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"Thanks again for doing this with me," Wonpil says as he continues to stir the pancake batter that you prepared with him.
"No problem! I'm glad you went to me for help instead of trying to do it by yourself."
"You'll never forget my seaweed soup, hmm?"
"Yes! So salty!"
You both laugh at the memory. A few years ago when you were still part of Day6's staff, you witnessed the legendary seaweed soup killer. You were actually a little hungry that time and right after the broadcast, your stomach had growled really loud, and Wonpil offered some of their leftover soup for you.
"Here, eat some of this. You're hungry, right?"
"No, it's fine. You made that for Jae's birthday."
"I insist! I cooked too much anyway."
"Okay."
Needless to say, you couldn't mask your reaction after tasting the salty soup, and even told Wonpil to fix his tastebuds. They all laughed at you for saying that, even the chef himself. Still, he thanked you for your honest opinion. Realizing that you may have offended an artist, you apologized, but the smile never left Wonpil's face.
Ever since then, he had always called you whenever he wanted someone to be the judge of his cooking skills. You were more than happy to help, thankful that someone thought your input was important.
And right now, Wonpil is in your kitchen, trying to learn how to make soufflé pancakes. Despite his soft looks, he had never been interested in baking before. It's probably because he thinks he already sucks so much in cooking which doesn't require much precision, how much more in meticulous baking?
Of course, you hated this belief of his. Over the years, you have seen progress in his cooking skills. Wonpil was determined every time he'd call you to try another dish. He had even made his own specialty: ginseng chicken soup. It was your most favorite dish on earth, and when Wonpil learned that information, he kept trying to make it until he made his version of the dish your favorite as well.
And over the years, he became your favorite person too.
Yes, you naturally developed feelings for the keyboardist. In the middle of all the cooking you did with him, your eyes shifted from the boiling soup to his breathtaking smiles. His gentleness has caused you to fall head over heels for him, wishing that he'd take care of your heart too like how he takes care of his salt measurements now.
You don't know if Wonpil knows, but until now, he never really made advances. That's why you've decided not to tell him about your growing crush as well.
"Okay, I've mixed the flour with egg yolks, oil, and milk. What's next?" Wonpil looks at you expectantly. You're pretty sure that he's excited with this one.
"Good job on the whisking! Now, more whisking!"
"What?" You laugh at his shocked face.
"Yup, I don't have an electric whisk so we'll have to manually beat the egg whites." You divide the egg whites into two bowls, then hand him a whisk.
"How are we supposed to do this? And will I have toned muscles after?"
"Relax. We just have to whisk them to a point where if we tilt the bowl over our heads, the mixture won't spill."
"What? Now I have to risk having my hair covered in eggs?" He not-so-dramatically places his hands on the counter and bows his head. You poke his waist and laughed when he jumped far from you. Kim Wonpil does not like being tickled.
"Come on! It's pretty easy. Just don't switch hands, and don't change the rotation of your mixing either. Gradually add the sugar whlie beating the whites."
"Fine."
Wonpil starts whisking right away, and a fond smile spreads on your face while watching him. So focused on his work, and eyes never leaving the task in front of him. Without looking at you, he says, "Hey, stop staring at me and start whisking!"
You flush a deep red after being caught.
"I wasn't staring at you. I was checking if you're doing it right!" You hope he buys the cheap excuse.
Wonpil just smirks and says, "Yeah right. That's why you're staring at my face and not the bowl."
You poke his waist again. A lot of times.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Stop! I might spill this!"
You continue tickling him. "What did you say?"
"I said you were checking if I'm doing it right! Stop tickling me!"
"Yup. That's what I heard." You giggle at his frustrated face and start on doing your mixture.
"You're lucky I like you enough to let you tickle me," Wonpil mumbles, not knowing that you heard him perfectly despite the noise you're both making.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, I said I'll finish faster than you do."
You ignore his previous statement and smirk at the obvious challenge.
"Oh yeah? Let's see who's faster then!" You poke his waist one last time to distract him before whisking as fast as you can do.
"No fair! No underhanded tactics!"
"I didn't say I'm challenging you fair and square!"
Laughter fills the room as you and Wonpil trash talk each other, even throwing a few curses here and there. Yes, Wonpil still has a filthy mouth sometimes. It's all good though, because you know you both don't mean these things anyway.
