“Good job!” Jinki says to the new employee of the restaurant, a blonde girl responsible for the dolce.
“Thanks a lot. My first day has been great!” she says. Jinki scratches the back of his head.
“Well, yeah. I’m happy that it went well!” he says with his cheeks flush very red. Jinki admits that the girl in front of him sends him into his own world of nervousness, because she just pulls the string of his heart and seems like holding it tightly without she knows it.
“See you tomorrow, Jinki,” she says as she steps out of the Italian restaurant.
“Yeah...see you tomorrow, Luna,” and another tomorrow, and another tomorrow, and so on, he whispers to himself excitedly. He already anticipates another day with her.
Jinki goes home that day feeling like having the most perfect day ever in his 23 years of life. When he walks out of the eatery, his driver, or maybe not, his friend’s driver has actually waited for him as usual. There is another guy in the car, which he quickly recognizes as Key, his fellow housemate. He gets into the car.
“Hi Victoria, hi Key,” he greets them happily.
“Someone sounds too excited,” Key says while rolling his eyes. Key is his housemate for already three years, along with another three guys. Like him, Key works too, as a fashion designer and he has quite a good reputation in his field, although sometimes Jinki has to admit, it is hell having him as housemate especially when he wants to try out the new design.
“Something happens during work?” Victoria asks, and yes, Victoria is the driver. Having girl as a driver is weird, but it is even weirder when she actually only picks up his boss’ friends, as instructed by her brilliant-but-stupid-in-his-own-way boss.
“No! Nothing happens, really,” Jinki says, clumsily denying and covering the fact that he met her ideal girl for the first time. He could see Key smirks and Victoria frowns, but otherwise, they are heading home in silence after that.
When he reaches home, Jinki quickly gets inside the exclusive bungalow belongs to them, well, actually his friend, but now they share together. He sees Minho on the couch, watching a basketball match, again.
“Hey, Minho.”
“Hey, Jinki,” Minho says without his eyes looking at him.
“Where’s Taemin?” Jinki asks.
“Bathroom,” he replies shortly. Jinki nods and leaves the too-absorbed-with-basketball-match Minho. Minho is his other housemate. His love for basketball is no doubt and he is really someone in sport. He works too, as a Physical Education teacher at school, and having his female students swoon at his good features. He is tall and muscular and Jinki acknowledge that too, even if he is a guy.
He walks to his shared master bedroom with Jonghyun and he knows the guy won’t be home at this time, as usual. The busy roommate will usually back after them having their dinner. It is a miracle to see him home early sometimes. Jinki shrugs, puts his bag on his bed and grabs his towel before dashes to the bathroom to clean up. He doesn’t take long. After about ten minutes, he comes out of his room, all fresh and clean. He walks out and knocks on Key’s bedroom.
“Yeah?” Key says after he opens the door.
“Did Victoria go home already?” he asks about the female driver.
“Yeah,” Key says and walks down with him.
“Okay. I’ll cook and dinner will be served just in twenty minutes,” Jinki says. That is what happens in their daily life. Key will make breakfast and Jinki will make dinner. Lunch? They are all working and usually having lunch outside.
When he enters the kitchen, he sees Taemin who is drinking a glass of plain water. Taemin always keeps his body fit, because he is a choreographer. The boy is really good, no, great in dancing and his movement is very slick and seducing sometimes. Quite a number of female dancers wait in front of the house every morning just to greet him.
“Hi Jinki,” the aforementioned boy greets him as he finishes his water.
“Hi,” Jinki greets back.
“What are you cooking tonight?” Taemin asks.
“What do you want to eat?” he asks Taemin back.
“Anything. As long as not chicken. I’m sick of it,” Taemin chuckles before he walks out of the kitchen. Jinki shakes his head and sighs to Taemin’s joke. He loves chicken, he can’t help it.
Working as a chef is definitely a good thing for Jinki. He loves serving food to people, especially his housemates. Although he is responsible for the main dishes at the Italian restaurant he is working, he is not always serving pasta to his housemates. He is capable of cooking many dishes, range from Asian food to Western, from appetizers to dessert, just name it. But his speciality is in main dishes, and that explain his position in the kitchen of the restaurant.
He often tries out some new recipes, and this kitchen is a place considered heaven for him. His good housemates always spend their times trying out his new dishes, despite having a tight working schedule. Jinki is happy with his simple life and he loves his friends so much.
