Jungkook crosses his arms over his chest as he leans his hip against the counter, watching Chaeyoung moving around her kitchen, keeping all the newly purchased things in the cabinet.

"What do you want to eat today?" she asks.

He takes an apple into his hand, idly playing with it. "What are we celebrating?"

Chaeyoung halts and turns to him, brows furrowed. "Nothing?"

He breaks into a small smile. Jungkook isn't sure why Chaeyoung is doing all this. He's also unsure if she's taking the fake dating to a whole different level or she just doesn't realize that there's nothing 'fake' about this situation they are in. "You're going to cook for me?"

"For us," she says, her tone tells him how confusing that question is, as if it's a stupid question. She narrows her eyes at him. "You don't like my cooking?"

"I didn't say that," he chuckles. "So, what do you plan to cook?"

"I have no clue. That's why I'm asking you, what do you want to eat?"

Jungkook shrugs. "I can eat just about anything."

Chaeyoung looks at him with lips pressed together, groaning as she turns away. "Can't you please decide on something?"

He thinks for a while, humming a little and realizes that he may have taken her habit of humming when thinking. "Well, why don't you let me handle the kitchen for today?"

There's a ghost of smile on her lips, her arms crossed as she tilts her head at him, throwing him a skeptical look. "Can you cook?"

"Oh, baby, you're underestimating me," he scoffs and only realizes that he's just called her 'baby' when her whole expression changes.

He's not sure if she's fine with it although at the early stage of their fake relationship, she did mention to him not to call her anything like that. But at the same time, he's also not sure if she hates it, since she doesn't say anything right after that. Jungkook figures that he should just pretend not to realize that he said it.

"Step aside," he says, already rolling his sleeves. "I'm going to show you all my skills today."

She wordlessly lets him have his space in the kitchen, being the quietest she's been as she watches him working in the kitchen, taking a seat on a stool. It's when the stew he's working on is bubbling inside the pot that she begins to say something.

"Where did you learn how to cook like this?" she softly asks.

Jungkook glances up at her as he stirs. "Seokjin's a chef. He taught me some recipes."

"Seokjin?" She rests her chin on her palm. "Oh, your roommate last time?"

"Yeah." Jungkook signals her to taste, cocking his head as he takes a spoon, dips it into the pot and pretends that he didn't see how her movement falters when he gently blows on it. "Tell me how's it tastes."

Chaeyoung leans over the counter to taste it as she holds her hair on the side. Jungkook holds his smile when her eyes glint, her tongue slightly sticks out to lick her lips. She flashes him a smile and he's pretty sure he feels a pleasant warmth washing over him and it's not because of the stew he's cooking.

"Good," she nods.

"Good?" Jungkook lifts his brows and decides to tease her. "Your face says that it's beyond good."

"Gosh, stop showing off," she huffs, but there's a hint of smile on her face.

"It's not showing off. It's called stating the facts."

Chaeyoung's laughter finally bounces to the air as she avoids his eyes. "Okay, it's great. It's delicious."

"Do you know why it's that delicious?"

"Because it's a recipe exclusively taught by your chef friend?"

"Because it's made with love," he says to her and he catches her blinking at him in surprise. He chuckles momentarily and focuses back on the dish. "It's essential, according to Seokjin."

Jungkook then goes on being a storyteller as he tells her how Seokjin taught him lots of recipes. Most of them are self-made recipes and so far, he has only impressed himself. He doesn't tell it to her, though, that he wishes for her to try out the other recipes, specially prepared by him specifically for her.

*

"Do you believe in destiny?" Jungkook asks, sitting comfortably next to her as the TV displays the ending credits of a popular Japanese animation, Your Name.

The wedding is a week away and when Chaeyoung woke up that morning, thinking of the things that may happen during the wedding, she imagined the bride walking down the aisle, thinking back to when she had talked to her friends a year into her relationship with Chanyeol, talking to the girls how she could imagine herself walking down the aisle towards Chanyeol as they browsed through fashion magazine.

Now, Chanyeol is going to watch a different girl coming towards him and Chaeyoung's place is just among the crowd, one of the audiences. She did plan on skipping the wedding after being determined to go, but Jungkook popped into her life as a savior once and will be a savior one more time for the wedding and she does believe that this is all destiny.

