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It was Christmas Eve, and Jihoon wanted to do something special. He was in a cheerful mood; perhaps the Christmas season got to him, so he decided to make dinner. Maybe even invite his good-looking next-door neighbor, Junhui. Jihoon was giddy at the thought. He called his good friend Joshua to inform him of his plans.
“You and cooking?” Joshua asks through the phone; they are currently doing FaceTime.
“Yep!”
Joshua looks at him skeptically. “You’re hearing yourself right, Jihoon-ah?”
“I do. It’s just roasting chicken and making a salad. How hard can it be?” Jihoon smiles back at the other, his mood not dampening at all.
"Well,” Joshua says, insinuating something, but Jihoon is too chirpy to notice. “Oh! I might even make desserts.”
“Ah, I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Joshua tells him. “Why don’t you just order something?”
“No. It’s Christmas. I want the food to be special.” Jihoon refuses, all set on cooking a special dinner for himself and maybe delivering some to Junhui. “Oh, bye Joshua. Gotta cook while it's still early if I’m going to make it in time for dinner.”
Jihoon ends the call and stares at the ingredients he set down earlier.
“Cooking. What’s so hard about that?”
Oh, boy was Jihoon in for a treat.
Due to his excitement at the thought of cooking for his crush and the Christmas season spirit overtaking him, he forgot one minor detail. And that is, he doesn't know how to cook— at all —unless making ramyeon or cooking rice counts, then yeah, Jihoon is a hopeless case.
But Jihoon stayed positive that he could do this. If there’s one thing Jihoon can say about himself is that he is not a quitter, no, sir ! He was already set, and he was determined to finish what he started.
“I got this all in the bag.”
However, everything went wrong from there. Jihoon burned the chicken—almost burning down his kitchen in the process—now looking like charcoal. The salad he made seems questionable, who even messes up a salad? And somehow his rice cooker’s broken—the rice looking like porridge, hopefully, edible . Jihoon groans, his cheery mood gone, and his patience slowly losing.
Maybe he should have listened to Joshua.
He was frustrated, hungry, and on the verge of crying. He was just about to call it a day and order takeout if anyone would still take his order at this time—it was getting late—when the doorbell rang. Jihoon huffs and begrudgingly opens his door, only to see his handsome neighbor, Junhui, standing in front of him, carrying a tray of what seems to be hotpot ingredients and a bucket of fried chicken.
Jihoon realizes how much of a mess he probably looks and closes the door on Junhui.
God, why is he here? Jihoon was panicking now, quickly cleaning himself up as best as he could when the doorbell rang again. Jihoon takes a deep breath and opens his door once more.
“Junhui. Sorry about that. For closing the door on you, that is. I don’t know why I did that.” Jihoon started to ramble on. Junhui smiles at him. “It’s fine. I must have startled you.”
Jihoon clears his throat. How does one interact with their neighbor-slash-crush , after all? “A little bit. What brings you here, by the way?”
Junhui raised the food he was holding. “I came to share my food with you.” Junhui’s ears were red, perhaps from standing in the cold too long. Jihoon took notice and ushered him inside his house. “Uhm, why don’t you come in?”
Junhui does just that, thanking the other male. He enters and sees a glimpse of the kitchen. Jihoon quickly blocks his view, not doing a good job at it.
Junhui returns his attention to Jihoon, “Sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
Junhui bites his lower lip, feeling a little guilty. “Well, I saw you cooking earlier and…”
Oh no!
“Y-you saw that mess? "Jihoon was slightly panicking.
Junhui nods. “Smelled it too. It kind of reached my house. I was worried that something bad might have happened to you.”
Jihoon groans, “I can’t believe you saw me in that embarrassing state. I can’t show my face anymore.”
“Hey, it’s okay. Although I was surprised you were cooking.”
“I do cook…” Junhui gives Jihoon a knowing look at his reply. Jihoon blushes at the gaze towards him, "occasionally,” the shorter continues. “Okay, maybe I’m not a good cook at all.”
Jihoon heads to his living room, sitting defeatedly on his couch. “I just wanted to make Christmas dinner. I was too over my head, thinking I could do it.”
Junhui walks up to him, placing the food he brought on the coffee table. “It’s not impossible. You just needed someone to help you out.”
Jihoon then stares at the food on the table, just in time for his stomach to grumble. Junhui chuckles, “Seems you're hungry. It’s a good thing I brought food then.”
“Thank you, Junhui. You saved me. I thought I was going to starve.”
“I wouldn’t dare let that happen,” Junhui tells him. Jihoon smiles at that, a thought coming to his mind. "Uhm, Junhui. I was wondering if…”
“If?”
“If… uhm, you’d like to join me for dinner? That is if you haven’t eaten yet,” Jihoon blushes. “Oh, what am I saying? You probably already did! You probably just came to drop this off after seeing your neighbor’s attempt to cook a disastrous meal and—”
“Jihoon-ah,” Junhui places a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder, making the younger stop rambling. Junhui continued what he was saying, “I’d love to have dinner with you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Besides, I’ve brought enough food to feed more than one person. I was hoping to eat with you since it's Christmas.” Junhui points at the food on the table.
Jiheon relaxes a bit. He wanted to say more, wanting to inform the other male on how much he wanted to cook for him— hence the mess —and how much he wanted to eat with Junhui at least once. But for now, Jihoon could settle with eating dinner made by his crush and eating with said crush.
“Let’s eat. I’m starving.”
The pair chuckled at Jihoon’s reply and went to his kitchen to get some plates and cutlery.
Yeah, this was enough for Jihoon, for now at least. Junhui felt the same. Christmas dinner as friends will do, for now .