Being an experienced one, Jinki manages to cook dinner for five pax just in fifteen minutes. He takes another five minutes to make the table ready before calling the other three for dinner. They eat together and that is the time when they talk about their day.
Taemin tells them about a female dancer that he has talked about every so often since last month. Sulli is good in Broadway dancing as well as modern dancing and she managed to catch Taemin’s heart and now he is dating her. Minho tells the story about another PE teacher at school named Krystal and how they are close to each other. Key on the other hand, is telling story about his regular customer who is a girl named Amber, but actually doesn’t know how to choose girl’s attires. Key has to help her all the way to choose the clothes and judging from his look, Key has fallen for the girl. Jinki only tells story about his complimented new recipe of pasta. They congratulate him. Jinki won’t tell them about Luna, just not them, because they will definitely make it into a big fat joke. He already has a suitable person to open up the story.
When they finish their dinner, Key offers to clean up the table. That’s Key, really is like a mother. Taemin and Minho runs to the living room for a game, a video game. They are having another match tonight. Jinki smiles when thinking about them. Jinki is about to climb the stairs to go to his room when he hears a motorbike engine at the porch. Jonghyun is back.
He opens the door to meet a very tired Jonghyun. He has his suit’s jacket on his hand while his laptop’s bag is hanging on his left shoulder. His tie is already loosening and the topmost button is already undone. Jonghyun puts his helmet on the shoe’s cabinet before he puts in his leather shoes into it. Then only he looks at Jinki. He smiles at him.
“Hi, Jonghyun,” Jinki greets him way too cheerful. Jonghyun makes his way pass him.
“Good night, Jinki,” he says sarcastically. Jinki laughs to that. He accompanies his best friend to the room.
“How’s work?” he asks Jonghyun as the lad places his bag on his table.
“Tiring,” he says before he gets into the bathroom and closes the bathroom’s door.
Jinki knows that, the usual answer from Jonghyun that Jinki never get bored listening to. Jonghyun is an entrepreneur, at a very young age. He inherited his father’s company right after he obtained his Bachelor Degree in Business. At first, he doesn’t like his job, because he fancies singing so much, but knowing he is the only son in his family, and his elder sister is not into business, Jonghyun forces himself to take over. Responsibility comes first, that is what he has been saying and eventually, Jinki is glad that he comes to love his job so much.
His family is really a rich one. To be truth, the house they are staying now is actually belonged to Jonghyun. The female driver, Victoria, is actually his family’s driver, but Jonghyun’s dad doesn’t want to burden the girl. Victoria is willing to cover up his father’s job after his father becomes too old to handle that job, just because she wants to support her family. So, Mr. Kim doesn’t want to trouble the girl and he makes she works only for Jonghyun. But, Jonghyun and Victoria do not get along very well. They are like a cat and a dog. They fight just because of Jonghyun is an egomaniac and he perceives that it is wrong for a girl to drive a guy. Moreover, Jonghyun feels it is easier for him to move everywhere with his motorbike. He ends up instructing Victoria to pick up his friends instead.
But, despite being an egomaniac, Jinki knows that Jonghyun is very warm at heart. He loves his friend so much that he doesn’t even charge his friends for living in his house. He even let his beautiful driver to become Jinki’s and his other housemates’ driver and friend.
When Jonghyun is done with shower, he goes straight to bed.
“Hey, Jonghyun! You can’t go straight to bed!” Jinki shouts while throwing a pillow at him.
“I’m tired Jinki...and all I want to do is sleep,” he says sleepily. He can’t, he just can’t, Jinki thinks. Jinki needs to tell him about Luna, he so much wants to share the story about the girl.
“No, you can’t! You not yet eat your dinner. I kept it for you. How ungrateful!” he says while pulling the smaller guy out of his bed.
“Jinki...I want to sleep. I’m tired...and tomorrow I have another important day at work...” Jonghyun says, voice muffles by his sleepiness.
“Wake up Jonghyun! Eat your dinner!” says Jinki.
“I’m not hungry...I’m sleepy...” says Jonghyun and he is about to sleep. Jinki thinks of another way to wake him up.
“Hey! Hey! You must have a healthy diet. Skipping meal is not good and you know that you often fall sick! And you know how Key nags when you are sick! That’s definitely the best thing to make you even sicker!” Jinki says while pulling his best friend and he knows he succeeds when Jonghyun’s eyes open so wide to the words ‘Key nags’.
“Fine...fine...I’ll eat dinner,” he says and both of them walk out of the room before Jonghyun continues, “It’s not chicken, right?”
