Chapter 54: Jesse’s Girl

Though Jesse looked extremely attractive and manly in his tracksuit, the sight of the two starkly contrasting attire still made Miyeon laugh out loud. The sound of her melodious laughter tickled Jesse's ears and he gave the beautiful girl beside him an inquiring look.

"Don't you feel we look silly walking together like this?"

A look of slow realization spread across Jesse's face and he coughed to hide his embarrassment. The truth was he had a change of clothing in his workout bag but he left it in the gym in his haste to catch up with Miyeon.

"It almost feels like...you are a troublemaker celebrity and I'm your personal secretary," she continued with a light chuckle.

Instinctively, Jesse imagined Miyeon as his secretary and a blush spread across his face. Miyeon took a peek to see a red faced Jesse and she became concerned. "Jesse, you are red. Are you feeling sick somewhere," she asked while putting a cool palm on his forehead.

This physical contact made Jesse blush harder and he prayed Miyeon wouldn't hear the loud beating of his heart.

"No. No I'm fine," he said in a slightly choked voice.

"Hmm.. Yeah it doesn't seem like you have a fever. Is it too hot?" Miyeon asked concernedly.

"Ye-yeah it's because it's too hot," Jesse answered whilst making a fanning motion with his hands.

"Ahh, you haven't gotten used to C Country weather," Miyeon commented sympathetically.

"By the way, what did you feel like eating today?" he asked attempting to divert the topic from his flushed face.

"Well...I feel like eating pasta but Stella's told me to lay off carbs for my shoot next week," Miyeon said with a downcast look. Somehow this pitiful looking Miyeon who was craving pasta looked extremely cute to Jesse. And he had to stop himself from pinching her cheeks. Then she surprised him by knitting her brows and scoffing in a feigned haughty manner, "Wretched girl! See if I do her anymore favors." These sudden changes in expression of a generally impassive Miyeon earned a hearty chuckle from Jesse.

"If you don't mind, I can make you pasta using protein noodles. I have an awesome recipe. Ahem it's from my mom," Jesse said shyly.

"Ah! Really! I'd love that," Miyeon answered with a beaming smile.

"Are you alright to walk?" Jesse asked, gesturing towards Miyeon's stilettos. "My place is about a 5 minute walk from here."

"I can hold on," she said nodding and she gave her friend a cute thumbs up. 'Pasta! Pasta! Pasta!' Miyeon happily thought. 

So, the two friends ended up chatting the short distance to Rich and Jesse's apartment. When they finally arrived at the luxury highrise, Miyeon couldn't help but whistle in admiration. 

"Haha I'm glad you like the place. I left the decorating to Rich." Jesse said as he helped Miyeon put away her heels into the shoe rack.

"Hm. I can see his personality from the interior." Miyeon answered whilst wearing the pair of fuzzy pink slippers provided by her friend.

"This is a cute pair of slippers you have by the way," Miyeon commented pointing down at her feet.

"Ah! That. That's new! I don't have girls over. What I mean is...Rich and I bought them for when we have visitors," he flusteredly said pointing at her feet.

"Ahhh I see," she said disbelievingly. 'How can two eligible bachelors not bring girls over? Is he just being shy to get found out?'

"No, not that kind of visitor! Really! I really don't have girls stay over," Jessie insisted. "It's… we bought it when you and I made plans to come over for dinner last time. Remember I said I'd cook for you?" Jesse explained somewhat awkwardly.

"Pfft. Yeah I remember. I get it." Miyeon said, unable to help herself from laughing at Jesse's embarrassed face.

"Cute." she commented casually.

"Huh?" Jesse asked, looking perplexed.

"I said you're cute Jesse Evans," her pretty face lighting up with a dimpled smile.

'Cute?' Jesse looked at Miyeon askance before giving her an expression of feigned offense. 

"Alright, you are handsome! Awesome! The best! The ace! Simply brilliant!" Miyeon showered Jesse with a barrage of praise before continuing with a cheeky, "Now please go make my pasta!" 

"That's more like it." Jesse responded with an attractive grin grin as they made their way into the kitchen.

......…..

Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was equipped with state of the art equipment. It was a Michelin chef's dream kitchen with its wide basin, hands free sink, modular cooktop and oven and french door fridge. Jesse began to prepare the ingredients of the shrimp fra diavolo pasta on his long island kitchen countertop as Miyeon observed with her chin propped on her hands. He had yet to make much progress on the dish when all of a sudden, Jesse received a video call from his mother back in the UK. Before leaving the kitchen for some privacy, he made some simple gestures to Miyeon indicating that he will just take the call quickly and the girl nodded in understanding. 

He was out for nary a few minutes before he came back to see Miyeon casually browsing Veibo on her phone. However, just as he thought he'd already hung up the call, a video of his mom suddenly connected to his Sansung Family Hub smart fridge.

"Martha, why did you hang up? I haven't spoken to my son in a week," a deep masculine voice complained from the background.

"Jesse's girl is at his place so he's cutting the call short! He's making her pasta with my recipe!" the attractive blond middle aged woman on the screen said to an equally attractive man who made his way towards her. 

"Woah, is this the British version of that famous line: Want to have ramen before you go?" the handsome man with gray hair chuckled. "As expected of my son! I was a casanova too at that age! Did you see what Jesse's girl looked like?"

Author's Note: Want to have ramen before you go is a popular Korean way young people ask their date to come over their place without explicitly saying THE words.  It's akin to saying want to Netflix and chill? б（＞ε＜）∂

"Nope. He was in a real hurry. I think he's really serious about this one.  I'll ask him to send me a picture," the woman continued, unaware she had an audience.

"Mom! Dad!" Jesse cried out abashedly, his eyes alternatively flitted between the screen and Miyeon. Thankfully Miyeon had her signature impassive expression since Jesse was so embarrassed he just wished the ground would open and swallow him up.

Meanwhile, the couple on the screen who had noticed that they had company, brightened as they saw Miyeon and Jesse staring at them.

"Uhm, hello auntie, uncle. I'm Irene, a friend of Jesse's" Myeon said politely introducing herself.

"Oh my, she's a beauty. I'm Martha Jesse's mom. You can call me Mo--- I mean Auntie Evans or Auntie Martha." Jesse's mom commented with a nod. 

Miyeon gave a small laugh and said, "Thank you Auntie Evans."

"My son's got a good eye," his dad said with admiration. "I'm that casanova's dad. Alfred. You can call me Uncle Evans or Uncle Al. But I much prefer if you called me Da--"

"Mooom, daaaad!" Jesse warned in a low growl.

"Right! Right! The rame- I mean pasta! Have a great lunch kids." Jesse's mother laughingly said.

"Bye. It was nice meeting you both," said Miyeon.

"Come visit when you are free Irene. We'll take you boating," Alfred offered.

"Bye dad, mom! I'll call you later!" Jesse interjected before promptly ending the video call.

**video call ends**

The immediate aftermath of the accidental video call was a long bout of awkward silence. Jesse kept his head down as he winced, 'I never should've gotten that God damn fridge. That damn Rich!'

"Hey Jesse." He heard Miyeon's voice softly calling out and he lifted his head to meet her gaze.

Miyeon fixed Jesse a serious look as she asked, "So, I'm your girl. Huh?"