Work Text:
Zemu woke up the moment she felt the rays of the morning sun hitting her cheeks. She wiped the sleep off her eyes and yawned softly.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Her lips turned upward the moment she heard that low, smooth voice whispering in her ears.
It’s none other than her annoyingly handsome boyfriend, Tsukishima Kei.
His blonde hair was tousled, as if a strong gust of wind had passed him by. Over his golden brown eyes are his glasses that reflect the sunlight from the bedroom window.
“Good morning, Keki~!” She said sweetly, turning to his side of the bed, wrapping her arms around her lover. Kei places his hand on her hair, brushing the strands from the side of her face, then tucking it on the back of her ear.
“Did you just wake up?” She asked.
“Nope, I woke up ten minutes ago,” he answered. “The sound of a snoring pterodactyl disturbed my peaceful slumber.” A teasing grin curved from his lips. The grin that Zemu would want to punch (affectionately, of course), because it’s infuriatingly making him attractive.
“HOY!” She landed a smack on his right shoulder, making him even more amused when he saw her puffed cheeks. An expression she makes when she’s being teased.
“For your information, Tsukishitma Kei, between the two of us, it’s you who snores more often,” She raised her index finger. “Unlike me, whose job is facing the computer monitor from til the sun comes up. You still have volleyball practice after your work at the museum.”
“Should I bring up that I have evidence that you’re snoring?” She said, reaching for her phone from the nightstand, but Kei already grabbed it before she could.
“Give that back to me, Tsukishima Kei!” She yelled, trying to snatch the device from him.
“Nope,” He raised his arms high enough for Zemu to reach, and when his lover attempted to take it, he would make it more difficult for her. “Not until I find that recording and delete it,” he added. The grin on his face was wider, making her pissed.
“HELL NO, YOU WON’T!” Zemu dived into him, making them both collapse on their bed as she wrestled him into getting her phone. There’s no way she will let him delete that; she intentionally kept that to find a way to get back at him whenever he was teasing her or when she’d blackmail him into buying her two boxes of strawberry shortcake when she’s craving for it. Plus, Kei has more blackmail material from his phone; one of them was when he took a picture of her sleeping with her full mouth open. Until now, she couldn’t find a way to delete that on his device.
“HA! I got it!” In a swift motion, she was able to snatch back her phone, gripping it just in case he’d try to take it again. And suddenly, Kei took her wrists, pulled her closer and leaned in for a kiss. Her breath hitched, eyes were wide from the actions he did. She could’ve squirmed her way out, pushed him too. Pretend to be angry even though the feeling of her beloved Keki surprising her with a kiss just makes her feel flustered.
Who would’ve refused to feel lips that are as sweet as a decadent strawberry shortcake? He couldn’t get enough of touching her lips. Kissing her with tenderness and love, she did not hesitate to kiss back. The kiss lasted for at least two minutes before she pulled away.
“Enough of this, we have some chores to do today,” She climbed down the bed, heading to the bathroom to do her morning routine. She opened the faucet, letting the cold water splash her face to wake her senses. Behind her was Kei who followed; he took the toothpaste and his green colored toothbrush from the holder near the sink. He took a pink colored toothbrush, put toothpaste on its bristles, and handed it to Zemu after she dabbed her face with a clean towel.
They both brushed their teeth at the same time, and the only thing that you could hear was the sound of their toothbrushes swishing and the gargling after.
“Keki, please clean the room. Make sure to change our beddings,” Zemu reminded. “I’ll cook our breakfast for today. Want some ramen?” She added.
“Copy that, pipsqueak,” Kei placed his hand on the top of her head, ruffling her hair. “Make sure not to burn the food, yeah?” Zemu only rolled her eyes in response. He placed his toothbrush back in the holder, then headed back to their room.
First, he started to peel off the pillowcases, putting them in a laundry basket afterwards. Next was the blanket, and lastly was the bedsheet. He opened the drawers to get a new set of beddings, choosing the light gray covers for the replacement. Then, he shakes off the dust from the mattress and pillows before spreading out the covers. Stretching the elastic corners, walked on the other side to flatten the other corner. Last was putting the new cases for the pillow and stacking them properly near the headboard.