Jinki shakes his heads and chuckles, “No, definitely not.”
Jinki accompanies his best friend to eat. Taemin and Minho are still on the game while Key is in the kitchen too, preparing things for tomorrow’s breakfast. Jonghyun eats his food and when he is done with it, he never forgets to thank Jinki and compliments his food as usual. Jinki nods.
They walk to their room together. It is still early, 9pm. But, Jonghyun so much wants to sleep. Jinki switches off the light and lies down on his bed to, although he is still very much awake.
“Hey Jonghyun...”
“Hmmm?”
“Our restaurant got a new girl as our dessert chef...”
“Mmmm...” the boy keeps listening with his eyes close.
“She is pretty...”
“Mmmm...”
“Her name is Luna. Cute, right?”
“Yeah...cute...” Jonghyun replies, tries to make it sounds exciting for him.
“She is very good in making dessert.”
“Mmmm...”
“And her speciality is cookies! How cute!” Jinki squeals in excitement.
“Mmmm...”
“Hey Jonghyun,” Jinki calls Jonghyun’s name again.
“Yes, Jinki...”
“I think...”
“Mmmm...”
“I think...” Jinki feels quite insecure to tell him this one.
“You think you have fallen for her?” Jonghyun asks, eyes still close. Jinki feels quite surprised. How does Jonghyun know?
“Errr...how do you...know?” he asks with his cheeks flushing red tomato. Jinki almost thinks that the other party is already sleeping due to the late reply from him.
“I’m your friend, Jinki. And I’m happy that you finally fall for a girl,” Jonghyun says. Jinki lifts up his head to take a look at his friend on the other bed. His eyes are still closed and Jinki wonders if he is just being sarcastic about he is happy about him falling for her.
“Seriously? You’re happy?” Jinki asks back. Jonghyun’s eyes abruptly open after hearing the doubt in his friend’s voice. He lies on his side facing Jinki.
“Yes, I am. Why should I feel sad about it, Jinki?” Jonghyun asks frowing. At that time, although it is dark in the room, Jinki could see that the other’s eyes are actually red from sleepiness. He feels guilty making his own friend staying up to listen about a girl he just met at work.
“Owh...okay. Thanks, Jonghyun. Now, sleep,” he says as he puts his head on his pillow again, but his head is still facing his best friend. He notices Jonghyun closes his eyes again.
“Jinki?”
“Yes?” he answers Jonghyun.
“Get her and get married soon,” Jonghyun says his words of encouragement. Jinki tries to stop himself from fidgeting on bed, and his cheeks are getting warmer. He curses Jonghyun silently, for his intention to embarrass him.
“Yah! Jonghyun-ah! How about you and Victoria?” he shoots him back.
“Oh, Jinki! Get over it!” Jonghyun says and turn to the other side, with his back facing Jinki.
Jinki laughs happily before he closes his eyes. His heart flutters to the encouragement and that night he sleeps and dreams of Luna being his wife.
The next morning, he wakes up joyfully and cleans himself. He gets down only finding Jonghyun and Key in the kitchen. The other two come when they are having breakfast. After that, all of them quickly get out of the house and as usual find out that Victoria is already waiting to drive them to work. Jonghyun, as usual get onto his bike and speeds off to work, with another meeting and more business target. Jinki is fully motivated and Taemin, Minho and Key even ask why he is glowing that day.
“Today is another happy day at work,” he says jovially. The others just shrug it off.
He meets Luna again that day, of course, since now they are colleagues.
“Hi Luna!” he greets her.
“Hi Jinki!” she replies him, and that makes her his heart beating vigorously against his chest. She is so bright and she is very cheerful. Jinki keeps his eyes on her even when he is cooking. Luckily, there is no kitchen burns down or any broken plates.
As days pass by, they are getting friendlier to each other. They manage to develop full conversations between them and not just a ‘Hi, Luna’ or ‘Hi, Jinki’. They ask about how each other is doing and even sharing stories of their lives. Luna knows Jinki is living with four crazy but lovely housemates while Jinki knows that Luna is living with her friend in Seoul. Her hometown is in Daegu and Luna has lovely parents. Jinki knows that Luna loves singing and the most important thing is he knows that Luna is still single.