Chaeyoung pulls a pillow into her lap. "Why, yes, I do," she smiles. "Do you?"

"Yeah," he chuckles with a nod. "Taki and Mitsuha, the perfect example of two people destined to meet and fall for each other," he says, gazing at her while he does so.

"Exactly," Chaeyoung agrees. "If it's already destined, you will definitely meet the person you're destined to meet even if you live in a whole different world or dimension or time or whatever."

"Like us, right?" Jungkook asks and Chaeyoung breathes softly, slowly nodding and slowly looking away. "I believe that we're destined to meet. It's just a matter of how and when. Our paths are meant to cross. Like, if we're not destined to meet, pretty sure it's someone else who'd be sending you home the night you got drunk," Jungkook laughs.

"Some people are destined to meet each other just once," Jungkook further says. "But we're destined to meet again the next day and we're destined to help each other."

Chaeyoung nibbles on her upper lip slightly as she lets out a soft laughter. "Yeah," she briefly responds, and the space between them is crowded with silence.

"What makes you believe in destiny?" he asks.

Chaeyoung has a lot of instances in her own life where she thinks destiny is heavily involved, even the situations including Jungkook, but she decides to talk about a movie instead. "Have you ever watched The Notebook?"

He shakes his head.

"You should watch it," she says. "The story makes me think that no matter what happens, if you're meant to be together, you will end up together. A lot of things may happen in between and they're also parts of the destiny. Two people are destined to meet, to fall in love with each other, to break apart, to start a relationship with someone else, to meet again after a long time, and to end up with each other again. Because it's all meant to be."

When she turns to Jungkook, his face holds an expression that seems so glum. The smile he shows her next is so different than all the smile he's given her most of the time.

"How about 500 Days of Summer?" he asks as he props his arms on top of his knees. "Do you think it's all destiny?"

"Of course," she nods. "You don't always end up with the person you're so in love with. 500 Days of Summer taught me that you could be in love with someone for so long, but it's still the wrong person. The Notebook taught me that you could be in love with the right person but at the wrong time. Destiny works in various ways, Jungkook. Some people may get experiences like the ones in The Notebook. Some will experience 500 Days of Summer. Either way, destiny will do its work to bring together those who are already meant to be."

"Which one are you in?" Jungkook asks.

Chaeyoung inhales softly as she locks eyes with him. She might have wished for her life to turn out like The Notebook after what happened between her and Chanyeol, but now, as she stares into Jungkook's eyes, she's not sure if her wish is still the same. "I guess I... I belong to 500 Days of Summer."

It's strange how Jungkook smiles with his eyes before he does with his lips. It's weirder that she finds herself liking it. Liking it and wanting to see it a lot more.

"If I..." he begins but shakes his head a second after.

"What?" she urges, but Jungkook continues to shake his head with a soft chuckle tumbling out of his mouth. "Don't leave me hanging," she whines playfully. "You can't act like every drama episode's ending or every book chapter's ending!"

"You're not going to agree to it anyway," he grins.

"Can you actually read the future?" she giggles. "You can predict what I am going to do even before I know what you're going to say?"

Jungkook merely chuckles before he murmurs a soft 'alright'. He turns to face her, sends a gentle gaze her way for a few seconds.

"If I said I want to kiss you, would you let me?"

Chaeyoung's breath stuck at her throat, her eyes unblinking as she continues to lock eyes with his eyes. She swallows the lump, the big lump before she parts her lips to allow a soft breath of air to leave. When she speaks, she hears her voice soft, sounding very foreign even to her ear.

"Maybe."

Jungkook's gaze stays for a few more seconds before the smile on his face widens. Then, he turns away from her, putting his legs down as he picks his house keys on the coffee table and stands up straight. Chaeyoung's brows furrow, confusion settles in as she watches him stepping away.

"Wait, where are you going?" she asks, her question comes out like a rush of air leaving her lungs.

"Home?" he says over his shoulder.

"Now? I mean, now?"

Jungkook turns around. "Yeah, now. Why?"

