Chapter 21: White Lies
"Hmm.... Smells good... what are you cooking?" Jaejoong slide his arms around my waist and hugged me, as I stood in front of the stove cooking away.
"Oh... Just some scrambled eggs and pancakes... I'm done, we can eat now..."
I switched off the stove fire and scooped the last pancake onto the plate. And turned to bring the plate over to the dining table. He loosened his hug as I turned and took a whiff from the plate as I turned to face him.
"Smells good..."
"Come on, let's go over and eat it while it's hot..."
I started walking over to the table, and placed the plate down. He followed me over and sat himself opposite me. I walked over to grab the toast from the toaster and plated them onto another plate, grabbed some jam, maple syrup and butter from the fridge and walked over to the table.
"Go ahead first... I need to get something else first..." I gestured for him to start first.
"It's okay... I'll wait for you to start..." He looked at me and smiled.
"Okay... I'll be just a minute..."
I rushed over to the stove and fished my half-boiled egg from the pot with a spoon, and scooped it into a bowl. Then I walked over to join him at the table.
"We can start now..." I said as I sat down.
I took the egg and cracked it, and Jaejoong watched in amazement as the half-boiled egg came flowing out into my bowl, and I added dark soy sauce and pepper to taste. Then I took a slice of toast and spread butter over it, and sprinkled sugar liberally all over the toast before dipping it into the egg, and taking a bite from it.
"Is that nice?"
I looked up at Jaejoong and wondered how come he was asking me such a weird question, then I realised that he had most likely not seen people eat half-boiled egg in this way before...
"Yeah it is... Usually we eat the toast with butter and kaya, which is a sort of jam made from eggs, sugar and coconut milk. But I don't really like kaya, so I use sugar instead. Cos jam is too sour, and it spoils the taste of the egg..."
I took another bite from the egg drenched toast. Jaejoong looked at me as I ate.
"You want to try some?"
His eyes widened with excitement, "Can I?"
"Of course... I thought you'll prefer something more continental... So I made pancakes and scrambled eggs for you... I didn't...."
He pulled my hand with the piece of toast over to his mouth and took a bite from the egg drenched toast, before I could say anything else. I looked at him in surprise as his face showed a feeling of satisfaction as he chewed on the toast.
"How is it?"
"It's NICE!!!" And he took another bite from my toast.
I smiled as he took bite after bite, helping himself to my toast, and shifting my hand up and down to dip the slice of toast into the egg, and up to his mouth. After a while, my slice of toast was totally devoured by him.
"Oops... I finished it..." He said covering his mouth embarrassingly.
"That's okay... I can eat the pancakes instead if you want to take mine..."
I reached over to try to take his plate. He grabbed the plate and stood up, and walked over to me, pulled the chair out next to me, and sat down.
"That's okay. We can share... Here..."
He cut a slice of pancake and put it in front of my lips.
"Kamsahamnida..."
I opened my mouth and let him place the pancake inside.
"Nice?"
I smiled, "Yeah..."
We enjoyed a good breakfast, basically he ate all of mine and 2/3 of his, and I finished the rest of his.
"Do you have to work today?"
"Yeah, I have a meeting in the afternoon together with my team with the local company. What about you?"
"We also need to meet some producers for a new project we're doing... So I guess we'll only see each other again tonight huh?"
"I guess so..."
"What are you cooking for me tonight?"
I smiled, "I don't know yet... Any special requests?"
Jaejoong smiled and tapped his finger on his cheek as he thought. After thinking for a while, he finally had an idea.
"How about something spicy?"
"Again? After yesterday's chilli crabs and fish head curry? You sure? I don't want you guys to lose your voices, you know..."
"Ha ha ha ha...," he covered his mouth as he laughed, "I forgot we already had spicy stuff last night..."
"Well how about something light today then? Tofu seaweed soup?"
"AH!!! Tofu seaweed steamboat?!!! I can get some beef for shabu shabu..."
"Sounds good to me..."
"Then it's settled... Hurry on back now before the guys wake up... I'll get the food ready for dinner... Just pop by when you're ready for dinner yeah..."
