The Sweetness of a Peaceful Morning
Suho’s stir-fried rice was gone in no time at all.
The morning meal ended in what felt like the blink of an eye.
It was no small matter that I had been hungry, but the stir-fried rice he had made was simply so delicious that my hunger was forgotten the moment I took my first bite.
I finished the last spoonful and set my spoon on the table, then looked up at Suho.
“Did you enjoy it?”
He had finished his portion in almost the same speed, and he placed his spoon down at the same moment, asking me back.
“Yeah. It was delicious.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“You’ve really improved, haven’t you?”
His modest blush at my praise made me feel even prouder.
“Noona.”
“Why?”
Suho set the dishes in the sink and called out to me.
When I turned to look at him, his face wore a slightly sullen expression, as if he had something else on his mind.
‘Why does he look like that again?’
“What are you so pleased about?”
“Just… that you’re improving like this is fascinating.”
“Since I taught you myself, I guess that makes sense. Now you’re going to write, right?”
The breakfast today wasn’t entirely his work.
I had been so tense that my hand trembled, so I had to direct him from the side.
Yet, just as the saying goes, food tastes best with the hand that made it, and today the taste was unmistakably Suho’s.
His touch was light and gentle, perfect in its simplicity.
“Yeah. I have to write. What about you?”
I had already expected him to come into the studio with me.
He had said he would stay with me all day, so I figured he would follow.
“I’ll just look at you.”
‘As expected.’
“Looking sounds a bit… off, doesn’t it? It’s not watching or spying…”
“Then I’ll just observe you.”
“Sure.”
Back when we had first met, hearing him say he wanted to follow me would have made me react with such strong alarm I might have thrown him out.
But now things were different.
Whether he listened to me or not, whether he was here or not—it wouldn’t have mattered much.
I had already spilled out those shameless things right in front of him and even reached a climax through teasing alone.
What was there to hesitate about anymore?
‘After all, he had already read my novel…’
Since it was only the early parts, apart from the small changes I had already made, it hadn’t differed much from what he had seen before.
“Hey. But the dishes still need to be washed.”
“You made the rice, so you should wash the dishes, noona.”
“Where did that come from!”
“What if the loser does it after a snowball fight?”
“Snowball fight?”
Snowball fights were a traditional confrontation where you stared into each other’s eyes until one person blinked or looked away.
‘A snowball fight…’
I hadn’t had many chances to face people, so it had been ages since I last tried one.
Because it was so unfamiliar, I wondered if I could even win against him, but I decided to accept his suggestion.
After all, it was the fairest way.
“Fine. The loser of the snowball fight will do the dishes.”
“The winner will make coffee.”
“Okay.”
“You start the count.”
“Yes.”
Suho found a clean plate and held it between us.
I closed my eyes and waited for his words.
“S…tart!”
When I opened my eyes, the plate was gone—as it should be in a normal snowball fight.
But Suho’s face was moving toward me, and that was no longer a normal snowball fight.
We were close enough that only one fist could fit between us, and the nearness made my heart race.
“Noona.”
“What.”
He was definitely trying to shake me up mentally.
But I wasn’t the type to fall for cheap tricks.
“I love you.”
“Ugh.”
I almost closed my eyes.
I nearly blinked, but I barely held it in.
“Huu… You really can’t attack, can you?”
“Is that so?”
His gaze flickered with surprise at my reaction.
Before long, I would win.
‘What kind of coffee should I make?’
When I wrote, I preferred a slightly sweet coffee over plain.
Since the work demanded a lot of concentration, sugar always helped me hit my best scenes.
“Noona.”
“Go ahead and attack.”
“I’m going to kiss you.”
“Eh?!”
‘This crazy guy.’
I had never been faced with such a sudden kiss so close—only a palm’s width away.
My nerves weren’t strong enough to withstand Suho’s intense stare.
With neither experience nor courage, I covered my mouth with my hands and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Noona. You really can’t do a snowball fight.”
