again, Jungkook?", her question made him look up to her.
"Just two cups, Chaeyoung.", he answered as he watched her writing it down in her notebook.
He smiled as he looked at how diligent she was with the lesson she was learning from him. Her face was focused on her notebook to write the recipe down. Sometimes, she would fix her glasses as she was writing with her left hand. She looked so cute, he said to himself.
"Alright, done! So, now this one is in the oven. Next is cheese bacon.", she clapped her hands as she looked up to Jungkook again.
He quickly looked away, trying to change his expression before speaking to her.
"First thing is the ingredients.", she looked at his kitchen island that had various ingredients laid out on it. "Which one of these make cheese bacon treats, Jungkook?", she asked him.
"Yeah, I'll show you.", he said as he gathered the ingredients for their second recipe.
As he was gathering them in one place, Chaeyoung watched enthusiastically while getting ready to write the new recipe down in her notebook.
"Jungkook, if you don't mind telling, I was wondering actually.", she said while doodling on the name of the recipe on the new page.
"Hm, what is it?", he replied.
"I was wondering where you learned to cook. I mean...you're not just talented at cooking for people, you cook for dogs too so..."
Jungkook smiled at her words, "I took a professional certificate in culinary after college."
"Oh, you did college and learned culinary elsewhere?", she got even more curious about his background.
"Actually, I didn't finish college. I dropped out because culinary is my passion.", he revealed.
Chaeyoung nodded, "Oh, that's a brave decision."
"You think?"
She nodded again, "Yeah, not many people have the courage to follow their passion when they're already in college. Sometimes, they just had to take up an offer to please someone else, or they just didn't have the chance at all."
Jungkook looked at her with curiosity, he felt like she was talking about herself as her voice turned quieter at the end.
"Speaking of passion, what's your passion, Chaeyoung? I'm sure there's something more than just being a social media influencer for you, hm?", he tried to find out more about her.
Chaeyoung smiled shyly.
"You have another job, right? Is that your passion or being an influencer is your passion?", he asked.
She nodded to him, "I have another job, of course. There's no way I'll be an influencer forever, Jungkook."
He agreed, "And your passion is?"
"Teaching.", she laughed. "It's weird, right? I know but I love teaching and that's my regular job actually.", she told him proudly.
"You're a teacher?", he looked surprised.
"Not a school teacher, I actually wanted to be a lecturer or professor but...sadly I didn't go to college but my best friend, Lisa, she had been my saviour. In case you don't know which I think you probably don't, she's quite a famous photographer, internationally. She did a lot of photoshoots overseas and she had contacts and with that, she helped me. She knew that I wanted to be a teacher but I couldn't do it without a certificate so one day she got me a gig to tutor an editor-in-chief's daughter. From then on...I never looked back.", she told him a bit about her career.
Jungkook was amazed to hear her story that he did not realise that his mouth was slightly opened while nodding to her every word. His reaction caused her to laugh before she touched his chin to tell him to close his mouth.
"You're overreacting..", she told him.
He was shocked with her little touch, "Oh, sorry. It's...actually amazing. I mean...you didn't get to be a lecturer or a professor but you still get to do what you love. That's amazing."
"Thanks to Lisa.", Chaeyoung replied.
"So, being a tutor also let you to travel around the world. That's how you got the idea to open the broadcast channel, is it?", he asked further.
She nodded, "Actually, I just wanted to share my travel experience, you know like a vlog but then, the video at the dog shelter went viral. I don't know how that video spread that much on the Internet."
"You were cute.", Jungkook stated. "In the video. I'm sure people love it because they can feel the pure interaction you had with the dogs.", he added.
"Oh...yeah. I guess so.", she responded with an awkward smile.
DING!
"Oh, it's ready.", Jungkook said before he walked to the oven to check on the treats they made.
♡♡♡
It was a pleasing two hours for both of them.
Chaeyoung was glad that she could learn a lot of different recipes from Jungkook meanwhile he was happy to spend his time with her in his own comfort home.
"Thanks, Jungkook. I can't wait to make these for Hank.", she said as he led her to the door.
He nodded, "Make them for him and let me know what his reaction is."
She chuckled, "I don't think I can nail it at the first try though."
He shook his head, "You've done great today. I'm sure Hank will love the treats you make next time."
Chaeyoung was shy with his words, "If I fail it, you will have to make them for me."
He laughed while opening the door for her, "Sure, can. No problem."
"Oh, by the way, Jungkook. Can I ask you another favour? Just one.", she said as she stepped out of his apartment.
Jungkook nodded, "Anything. Say it."
"Can you teach me how to make the special sauce I had at your cafe?", Chaeyoung asked him with a hopeful look on her face.
Jungkook frowned at her.
"I promise I won't spill the recipe. I just wanted to try making it myself and eat with kimchi.", she told him in case he was suspicious of her intention.
"You eat it with kimchi?", he asked.
Slowly, Chaeyoung nodded.
"A few days ago, I bought your sandwich with it and tried putting it on kimchi and it tasted good but it wasn't enough so...", her pitiful eyes made him smile a little.
"Okay...that's cool."
"It is, right?", she put up both her hands, hoping that he would say yes to her request.
He saw how hopeful she was but he decided to tease her, "It's my speciality and it's confidential..." He gave her a serious look, "But okay, anything for you, Chaeyoung."
"Okay?", she almost shouted.
Jungkook nodded a few times, "Yes, I will teach you."
"Thank you!", with the excitement pulsing through her, she pulled him in a hug.
He was shocked with it.
"So, I'll text you my schedule and we'll match our free time?", she asked after the hug.
With a blink, he nodded.
"Okay, thank you again, Jungkook. I'll go home first.", she said as she stepped aside to her apartment. "Bye, I see you next time."
"See you.", he replied stiffly. "God, save me...", he whispered as he closed the door.
"Oh, god. What have I done again?", Chaeyoung reacted almost the same as she entered her apartment.
♡♡♡
Jungkook was ecstatic to go to work that afternoon. His mood was through the roof since he spent his time teaching Chaeyoung that morning. If only he was braver to confess his feelings for her...
"Welcome to..."
"Hey, guys! What's up?", he was unaware of the looks that his staff gave him.
Not until all of them including Jieun gave a worried look at him.
"What's going on here?", he asked as he approached Hyunjin at the counter.
Jieun stepped beside the younger man and lifted her hand to him. He looked at the enveloped in her hand with a curious glance.
"What's this?", he asked her.
"It's her."
♡♡♡
When will these two confess, I wonder...🧐