//
"Morning, Sleeping beauty!"
Jisoo chirped in as she saw Yixing stirred on the couch. He looked a bit disoriented as he looked around like trying to recognize his surroundings, then he sat up and wiped his face lethargically. Jisoo poured some warm water and walked up to the couch,
"I'm overslept," he said in his hoarse voice.
"You are. Here, take this." she handed him the cup of the warm water so he could drink it, which he did.
He cleared his throat, still looked clueless about the situation. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment of silence.
"It's fine. You looked so tired so I didn't wake you up." Jisoo took the cup back from him and walked back to the kitchen. She couldn't hold back her smile seeing how lost Yixing looked, he probably didn't plan to a sleepover and somewhat this seemed to upset him. 
"I got a spare toothbrush for you and a towel if you want to clean up." she told him, "And I think I have Sehun's clothes here if you want something to change."
"Uh, that's fine. I think I have some change of clothes in my car." 
While she was making the pancake batter, she watched him folding up the blanket and sitting forward while resting his elbows on his thigh, as if loading his consciousness to action mode.
He rose about a minute later to get out of the house and back not long after that with a small duffle bag,
"My gym equipment," he explained as he caught the questioning look in her eyes as to why he would bring around some spare clothes in his car.
Jisoo raised her brow, then she told him where the bathroom was which he immediately headed in. She started to cook the pancake.
Yixing joined her again about fifteen minutes later. She was serving the pancake on the table when he pulled a chair for himself. He looked much fresher than before in his white T-shirt and the Supreme sweatpants, Jisoo was not really sure whether it was the one they bought together the other day. He sniffed a little and wiped his nose with a tissue and sipped on the hot ginger honey tea that Jisoo made for him.
"Sorry, I don't really cook. But I hope it makes a proper breakfast," she told him about the pancake while serving the maple syrup on the table. It's not like she couldn't really cook at all, she meant it like, she thought she could make an edible pancake. But she indeed only could make simple dishes since it's always for herself, and she never really tried to cook something more complicated than spicy soft tofu stew, so, well...
"Pancake is more than proper. It's a feast for me." Yixing simply laughed, "I never really have a big breakfast myself, except when my mother is around."
"What do you always have for breakfast?" Jisoo asked she watched him plated some layers of pancake for her first before he served one for himself. She remembered that time when he did a similar thing for his mother at the Chuseok dinner, and it made her think that Yixing was probably used to do this rule of order. That's impressive.
"Cereal or toast. Or any leftover from what my maid cooked for the day before."
So he had a maid, well of course he did. She didn't think that he would have any time left to do some house chores with that habit of his, the maid was indeed the only reason how he could live like a civil human by keeping the house, and the clothes, clean.
"My maid is that type who would grumble when there's no chore to do. So, it's fine if you don't cook. Let her do the job."
Jisoo didn't hold back her smile as she saw him did the same, he talked about the future again. That's so sweet. They let the silence engulf them for some good moments to enjoy their pancakes. She put some topping choices on the table, including the whipped cream and chocolate ice cream and some berries. And Yixing looked happy that he was able to try all the topping choices since Jisoo made quite a lot for them both.
They then talked about his schedule which was quite hectic for the upcoming two weeks. He asked if she had some plan outside the house today, which Jisoo replied with a shake of her head. She planned to do the laundry and did some clean up with the house since she had been putting it off for three weeks already, including her absence to the States, that, except Yixing had another plan to ask her for a date out since it's Saturday. But apparently he wanted to have some rest and he asked if he could stay the day instead because he was too lazy to drive home. He had to fly to Shanghai again tomorrow night, so he told her that he wanted to spend more time with her if she's okay with that.
And she didn't mind. It's nice to have a company on the weekend anyway.
"Let me wash the dishes." he prompted when they finished all the pancakes.
"Uh-uh, no. You sit back, I'll do it myself." she started to clean the table, but Yixing took the dirty plates from her, insisting.
"You feed me breakfast, so it's only fair if I do the dishes. It's not like I'm a guest here anyway." he pushed her away with his hip and made his way to the sink. And that just told her that it was undebatable, so she went to wipe the table and put the topping bottles and cups back into the fridge. As she closed the fridge door, she made time to stay there and watched him busying himself with the dishes while humming softly.
There'd never been even once in her mind the thought that she would witness something like this before her eyes. She was watching Yixing's back, washing the dishes in her house, and it looked so dreamy. She had had those imaginations about her future with him, she saw him doing many things in there, but this was not one of them. 
It's not a bad thing, she loved it instead. She liked what she was witnessing right now, the back view of him, that broad shoulders that he had, the way he enjoyed his chore, and the idea of him doing this itself, it's just too⁠—it's just too hard to believe that they were in this stage where they would help each other doing the housework already. The pace was slightly too fast, but she didn't hate it.
"It's rude to stare." Yixing commented as he probably caught her idleness behind his back, and it snapped Jisoo from her small reverie. A bit blushed, she walked up to fish out a cloth to wipe the wet plates and stood next to him.
"You have a nice back view, I can't help it," she said just to save her face. Sometimes being shameless just helped her a lot saving her from embarrassment, at least he wouldn't tease her for the prominent blush on her cheeks.
Yixing just laughed inaudibly but said nothing. "Let me do that. You go do something else." he took the cloth from her, as he finished washing and started to wipe the wet plates and put them in the drawer.
"Then I'll just go wash up." she said then, which Yixing responded with a short 'okay'. "Anyway, I'm going to do the laundry for the sheets and blankets and everything else. Can you help me take down the curtains after you do this?" 
"Sure. Anything else?" 
"Yeah, please don't fall asleep while you're at it." she teased.
And Yixing smiled sheepishly, which looked so cute that Jisoo really wanted to pinch his cheek. "Yes, Ma'am," he said with a salute, and Jisoo couldn't stop her hand to really pinch him on his cheek before she spun around and left behind her bedroom door. 
She didn't take much time to take a shower. When she's done, she took her time to do her morning skincare routine. Because she initially had dry skin, and her long haul flight was kind of making it a bit worse, she applied more layers of moisturizing products to her whole body. Yixing knocked on her door when she was drying her hair, letting her know that he had taken down all the curtains and asked if there's anything else he could do to help. Jisoo told him to put the curtains into the giant bag from the laundry room, she didn't hear him anymore after that.
Jisoo took out her oversized Monki sweater from the closet drawer and put it on top of her black tank top with a denim short. She then put her hair up on a bun style and took the blanket from her bed to put on the laundry pile.
Yixing was lying on his stomach on the couch while reading the second book of the 1Q84 when Jisoo emerged from her bedroom. She glanced sideways to look at him and caught him doing a double-take on her.
"What?" she asked him in confusion, as he tilted his head as if he was peeking on something under her sweater.
"You wear something under that, don't you?" he pointed on her leg, the face was stoic.
A bit dumbfounded, Jisoo pulled up her sweater to show him her short, which was overdrowned by the oversized sweater. It's that when he put his hand on his chest, like he was relieved or something, Jisoo finally got what he meant by his previous question. And she chuckled,
"What were you thinking?" she probed him.
"You keep wearing revealing clothes in front of me, Baobei, I might have a nose bleed one of these days."
Jisoo burst into laughter, seeing how ridiculous this was. She were not even aware if what she wore was counted as revealing, it's not like she ever showed him her private parts or something, because all this time she always wore what was comfortable for her. 
"Well, your mind is just too filthy, you can't blame me." she retorted.
"Haven't you heard about this?" Yixing pulled up his back and sat on the couch, "Like a fisherman putting bait onto a hook, your brain puts worms of thought onto the hook and goes fishing for your attention." he then said. Jisoo tilted her head as she was trying to apprehend what he was saying, there again the metaphors. He always hooked her into thinking mode again.
"So, you're saying that I'm the fisherman?" she asked.
"You're the worms. I simply go fishing, you know." 
Jisoo scoffed, she almost threw him the blanket in her arm if she didn't remember that it would take time to fold it. She would probably have to get used to him calling her things. He called her stupid the other day, and now it's worms. Not that she hated it, it's just refreshing because she was used to taking people's respect and politeness before. Yixing's joke was surely a new breather. But apart from that alone, did he mean that she's been feeding him baits all this time with her choice of outfits? She just realized that if this was his way of telling her what to wear without being too overtly controlling, he was really good at it. Heck, he was always good in good a good impression on himself. Like, she wasn't offended at all.
"Well then, haven't you ever heard about it too? The mind is a good fisherman, so don't take the bait." She smiled back to him, it didn't mean that she had to listen, hadn't she?
Even so, she still appreciated him though, she knew that he meant it good to ask her to wear something more proper for his eyes. But she liked and was comfortable with what she was wearing right now. Yixing needed to adapt his eyes to familiarize himself with this because, at least for now, she didn't intend to change the way she dressed simply because he asked politely. But she would fulfill his request to save his nose from bleeding, so yeah, she'll close up a bit. They didn't talk about it again after Yixing threw his hands in the air, and gave up.
Jisoo told him that she would step put a bit to the laundromat, and Yixing asked to tag along. She returned to her room to get her bag and returned to the living room with a box, which she then gave to Yixing.
"What is this?" Yixing asked as soon as he wore his gray hoodie.
"A gift," she said. "Happy belated birthday."
Yixing let out a small smile and stared at the cover box just before opening it. He immediately laughed when he found two pairs of socks in them, with a print of the initials of his name on each sock.
"You can combine the two. Unmatched socks are the trend these days." Jisoo said jokingly.
"Really?" Yixing put off the socks he was wearing immediately and threw them into the laundry bag, then put on a pair of new socks that Jisoo had given.
"Your idea is very original, I'm so impressed." Yixing commented half laughing, then held up his thumb. "I don't really celebrate my birthday, so I don't expect anything at all. But thank you for the gift."
Jisoo raised her brow then shrugged. She didn't say that she bought it last minute because she only remembered his birthday a week later. But she just understood why Yixing didn't discuss it at all, men might indeed be less concerned about birthday than women. Minseok and Sehun never celebrate their birthdays either, sometimes if Jisoo really forgot, they would only discuss it a few weeks or a month later.
Yixing helped her carry her laundry bag along the way. The laundromat they were going to was not so far from her apartment, so they both took a walk there. The sky was cloudy when they came out of the house, today's weather forecast said that the sun would not be seen until tonight, while tomorrow it would rain all day. The air was even colder today, only about fifteen degrees with a fairly strong wind, Jisoo was lucky that she wore her sweater, it really saved her day outside.
"I was joking about the socks," Jisoo told her at the laundromat. 
She had just finished putting all her laundry in the washing machine. She turned it on then she sat next to Yixing at the round table while waiting for their laundry to finish in twenty minutes. She put two cups of a latte on the table for both of them, the place was quite quiet this morning. A bit unusual, because it's usually quite crowded on Saturday mornings. Maybe the weather was not so good to affect the mood of people to leave the house because now there were only two of them there.
"What do you mean?" Yixing asked again as he sipped his latte, while his other hand was hiding in his hoodie pocket.
"The socks are not the real gifts." Jisoo put her bag on the table, then she took out a small black box and gave it to Yixing, "This is the real one."
The same small smile decorated his face when Yixing took the box from her and opened it without a long wait. His smile widened when he saw what it was in it.
Jisoo remembered from the questionnaire Yixing gave her, he said that his favorite color was purple. When she came to the workshop the other day to design the custom gift for Yixing, she ordered a dark purple eggplant color rollerball pen with Zhang Yixing's name embossed on its body. Not only that, in addition to his name, she also made another name embossed. With a smaller font, next to his name was printed "x KJS" in bright gold color.
"Whoa," he exclaimed as he put the pen on his hand and inspected it.
"There's a workshop in Providence who made a very good custom work. I ordered a similar pen for my father a few years ago, and it's still working well even today. I was thinking that this would suit you." Jisoo told him. "I designed it myself."
"Impressive, it's really chic." he fingered his name printed there, then the initials of her name. He looked up to glance at her and back to the pen, then he leaned in to give her a hug. "I'll keep this with me everywhere I go, so I know KJS is always with me," he said later. He took her hand on his, then he gave a light peck on the back of her palm. He couldn't stop staring at the pen and smiling ever since. And Jisoo was glad that he loved it.
"When is your birthday?" he asked then.
"It's January the 3rd. I won't be in town by the way on my birthday." Jisoo had no idea why she said that, but she had this thought that since Yixing asked, he might think to create a small event for her. So she had to tell him this before he thought of preparing something useless.
"Where will you be?"
"Japan. Got a three-day conference, it's supposed to start at the 2nd, but I'll fly there on new year's eve for a reunion." she glanced sideways to see his reaction, and she saw him chewing on his upper lip with his eyes wandering to outside of the glass wall.
After it's like about a minute later he turned to her with a belated 'okay' with a shrug. But she caught him muttering something like, 'what a shame' in Chinese before he played with the pen she gave him.
"Come here, I'm going to teach you some Chinese characters," he said after that. Yixing took her hand, rolled her sweater's sleeve to her elbow and used the pen to write two Chinese similar characters on her palm.
谢谢.
"Xièxie," he said, "Means thank you." 
Jisoo nodded, and he smiled.
She watched him holding her hand and wrote another three Chinese characters on her wrist, 张艺兴, his name. 
"This is how you write my name in Chinese," he said again while spelling it by one by one and told her the meaning of his name. 
Jisoo nodded again. And under his name, he then wrote hers. 
金智秀.
"I think this is how you write your name, it says Jin Zhìxiù. Zhì here means wisdom or intelligence, and Xiù means beautiful, elegant. It really sounds like you, doesn't it?"
She smiled widely this time. He's right about that, it was how her name was written in Chinese character. Yixing had no idea about this, but Jisoo actually could write, read and even spell them well. She had learned Chinese since she was Junior High and spoke Mandarin fluently. That's how she found out how stressing his work was because he tended to grumble about it in Chinese when he thought she wasn't listening or aware of it. But she knew. She even knew that he swore a lot while expressing his exasperation, like to everything. But Jisoo never said anything or made a face about it because most of them were like swearing slank, and not too vulgar to her ears, so they were kind of, yeah, forgiven. Rather cute instead, yeah, well, it's stupid indeed.
Ten minutes passed and by now her forearm was full of his handwriting scribble, and Jisoo was playing along with the student role since she didn't want to ruin the fun for Yixing because he looked completely believing that she was blind to Chinese.
Five more characters he wrote on her arm, Jisoo bit her lower lip for the tickling feeling. 
你是我的爱, she read.
"Nǐ shì, you are. Wǒ de, my. De is a noun modifier, so when you put it after a subject it indicates possession. Wǒ is I, with de it becomes my." he explained while pointing each one of the characters.
"Okay."
"And the last one?" Yixing pointed the last character with the pen. He didn't say anything, and Jisoo waited. She just realized that he was waiting for her to say something when she glanced at him and saw him staring at her with his brow raised. He was apparently quizzing her what character it was.
"Love?" she mentioned.
"How do you know?"
"Have you heard that my written language might have the same root with yours?" She tried to keep her face expressionless, which was really not easy when that adorable face was hovering a foot away from hers.
Yixing was extremely sweet and genuine, she had no idea if he really thought that she was this clueless over his language, or he was just joking around. But she was certain that it was the former because he looked so serious while explaining the details of the grammar rules of the words he wrote on her hand. And she was wondering what made him think that she wouldn't have her hand on the language in the first place when she was an expert of ancient Chinese ethics.
"That's right." he nodded.
See? He didn't pick up the hint. It was the former, he was too cute.
Jisoo still kept her eyes on his, "So, I'm your love?" she teased, but Yixing just smiled without returning the look to her eyes.
Just right below the previous sentence, he started to write more words. She put her other elbow on the table, propped her chin on her palm and watched him scribbling them fast on her hand. She couldn't help thinking that Yixing's handwriting was so neat, too neat even for a man. And she was thinking, was there something that he wasn't good at?
He added his sign next to the words that he wrote as if sealing it, and when he's done he twisted the pen before putting it back to the box and tucked it inside his hoodie's pocket.
"What does it say?" Jisoo asked again, just to see what he was going to say about it. The words he wrote were much longer than the previous ones, it's some kind of a wish, something that he asked her to do in the future. But instead of writing it as an order, Yixing doing it in a more deep and elegant way. It was beautifully written like a lyric.
"Just guess." 
She looked at her forearm and read Yixing's handwriting once again. She was supposed to not understand this so looked at it as if she was thinking, but before she said anything about it, a notification sound went off from the washing machine, telling them that it was done. She rose up to open the washing machine door and exported the half-dry laundry to the dryer with Yixing's help. She inserted come coins and the dryer started to spin for another thirty minutes before it finished everything.
"Baobei," Yixing called out when she prepared the bag in front of the dryer. She spun around and sat back next to him again after he said, "Let's talk,"
* * *