As weeks pass by, they are getting along better. They often go to the restaurant on their day off because they want to work together on new recipes. Jinki is working on his main dishes, while Luna is of course working on the desserts. Jinki asks Luna to try his new spaghetti, while Luna asks Jinki to try her new tiramisu cake. Jinki asks Luna to try his new maccheroni, while Luna asks Jinki to try her new ice-cream. Jinki asks Luna to try his new lasagne, while Luna asks Jinki to try her new cookies. They praise each other’s new recipes. Even their boss praises them on their work. The business of the restaurant is getting better day by day.
“Hey, I love your chocolate cookies. It is so beautiful and perfect,” Jinki says. Luna laughs. The cookies that he means are the chocolate cookies with chocolate rice topping it and a diced cherry decorating the middle top.
“Thanks!” Luna exclaims before she continues, “And I love your pastas too! It is so lovely and nice,” Luna says.
“Thanks,” Jinki says while in his heart, he is secretly jumping up and down out of happiness.
“How do you manage to cook so well?” she asks Jinki.
“When I cook, I cook with my heart,” Jinki tells her his secret recipe.
As months pass by, they start to go out together on their day off. Both of them love singing so much, thus, Jinki often brings Luna for karaoke, and they sing their hearts out. They watch movie together and scream at the scary parts, laugh at the funny parts, sniff at the sad parts and smile at the best parts. They do everything together.
The only problem now is Jinki is too scared to confess. He curses himself for being such a coward when one day Luna says something that clenches his heart to an extent he can’t feel his own blood flowing in his body.
“Hey, Luna. Tomorrow is weekend and we have our day off. What about we try out a new recipe?” he asks Luna.
“I can’t,” Luna says and Jinki wonders why she sounds so sad.
“Why?”
“I’m going back to Daegu,” Luna says and Jinki nods, understanding her words.
“Okay,” Jinki says and there is an awkward silent before Luna speaks again.
“My parents asked me if I already have a boyfriend and I said no, since nobody really confesses to me. So, they find someone for me and I have to meet him this weekend,” she says, voice cracking. Jinki’s jaw drops and his mouth hangs open.
“I still hope this someone that I love will confess to me soon. I’m pretty sure that he loves me too since we share a lot of things together. I don’t have to go home if I have him,” she continues and that makes Jinki even more surprised...and sad. She already has someone she loves.
“O...Owh...yeah...I hope ‘that someone’ will c-confess to you s-soon,” Jinki says.
“Yeah...thanks, Jinki,” she says while wiping single tears that stain her cheek before she talks again, “By the way Jinki, this is the chocolate cookies that you love so much. Take it. I made it for you. And yeah...my train to Daegu is at 7pm tomorrow,” she says and walks out of the restaurant.
Jinki looks at the packet of cookies in his hand and that evening, Jinki goes home with heart full of sorrow.
The next day is Luna’s departure and Jinki sits on the couch, staring at the television with the cookies in his hand, still neatly packed. He doesn’t want to eat it, as that might be the last one from Luna.
“Hey, Jinki. What is bothering your mind? You are not even watching tv,” asks Taemin.
“N-nothing,” Jinki says.
“I couldn’t be nothing,” Minho interrupts.
“I just...seriously nothing,” Jinki says while staring at the cookies in his hands.
“Hey, Jinki. We’re your friends and we know when something is wrong with you. It is very obvious. For the last few months things are very cheerful for you and suddenly you break down like this. And what’s up with those cookies? You’re holding like it is you dear life,” Key says with a very concerns looks in his face. Three pairs of eyes are staring at him.
“Luna is going home...to Daegu...”
“Seriously, you can’t let her go? Oh my God! She just wants to meet her parents. That’s all,” Taemin says.
“And she’ll come back to work,” Minho interrupts.
“She’s going to meet her soon-to-be husband,” Jinki tells them.
“What?!” they shouts synchronously.
“But, you told us she’s single!” Key says.
“Yeah...she is. And that is why her parents find someone to be his husband and they want her to get married. Luna said because she didn’t have anybody confess to her, so that’s why her parents find that someone for her,” Jinki said, voice starts to crack.
“You let her go? Go confess to her!” Taemin says, frustrated.
“I can’t.”
“And why is that so?” Key asks.
“Because she said that she already has someone she loves and she hopes that someone will confess to her before her train goes off,” Jinki says, tears are threatening to fall.
“What’s up with those chocolate cookies? You want to give it to her?” Minho asks while pointing to the cookies.
“No. She gave it to me. And she said that her train will depart at 7pm,” Jinki says.
The room fill with silence for a while before the three together exclaim.
“You are too slow!”
“Huh?” Jinki is confused.
