CHAPTER THREE: DINNER

SONG MINAH

I decided my best bet would be to start with the meat. The boys would all like steak right? Of course they would! I shook away my nervousness. Everyone likes steak. I pulled a large bowl out of the refrigerator. The steak was already tenderized, scored, seasoned, and marinated. All I had to do was broil it. I pulled open the panel under the oven where we kept the pots and pans, and started sifting through them, looking for the broiler.

            Footsteps approached me and a voice questioned “Need anything?” I turned slightly. It was the leader, Onew. This was the first time I’d seen him alone, really, everything else was pictures or videos. My hand lifted and I shooed him away. He was my guest, I couldn’t let him cook. However, he was determined, and looked in the bowl of meat. “Broiler… I’ll look in the dishwasher, you keep looking over here.”

            With a sigh, I continued to look through the pots and pans for the broiler, but with no success. “Aha!” came Onew’s voice from behind me. “Top shelf.” He pointed upwards and handed me the broiler, then sat it on the counter and started placing meat down. I turned the oven on and began at the other end. Within two minutes all the meat was placed. “So,” he asked, “what are we doing here? Normal rice?”

            My notebook hung from my neck. I grabbed it and reached for a pen off the counter – they were placed all over the house – and wrote out “Soy Bean Sprout Rice.”

            “Ah,” he got the rice cooker for me and as I started pulling filling the rice cooker with bulgogi marinade and rice he began to clean the soy bean sprouts. I covered the rice with water and turned the cooker on with a ten minutes then placed the steak in the oven. Onew and I were standing, one of us would be flipping that steak in two minutes, and it was not going to be him. It seemed he thought the same of me working. When the oven timer went off, we both bent down to get the steak and knocked heads lightly. Ignoring him and rushing, I grabbed the steak with one ragged hand and set it on the counter, then began to turn the meat with my tongs. When all were turned I sat the broiler back in the oven and turned the timer back on for 2 minutes. The meat was finished before the rice, and I pulled it out of the oven to let it cool. After the broiler was touchable I began to set it on a large saucer. The timer on the rice cooker went off and Onew beat me to it. He began to add soybean sprouts to the rice. He put it in a large bowl and set it on the table with a bottle of soy sauce. At last I placed a bowl of pre-made Cold Cucumber Soup on the table and we placed the dishes.

            All of the other boys came down the stairs at the same time, probably due to the smell of marinated steak and maybe partially due to the mild racket.

            “Smells good!” called Jonghyun. “Your Grams bulgogi?” I nodded and bowed to the other boys, then sat down at the table.

            Onew sat to the left of me, while Jonghyun sat to my right. Directly across from me was Key, who sat beside Taemin. Minho sat at the head of the table.

            “So, where are Grams and Gramps?” Jonghyun asked, plucking a piece of steak from the plate and bringing it to his mouth.

            Over the years, I’d taught myself to eat chopsticks with my left hand so I could write in my notebook with my right. It was hard, but it kept the conversations going.

            “Gramps had knee surgery yesterday. I told you when it was scheduled last week remember? He’ll be back tomorrow, I hope. Grams said she’d drop by today though!” The notebook went around the table so everyone could look at it.

            “Oh,” Jonghyun said. “Do you have therapy today? We could drop by on the way, say hello.”

            “I took the week off from therapy. You have my complete, undivided attention.” Before passing it around this time, I drew a moderately elaborate smiley face.

            Eventually, dinner spurred to awkward silence.

            Maybe they just weren’t used to me yet.