The bell rang as usual. The annoying groans and sounds of annoyance were heard as usual like every other day. I sighed letting the breath I had been holding for the past minute out, cleaning duty was mine today. I rummaged through the dishes, first choosing the dirtiest ones to soak. Then I put them in the sink, which, by the way was much too small to fit all of them!
I looked up as a door closed and footsteps drew nearer, "Baro!" I called happily! Meet Baro, my best friend. The most well known in the school, he is amazing at making sweets. Best known for how well he makes chocolate. As for me you might be wondering; I'm a nobody. Even with Baro nearby, I never get any attention. Much less critique on my work, although Baro was usually nice enough taste it. His reviews were nice.
"Soo Min, you need just ask for my help." He said to me sweetly. No puns intended! I laughed lazily and continued to work; scrubbing off melted caramel sucks so much. He stepped beside me and slipped the soapy sponge from my hand. "Soo, come on. Move over!" He stuck his hands in the water gathered in a bowl and flicked his fingers at me. Causing egg-y water to splatter all over my apron!
"Baro! I don't need your help I'm fine. Go help some other girl, like that one outside the door." I casually pointed to the door, the small window revealing a girls face. "What? Seriously?" Baro cursed under his breath. I laughed a little and shrugged, "It's okay Baro, you can go. Thank you for the offer though." I smiled at him and ruffled his blonde hair, the water in my fingers making his hair only slightly darker.
He felt his now wet hair and smiled. "If you say so." he said before waving as he left. I watched as he opened the swinging door and left. I looked back to all the dirty dished and sighed, maybe I should have let him wash them anyways.
I walked to my locker for my cookbooks, my sore feet dragging me there. A few people would rush past me and maybe hit my side. I looked up from my feet as someone tapped my shoulder; I looked over my shoulder to see my best friend Maria. She comes from America and is so awesome! "Soo Min! What took you so long? Was Baro holding you up again!?" she asked, she rested her arm over my shoulders as we walked further.
"No, he came in for a few minutes just to offer me some help. I just couldn't get the egg off Lee's whisk." I joked; she laughed at me and stopped. She raised her hand and pointed to my locker. She had to do that often or I wouldn't know we had passed it; I silently thanked her with a nod. I looked at the handle; I was surprised when instead of seeing my lock instead I saw nothing.
I looked to Maria curiously and she shrugged. I opened my locker and only one thing was in my locker, a moldy cookie. People rarely ever played pranks, and when they did it consisted of smudging warm chocolate on someone nose; never something like this.
"Wow, what did you do? Did you get on someone's bad side?" Maria asked in my ear.
I said nothing and stared at the chocolate cookie, where were my cookbooks? Who did this!? I closed my locker and began to walk away; I could always borrow from Maria. But if we didn't hurry we would be late so I quickly whispered into Marias ear, "Speed walk!" she quickly sped her pace and soon enough we made it into the classroom.
As we opened the door everyone looked up from their books and stared at us. Maria giggled and I must have been as red as a tomato because everyone else laughed as well. I noticed Baro's platinum blonde hair instantly, and as if on cue he looked up from his work and smiled at me.
I smiled back like I always did to my friend Baro and walked with Maria to our seats, we moved our seats together which we rarely did. She opened her cookbook and quickly asked someone next to us which page, 186. We opened it to the page and me and Maria looked at each other with grins.
Crepes.
I am totally going to ace this! I looked to Baro who was grinning at me, if anyone knew I was good and liked making crepes, it was Baro. I turned back to the cookbook and read quickly through the list of ingredients and memorized them. Today was Thursday and on Thursday it meant we would have to learn the way to cook it, and then make it, without using your textbooks, and you would be graded on your performance and taste.
It was a good thing crepes are my special skill, "Oy, Maria, could you help me?" I looked up to see the girl we had asked for the page number tugging on Maria's sleeve. Maria looked back to me and gave me the can-I-please-do-it look. I smiled and nodded. Now I was partner less and our teacher always docked points on that.
I looked back to the book as Maria took a seat next to the other girl, leaving me to her book. I didn't even notice when someone sat next to me until they tapped on the edge of the page, I looked to Maria's old seat and saw Baro grinning at me. I could hear the other girls in the room whine and kick their desk legs.
"I didn't have a partner either." He whispered, even though I saw a friend of his sitting right next to him. His friend, who was it? Oh, right, Gongchan. Baro's best friend Gongchan, an adorable nice guy! Also very popular here, best known for his amazing taffies. I moved the book closer to Baro, "I already know it all." I told him with a smile. "Me too." He said quickly.
I normally did all this with Maria so with Baro it might be a little out of pace, not so much as to give us a failing grade. It would probably just be different. Me and Baro waited patiently for our teacher, who seemed to be rather late today. I messed with the hem of my shirt and wasn't paying attention, Baro suddenly whispered, "I can handle the ingredients if you want to make them." I turned to look at him.
His perfect white pearly teeth shined at me, I could smell the mint in his breath. I couldn't help but blush, Baro is my friend, why am I getting so worked up? Just then the kitchen classroom door swung open and the usual clacking sound that our teacher's heels made could be heard.
Baro straightened up and smiled at me again before we both stopped looking at each other. I smiled at the mere fact that he trusted me with the crepes. Our teacher quickly made me snap out of my thoughts when she called all the 'Teams' or 'pairing partners' to stand. We both walked to the first baking station and he was in the perfect position to pounce on the flour as soon as the timer started.
