"Preparing a super delicious dinner for you," Ara states in a sassy manner.
Hearing that, Junghwa lets out a small chuckle. He found it a bit funny that his sassy friend actually succeded in brightening up his blue mood just with her usual sassy attitude. It's the first time he actually feels better after days of feeling blue and chaotic since the break-up with Hana.
Slowly, Junghwa approaches Ara who is still focus on cutting the carrots. In a quick swift, he pulls out an empty bowl just from the kitchen cabinets. He then starts cracking some eggs into the bowl.
"What are you doing?" Ara asks as she looks at Junghwa who is cracking eggs just next to her.
"Helping you prepare a super delicious dinner," Junghwa says, before he starts to stir the bowl of eggs.
Hearing that, Ara's lips forms a small smile. She is glad to know that her best friend is starting to feel better, as she watches him stiring his bowl of eggs with a slightly happier face. Just a small smile from him could make her feel happier, knowing that he is feeling better.
The two teenagers continues with their random cooking, not really having much preparation for tonight's dish, yet both of them only knew that they want to make a delicious dinner for tonight out of zero preparation, and just rely on their random thoughts that popped up. While Ara decided to make chicken soup with chopped carrots and tomato, Junghwa decided to make an omelette with some chopped ham. Through out the cooking, the two teenagers helped each other out, and sometimes would even throw silly jokes while cooking, just to add more fun in the kitchen.
An hour later...
After they finished with their cooking, Ara and Junghwa are now enjoying their delicious dinner, of course along with a glass of apple juice for the two of them, as Ara insisted, despite Junghwa trying to make her have soju, much to her disagreement.
"With all due respect, how am I suppose to get drunk without alcohol tonight?" Junghwa asks.
"Because you obviously won't get drunk tonight," Ara says. "That's enough soju for days. It's time for a healthy juice."
"Ugh, Kim Ara, when did you became this strict towards me?" Junghwa asks in a whiny tone. "You're starting to sound like my mom."
"Since I care for your liver's condition more than I care for you," Ara says in a sassy tone, making Junghwa almost drop his jaws at the girl's statement.
"Ok, enough with that and eat already," Ara adds.
"Fine," Junghwa says, again in a whiny tone before he takes another spoon of the chicken soup.
Ara shifts her gaze from her soup to see Junghwa who continues to eat his dinner, even though his lips are formed into a childish frown, making him look like an upset little boy. Ara actually thought this rare sight of him looked pretty cute, since it's not everyday she gets to see Junghwa looking like an upset 6 years old. For what she remembered, he used to be the type of person Ara thought could never feel upset towards anything.
"By the way, thanks for the cooking," Junghwa says. He almost forgot to thank Ara for her concern to come to his place just to comfort him and cook dinner. Behind her sassy attitude, he was surprised to notice a more motherly side of her.
"You're welcome," Ara says. "I told you the soup would be yummy."
Junghwa chuckles shyly. "I didn't expect Kim Ara could actually cook."
"If that's the case, then you don't know much about me, Hwang Junghwa," Ara says in a sassy yet playful tone.
"Then can I have the honour to know more about you?" Junghwa asks, this time in a rather playful tone as he cuts a small piece of omelette for him.
As Ara is about to take another spoon of her soup, she suddenly stops for a second, upon hearing his playful words which starts to mess with her head, and lingering in her heart. She quickly puts her spoon back and grabs her glass of juice, in an attempt to calm herself from the effect of his words. Yet, she knew she know that she didn't want to fall for him all over again, knowing that she struggled for the past five months to actually heal the wounds of her own feelings. Knowing that she still some feelings for him, she didn't want to let herself fall deeper, knowing that it's gonna be another hard journey to heal.
"You are in process with that, actually. Like, everyday," Ara states. "For crying out loud, we're friends, Jay Hwang. Obviously you're gonna know more about me."
Junghwa chuckles. "You got a point. Clever answer."
Hearing that, Ara couldn't help but roll her eyes at the silly boy. Seems like he's already starting to feel better after his days of hangover heart-break. Deep down, she felt relief knowing that he's not as sad as before. Being honest with herself, she misses his cheeky smiles and cute chuckles, which she realized had become more attractive since the first week she started taking lessons with him.
Silly Junghwa, you better not be sad again. Damn, how I miss that cute chuckle of yours. You worried me, you cheeky boy. Ara thought.
A few minutes passed, eventually the two teenagers finished their dinner. Ara decided to clean the dishes, of course Junghwa insisted to help since he is feeling a lot better now. Ara felt happy to see Junghwa starting to return to his usual self. After the two finished cleaning up, they decided to sit together on the couch, as they wait for Junghwa's parents to return home.
"Man, what a long day," Junghwa says to himself as he sits on the couch.
"Maybe because you had a boring day," Ara says as she grabs the glass of water from the table.
"Maybe," Junghwa says.
"So tomorrow you're going to school, right?" Ara asks.
Junghwa chuckles. "It's not like I can skip another day."
"You can though," Ara says in a both sassy and playful manner, as she didn't want to make the moment feel too serious and more fun.
"But I won't, if it's gonna upset you," Junghwa says.
Hearing that, Ara feels like her heart just got shot by an arrow. As if the cupid shot the arrow right in the target spot, her heart starts to beat faster. Somehow, his words which stated that he won't do what's gonna upset her, made her feel a different feeling in a way. Other than her heart beating faster, which could feel her vision start to get lost in his brown eyes, as if his gaze had got her enchanted. The feeling she is experiencing right now brings back flashbacks of  the days she had butterflies dancing, heart racing, chaotic emotions, all mixed up in her heart, when she was struggling to fight her growing feelings towards him. Realizing this, she starts to feel in fear as the flashbacks of all the days of tears and heartbreaks starts surfacing back. The thing she fears the most is to return to that phase, where she was struggling to fight the feelings of falling in love with her best friend who was her cousin's boyfriend. She didn't want to go back to what broke her, though she couldn't lie that every little concern from him, still manages to trigger the fear in her heart from time to time.
"Glad that you're back to normal," Ara says, trying to sound as if she's chill with the situation.
"As if I was actually not normal before," Junghwa says in a playful.
"Just finish your meal already," Ara says, again in her signature sassy tone.
"Alright, Miss Kim," Junghwa says as he continues to eat his chicken soup.
The next day...
At school...
"Now let's turn to page 243!"
Ara's POV...
I continue to read my English book as the teacher continues to talk about page 243, which I found that I could actually consentrate more if she didn't have to talk so loudly with a feisty attitude. Don't know is it just me or studying in class would actually be easier if the teacher wasn't so loud? At least, that's what I thought, but Zach had different ideas though. He told me that he found it easier to understand when the teacher speaks louder. Grace actually said the same thing. What the hell?
As for Junghwa, I remember him saying that he didn't really care about having a loud or quiet class. He's always in tune with himself and tries to consentrate in every situation. Speaking of Junghwa, I glanced at him for a second, just to see how he is doing at the moment. Hopefully he can consentrate as usual again, even after what happened. At least, last night he seemed to looked better after dinner, and I hope he's already back to normal today.
To be continue...