Can I help you?

Chapter 9

Sarah walks to the kitchen. She opens the fridge and sees a few ingredients that are close to their end. She grabs them and places them on the table, she checks the fridge again and when she closes the door, Jin is standing right there next to her. "Are you going to cook something?" Sarah's eyes are drawn to his plump lips and remembers everything again. She is feeling turned on again by the memories and blushes. If he would love me, I don't doubt I would love to be taken by him right here, on the kitchen island... That would be so hot! But he isn't... in love... It was just a mistake. With this sad thought she diffuses all the other thoughts. "Yes, I am actually a good cook. Give me random ingredients and I can make a feast." Jin brings his hand to his mouth and looks judgemental at her. "Hmmm I am a kitchen wizard myself too. I take you on this challenge." He smiles handsomely. No use in overthinking things. Let's just do all the other things I dreamed of doing with my bias. "Sure. What does the winner get? Or do we work with penalty?" Sarah grins at being able to play like this with him. Jin smirks. She is quite the interesting woman... I like her sense of competition... "Both. Winner gets to ask something from the loser, and the Winner can give a penalty to the loser. Deal?" He reaches out his hand to her. "Deal!" Sarah quickly starts cutting vegetables. Not paying attention to Jin at all, she is just focusing on cooking something edible. Jin looks at her. Her skillful fingers are quickly cutting everything. She is super talented indeed. RM has a good eye. He then looks at her low cut dress, showing a beautiful view. He remembers the softness of that skin, the milky white skin. How his lips...

"Ouch!" Sarah looks up at Jin. She sees he has cut himself while cutting. She runs towards him and pulls him to the sink and lets the water run over the cut. She is focused on the cut. Being this close to her he is looking at the profile of her face. The cute nose, the western look. He softly strokes a lock of her hair behind her ear. Sarah slowly looks up and sees his gaze. "You'll be fine, it's not that deep." She tries to ignore the look he has in his eyes. "Where is the first aid kit?" She asks while she is already looking in the cabinets. "on the top shelf, at your left." She reaches it easily, being not that small. Jin looks at how she reaches out and every move she makes seems so graceful. He walks towards her and reaches with her, placing one hand on her hip. Sarah looks on her side to him, and he smiles his handsome smile. She retracts her arm without actually taking the kit. He pulls it out and places it on the counter. She can feel her heart beating violently. Seeing that wide chest next to her, those shoulders she held while she... Hang in there Sarah. She looks at the kit and opens it to find the right material. She is taking care of the cut when he suddenly asks her. "That night... " With no place to run away to or escape, Sarah freezes mid sticking the band-aid. She is not making any eye contact and keeps looking at the wound. "What night?" "That night I was drunk. Did I do something to you?" Sarah tries to hide the slight tremble in her hand. "N-not really..." He shouldn't worry about it. He will feel bad... I should settle down his heart. To protect him. "I could have sworn I kissed you. And that we did more." Otherwise I did it with Hoseok. I rather have done it with a woman. "To be honest, I don't remember anything either." That's a big lie. And you know it, Sarah. Sarah scolds herself in her mind but can't stop it. "I think I might remember you leaning onto me while I tried to go away. But I left." Jin's face is in a grimas. So it was Hoseok after all?

Sarah moves up and away from him. He reaches out to her wrist. Sarah has a flashback at the hotel room. Why don't I want her to leave? Sarah turns slowly around and sees the confusion on his face. "C-can't you stay?" Sarah can feel her her heart stopping at these words. She places her hand on his and smiles. "I am not leaving the kitchen..." Jin's eyes grow wide. This is what I remember... He nears Sarah and she backs away, he chases her all the way till her back hits the fridge. He holds up her hand, still holding her wrist. And then this? Jin is trying to remember by doing exactly what he remembers. He leans forward to her. Sarah is not breathing anymore. Does he remember everything? She can already feel his breath on her face and she has her eyes wide open in fear and shock. Did I kiss her? He stops right in front of her lips and opens his eyes, to look into hers directly.

"Did you start cooking already, hyung?" Jhope asks while coming into the kitchen. He looks up and sees that Jin is looking in the fridge, and Sarah is leaning against the counter next to the fridge. He can feel that the atmosphere is a bit stuffy. He walks in and opens the window. "Are you cooking too, Sarah?" He looks at Jin, who has red ears, and then at Sarah, who seems paler than usual and nervous. What happened here? Sarah decides to continue her cooking, just like Jin. Jhope looks strange at both of them, working in silence. "Can I help you?" He asks at Sarah. She looks up and smiles a wide smile. "No, this is a competition between me and Jin." A competition? He looks at Jin, who is not looking up. After what we did to her, you are getting into competition? He frowns. "Well, I look forward to the results. With both of your confidence, it must be something 4 star restaurant worthy. Fighting!" He walks out of the kitchen, not sure why opening the window didn't get the stuffy air out.

At the table, everyone comes to sit and eat. The table has amazing dishes on it and everyone is looking at the feast. Sarah is glowing in confidence. She has produced amazing western food. Jin on the other hand, still holding onto his chopsticks is smiling wide at all the korean food. Both are wearing aprons and are back to back looking at the table. Softly panting and sweating. Everyone starts to eat. Sarah and Jin exchange looks and dig in too. At the end of the meal, it is time to vote. "All who think Sarah has won, raise your hand." Some BTS members look a bit hesitant, not wanting to be rude to their hyung. Jin notices and smiles. "Don't worry, you can be honest." He shows himself chivalrous. They look apologetic and only Jhope raises his arm. The 3 friends do too. "5 people for Sarah. The rest for me. I win." Jin smirks and glows. "If I can say, Sarah did an amazing job, but I am more for a Korean flavour." RM apologises. "I win. You owe me something and I can give you a penalty." Sarah, having seen her fair share of Run BTS, nods and admits defeat. "HHHmmmmm I will think about your penalty. For now, I'll just receive a price." Sarah asks for a piece of paper. She starts to scribble something. "I'll give you my time. This is a coupon good for an hour of my time. You can ask me to clean your room, do your laundry... whatever." She officially hands it to Jin.

In the evening the 4 are in their room, too shy to spend any more time with BTS. Sarah is on her bed, holding the pillow, thinking about what happened in the kitchen. The other 3 are talking about everything they did. "What about you, Sarah?" Sarah looks up. "Eh? I...I just cooked, nothing special happened." Mary tells them that she was invited by Suga in the studio. He showed her his materials. Doenja softly moans. "I want in too..." Emma just goes on and on about how she and RM exchanged their favorite places in the world. Doenja just hung out in her room. "I'll go for a shower." Sarah gets up and walks to the bathroom; She is absent minded and closes the door, but still used to when she lived with her friends. So she didn't lock it. She undresses and gets in the shower. She is thinking about how Jin held her close and how he almost kissed her. She gets alerted by the sudden cold.