At that time, Jonghyun comes down the stairs, all dressed up, very handsome and smart.
“Where are you going, Jonghyun?” Minho asks.
“Family dinner, with business client. My dad forces me to go and I have no choice,” Jonghyun says, grabbing his helmet in his hand.
“Before that, can you please solve the love problem of your best friend?” says Taemin. Jonghyun blinks his eyes, but otherwise comes nearer and sits with them.
“What’s up?”
“Listen, Jonghyun. Luna is going off to Daegu. She is going home to meet her future husband which her parents find for her because she has nobody as her own choice, just yet. And she is still hoping that someone she loves will confess to her before her train goes off. She gave Jinki these chocolate cookies, and she told Jinki her train is going off at 7. Isn’t it obvious?” Key says.
There’s a silent before Jonghyun bursts.
“What are you doing here, Jinki?! I told you to get her, right? You should be at the railway station! Her train is going off in 45 minutes!” Jonghyun shakes Jinki’s shoulder so hard.
“What?!” Jinki starts to scream too.
“Oh, you can’t be that slow, Jinki,” Jonghyun says and he continues, “She wants you to confess to her. She gave you that chocolate cookies as her confession to you and she told you her time of departure to make sure you can make it before she goes off,” Jonghyun says.
“I thought girls confess with cookies only at Valentine...” Jinki says.
“That’s school! And you’re no longer at school, Jinki! Hey! You need to go now!” says Jonghyun. Jinki eventually realises all of it and he starts to be clumsy again.
“How to get there? I need to call a taxi, or Vic, or whatever,” he says and get up on his feet. Jonghyun grabs another helmet and gives it to Jinki.
“Come on. Get onto my bike. We’re going together,” Jonghyun says.
“What about your family dinner?”
“I’ll still go. But, this is more important. And this is what friend is for, right?” Jonghyun says. Jinki is touched deep down in his heart for having them as friend. The other three wish Jinki a good luck. They speed off to the railway station and Jinki knows he still have time to search for her.
Jonghyun helps Jinki to look for a blonde girl, as what Jinki describes her. There are too many people and Jinki is getting even more nervous and scared as time pass by. They search for about ten minutes when Jonghyun points to a girl who is sitting on a bench, looking very sad.
Jinki nods and he runs to her.
“Luna!” he shouts. Luna looks at him, very surprised and yet, her face shows relief. Jinki stops right in front of Luna and grabs her hand.
“Luna!OhmyGod!I’msosorry.Ireallyreallyloveyou!Now,don’tmarryhim.Marrymeplease!Ibegyou,please.Iloveyoumuch-”
He is stopped by her kiss. Jonghyun slaps his forhead seeing Jinki’s very clumsy way of confessing and the fact that Luna has to stop him with a kiss. He laughs secretly.
Luna let go of his lips and hugs him, patting him on his back.
“Don’t worry. I won’t go now. I love you too,” she says. She let go of him and stares at his eyes. Jinki is still in his state of shock.
“I-”
“It’s okay. Don’t say anything. I’ll call my parents telling them I already have someone as candidate,” she says. Jinki scratches the back of his head. They talk for a while before Jinki approaches Jonghyun.
“Jonghyun, I need to borrow your bike and your helmets,” Jinki says.
“What? Jinki, I have to go for my family dinner with my client,” Jonghyun reminds him.
“Oh. Sorry. I forget,” he says and is about to turn back when Jonghyun calls him again.
“Jinki! Nevermind, you can have it!” Jonghyun gives him the key and the two helmets.
“What about you?”
“I’ll call Victoria to pick me up, for the first time ever. You can have your sweet time with her. Besides, this is what friend is for,” Jonghyun says.
“Thanks a lot Jonghyun! And...have your sweet time with Victoria,” Jinki says.
“Jinki, drop it or else I take back my bike,” says the smaller guy.
“Sorry! Thanks, friend!” Jinki says and he walks together with Luna, holding hands.
BONUS PART
“What do you think will happen to them?” asks Key to the other two.
“They’ll get together. Definitely!” says Taemin while hitting another button to win the game.
“Yeah, fo’sho!” Minho says while hitting another button to defence himself.
“What happen if they get together?” Key asks.
“They’ll get children. And their children will be fat!” says Taemin while concentrating on the game.
“Why is that so?” Key asks again.
“Because they will cook and make their children to test their new recipes! And become fat!” Minho exclaims and hit another button, and Taemin loses in his hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment