Mystic Radio Ep. 5: Cupcakes and Dresses
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MC POV
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"I should teach you to bake." Jaehee chimes.
"What?" I ask.
"It occurred to me, while you can cook well, you might not be able to bake well." Jaehee says thoughtfully.
"That's true." I agree.
Jaehee springs up from the couch. "It's settled then! Besides, you'll need to know how to bake when we open the shop.".
"Its only been a month since we moved in Jaehee. I doubt we'll open any time soon." I say.
"Well the appliances we ordered should be here in about two weeks. We should prepare as much as possible till then." she notes. "Lets get started! I'm assuming you know enough to not burn down the building." she teases.
I laugh a bit, "Bold of you to assume I'm capable of not setting fire to the whole place." I remark making her laugh a little as well. I know how to bake just fine. I'm pretty good at it actually, but she's so excited I decide to entertain her and agree, saying "But yeah, you're right. I know the basics but you can teach me some tips and tricks.".
"Well, what should we make then?". She starts pacing the floor mumbling different desserts to herself.
"I invited Yoosung over, to show him one of my new games, so how about chocolate? Maybe some cupcakes? Then he can taste test."
Her face lights up at the suggestion. "I actually know a really good recipe for that! We should have everything." She flies into the kitchen and I follow with a chuckle. "Ok, we're going to need two eggs, some flour-".
She continues listing ingredients and we both scurry to get everything together.
"Here," I hand Jaehee her pink apron, "If we're going to bake, we should put these on.", holding up my own black one.
She puts hers on and skillfully ties the knot in the back with such fluid movements, you can tell she's done it a lot. "MC, do you need help tying yours? It can be a bit tricky getting the bow right when you cant see what you're doing." she laughs.
"You don't have to, but that would help.".
She moves behind me and bends over slightly as her slender fingers tie my apron. I turn around as when she stands back up, our faces a bit close for comfort.
I turn my head to the side, "Anyways... What do I need to do?".
"Ah that's right!".
She hands me a large bowl and has me prepare the dry ingredients while she mixes together the wet.
"Remember to make sure there aren't any flour clumps." she tells me.
"Got it." I say while mixing the bowl. After triple-checking, I inform her "I think we're good. I didn't find any lumps.".
She brings over her own mixture of eggs and buttermilk and such, and pours it into my bowl.
"You want to mix it until it becomes a thick liquid, try not to overdo it or the cupcakes will come out too dense.". She then moves to prepare the muffin-pan.
"So how many is this going to make?" I ask.
She turns her head to me before turning away again. "It should make a little less than two dozen I think.".
We put the cupcakes in, with many reminders to only fill the cups halfway, and set a timer for twenty minutes and start to clean up.
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Jaehee POV
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As I'm wiping down the counter, I spot a bit of flour we had dropped and a mischievous idea comes to mind.
"Hey, MC?"
She turns to me, "Yeah? Wha-"
I flick the flour towards her playfully. "What kind of baker isn't covered in flour?"
She waves away the flour cloud laughing. "This is payback for the paint, huh?".
"Yep!" I say with a giggle.
"You know as well as I do that I can't let you get away with this scott-free, right?". She pinches up some flour and holds up her hand, daring me to move.
"...Yep." I reply as she takes her flour and quickly draws a little flower.
"It's a flour flower!" She exclaims with glee. "Here, hold still one second.". I laugh as she marks 'MC' on my apron. "There, I've marked my property.". Her eyes widen and she quickly says "The artwork, I've signed my name on my flour flower artwork!", her cheeks slightly reddening.
Her statement surprises me and my eyes widen a little. "Um.." unsure of what to say, "It's a very nice signature.".
"Yeah.". We stand in uncomfortable silence for a moment. MC finally breaks the silence saying, "We should finish cleaning, huh?".
"That would be a good idea. We made a big mess." I laugh slightly.
"Hey!" she smiles, making my heart skip. "You started it!".
It's so easy to relax around MC. This is nice, just her and I talking, not worrying about anything and just enjoying each others company. I hope it can stay like this.
"Ok, while the cupcakes are baking, we should whip up the icing.".
"Aye aye captain." she says with a cheerful salute.
"Pfft." I snort at her. "Dork.".
The cupcakes finish and MC gets them out with a flourish.
"Wow!", she exclaims. "These smell really good!".
I can't help but grin at her excitement. "Alright, lets let these cool off then we'll put icing on.".
There's a chime that confuses me until I remember Luciel put in a doorbell that sounds directly upstairs.
"That must be Yoosung.". She takes of her apron and goes down to greet him.
After a little while, they come up the stairs joking and laughing.
"Just my luck, this guy was a total noob. He even forgot his heal pods*!" Yoosung says, using his arms to make his point.
MC chuckles, saying "That's what happens when you play with randoms." .
"Oh hey Jaehee! So that's what smells so good! I mean, I thought I saw flour on MC's shirt but wasn't sure, It didn't even occur that you were baking.". He comes over to the counter and sits on one of the bar stools, leaning over and looking at the mini chocolate cakes we made. "Did MC teach you? She's really good at it! She helped me make cookies for a club meet one time.".
"You know how to bake?" I ask, feeling kinda betrayed.
"Technically I never said I didn't. I just wanted to spend time with you-".
"I would have baked with you had you asked." I interrupt. It isn't what she lied about, but that she lied. I take a deep breath, knowing I'm just overreacting, but for some reason it really bothers me.
"I'm sorry Jaehee." she says. It still stings a little, but I know she wouldn't hurt me on purpose.
"It's ok, I shouldn't have snapped. Lets ice these cupcakes." I say, a little less enthusiasm in my voice than before.
Yoosung looks cautiously between us. "Alright... Sorry I brought it up...", after a short pause, "Can I help too?".
"Sure." I quickly respond. "The more help the better, right MC?".
"Uh," She seems a bit thrown off but soon recovers. "Yeah, why not.".
I get out the bowl of icing and we start working. Finishing quickly, I realize we have a good bit of extra icing.
"This seems like a big batch of icing for just two dozen cupcakes." Yoosung points out.
"True." I agree. "The icing recipe makes enough for two dozen but we only made eight-teen cupcakes.".
"Maybe we can just pile the icing up higher on the cupcakes? Like they do on those cooking shows.".
"So, what I'm hearing is..." he gets a spoon out. "Nothing is stopping me from doing this?" he says as he scoops up some of the icing and puts the spoonful in his mouth laughing.
"Yoosung!" MC giggles, "Dude, that is way too much sugar for one person!". She dips her finger in the icing. "Let me have some too.".
The two start giggling as they eat more.
"Jaehee! You should try some too." Yoosung says. "It's really good.".
MC gets a spoon and holds it out to me. "Why not." I say as I take it, our fingers grazing slightly making her eyes widen. I sample a small spoonful of the chocolate icing, the flavors coating my tongue. I let out a hum of contentedness at our creation.
"Well? How'd we do?" MC asks.
A smile tugs at my mouth at how excited she is for my answer. "It turned out really good.".
She lets out a happy cheer. "We're gonna make a great cafe!".
I can't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, we make a good team." I say with a smile.
"Alright," Yoosung interjects, "now that the cupcakes are done, MC, are you going to show me Crimson Deadly Redemption 2?".
"Oh yeah!" MC chimes. "It isn't out on PC and Yoosung doesn't have a console." she explains to me, though, I don't really understand the difference. "Want to watch?".
"Sure, why not.". Maybe then all this gaming talk will make some sense and I can add to the conversation.
The two talk excitedly as MC sets up her system, Yoosung asking questions about game-play occasionally.
"What a couple of geeks." I laugh under my breath, shaking my head as I go to take a seat on the couch.
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MC POV: A Few Days Later.
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Jaehee insisted we go look for some uniforms to wear for the grand opening of the shop. We still have a lot of work left, but she's been giddy at its upcoming arrival.
"Are we going to be wearing these everyday?" I ask, sifting through racks of various clothes. "They have everything from dresses to women's business suits.", though I suppose Jaehee will be steering away from those.
"We don't have to. I just thought it would be nice to dress up for special occasions at least." she says, looking between two of the more casual outfits. "I figured as far as day-to-day stuff goes, we would just wear aprons over our normal clothes.".
"You must be excited for the opening huh?". I see, that's why she wanted to get something. Maybe not for the sake of dressing up for the opening, but because we're currently at a standstill until the stuff we ordered comes in. This is her only way of feeling productive. I chuckle at the thought.
She replies, a puzzled look on her face, "Yes I am excited. Why are you laughing though?".
"Nothing." I say, giving my most innocent grin.
"Alright then." she says, rolling her eyes playfully. After a minute, I hear her gasp at a discovery. "MC, this would be great, don't you think?". She holds up an older styled black dress that goes past her knees with a white frilly collar.
"It's beautiful. I bet it would look really nice on you." I say with a smile.
"Thank you! I'll go try it on." she says with a grin.
I can't help but sigh. 'I'm so close yet so far.', I shake my head. 'Even if she knew my feelings, would she even accept them?'.
She comes out of the dressing room and I have to focus all I can to not let my jaw drop. Although it's old fashion styled, it fits her perfectly wrapping around every curve without being too tight. She looks really, really pretty, taking all my concentration not to stare. Despite my efforts, my face must have given me away.
"MC, is something wrong? Does it not fit right?" she asks, a bit of worry in her eyes.
"It's-", I pause at a loss of words. "Beautiful.".
"It is a nice dress isn-"
"Not the dress. Well, yes and no.", in utter amazement, I can't seem to stop the words from flowing out. "The dress Is beautiful but what I was talking about is you. You look amazing in it Jaehee.".
She lets out a surprised "Oh!" as I bury my face in the nearby clothing rack. "I'm... Gonna go change back." she tells me.