"I'm done, I'm done! Ha! I finished faster than you did!" Wonpil raises his fist in triumph as you continue beating your egg whites, never minding his grin.
Suddenly, a mischievous thought entered your mind.
"I'll only accept that you won after you tilt your bowl over your head and nothing spills!"
"Fine, I'll do it!" Wonpil does as you told and true enough, the foam was so thick that it didn't spill.
Then you pushed the bowl into his head.
"No! My hair!"
"Take that, Wonpil!" You abandon your own bowl to run away from him as far as you can, already anticipating that he'd try to spread some foam on you too.
"Come here, you!" Wonpil calls out your name as he tries to catch you, yet still failing because his whole face is covered too.
"Catch me if you can, Mister!" You didn't see his fallen whisk on the floor and was about to trip over it, but the keyboardist was quick to hold your arm and pull you closer to him.
So close that your faces are inches apart from each other.
And then Wonpil ran his hand across your face.
"What the hell, Wonpil!" You push Wonpil away and furiously try to walk around with your eyes closed, searching the counter for something that can wipe your face.
The perpetrator just laughs and pulls you closer. You then feel his finger wiping your eyes. And when you opened them, you were welcomed with Wonpil's eye smile. Damn, you could get lost in those eyes forever.
"Hey," he calls your name, "May I kiss you?"
"What?"
"I said, may I kiss you?" You were so shocked by the sudden question that you weren't able to answer. You just stared at Wonpil who was looking expectantly but is now grinning from ear to ear.
"Aren't you going to answer? I'd love to get your consent first because I'm a gentleman like that."
He still hasn't let go of you. And you were getting lost in his beautiful orbs.
"But why?"
"Because I've liked you for a long time? Because I like you right now too?"
"But why haven't you ever said anything? Do anything?"
"Sorry, that's because I never thought I'd want more than this one-sided love. I was contented to be your friend. But now I realized that I'm not." It felt like someone spoke your feelings out loud, because that was exactly how you felt about him too.
"Well, I actually feel the same way about you."
"Good to know, then."
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"Okay."
There was a couple of seconds of silence until you two were giggling, both relieved and feeling weird at the same time. Ultimately happy though, because you now know that you like each other.
"Now back to the question," Wonpil starts, "May I kiss you?"
"Hell yeah!"
He chuckles at that, and you pull him to you as he leaned in for the kiss. He tasted so sweet, a mixture of the meringue he perfectly made and his gorgeous lips. Never have you ever imagined how his lips would feel like, and even if you did, this was surely a million times better. He had put his foamy hands on your nape, drawing you closer, as if there still was space between the two of you. You put your hands around his waist, hugging him, loving the way he towers over you despite being the smallest in the band.
Wonpil lets you go after a while, but not after giving you a few more lingering pecks.
"You taste sweet."
"That's because I made the perfect meringue, dummy."
"Yeah you did— wait."
"What?"
"You know it's called meringue?"
Wonpil just grins at you.
"You cheater! You knew it's called meringue! You knew the recipe before you came to me!" You punch his chest lightly, and there's really not an ounce of anger there, just shock and surprise.
"Yes I did. And apparently, I'm also good at baking!"
Wonpil looked so happy from his announcement that you had no choice but to let go of his betrayal and just jump on him to hug him tight.
"I guess you'll be the one to teach me this time."
"Yeah. I won't go easy on you, though."
"Right. But I know you won't be able to tell me to fix my tastebuds."
"Hey! That's a foul!"
"Don't worry, I love you anyway."
"So you do love me." He grins at you, so cute that you can't help but plant a few pecks on his lips.
"As if you don't love me too."
"Right, I do love you."
"I love you even if you got us sticky."
"Wanna get stickier?" He wiggles his eyebrows like a crazy man.
"Hey!"
"What?"
"You're crazy. We forgot to finish making the pancakes by the way."
"I'll do it later. Anyway, want to wash each other's hair?"
Your smile just got a thousand times brighter.
"Absolutely! Nothing's more romantic than shampooing my hair!" Wonpil just laughs at you, feeling triumphant that he made a reference from your favorite show.
Needless to say, he's still madly in love with you.