HEAT • Chanrosé

six

"After weeks, you think this is good enough to bring to me?"

The kitchen downcast their eyes to the ground as he yelled, his voice was horse and huskier than normal. It had been a bad night. His bellow bounced off the walls, seemingly louder with each echo. Junhoe had given Chanyeol undercooked scallops.

Their Head Chef had fire, a raging flame, in his eyes as he stepped to Junhoe, "Would you eat that?"

"No, chef."

The plate landed on the table with a harsh break, Chanyeol's loaded look never moving from Junhoe's face.

"I might as well serve your head between two slices of fucking bread, I bet an idiot sandwich would be much better meal than that shit you just gave me." His finger dug into Junhoe's chest, the harsh tone of Chanyeol's voice digging just as deep. "Do better."

Junhoe cleared his throat and looked down to the finger placed against his sternum. "Uh, yes chef."

Chaeyoung eyed her suddenly quiet and well-mannered friend, completely unlike the normal him as he made his way back to his station. The past couple days hadn't been nearly this bad. In fact, she felt like things were standing to get into a rhythm. A strict, uptight and slightly uncomfortable rhythm but still. It was better than Chanyeol sending back everything they made, she still couldn't get over his compliment from a couple days ago.

She also had just barely comprehended that she now lived with him. In the same apartment.

When Chanyeol offered at first, Chaeyoung thought he had been joking. She stared at him, waiting for him to start laughing at his not so funny joke but he never did. His face stayed serious, glancing back and forth from her to the inside of his apartment, raising his eyebrows in the most smug way.

He explained that it was Junmyeon's old place before he had moved into a place with his girlfriend, and since he has asked Chanyeol to take over, Junmyeon let him take the place over. It was clean, more clean than she expected and much nicer than most of the apartments she had looked at, or even lived it. The kitchen was packed full with counter-space, a restaurant grade stove and large refrigerator. A chef's dream.

The bedroom he was offered was just down the hall from his, smaller than the master obviously. Though they would share a bathroom, hopefully he wouldn't mind finding her red hair everywhere. She decided not to mention that small detail, worried it might make Chanyeol retract his kindness. Chaeyoung had kept her poker face on while touring the place, even though her decision had been made the second she walked through the door. Her jaw about dropped as he told her how much he would charge her for rent, or really how little.

"That's extremely cheap..." Chaeyoung squinted at him suspiciously. "There must be a catch." She crossed her arms and rose a sharp brow, waiting for something dirty to come from his lips.

He shook his head firmly and only once, "No catch, money isn't a problem for me." She had forgotten that he had food fame from all the spots he had done on TV shows.

Her stuff had been moved in that same night, with the small help of the other boys, Jungkook being the only one to vocally disapprove. He pulled her aside by the elbow and hushed his worries, that she would be mistreated or 'sexually harassed'  because Chanyeol was a man and she was a woman, living underneath the same roof--that's how he had worded it. Chaeyoung couldn't roll her eyes hard enough, someone needed to take this boys innocence away.

Nothing worried her about this situation, living with Chanyeol. Especially as the first couple days passed. He was barely home but she never knew where he took off to other than the restaurant. After work, she would typically do something with the boys or spend an hour or two talking and smoking with them in the alley, where as Chanyeol would spend his time on the roof or back in the apartment.