"Weren't you like... going to kiss me just now?"

"Yeah, but you said, 'maybe'."

"Um, yeah I did. And?"

He sends a long stare at her, his expression grave, one that she's never seen before. "Chaeyoung, if I want to kiss you, I want it to be a mutual thing. I don't want it to be like, I want to kiss you, but you're unsure whether you want to kiss me or not. The last thing I want is for you to regret the kiss. That's actually a horrible feeling. For me. For you."

Her lips form a tiny pout. "But... but it's a 'maybe yes' kind of maybe. I kind of let you do it."

"Kind of," he repeats with sarcasm and Chaeyoung's brows drop. "It's still a 'maybe'. 'Maybe' is like... a word to describe a person's feelings if that person is uncertain about something. Maybe yes, maybe no, a big maybe, small maybe. All of them are still maybes. You're not sure about it. You're not sure if you want it or not."

Jungkook spins on his heel and is ready to leave, already walking slowly towards the main door.

"Scratch that!" she says quickly.

He stops, and Chaeyoung finds herself already rushing to stand in front of him. "Scratch the word 'maybe'. Pretend I never said it."

There's a hint of smile on his face as he leans in, and Chaeyoung thinks her heart is about to climb up her throat. But he stops when they're a breath away.

"I don't do pretend," he says in a low voice.

She gulps. "What do you mean you don't do pretend. Isn't... isn't this whole thing a pretend thing?"

Jungkook's brows are drawn together as he laughs in disbelief. "Do you honestly believe that everything that I have been doing so far have been nothing but pretend? Just because we're fake dating? The only pretend that I did is to pretend that I am fine being in a fake relationship."

Jungkook walks out, leaving her standing on the same spot, frozen and stunned before she breaks out of the trance that she's in, finding herself scurrying out of the house, catching his sleeve from behind.

"Okay! I'm sorry. I just. I don't know why I said that. I wanted to say yes but I guess, I'm just- I'm... I'm flustered, okay? You make me flustered all the time and-"

The grim look on his face slowly fades, replaced with a smirk. "I make you flustered?"

Chaeyoung softly grunts as her cheeks flush in embarrassment. "Shut up."

"All the time?" His smirk gets bigger.

"Can you just please kiss me already?" she sighs, devastated. "Before I embarrass myself more."

Chaeyoung's face falls when Jungkook doesn't do anything but stares at her, expression flat and she thinks she has to beg for it again. She can just walk away, no such need to embarrass herself but she honestly can't because she wants it.

It definitely is not just about a kiss. She doesn't want to kiss him merely for the sake of tasting what his lips taste like. She wants to feel something, wants to try to see if this strange feeling that Jungkook makes her feel is real or it's as fake as the label they are using on each other. She wants to see if the silent messages of his gestures and looks have all happened in the reality that they're in or they have all been in her dreams.

Chaeyoung's sigh escapes fast, thinking that maybe she really needs to retreat. But the thought vanishes as quickly as it pierces her mind when both of Jungkook's hands are on her waist. His face is close, then, and Chaeyoung doesn't remember putting her hands on his chest, his hard and warm chest.

"One warning," he says, voice drops an octave and Chaeyoung shudders, feeling the wall against her back. "if I kiss you, stopping will not be easy."

Her fingers curl around the fabric of his shirt. She doesn't even want 'stopping' to be an option. "I don't mind."

A small smile pulls on his lips and Chaeyoung subconsciously leans into his touch when he cups her face. Her eyes slowly flutter to a close when he leans in until she can feel his warm breath ghosting across her lips. She is ready, she thinks, ready to explore what everything has meant so far when his lips are pressed against the skin of her forehead instead and Chaeyoung's eyes shot open.

Jungkook's smile is soft as he pulls back and his hands fall to his sides. When he begins to step back, Chaeyoung doesn't realize how tight her fingers are clutching at his shirt, not allowing him to leave. Her brows furrowing, her mouth opening and closing. "What just happened?" she asks, voice almost inaudible.

He gently uncurls her hands from his shirt and holds them for a moment. "I'm gonna kiss you when you're really ready," he says and lets her hands go. "See you."