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It was another couple of days before Ten had time to go by New Culture's; partly because he was busy, but also partly because he found himself feeling... put out... every time the idea came up.

Finally, he decided to go one day a little closer to lunch. Ten told himself that it was just because he was hungrier, earlier; he couldn't hide the small, nagging thought that if there are more people, I might be able to keep myself from flirting so much with Taeyong.

He liked the guy, Ten couldn't deny that fact. How much? He wasn't willing to think about that.

Stepping into the restaurant, he was glad to see that there were a handful of people inside, more than he'd seen since the first time he and Sicheng had been; Taeyong seemed a little frazzled, running from table to table, but he still brightened up when Ten walked in, and the Ten had to mentally scold himself when his traitorous heart leapt at the sight of the redhead man's smile.

"Afternoon, Ten. Table, or bar?"

Surely there's no harm in talking? Just a bit? He fought his inner responsibilities for a few moments before nodding. "Bar."

Ten smiled a little - it was too hard to keep aloof when Taeyong was being so friendly and warm - and followed the waiter to his usual seat. When Taeyong looked at him with a questioning expression, Ten nodded. "Chef's Special, some sort of non-alcoholic drink to go with it. Hot tea before?"

"Of course." Taeyong smiled, heading off; the routine was the same as usual, with the waiter gone for most of the time that Ten was waiting for his food.

Taeyong brought a nice hot mint tea, and then eventually, the meal - a rich lamb stew made with beer and cheese. Ten sighed happily, digging in, and Taeyong started to clean behind the bar, although he kept an eye on the silver-haired and Ten would swear there was a smile on his face as he watched.

After sating his initial hunger, the silver-haired wiped his mouth, took a long drink of mulled cider that he'd been given, and looked over at the waiter. "More people in here than usual."

"Yeah." Taeyong smiled. "Not many returns, though." A small sigh; before Ten could respond, however, the waiter raised an eyebrow. "That reminds me. You haven't brought your boyfriend back since that first day - I hope the food didn't disagree with her."

"My-?" For a second, Ten was confused, but then he remembered his first visit. "Oh, you mean Sicheng? Hah, no, he's not my boyfriend. He's a friend and a colleague, and I'm his producer. He's on tour right now, or he probably would come along with me from time-to-time - he did enjoy the seafood scallopini. I mean, we did date back in high school... but man, that was a long time ago. Trust me." Ten chuckled. "If I had a date, this would be the first place I'd bring them."

Ten had just finished this sentence when he realised that Taeyong's expressions had gone through quite a metamorphosis - for someone as quiet and reserved as he seemed to be, at least. He'd started out looking relieved when Ten said 'not my boyfriend', but at the 'this would be the first place I would bring my date' comment, he merely smiled - and it didn't reach his eyes.

Ten wasn't sure what to make of this, but he was pretty sure it was encouraging.

Ten'd just open his mouth to test the waters a little, say something about being single, but suddenly the doors to the kitchen opened and his attention was immediately drawn to a short, blonde young man who looked around the room frantically before dashing over to the bar.

"Hyung, Hyung! I'm so sorry but I just spilled the pesto and we have four orders of flatbread, can you make another batch?"

Taeyong looked alarmed at this. "Of course, Renjun, I'm coming now-"

Without a glance back at the silver-haired, Taeyong dashed off to the kitchen, followed by the worried-looking blonde, leaving Ten to blink at the space where the waiter (?) had just been standing.

Wait. Hyung? Make another batch of pesto? Does that mean-

Turning his attention to his stew, ten stared at it as if it had answers, but it was as clueless as he was; it was still delicious, however, so he went back to eating, albeit slowly as he thought about all the reasons he had to be wrong. Instead, Ten found himself coming up with more reasons that he was right.

After about a quarter of an hour, the kitchen doors opened again, and Taeyong walked back out; he looked a little apprehensive, and when he stepped behind the bar, Ten raised an eyebrow.

"You're the chef! Why didn't you tell me?"

Here, the waiter- the chef - looked embarrassed. "It seemed important to you that the chef be a she, and I didn't want to creep you out because of it. Sorry I'm not some cute girl."

"Well, you're cute, so either way I'm not dissapointed." Ten grinned as Taeyong turned bright red, but then the silver-haired hmmm'd. "But okay, I swear the first waiter we had said 'she'!"

Taeyong looked puzzled, then shrugged. "Temporary wait staff. They were mostly on-hand to get the orders down and get feedback on the meals, so I guess he made a mistake." A chuckle. "That's kind of funny."

"So, what's the whole deal with these Chef's Specials and everything? How are you always out here talking to me if you're the chef?"

"Because I'm not the only chef." Taeyong nodded back at the kitchen. "I make all of the Specials, I come up with the menu, and I make the 'unique' ingredients each morning, like the yuzu butter, the pumpkin-seed pesto, and things like that. Renjun has been studying under me for a while, and he takes care of a lot of the standard menu items; I help, of course, but my main goal is to come up with new recipes, perfect them, and eventually have enough for a cookbook, so he cooks while I work on recipes and documentation."

"And tend the bar?" Ten couldn't help but slide that comment in, and Taeyong turned pink again.

"I, er... don't do that all day, you know."

"Only certain times?"

"Only certain times." Taeyong wouldn't meet Ten's eye at this, but that was okay. The silver-haired was already starting to feel happier than he'd expected when he came in that day, so he just smiled.

