Work Text:
A piece of cake
1
"It's because I will eliminate all that dare challenge me," Jeonghan pointed his finger at the camera, which was shaky to create an aesthetic, not because of unprofessionalness, according to Seungcheol. You can see his short-sleeve mustard tee and a purple apron he's wearing over it.
"He's talking about me."
The camera panned to the left; Mingyu was smiling so wide you can see his canine. His sleeve rolled up to his elbow. He's wearing a black shirt with a pink apron. Until now, you can only see his upper half.
"So it's you who caused the disaster in this household?"
The camera panned to the left again; this time, it was Seungkwan. The camera zoomed out to show his posture. He was standing with both of his hands on his hip, acting criticizing, side eying Mingyu.
"It is I, but I swear it was never my intention" back to Mingyu, still smiling, you can now see his lower half, which was another half of the pink apron with a big Minnie mouse on the right corner, and a pair of exercising pants. Looking comfy.
Jeonghan was at the kitchen counter, holding a whisk while attempting to use it correctly. He got flour, eggs, vanilla, a couple of small plates, and everything he needed to bake a simple cake on the counter, with a recipe on the phone next to him.
Fun, Mingyu had bet 50,000 won that Jeonghan would fail at baking. His only rival in this gambling is the man who was a self-acclaimed baker himself. Literally, everyone else believed Jeonghan would bake the kitchen, not a cake.
"Why are you wearing an apron though, I thought you swear you're not taking part." Seungcheol, the professional cameraman, asked
"In case of emergency" Mingyu said
"It's just cute" followed by Seungkwan disclosing the real intention "and maybe cheating"
"Mingyu, you cannot help Jeonghan" Seungcheol reminded him.
"Of course not! I bet 50,000 won too!"
"Yes, remind me how you NEVER went against your team to help Jeonghan"
"Don't worry Kwannie, this is my dignity and unless I build it up myself, I won't have the dignity to call it mine" The older interjected the conversation to make his stance clear.
"You do not have dignity."
", yet" Jeonghan finished the already finished sentence of Seungkwan, making the younger frowned in annoyance. "What. I will do this correctly, legally."
"Hyung, I simply just don't believe you."
Jeonghan faked a shocked face, looking at the camera and at Seungkwan back and forth, hand covering and uncovering his slightly parted mouth.
"Enough drama, update us on your mission, Mr. Yoon"
"Fine. Very well. I have mixed all the ingredient as the recipe say, easy bitty. Now I will throw this baby into the oven."
"Did you put the egg in already?"
"Did I? Do I have to?" He said, didn't even try to pretend he cared enough. "Anyway, we will now wait for the cake to bake. Please tune in later."
2
"TADA!"
Jeonghan walked out of the kitchen counter. Now you can see his lower half, the other half of the apron with Olaf at the right corner. His short was hidden because the apron was longer. He's holding what's supposed to be a cake in this hand now, but it's falling apart.
"It doesn't look like a cake."
"It's creative, and I value tastes over look, gyu. Think outside the box."
"Whatever," He knew Jeonghan was just bullshitting his way through the session "before we try this, let's hear from our chef today."
Mingyu held up a phone and played recorded audio.
It was Jeonghan voice saying something like, "What do you mean???????? I'm a professional baker I watch a lot of baking videos." which was a snippet from their nonsense dialogue that led to this gamble.
"Here we go."
Mingyu held up a fork finally, dig in on the surface (if that was what it was) a little, placed the tip of the fork on his tongue.
"This is cream. Tastes like cream," He said, proceeded to be brave enough to dig more. "Let's taste the actual cake."
As soon as he sent the fork with the cake's 'texture' in his mouth, his face slowly turned emotionless.
"yummy?" Jeonghan prompted
"..."
"..."
"This is uncooked. It's quite raw."
The camera was shaking; Seungcheol's muffed laugh got into the camera. Seungkwan dropped to his knee.
"Are you laughing because Jeonghan fail the mission or because I volunteer to get food poisoning?"
"Both, but more the latter"
Jeonghan, instead of making a big deal out of it, started to laugh.
Everybody was having a good time, excluding Mingyu (1) that experienced only half of the joy, and the other half...
"Some juice would be good right now."
Although with a grin still very visible on his face, the older took pity on him and walked to the refrigerator and searched for some juice, later walked around the cupboard and at last said.
"There is none here."
"I have some in my room."
"You bought it, or do you have in your possession juices of the public."
"Yes"
"thievery"
"Just give me some before I die. Thievery should not be punished in death. It's unethical."
Jeonghan agreed to get him some. And so, he left the frame.
3
The whole room fell in silence. The record didn't end. For some reason, the camera zoomed in on Mingyu face,
Ooops, too much, zoom out a lil
Okay, now you can see him leaning to the kitchen counter, looking attentively in the camera. His eyes sparkled and he smiled softly. Everything was paused as if waiting for something.
then it came, Jeonghan whose voice Mingyu found absolute bliss in that moment, yelled from afar
"Yaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
Bit by bit, Mingyu's small smile turned into a grin like he could not hold it.
"Really???????????!!!!!!!!! Kim Mingyu!!!!!????????"
"WOAHHHHHHHH"
"Really???? For me??????"
Mingyu nodded to the camera, even though the older couldn't see it.
A few seconds later, Jeonghan walked out with a cake in his hand. A cake beautifully baked and decorated. This cake disguised itself as a little rabbit. Actually, it's a plain cake shaped like a semicircle with two 3D ears, and the rest was drawn. Mingyu admitted it could be more realistic but this was the best he could pull off after trying to follow countless youtube tutorials and have all his friends taste it until their friendship was at stake.
They all started to sing Happy Birthday. Seungcheol can be heard as the loudest because he's the closest to the camera.
"I'm so happy right now," Jeonghan remarked. "This is so pretty."
"And that makes me happy."
"Wow, I mean.." The birthday boy looked genuinely at a loss for words. When he found them tho, he spoke something very Joshua Hong, "Like this, loving you is a piece of cake."
"Meaning you can't do it?"
"Meaning I put the effort in it because I care. And It isn't perfect, but I am happy."
"Wow.. that's.."
"It still isn't edible tho" Seungkwan reminded them.
None of them take this important piece of information into consideration. Mingyu acted like everything made sense, dismissing the quality of baked goods completely.
"Did he even hear me?" he turned to Seungcheol, who only held up his laugh in response.
"Loving you is a piece of cake for me too. I can do it. I love doing it--"
The camera suddenly spun around. You catch a blurry glimpse of the pair hugging and laughing. The camera then showed Seungcheol face, a selfie mode, followed by Seungkwan, who walked around to appear in the camera beside Seungcheol.
Seungkwan looked straight at the camera "I was taught that you cannot build love on the foundation of lie y'all, bad news? That seems like a lie too. I will not stand them."
"We cannot stand them." Seungcheol added.
"We really can't."