Work Text:
“Let me cook for you.”
This was the last thing Taehyun had wanted to hear after an especially long day of recordings, photoshoots, and filming. It had been one of those days, having woken up early, unable to sleep well the night before, and throughout the day, Taehyun had accumulated a throbbing headache behind his right temple, which had gradually gotten worse. In conclusion, he wasn’t in the greatest of moods, Infact, if he’d had his way, he would have gone straight to his shared room with Kai and curled into a ball under the covers of his bed, closed his eyes and hopefully gone to sleep. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have a choice.
“It’s ok, I’m not hungry, I just want to sleep.” Taehyun insisted as Beomgyu dragged him past the other members towards the kitchen, and Taehyun shot Soobin a quick ‘help me’ look, but the older boy only made little ‘shooing’ gestures with his hands as though encouraging Taehyun to go along with whatever Beomgyu suggested.
“Nonsense! Sit here.” Beomgyu said, flapping his hands eagerly as he pushed Taehyun towards a kitchen stool, and Taehyun, way too tired to even resist, just did as Beomgyu asked. He then buried his face in his folded arms on the table and closed his eyes, not caring that the baseball cap he was wearing was making it pretty difficult to plant his face on the table.
He could hear Beomgyu bustling around in the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards and humming to himself. Taehyun had no idea how Beomgyu was still so full of energy right now, when he himself wanted nothing more than to pass out right there and then.Whatever Beomgyu was making, Taehyun didn’t want it. Once, Beomgyu had tried to cook ramen, and the noodles had been simultaneously burnt and raw. It was enough to put Taehyun off of Beomgyu’s cooking.
A few minutes later, Taehyun felt a hand gently ruffle his hair, and he reluctantly looked up to see Beomgyu on the other side of the table, looking slightly flustered but pleased with himself, holding holding a small wine glass filled with a fizzy light pink liquid and half a dozen floating strawberries, complete with a mini umbrella.
‘I present to you a drink of my own creation. I call it, ‘Strawberry Surprises’, both fruity and aromatic, sensual and sweet, a drink perfect for my adorable Taehyunnie!”
Taehyun raised an eyebrow skeptically as Beomgyu held the drink up to the light, swirling it round a few times in a way that a wine connoisseur might do, before rather dramatically presenting it to Taehyun, who, couldn’t help the small twitch at the corner of his mouth as he picked up the glass and took a sip.
His eyes widened. It was a lot nicer than he’d expected, tasting almost like real strawberries, with just the tiniest hint of alcohol.
“Do you like it? Tell me you like it!” Beomgyu asked eagerly, placing his hands on the table leaning forwards, eyes shining.
“Not bad.” Taehyun said, shrugging as he put down his drink, and then added “But call me ‘adorable’ again and I’ll put you in a headlock.”
"You're adorable." Beomgyu said again, blowing Taehyun a kiss across the table, and Taehyun scowled, although he was secretly pleased.
Either way, they both knew the drink had been a success, but Taehyun wasn’t going to give in yet, although his headache was starting to ebb away. Maybe the drink was helping after all, not that he’d admit it.
“Well, that was just a taster. I’m going to actually cook now. So, what would you like? I can make tteokbokki, bulgogi, skewers, ramen- absolutely anything you want.” Beomgyu said, sitting down opposite Taehyun to list off the various dishes excitedly, as though this was a completely normal occurrence.
This was not a normal occurrence.
Beomgyu hardly cooked. Infact, he cooked so rarely in their dorm that Taehyun doubted if Beomgyu even knew where their cutlery was. It was Taehyun and Yeonjun who cooked the most, if anything, and right now, Taehyun wasn’t sure if letting Beomgyu have free reign in their kitchen was a good idea.
“You can’t cook.” Taehyun said irritably.
“Yes I can, and I’m offering, so, what would you like?”
Taehyun paused. Sure, this was a bad idea, but what other choice did he have? And besides, Taehyun had an idea. A possibly very stupid, petty idea, but an idea none the less. If he was going to have to sit through the potentially stressful ordeal of Choi Beomgyu wreaking havoc in their kitchen, he may as well have fun with it.
“Ok then. Have you ever cooked steak before?” Taehyun asked.
“No.”
“Do you know how to cook steak?”
Beomgyu frowned, scratching the back of his neck, confused as to where this was going.
“No.”
“Well then, I’d like a steak for dinner. Medium rare please.” Taehyun said, grinning, and he took another casual sip from his strawberry drink, observing Beomgyu’s reaction. The older boy looked stunned, brown eyes wide, mouth slightly parted. His idea had already backfired. This was making Taehyun feel better by the second.