‘I lost…’
Had my provocation been a mistake?
Suho had been surprisingly aggressive, and he had taken me down with just two attacks.
I was the one who lost.
“Go make that sweet coffee.”
“Noona. Why won’t you open your eyes?”
“I don’t know. Go.”
—Plop.
The soft touch of his lips on my forehead felt exactly like a flower blooming all at once.
It made my heart flutter, and then it was gone.
“Hey? You think kissing is okay now?”
“I won, so I get to claim my prize.”
“That’s a good excuse. Go make the coffee right now.”
“Yes.”
There was nothing more agonizing than dwelling on something already done.
I sent him off to make coffee, then stared at the dishes in the sink.
‘He’s becoming so natural with skinship…’
Just like when I washed the shrimp earlier, and now too.
He was skinshipping with me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
I remembered how bitterly he had reacted when I told him it was off-limits with my father yesterday.
‘Well, he’s not the type to give up after just one or two tries.’
If that were the case, he would never have wanted to live under the same roof with me like this.
No matter how you looked at it, a complete stranger—let alone someone in a contractual relationship—could never simply feel affection just because they shared a roof.
Of course, living together meant many small chances for skinship, but winning the other person’s heart was never easy.
Whether it was a romantic relationship or a contract.
Moving someone’s heart was that difficult.
—Swoosh.
“Ah, cold water!”
I turned the faucet harder to get warm water.
Even though the rice had little oil, stir-fried rice was still stir-fried rice.
It was always coated with a thin layer of oil, and if I didn’t clean it in time, it would pile up like the dishes I had seen the first time I came here.
“Noona.”
“Yes.”
My hands kept scrubbing the dishes with kitchen soap in circles, but my head only turned slightly toward him.
“What’s in your hand right now?”
“Huh? Sponge for dishes? The bowls are already covered in soap?”
Suho glanced at me, then stepped over to the coffee machine and fiddled with the controls before walking toward me.
“Why?”
“Don’t drop the bowl. Hold it tight.”
The sound of the coffee machine pumping out the capsule was too loud to hear his exact words.
‘He probably meant don’t drop it.’
“Huh?”
Suho had finally reached me and cupped my cheeks.
‘Wait a second?’
“Hey? Mmm!?”
—Plop.
The sound from the snowball fight echoed through the kitchen.
Unlike before, this one had come from my lips instead of my forehead, and it echoed down the hallway as if Suho’s actions could be overheard by the whole building.
“Hey!?”
“No, I thought the prize for winning a snowball fight was too weak.”
“Eh?!”
My head was full of things I wanted to say to him.
Many things, yet my mouth only let out some babbling with no clear words at all.
His sudden actions still left me struggling to adapt.
‘If anything, it’s strange that I can even adapt.’
“Noona. Your cheeks are getting red.”
“Try it yourself, idiot.”
Yesterday’s incident had made me cautious, so I had been watching his movements, but I guess I didn’t need to.
He was acting completely normal, just like always.
Even though his actions were becoming more suggestive.
“Noona should do it to me.”
“Stop it. Go clean the dishes or move them to the studio.”
—Swoosh.
Even as I scolded him, my hands kept turning the water faucet.
I watched the foam disappear down the drain, but the thing that truly shook was my heart.
Strange as it was, I didn’t feel extreme disgust whenever Suho did these things.
I knew this kind of ambiguous behavior wasn’t good for him or me, but I had never felt this emotion before.
So right now I just wanted to feel these fuzzy, warm feelings.
‘I’m really evil.’
I was evil as a writer, and even more so as a person.
If it was yes or no, I still couldn’t answer that way, yet here I was—completely indecisive.
I had wanted Suho to keep acting as if nothing had changed, but the one who was changing was me.
He wanted affection disguised as teasing like before, and I was receiving his actions with confusion.
The fact that I wasn’t pushing him away but only saying “give me time” felt rather disgusting.
“Sigh.”
“I brought the coffee. Why are you sighing, noona?”