From the bathroom, he took a cleaning cloth and spray to wipe the dust from the nightstand and work tables. He also arranged the books and their laptops in an organized manner; putting everything in order because both of them had no time to fix it during their work days. Zemu would spend her work days at home, glued to her desktop just to finish a commissioned artwork or a scientific illustration that she needs to submit soon, since some of her clients can be hasty and demanding when it comes to their deadlines. Kei would come home by 7. Not unless he has volleyball practice. The only thing that they could do together was to cook, eat, take a bath, and sleep. If they had enough time, they’d have a movie night.
Sunday was the only time of the week where they would bond over laundry and mop. It still may be a busy day, but being with Zemu makes the chore lighter.
After cleaning up their bedroom, he took the laundry basket and headed outside, where the laundry area is located.
Meanwhile, Zemu was checking the fridge for ingredients that she could use to make ramen: scallions, shiitake mushrooms, and eggs. Unfortunately, there are only three pieces of egg since they haven’t gone out to the grocery store for next week’s stock. From the pantry cabinet, there are still two packs of instant ramen left. Usually, they would buy a bulk pack instead of buying in a convenience store every time. From the condiments area, she took the sesame oil and the soy sauce.
“Keki, can you please come here and reach the pot for me?” She called. Within a minute, Kei arrived, smelling like floral laundry detergent.
“Tut tut tut, it must’ve been so unfortunate to be born a dwarf, right?” He snickers.
“TANGINA MO!” She landed a smack on his arm.
“You’re welcome, dwarf,” He handed the pot to her with a teasing smirk.
ARGH! JUST BECAUSE HE’S A SIX-FOOTER, THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME A DWARF!
“Go back to do the laundry, giraffe!” She retorted while her boyfriend chuckled on his way outside.
Now that all the ingredients are set, she opened the faucet and filled the pot with water, reaching only halfway. Then she placed it on the burner and slowly opened the stove. She sets it to medium heat while waiting for the water to boil. She opens the packs of instant ramen and removes the seasonings. After ten minutes, it was starting to simmer. Steam was coming out when she opened the lid, so she tore off the seasoning packet and poured it into the boiling water, followed by the sliced mushrooms and added a tablespoon of soy sauce for flavor. From another pot, she boiled the eggs on low heat. Since she preferred the eggs soft-boiled rather than putting them in the ramen broth directly. She set the timer to five minutes before putting the noodles. Then she put the stove on low heat to avoid the noodles from overcooking, and waited for two minutes before she turned it off.
Now she waits for the eggs to cook; while waiting, she sat down in the dining area and opened up her phone to scroll for a little bit.
“Just a few minutes of scrolling,” she muttered. “It’s not like I would forget it.”
These are the last words that Zemu Langpakundangan spoke before she fell into the rabbit hole of the Internet. She was on TikTok, videos about the latest memes were on her For You page algorithm, then followed by volleyball highlights. She would immediately put Kei's blocking montages in a folder, which she called “Keki <3”, to compile all videos that show her infuriatingly beloved boyfriend. Sometimes, she would check the comment section of it, just to defend him when he’s being compared to other blockers in the Japanese volleyball community.
“Only I get to be the one to insult this man,” She said to herself.
She exited the app and moved to another, Twitter (she refused to call it X, cause Twitter is more iconic), the social media site where for every scroll she’d see a warzone of different topics. There’s the fanwars, political debate, film reviews, engagement bait, and many more. Zemu finds it intriguing, checking the entire thread of a post where people spend a lot of time aggressively typing messages on their devices just to prove that the other is wrong.
It’s free entertainment, she thought.
And because her eyes are glued to her device, little did she know that a foul smell was spreading throughout the kitchen, making her scrunch her nose from the stench.
She’s a hundred percent sure that she set up an alarm once the egg is set to boil, a few minutes from now, and it will be cooked. But she wondered where that smell came from; she had already taken out the trash outside for it to be collected.
Until smoke was reeking within the vicinity.
“What the heck was that—” And her eyes widened.
Oh, shit. SHIT, SHIT!
She jumped from her seat, dashing on her way to the stove area, where the smoke was thicker in that part. She swore the alarm would ring about now, but there was no notification reminding her about it?! When she arrived, a taller, shadowy figure was already in front of the stove. Zemu heard the click from the stove knob being turned off.