“I- I, ok then.” Beomgyu said, faltering at Taehyun’s unexpected request, but he now smiled once more, confident as ever. “I shall make you a steak, and it shall be perfect!” Beomgyu announced, getting back up and pushing his kitchen stool back so hard that it made a horrible scraping noise against the polished floor.
Taehyun winced at the sound, but Beomgyu didn’t seem to notice as he spun round and faced the expanse of the kitchen, peering up at the cupboards.
“Now, where the hell are the sauce pans?”
***
As expected, Beomgyu had no idea what he was doing, and Taehyun sat there, slowly downing his strawberry drink, and then fishing out the whole strawberries with the mini umbrella as he watched Beomgyu bustle around. The older boy had started off confident, but after a while he’d started to seem worried, and then panicked, and then finally just accepted the fact that if anything could go wrong, it would, so that now he was practically winging it, clearly lost, but too laid back to actually care. If this carried on any longer, Taehyun was tempted to crack open a packet of popcorn. Infact, if Taehyun didn’t know better, he would have said that this was Beomgyu’s plan right from the start.
“Do you need my help?” Taehyun asked for the thousandth time as Beomgyu whirled around the kitchen, his chestnut brown hair turning into a fluffy mess as he stirred what appeared to be a congealing mess (assumed to be half formed sauce) in a saucepan with a pink spatula, while in another pan, something was fizzing menacingly.
“Nope, everything is under control, you just sit back and relax and-”
BEEEEP!
The microwave had gone off.
“Aha!” Beomgyu yelled, stopping what he was doing to whirl round and pick up a stray carrot, pointing it at the microwave, which stopped beeping, and then whirling round again and pointing the carrot in Taehyun’s direction, while holding the spatula he’d been using to stir the sauce up in the air, as though he were using it to defend himself. He looked ridiculously comical.
“Are you sure you’re ok? You don’t look ok.” Taehyun said, observing the flush in Beomgyu’s cheeks, his slightly crazed expression, his fluffy hair a complete mess.
“That’s because I’m not.” Beomgyu said in a slightly calmer voice, now lowering his weapons of choice and placing them on the table behind him.
And Taehyun was about to ask whether he should just take over, after all, he knew how to cook steak, he could save this entire thing, but then Beomgyu said:
“But do not fear, for I know how to fix it.” he said dramatically, and Taehyun raised an eyebrow, unsure of what was coming.“To be a good chef, I need to look like a chef.” Beomgyu added as though this was obvious.
“Ok…?”
“Every chef needs a chef’s hat!” Beomgyu exclaimed, grinning now as he pointed towards Taehyun.
“Me?” Taehyun pointed towards himself, unsure, but just then Beomgyu came forwards, leaning over the table between them, reached forwards and-
“Yah! That’s my hat!”
Beomgyu swept Taehyun’s baseball cap right off of his head and jammed it onto his own, patting it down triumphantly, even as Taehyun reached forwards to try and grab it, but Beomgyu jumped out of the way, sticking his tongue out. Taehyun sighed, shaking his head, but he couldn’t help but grin at Beomgyu’s antics.
“Not anymore! This is now my chef’s hat!” Beomgyu said happily, giving Taehyun a wink before rushing over to the lounge area that was practically connected to the kitchen. Taehyun twisted round in his seat just in time to see Beomgyu picking up his cream coloured cardigan from the couch and putting it on with a flourish.
“And this is my chef’s coat!” Beomgyu said, eyes shining.
“That’s just a cardigan.” Taehyun said dryly, but he was struggling not to laugh. Beomgyu was taking his position as a ‘chef’ very seriously.
Beomgyu then patted himself down, as though he’d lost something, and then his eyes lit up as he produced a pair of red heart shaped sunglasses from his pocket. They looked familiar somehow.
“Hey! Aren’t those the same pair of sunglasses that Yeonjun-hyung-?” Taehyun started, but Beomgyu cut him off, eyes widening as he rushed forwards holding a finger to his mouth, making a fervent ‘shushing’ sound as he grabbed Taehyun by the shoulders.
“Shut up or hyung will kill me!” Beomgyu said urgently, looking back over his shoulder, but the coast was clear.
Taehyun rolled his eyes, and lightly swatted Beomgyu’s hands away. Taehyun knew, without a doubt, Beomgyu had stolen those sunglasses straight from Yeonjun’s room. Beomgyu’s put on the sunglasses, grinning mischievously.
“And these are my fancy eye protectors.” Beomgyu said, pointing directly at the sunglasses that were skewed sideways at a jaunty angle. Taehyun wasn’t sure if this was deliberate or not.