"Well, I'm more than glad for the company." Standing, Ten stretched, then paid the bill; with a lighter heart and a spring in his step, he headed back to work, determined to return for a meal sooner rather than later.

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Indeed, Ten was only able to wait for two days before going back. It was later in the afternoon, this time, and he was glad (and then guilty for feeling glad) to see that no one but Taeyong was in the restaurant.

A smile broke across the redhead man's face when Ten walked in, and the silver-haired returned the smile with one of his own. Taeyong hurried over as Ten was taking off his coat and scarf, and the silver-haired chuckled.

"You don't have to meet me at the door every day, you know I'm just going to sit at the bar and talk to you and have whatever you decide you want to cook for me today."

"Ah, well." Taeyong fidgeted a bit, and Ten raised an eyebrow, but let him continue. "I haven't eaten lunch yet, so I was thinking I'd make enough for both of us and join you, since there's nobody around? We could eat at one of the tables near the kitchen, in case a customer comes in, and I can take notes at the table about your opinions instead of waiting for the end."

At this, the silver-haired couldn't stop a wide smile from crossing his face. "Absolutely, of course I'd love it if you joined me." When he said this, the chef looked happy, and the expression made Ten smile even more.

"All right, okay. Grab a seat and I'll get you a drink, and then I'll get cooking. Do you, uh- have any requests?"

The question startled the silver-haired, who shook his head as he took his seat. "None. Everything you've cooked has been amazing, so I'd be happy to eat anything. Heck, I could probably even eat fruit if you made something with it."

Taeyong looked pleased at this, but shook his head in return. "I think I won't push that yet." He chuckled quietly. "Hot tea, or something stronger?"

"Oh, what the hell, how about another one of those hot lemonades with brandy?"

"Coming right up."

Ten watched Taeyong behind the bar, noticing that the redhead man had as much of a smile on his face as he knew he had himself. He couldn't help watching Taeyong's hands as he made up the drink; Ten had always enjoyed watching as the man made his drinks, and now he found himself wondering how it'd be to watch him cook.

He really is so skilled with his hands.

Of course, that led to dangerous territory, so Ten put it resolutely out of his mind. After all, they're just getting to know each other. Finding Taeyong incredibly cute and attractive is just a bonus at the moment.

As Ten was thinking this, Taeyong carried the drink over, smiled, and then headed into the kitchen. Ten watched - almost wistfully, wishing he could go back and watch - but then shook his head, pulling out his tablet; he always had work he could do. And he'd felt more inspired to write lately, which meant more songs - although some of his most recent ones he wasn't sure he wanted to let anyone record.

After about half an hour, Taeyong returned, carrying two plates and a basket; when he set everything down, Ten saw that they both had personal frittatas. He couldn't quite see Taeyong's, but his had ham and cheese and artichokes and avocado and olives and more things hidden below the drizzle of hollandaise sauce; it smelled divine, and his mouth watered as he reached for his fork.

"I'm gonna start feeling like a broken record, because this smells amazing. What's in the basket?"

Smiling, Taeyong flipped the cloth open to show a half-dozen rolls, dripping with butter, and Ten just grinned. "I should have guessed."

They both dug in, and Taeyong started taking notes immediately; Ten watched for a little bit, and occasionally he added a comment - "a little less hollandaise, and maybe a mix of different cheeses" - but most of the time he just ate, savouring the flavours. He might be imagining it, but he would swear that Taeyong's cooking just kept getting better and better every time he came by.

As they were meandering towards the meal's finish, Ten looked up. "So, you like making new recipes. Is that the reason you opened this restaurant? I get why you'd need time to focus, but I'd think that keeping business steady would also be important. I mean... Taeyong, these are the best meals I've ever eaten in my life, and I've had food at plenty of fancy parties and by plenty of gourmet chefs. I don't know how you're not swimming in customers."

The chef looked a little embarrassed at this, and he shrugged faintly. "Honestly, the restaurant is just the means to an end for me. My final goal is to publish a cookbook with all my recipes; creating meals and learning how to combine ingredients is my favourite part of cooking, and I want to share that joy with people, let them learn at home how to do the same thing for their families. The restaurant just gives me a place for inspiration, and to have people try my recipes; after all, I could only push them on my sister so often. Don't get me wrong - I like seeing people enjoy my food, and I respect people who have the goal of making their restaurant successful. I'd just rather cook and write."

Ten laughed. "So throw parties, make people try them there."

Taeyong shrugged at this. "I... have a few friends, but not many. You see that I'm not the most socially-ept person out there. I spend most of my time cooking and writing up recipes."

"Well, either way, I'm glad you did - I mean, we never would have met, and I never would have gotten to eat absolutely amazing food." A smile. "I just don't want you to go out of business because then where would I get my meals? You've ruined me for other restaurants." The silver-haired smiled, but at this, Taeyong looked a little embarrassed.

"Well, I mean... I'd always be glad to cook up something whenever you wanted it, even if the restaurant was gone..."

Ten looked startled but pleased, but before he could say anything, the door opened and a customer came in. Taeyong had finished his meal, anyhow, so he jumped up to seat them; the silver-haired regretted that the moment was gone, but he still felt warm inside.

Is this flirting? This is totally flirting.

Oh my god, we're mutually flirting! Yes!

Not Edited

Saturday, November 23, 2019

I got an 85% on my Calculus Midterm!

I'm so happy!