"3, 2, 1! Start!" our teacher called before clapping her hands together and we began.
Baro grabbed the bag of flour, sugar and milk in record time. I couldn't help but wonder if that was why Baro and Gongchan always win, I normally came in second. I started to mix the dry ingredients together and after that was done I measured out the milk. Baro was heating up the pan as I worked. I worked the milk and water along with the butter the recipe called for together.
Finally the batter was done, and I quickly told Baro who said the pan was ready. I grabbed a ladle because that always seemed to work batter than a spoon or something. I poured the first circle into the pan, 'Wait 13 seconds then flip.' I mentally told myself.
"Um, Baro- could you make some kind of fruit to go in-between the crepes?" I asked, but Baro was already slicing strawberries and blueberries. He put them in a pot and stirred them under heat, they slowly become a pretty purple color and his sauce was done.
I handed him the second crepe and he put the first one down on a pretty round plate with a simple design on the edge. He poured a small amount of the sauce onto it and spread it around, I couldn't help but watch. Even though I needed to make sure I didn't burn anything. We still had 20 minutes so he took his time, his hands skillfully working the sauce onto the crepe with such grace it was hard not to look.
Slowly, we were done. He poured the last bit of sauce on the 15th crepe and added some grated white chocolate onto the top, his trademark. "Done!" We said in unison! Our teacher clapped and smiled at us, "They win points for how little time it took them to make it!" She said happily.
I looked to Baro who had his back to me, we both waited patiently for everyone else to finish their dishes. I sighed in relief when everyone declared done at once! Baro turned around and frowned, which was rare- he only ever smiled. He walked closer to me and pouted; he stuck out his finger and wiped something off my face. He wiped it off onto his apron. "You had something right there." He stuck his finger onto my cheek and didn't move it. But then his smile returned so I smiled back.
"Baro and Soo first." Our teacher called.
Me and Baro grabbed both sides of the plate and carried it over to her desk; we bowed and went back to our seats. As I sunk into my seat I realized how hungry making that made me and my stomach growled. I covered my stomach with my hand and blushed when I heard Baro chuckle under his breath.
I watched in awe as she cut a small piece out the stack and put it into her mouth, her face visibly brightened. I felt a surge of happiness when she wrote down 10 on the piece of paper for grading. I looked to Baro who was grinning, "Thank you Baro." I said in a whisper.
He looked at me and said, "It's no problem Soo, kay'?" I nodded.
What felt likes hours later our teacher finally finished everyone else's dishes and me and Baro were declared the best!
"You know, I saw you gushing over him. It's obvious you like him." I looked up from my book and looked across the room to my dorm-mate. "What? Who?" I asked astounded. I wasn't even paying attention, who did I like?
I watched as she came to sit on the other twin sized bed in the room, "You know Soo, Baro was helping you today. You're lucky Maria left." My friend Eun Mi told me. I couldn't help but laugh, she thought I liked Baro! Sure, he was a sweet heart and is pretty cute… He's my friend and I like him just as that.
"Eun Mi, I do not like Baro. He is a good friend of mine, and just that." I smiled at her and she sighed. I turned back to my book and continued to read. I could hear her whine, "Soo… come on. I'm thirsty lets go get water." I heard her say; I listened as they bed creaked as she came to a stand.
She walked over to me and I kept my eyes on my pages. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me, "Soo Min! Stop ignoring me, or I'll tell CNU that you liked him!" I shot a look at her, note to self; never tell her anything again. "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, but I would!" She taunted an evil smirk on her face.
"Alright! Fine, we'll get your precious water." I said and grabbed my bookmark from my bedside table and threw my feet over the side of my bed and slipped into my slippers. I followed her out our dorm door and we walked down the hall.
There were still people awake judging by all the voices and talking you could hear, it wasn't against the rules luckily. I walked behind Eun and we finally reached the kitchen that had the water in it and opened the door. "Oh my god!" We shot our heads up from our feet and saw Baro, Gongchan, Sanduel as well as Jinyoung and CNU. They all had water in their hand and obviously weren't expecting guests.
Eun Mi bowed and I bowed quickly too, "Sorry, we'll go now. Sorry we disturbed you!" Eun Mi said quickly, she always seemed so afraid of them. I looked to Baro who was sucking from a straw and looked quite drowsy.
"Oh no! You guys can stay; it's just so late we didn't think anyone else was up." CNU said smiling.
I smiled at him and looked to Eun who was just staring at Gongchan. Maybe she liked him! "Actually, could you guys take care of Eun? I want to sleep and she needs water." I probably looked like an idiot trying to hide the massive grin I had on my face.
Suddenly, Gongchan hopped off one of the tables and walked over to us and grabbed Eun Mi's hand led her to the back of the kitchen for water. "Well thank you all!" I bowed and turned to leave when Baro spoke up, "I can take you back."
"Oh no- that won't be needed. Thanks for the offer Baro though." I said, but as I started to walk away he grabbed my wrist.
"Let me, you didn't let me wash the dishes. Now come." Baro said, he didn't even smile like he always did. I nodded weakly and let him lead me out of the kitchen; my feet dragged behind me as he walked very fast.
In only a matter of time we reached my dorm room and he stopped. "Thanks." I managed to say. "It's no problem, I'll have CNU or Gongchan take her back. Good night Soo Min." I waved as he walked away and entered our room.
I let out a small sigh and climbed into bed and flicked the light off. Baro is so nice.