“They’re called ‘sunglasses’.” Taehyun countered, giggling now, but Beomgyu ignored him, shrugging.
“How do I look?” Beomgyu asked, as he walked around to the other side of the table and struck a pose, flipping his hair, butt out, lowering his sunglasses and pouting for all he was worth.
Taehyun scoffed.
“Ridiculous.”
“Thank you!” Beomgyu yelled, delighted as he straightened up and pointed at Taehyun as though this was the best feedback he’d ever received.
“That wasn’t a compliment.” Taehyun muttered as he finished off the last of his drink, but he had to admit, it was prime entertainment.
Beomgyu spun round, back to attempting to fix the mess behind him.
Taehyun watched as Beomgyu now opened up a cupboard, scanned its contents, closed it and then went along to the next one. Here, he picked up a bottle of chocolate sauce, and much to Taehyun’s alarm, began to pour the contents of the bottle into the still sizzling pan of ‘sauce’ (if it could even be called that, Taehyun was sure the contents has formed into a horrid brown clump at the bottom of the pan by now).
“Hey, I don’t think that’s what you think it is!” Taehyun said, wondering if he should in fact get up and stop Beomgyu from completely ruining this meal, but he hesitated, remembering that Beomgyu had specifically told him to ‘sit back and relax’.
“What do you think I think it is?” Beomgyu yelled, not really looking round, and then adding: “Look it doesn’t matter, everything will be just fine! Do you want another drink?” Beomgyu asked casually.
“Umm, sure.” Taehyun said, feeling as though he'd need the extra alcohol just to be able to watch the trainwreck that was currently unraveling right before him.
Beomgyu slapped the bottle of chocolate sauce down, whirled round and grabbed Taehyun’s empty wine glass, going over to the fridge and getting out more of the strawberry drink, as well as a packet of freshly washed strawberries. He then set everything on the counter top and grabbed the nearest piece of equipment, which just so happened to be a wooden spoon, and proceeded to hack up the strawberries, cursing and grumbling all the while as he reduced them to mush. Behind him, sauce was pouring out of a frying pan which had a piece of meat that was making a rather angry sizzling noise.
“You know, failure is inevitable, but at least I tried!” Beomgyu exclaimed dramatically, more to himself than Taehyun as he now set the spoon down and walked over the drawers, pulling them all out and shutting them at random.
“Now where the fuck are the knives?” Beomgyu added, sounding for the first time, rather annoyed, and that was when Taehyun decided to put Beomgyu out of his misery and get up from his seat at the table, coming round and gently nudging Beomgyu out of the way.
“They’re right here.” Taehyun said as he opened the right drawer, incidentally the drawer that was right in front of Beomgyu’s field of vision, and picked out a small eating knife, and held it up.
“Oh.” Beomgyu said, mouth forming a small shocked ‘o’ and although his face was partially covered from the hat and sunglasses he was wearing, Taehyun clearly saw the faint pink blush that crept up Beomgyu’s cheeks. He looked comically silly in that cute, adorably endearing way that only Beomgyu could pull off, and for the second time, Taehyun wondered if Beomgyu was doing this on purpose.
“Thank you. I’ll take it from here.” Beomgyu said, kicking back into motion once more as he snatched the knife out of Taehyun’s hand and rushed over to the strawberries, intent on finishing what he started. But now Taehyun looked round and his eyes widened as he saw Beomgyu’s homemade ‘sauce’ start to bubble up out of the pan. It was practically fizzing over. Next to that was the steak, which had shriveled up so badly it looked inedible.
“Gyu, umm, have you stopped to take a look at-” Taehyun began, but Beomgyu wasn’t listening, instead, he was placing the now neatly cut strawberries into the wine glass and poured in the strawberry drink.
“And here is your drink!” Beomgyu said with a flourish, presenting it out to Taehyun, who was ready to take it, but then-
BANG!
“Yah!”
Taehyun and Beomgyu both jumped in shock as the pan that had been bubbling over practically exploded, the murky contents of Beomgyu’s sauce spilling right over the counter top like a live volcano, fizzing and hissing angrily. Taehyun covered his ears as Beomgyu screamed, slopping the strawberry drink all down his front. Taehyun then looked round and, in his panic, rushed over to the stove, turned it off and grabbed the pan, and threw it into the sink. Taehyun quickly scanned the floor for any spills, but luckily, it was all clear. He then turned round and saw Beomgyu, holding the now half empty glass in his hand, the rest of the drink spilled down his white jumper. He was rooted to the spot from fear, although it was hard to tell considering those stupid sunglasses he was wearing.
