I woke up to a burning smell and a ringing doorbell. 

As I blearily opened my eyes, I saw Taemin running towards the door. Was that Key's apron he was wearing? Well, that would explain the burning smell; Taemin couldn’t even boil water without burning himself. I tried to mentally prepare myself for whatever Taemin had tried to cook.

“What are you doing here?” Taemin asked rudely, staring outside the door.

“It’s great to see you too,” Jay replied. “Key told me Young Rin was sick, so I decided to stop by and see how she’s doing.” He entered the dorm and flopped down on the couch beside me.

“Here,” he said, throwing a plastic bag to Taemin. “I bought some chicken soup.”

“I already made her soup,” Taemin said, carelessly placing the bag on the kitchen table.

“Is that what that awful smell is?” Jay asked, as he got up and entered the kitchen. He looked at the pot on the stove and gagged. “Dude, this is not soup; this is a health hazard.” Jay tried to stir the pot, and seemed to somehow get the wooden spoon stuck in the sticky confection. Irritably, Taemin grabbed the spoon away from him and turned down the flame.

“Wait a minute,” Jay said, peering closer. “Did you put flowers in there?”  He sounded horrified.

“Those aren’t flowers, you cretin. They’re herbs,” Taemin snapped, as he shoved Jay aside.

“Right. Since when were daisies considered herbs?” Jay snorted. “This soup’s going to give Young Rin food poisoning.”

“It is not! I followed Key’s recipe, so it should taste great,” Taemin said sharply. Jay picked up the notebook on the countertop and flipped through it.

“You can’t even read this?” he laughed, “It says, ‘Prank Food for Enemies’ on the cover.”

“I think you should leave now,” Taemin said coldly, as he snatched the book from Jay.

“Young Rin seems to enjoy my company quite a lot though,” Jay drawled, “Such a shame you missed out on most of the baby sessions we had together.” Taemin stiffened visibly and before something ugly could happen, I yawned and stretched.

“Jay! What’re you doing here?” I asked, trying to act confused. Jay gave me a lazy wave from the table and gestured at Taemin.

“Oh, you’re up! I made you some really yummy soup,” Taemin said, brightening up as he brought the dreaded bowl towards me. I blanched as I took the bowl from him. It looked like tomato soup…except that the colour was more brown than red, and there were some lumps of mystery meat floating around. I eyed the blackened daisy petals warily, and nearly dropped the bowl when I saw what Taemin had done to the eggs. There were broken fragments of eggshells bobbing up and down hazardously in the muddy water.

“Thanks Taemin,” I said weakly, not wanting to hurt his feelings. I took a tiny sip. It took all my willpower not to throw up right then and there, but I forced myself to swallow and gave Taemin an encouraging smile.

“It tastes great,” I lied, putting the bowl aside. Jay laughed disbelievingly behind me. “But I’m not really hungry right now.”

“It’s okay! I made a whole pot just for you! You can have some later too,” Taemin smiled. I tried to smile back, but it came out more like a grimace.

“Wait! You have to have your medicine. Key hyung told me that medicine is really important,” Taemin said as he scampered back to the kitchen. Beads of sweat started to form on my forehead; I really, really hated medicine.

“Taemin, I think I’m just going to sleep it off, so you don’t have to worry about the medicine!” I said cheerily, while trying to hide myself on the couch.

“But I already boiled it for you,” Taemin pouted and brought the medicine over to me anyways. What the hell? Why did he boil pills down into liquid form?

“Key said that I should boil the medicine down,” Taemin told me, “Drink up!”

Behind me, I could hear Jay snickering. 

For a guy with such a nice smile, he could be a pretty mean bastard sometimes.