It was Kei. He managed to get there before the smoke became something more dangerous. He wore an oven mitten and took the boiling pot off the stove and into the kitchen sink. The water evaporated, the white shell turned dark brown, already cracked and had charred spots everywhere. One of them was already broken inside. The yolk was greenish gray, rubbery and foul smelled, and the egg white was brown. It’s no longer edible.
“Didn’t I tell you to never leave the kitchen when you’re cooking? There would have been a fire.” He scolded while fanning out the remaining smoke. Zemu opened her mouth, she was urging to argue with him. Tell him that she set up an alarm until the eggs were done boiling, that she wouldn’t forget about it, even if he would remind her of the times she had burnt the food she’s cooking from being distracted or clumsy. But then she closed her mouth; from the look on Keki’s eyes, it was serious. Not the usual teasing eyes he had. More like disappointed.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. It was the only thing she could say.
Kei lets out a sharp exhale and shakes his head. “I’ll take it from here,” He replied without turning. “The laundry’s already being dried up; you can hang the clothes once it’s done”
Zemu opened her mouth. Her mind had formed the right words to explain her side, but she was tongue-tied. As a response, she nodded slowly then retreated outside. She sat on the stool near the front-load washing machine. She sighed heavily. Kei would mostly banter with her and rarely became serious. Sure, she has burnt food before, but he hadn’t gotten this angry before.
‘This is my fault,’ she thought. ‘I got distracted, and now he’s upset with me.’
“What am I gonna do?” She sighed.
When the washing machine beeped, she placed the dried clothes in the hamper. Setting up the hanging rack in a spot where the sunlight is more abundant. She started with the shirts and tops, followed by the smaller clothes like socks, and hand towels, then shorts and jeans, last were the beddings, the bath towels and the robes. Sweat trickled down on her forehead due to the heat, before she could use the back of her arm to wipe it out, Kei appeared behind her with a towel in his hand.
He quietly dabbed the towel on her forehead with gentleness.
“Keki, about earlier—”
“Don’t mind it, I know it’s an accident,” He wiped her back as well, noticing the dampness on the back of her shirt due to sweat. “But next time, you should be more attentive when you’re cooking. Or else you’d get yourself toasted,” He sounded worried, her stomach twisted from guilt for her actions.
Zemu pouted and threw her arms around him.
“I’m so sorry, Keki! I swear I won’t do it again!” She wailed.
“Don’t get too close to me, you stinker,” Kei groaned, pretending to push away from the hug, teasing her.
“Whatever, I’ll let my sweat stick to your skin,” She smirked, squeezing him tighter. “So both of us would stink!”
“To hell with that,” he said, separating from the hug, wiping down his arms as if he was covered in sweat.
“Come on, I already prepared the table. Let’s eat,” He took her wrist and escorted her all the way to the dining table. Where the ramen was already prepared, and beside it was a tamagoyaki from the last egg in the fridge.
“You know, I don’t get you,” Zemu said as she sat down beside him, pouring the ramen into her bowl and his. “If you already know that I would burn the food, then why didn’t you stop me from cooking? Usually it’s me who does the laundry, so I don’t mind swapping,” She asked.
Kei placed down his chopsticks first. “Compared to cooking, doing the laundry is more of a handful. Not to mention that you would spend a hell of a time just to polish every nook and cranny of our home, and you’d end up exhausted and spent.” He explained.
“And you have the audacity to ask for a back massage? For the record, I’m your boyfriend and not a masseur,” He added.
“What can I say? I find your massages very relaxing,” She shrugs. “Besides, I do like the feeling of bossing you around when I’m tired,” she chuckled.
Suddenly, a mouthful of the egg rolls was shoved into her mouth by Kei. “Will you shut up and eat? It’s very disrespectful to be talkative in front of the food,” He said with an annoying grin. Zemu chewed the food slowly, part of it was burning her tongue since it was still hot.
I fucking hate this man, I swear to god!
When she swallowed, she drank the whole glass of water and coughed.
“Fuck you, Keki,” She hissed.
Kei chuckled and pinched her nose just to make her more annoyed.
“I love you too, shortcake.”