“You idiot!” Taehyun said angrily, as he walked forwards and grabbed the glass out of Beomgyu’s hand and set it firmly down onto the kitchen table. He then grabbed a hold of the hat Beomgyu was wearing and yanked it off, as well as the sunglasses, setting both items down on the kitchen table and turning back to Beomgyu, fixing him with a fierce look.
Beomgyu’s eyes were wide, shock etched onto his face and as he shrunk under Taehyun’s gaze.
“I shouldn’t have trusted you to make anything! What happened just there, it could have been dangerous! Someone could have gotten hurt! Why didn’t you just listen to me?” Taehyun said furiously, but really, he knew Beomgyu wasn’t entirely to blame. He’d gone along with it, he’d been the one to suggest that Beomgyu make a dish that he’d never made before. Something would have gone wrong regardless.
“Oh come on, Tyun, don’t be mad.” Beomgyu pleaded, as he grabbed Taehyun by the shoulders even as Taehyun attempted to shrug him off.
“You just- why do you always do this? You try to make things better, but you just make them worse!” Taehyun said, voice turning into a wail, but he didn’t care. He just couldn’t deal with this right now.
At his words, Beomgyu’s face fell, his eyes downcast, hurt, shoulders slumped.
“I'm sorry. Come here, I’m sorry.” Beomgyu said softly, and maybe it was the way he said it, but Taehyun allowed Beomgyu to pull him into a hug, ignoring the strawberry stain all down Beomgyu’s front for the moment.
He held on tightly, burying his face into Beomgyu soft fluffy cardigan, breathing in the older boy’s sweet vanilla scent as he felt Beomgyu’s arms come to close around him, holding him tightly. And despite being annoyed, Taehyun let himself smile slightly, knowing that Beomgyu was standing on tiptoes, the way he always did when they hugged, just so that he could rest his chin on Taehyun's head, just as he was doing now.
“I’m sorry.” Beomgyu said quietly once more.
“That’s ok. I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I'm just tired.” Taehyun mumbled back, his voice coming out a little muffled as he was partially talking into Beomgyu’s shoulder. He heard the older boy give a sigh of relief, glad that Taehyun wasn't too upset, and then:
“But you know, I can still fix it.” Beomgyu added, and this was where Taehyun felt his heart sinking once more.
“Oh please no. You may think you can cook, but trust me, you can’t.” Taehyun said as he pulled away from Beomgyu, shaking his head in a silent plea. He couldn’t take more cooking disasters.
“Relax, I didn't mean cooking.” Beomgyu said, completely unfazed as he now took out his phone from his pocket and scrolled through it while Taehyun watched in trepidation. What on earth was Beomgyu doing? How could he fix this?
Beomgyu continued to search on his phone until Taehyun saw his eyes light up, finding what he’d been searching for, and moments later a song began to play out on speaker phone as Beomgyu set his phone on the kitchen table.
“Imagine a house
Way up on a hill
Dog in the yard
The trees in the fields…”
“Come on Tyun, dance with me!” Beomgyu said, now flashing Taehyun his bright smile and taking both of Taehyun’s hands in his.
“No, stop, I don’t want to dance!” Taehyun complained as he attempted to pull his hands away and step back. He wasn’t in the mood for anything much now, but Beomgyu held on tight, refusing to let go.
“Please?” Beomgyu asked, giving Taehyun his best puppy dog eye look, pouting cutely, and so Taehyun gave in, rolling his eyes and allowing Beomgyu to pull him closer as the music filled the kitchen.
“...I can't get you all that stuff
But I can give you all my love
Free love…”
“Ah!” Taehyun yelped as Beomgyu spun his round, maybe a little too enthusiastically, because he almost went flying straight into the fridge, but then Beomgyu grabbed his and pulled him back, so that they were facing each other and then-
“Hey! Watch it, those are my toes!”
“Oops!”
Taehyun stepped back just in time as Beomgyu winced, having stepped on the older boy’s foot just a second earlier.
“How are you so clumsy?” Beomgyu asked in disbelief, but he was grinning all the same.
“Hey, you’re the one who spun me around as though I were a spinning top, so I blame you.” Taehyun retorted, sticking his tongue out at Beomgyu, who giggled.
“Come here then.” Beomgyu said, tugging Taehyun closer, so that they were now chest to chest, and Beomgyu’s hands found Taehyun’s waist, while Taehyun wrapped his arms around Beomgyu’s neck.
This close, Taehyun couldn’t stop the blush from forming on his cheeks, feeling the heat, but he was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one, because Beomgyu also looked just as flushed, cheeks dusted a pretty pink, eyes sparkling.