She comes back shortly, finding that my face is still buried in the row of clothes. I do a quick scan and find something that looks nice and start taking it to the dressing room.
I throw "I think I found something." over my shoulder as I all but dash to the room.
I immediately sit down on the bench inside and take some deep breaths, trying to calm my nerves. I drop my head into my hands, muffling my voice as I say "I have to stop slipping up.".
I really need to get a grip.
Once I recollect myself, I take a better look at the dress I picked out. It's a knee high blue dress with a white collar and poofy sleeves. It's prettier now that I'm thoroughly looking at it. I undress and put it on, but the zipper gets stuck.
"Dammit." I mutter. Despite my best efforts, I can't get it past halfway up my back.
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Jaehee POV
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MC hurriedly goes into the dressing room, clearly flustered. I can't blame her, that flustered me as well. I don't know if I'll ever get used to her compliments, but at the same time, it feels nice, despite the embarrassment.
I chuckle, 'She's so nice to the point it's embarrassing.'.
The whole situation reminding me of the conversation I had a few days ago with Yoosung when MC had gone out to get snacks.
Yoosung lounges on the couch, "MC is really great isn't she." he says in a very serious tone.
The abruptness throwing me off, "What?".
He laughs a little, "I'm just thinking out loud. But seriously, I'm glad she joined the RFA.". He sits upright, straitening his back, "Our lives would be totally different. College is boring but now we get together and talk online so it isn't so bad.".
"Do you..?"
"Do I...? Oh! Do I like her?". I nod my head. "No! That's not what this is at all.", he waves dismissively, almost startled at the question. His serious tone coming back, "She's just a really nice person, although I guess you know that already.".
For some reason, I get a slight sense of relief upon hearing that. "Yeah, she really is." I agree.
"I don't really know what would have happened if she never came along.*" he says, a bit of sadness in his eyes. He soon regains his composure and nervously laughs it off saying "It's a bit hard to imagine now, isn't it?".
He's right about one thing, I can't imagine what my life would be like right now if I never met her. I'd probably still be working with Jumin, cleaning up cat hair, drinking alarming amounts of coffee, and without much of a goal.
"It's true," I agree, "she's really amazing.", a smile creeping on my face.
I come back to reality and realize it's actually been a while since MC went into the room. I go up to the stall and knock on the door.
"MC?".
I hear some shuffling, "Sorry Jaehee! The zipper is stuck halfway but I should be able to get it in a minute.".
"Alright.". I sit on the outer bench to wait for her to get out.
After some more shuffling and what sounds like MC slumping onto the bench in defeat, I hear a low "Jaehee..?".
"Yes MC?".
"It's really stuck and I can't move it all now.". There's a pause, "Can you see if you can fix it?".
My mind draws a blank, "...Sure." I hesitantly reply. Why am I suddenly nervous? MC opens the door and shuts it behind me, locking us into the already tight space.
She turns around and moves her hair out of the way so I can see. "Thank you Jaehee.".
"It's no problem.". My eyes glued to the small part of her back. I blink a few times, bringing my concentration back. 'What was that about?'. I take a closer look at the zipper and soon find the problem. "There's a thread stuck in the zipper, hold still while I get it out.".
I lean in and grab the zipper, trying to carefully wiggle out the thread and get it out without tearing it. I laser in on the thread, trying to ignore MC's bare back. Once I've almost gotten it out, my fingers lightly brush up against her back, making her sharply breathe in and shiver slightly. Does she not like people touching her unexpectedly? I'm sure this is very awkward for the both of us.
"Sorry." I manage out.
Her voice comes out low and slow, "It's ok, just... Unexpected, that's all.".
After a bit more fiddling and face reddening, I manage to get the zipper fixed. "Ta da! I fix it!".
She turns around with a smile playing at her lips, "Was that... A My Big Plump Greek Wedding* reference?".
"Maybe." I say with a smirk, causing her eyebrow to arch up. "The dress looks really nice by the way.".
Her face flushes, "Thank you." she says quietly.
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After a bit more shopping around, we buy the dresses and head back home.
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Chapter 5. End.
AN: Sorry this took longer than normal! I had a week long camp and was unable to get it done during the week, due to this my other projects have also piled up but I'll try my best to get back to a regular upload schedule!
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*Heal pods is short for healing potions. Us gamers are weird, I know.
*Fun fact: It has been confirmed by Cheritz, if MC had never come along, Yoosung would have committed suicide due to depression.
*My Big Fat Greek Wedding, great movie.
The spaceship's sensors have caught the RFA members meaningless thoughts...
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Jumin: "I wonder if anyone has come up with yoga for cats yet. Elizabeth the third seems very stressed lately."
Jaehee: "Why is my mind thinking of such weird thoughts? Why am I being so weird recently?"
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Thank you for reading this chapter of Mystic Radio! If you liked it, make sure to leave a like and subscribe so you know when the next update is! Now, go enjoy some Honey Buddha chips, and I'll see you next chapter! ~Des