"Okay..."
"Wait... Don't pop by... Give me a ring before you come..."
"Ha ha ha... You're afraid I...", I glared at him, "Okay okay... I know... Alright I'll call before we come..."
I walked him to the door and watched as he opened his house door.
"See you later at dinnertime... Annyeongi kyeseyo..."
"Na-do..."
I smiled and closed the door.
*Ding dong ding dong*
I opened the door again. Jaejoong was standing at the door. I looked at him in surprise.
"Why aren't you going back in?"
"I will...", He leaned closer to me, "after this...", and he gave me a peck on my forehead.
I looked up and him as he shifted away. He looked at me and smiled, and gave my hair a tousle.
"Hey..."
"Sarangheyo... See you later..."
He said as he escaped into his house before I could say anything more.
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At the meeting...
"... so that's basically what we're planning to do... and the main cast has already been decided... They're joining us later in the meeting..." the korean producer said.
"That sounds good, I hope we have a good working relationship for this project. It's our first time collaborating with a foreign company..." my team leader said.
"It's the same for us too... Ah... I think our main cast are here..." the korean producer said.
Everyone looked at the door as the main cast walked into the room.
"Hi everyone, sorry we're late, we were stuck in traffic..."
"That's okay, we were just talking about the main cast. Let's introduce them to the team..."
"This is U-Know Yunho, Max Choikang Changmin, Micky Yoochun, Xiah Junsu, and Hero YoungWoong Jaejoong. Together they are known as Tong Vfang Xin Qi or TVXQ. And I'm their manager, Lee."
Everyone exchanged handshakes.
I stared at them in disbelief as they walked in, but I tried to contain my surprise, and pretended to not know them and shook their hands one by one. We were all very "professional", we did not show any signs of prior acquaintance at all. They were all able to hide their shock very well too.
For the rest of the meeting, we were looking at each other like we were seeing each other for the very first time. After another 30 minutes of discussion, the meeting was still not over. I had to excuse myself to let off some steam before I could continue on with the meeting.
"Mian hamnida... Can you excuse me, I need to go to the restroom..." I stood up and walked towards the door.
The guys looked at me as I walked out, and they exchanged looks with each other. Jaejoong then stood up and excused himself to go to the restroom 5 minutes later.
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At the restroom...
I was splashing water onto my face and trying to wake myself up from this weird situation that I am in now.
*Knock knock*
I walked over to the door and opened it. Jaejoong was standing outside the door.
"Is there anyone else inside?"
"Anio..." I walked back into the restroom.
He slipped in through the door and locked it.
"How come you didn't tell me that you were going to work with us?"
"I didn't even know who we were working with or what we were doing until just now..."
"What are we going to do now?"
He looked at me not knowing what to do.
"I guess we have to carry on our little white lie until the project is over..."
"You mean we have to carry on pretending that we don't know each other?"
"Yeah... We have to behave like new acquaintances... Otherwise the rest will get suspicious... Especially your manager..."
"But... It's already so hard trying to act like friends in public... Now this..."
"Joongie... We have to think of the guys too all right? I don't want to get you guys in trouble... That's the LEAST I want..."
"I don't know... I don't know if I can do it..."
"You'll be fine... After a couple of weeks, we should be able to talk freely, since we're supposed to be neighbours... So it'll be only natural that we speak casually... We can't be TOO hostile to each other... It won't be realistic..."
Jaejoong looked at me in despair.
"This is driving me crazy... It's all so complicating..."
"I know... Just bear with it for my sake okay?"
He walked over and pulled me into his arms.
"*sign* Okay... But for MY sake... Just let me hold you for a while now... I'm missing you already... since morning..."
"You must be exaggerating... It's only been a few hours... And you were just sitting across me in the meeting room... for 30 minutes..."
"I know... But I can't get near you at all... You're so near.... yet so far..."
I don't know how he is going to stand working around the production where I am going to be "so near, yet so far" everyday. But we'll just have to carry on this white lie to prevent any trouble.
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"If nothing lasts forever, will you be my nothing??"