“You know, if you stand on my feet, you’ll be the same height as me. Go on.” Beomgyu said softly, and Taehyun gave him a questioning look, tilting his head to one side.
“What if I break your toes?” Taehyun asked, only half joking.
“Only one way to find out.” Beomgyu said, giving Taehyun a little wink, and so, Taehyun did just that, stepping up onto Beomgyu’s feet, as the older boy held onto him tighter.
Stepping up onto Beomgyu’s feet closed another few centimeters of the gap between them. It was a difference that was almost too much, because now Taehyun was sure that his heart was beating out so loud that Beomgyu could hear it, this level of closeness was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.
Taehyun gave a sharp intake of breath, surprised that when his eyes met Beomgyu’s they were, in fact, now the exact same height.
Instead of attempting any other proper dance moves, Beomgyu simply spun them both round, on the spot slowly, and maybe it was better this way, because it meant that Taehyun got the time to just gaze at Beomgyu, taking in his beautiful features, the way his pretty pink lips curved into a soft smile, his dark eyes, like the night sky field with silver stars, his long eyelashes fluttered delicately as he looked down at Taehyun and smiled.
“...Are the simple things enough?
I got to give you all my love…”
“Hey, you’re spacing out again.” Beomgyu said softly, breaking Taehyun out of his trance, and Taehyun shook his head, feeling flustered now to be caught.
“What? No I’m not!”
“You were! Your mouth was open and everything!” Beomgyu said as he now reached forwards and booped Taehyun on the nose.
“I guess I’m just too pretty, right?” Beomgyu said, wiggling his eyebrows in such a way that it made Taehyun burst out laughing, feeling slightly giddy. He had no idea where it came from, maybe it was just that when he was with Beomgyu, it was near impossible to not be happy. Beomgyu was just one of those people, the kind that never failed to make you smile.
When he was done, he saw that it was Beomgyu who was staring at him this time, eyes wide and staring. It made him flush even more, and he was very much aware that he had nowhere to hide.
“...Free love
Oh, free love.”
The music had stopped now, and there was silence.
“What? Why are you staring?”
“Nothing, it's just, that’s the first time I’ve seen you properly smile all evening.” Beomgyu said.
And then it dawned on Taehyun as to why Beomgyu had done what he’d done, why he’d insisted on making dinner while trying to be funny at the same time, why he’d been so hyped up all evening, why he’d asked Taehyun to dance.
“Is that why you did all of this? Just to make me smile?” Taehyun asked, and Beomgyu shrugged, looked away, looked back and eventually nodded, shyly, cheeks practically burning.
“It’s just… we’ve all had a long day, and I know you couldn’t sleep last night, I could tell, and you looked so tired. I know I’m a terrible cook, that’s obvious, but I wanted to do something to make you feel better. I don’t care if I look silly, it’s worth it if it makes you smile. I guess all I wanted was to see you happy, even if it’s only for a second. I’m sorry if it just made you feel worse.”
Taehyun felt a lump form in his throat, at those words. He didn’t know what to say. All of this had been Beomgyu’s sweet, chaotic way of trying to make him feel better, and he hadn’t even realized. Taehyun gently cupped Beomgyu’s face in his hands, making Beomgyu meet his eyes.
“What did I do to deserve you?” Taehyun whispered.
“Something awful in your past life, I expect.” Beomgyu answered.
And now Taehyun smiled as he closed his eyes, leaned forwards and pressed his lips against Beomgyu’s, earning him a small squeak of surprise from the older boy, but then he relaxed, feeling Beomgyu’s hand on his waist, the other running through his hair. And it was happiness, and happiness was golden, like falling through a sunset, like a shooting star as the sky blazed orange and pink and red like a gentle fire, until he fell straight into the clouds.
When they broke apart, Taehyun saw Beomgyu’s long dark eyelashes flutter open, and saw his flushed cheeks and slightly red swollen lips that undoubtedly matched his own, faces inches apart, noses almost touching, the sweet feel of Beomgyu’s kiss lingering on his lips.
“You always make me happy, Gyu. You know that right?” Taehyun asked softly, and Beomgyu nodded, smiling so brightly that Taehyun couldn’t help himself as he leaned forwards and kissed Beomgyu on the nose, making the older boy giggle.
“You make me happy too. More than you’ll ever know, Tyun.” Beomgyu said, and then added in a whisper, “Hey, could you do me a favor?”
Taehyun paused, intrigued, but nodded all the same.
“Sure.”
“Could you step off my feet? It’s just, I can’t feel my toes.”