ten: congee

As promised, the moment I stepped in my apartment, I phoned my teacher who picked up the call after the first ring. Who does that? Does that mean he’s been waiting for my call? Seriously... And so, cue in the blush across my face.

“I’m home.” I greeted him indifferently as I wiggled my way out of my coat, throwing it over my sofa as I plopped down to rest.

“Good.” He said, sounding satisfied. “Did you check if anything was missing in your place?”

What is he, my mom? I sat on the sofa and scanned the whole place in one go, making no effort at all to double check anything. I can do that later. I’m just so tired from what happened today. “Everything’s here.”

“Chanyeol.” He hissed at the other end of the line, as if he pretty much figured out that I hardly did any actual checking nor did I leave the sofa.

“I-I’ll do that tomorrow, the minute I wake up!” I whined, taking off my shoes and throwing them aside before lying on the sofa to stretch my tired legs.

“Geez,” He sighed, “What am I going to do with you?”

“How about leaving me alone for a while?” I got out of the sofa a minute later and began making my way to my room. “Are you coming over tomorrow?”

“You ask me to leave you alone only to invite me over the next day?” He teased, his voice obviously showing how much his mood had changed. I blushed at his statement, nearly stubbing my toe at one of the bed’s legs.

“Y-You!” I growled but he merely laughed back at me. “If you don’t want to, then fine!”

“I’ll come.”

I pursed my lips, not really knowing what to say. I looked at my toes for lack of anything to do. “Fine.”

“Then I’ll see you.” He added.

“Yeah.” I pulled my phone back as he ended the call. I sighed, nearly falling over to my bed when my phone buzzed again. I looked down and saw his name. At once, I wished I hadn’t given him my number. I opened the message and felt my insides squirm, which is pretty strange considering his message only consisted of: Good night, Chanyeol.

What’s so romantic about that? I fussed in my head as I fell onto my bed, not bothering to take a bath. I’m way too tired for my own good. I sighed against my pillow before bringing up my hand to brush over my lips that had already been against his so many times. The thought made me hot and bothered. I grabbed the sides of my head and squirmed on my bed.

Oh man, oh man, oh man! What’s happening all of a sudden?! I thought he was just my teacher and that I have to beat him in a cooking competition! Th-Then why?! Why is this suddenly happening?! Why are we suddenly--!? I mused in my thoughts, only to have fallen over the bed in my squirming. I fell with a thud that hit me back to my senses. I panted as I ran a hand over my face.

I’m tired. Really tired.

The next day, I woke up a little later than usual. I got out my room, my hand on my stomach as I trudged my way to the kitchen only to see that there really wasn’t anything decent to eat in there. I sighed.

“Does this mean I have to resort to my instant meals again?” I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes open as I stretched. I walked over to one cabinet and realized that I didn’t even have a box of something instant left. Oh . Forget about resorting to instant meals, I don’t even have any of that left in my house! Does this mean I’m going to starve to death from now on?! I gawked at my empty cabinets and then down at my complaining stomach. Before long, I heard my doorbell ringing.

“What the—“ Kris greeted me with a shocked expression. Who could blame him? I was still dressed in my attire from last night, my hair all over the place and my eyes: tired. I looked like crap. He frowned. “Who you?”

What! I blushed, trying to shut the door at his face when he blocked me and walked himself inside.

“I was joking, you dolt.” He smirked but eyed me completely again as I closed my door begrudgingly. “Seriously, what in the world did you do?”

“Nothing.” I pouted, looking aside. “I just... I just woke up.”

“You didn’t bother to take a bath and change your clothes after you woke up?” He asked, lifting up a hand to brush his thumb over my cheek. Crap, I wish he hadn’t done that. My skin ignited like an atomic bomb under his swift thumb-brushing. Doesn’t he know how sensitive people can be in the mornings?

“I-I was just about to!” I hissed, turning around. I heard him laugh behind me as he made his way to the kitchen.

“Well, hurry up. We’ve got plenty of catching up to do.” I heard him say as I made my way inside the bathroom.

“Whose fault do you think that is?!” I barked behind the comforts of my bathroom door.

After finally getting my uncontrollable feelings under control, I scrambled out of the bathroom to meet my teacher who had already worn that familiar and now eye-catching black apron over his shoulders. My blue apron waited for me at the end of the counter, waiting to be worn in that same fashion, though with much less elegance. I tied the apron over my shoulders and stood beside Kris who seemed to be frowning again, his eyes closed in contemplation. I’m already thinking to myself what I did wrong before I ran to my bathroom, only to reach to the answer that I didn’t do anything wrong at all.

I pouted, poking his side. “What is it this time?” I readied myself as he turned around, his eyes focusing on me. His mouth was a firm line before he stuck out his thumb and indicated to my cabinets.

“Kindly explain.” He said.

“Explain what?” I spat, staring at my wooden furniture. There is nothing obviously wrong with—

“Why are all of these empty?”

Oh. That. He wants me to explain that. “W-Well... you see....”

He slapped his forehead, “Chanyeol, don’t tell me you’ve been eating nothing but instant meals since our last session?”

“What do you expect me to do?!” I barked. “I can hardly crack an egg right, you expect me to cook myself breakfast?”

“I thought you would try!” Kris spat back, “And didn’t I leave you one recipe? What about that potato with vinegar flavour?”

I blushed, only remembering it. “I-I didn’t want to have that every single day!”

“It’s better than eating those processed crap.” Kris sighed, shaking his head. “And now your cabinets are all empty. You ate all of your supplies that you ran out? How long has it been this empty?”

“I...” I trailed off, trying to remember the days but I couldn’t. I was so flustered with everything Kris-related that I couldn’t think straight. To make matters worse, he’s once again fussing over me like this that it’s pretty much embarrassing for me to look at him. “I don’t know.” I lowered my head, ashamed for some reason.

His silence made me feel worse and I then heard him sigh exasperatingly. I glanced up sneakily and saw him turn to look at the empty cabinets again; he seemed to be totally engrossed with them. Then, he turned around and we met gazes again. Immediately, I blushed. God! Control yourself!

“You haven’t eaten yet?” He asked and I was pretty sure there was worry in his voice. Good lord, he’s this worried about me?

I shook my head, afraid that my voice would betray me and make me sound like a girl since I’m pretty much thinking like one. At once, his whole demeanour changed. I waited in silence; I still felt uneasy and I could just sense it off of Kris that something was different. He really did seem genuinely worried for me. I looked at my hands as they decided to fiddle with one another. How am I going to get out of this mess, I wonder? Geez! I should’ve gone shopping before dropping off those cookbooks back to the school or something!

But before I could continue blaming myself, I heard him shift back to face the counters, “Wǒde tiān...” (Translation: My god....)

I blinked at his sudden change of language. That sounded like... Chinese. He’s Chinese? Duh, no genius. If I remember correctly, his real name’s Wu Yifan which sounds incredibly Chinese to me. Still, he seemed to still look very upset but I was just as curious as he was upset. “Wh-What did you say?”

“Méi guānxi.” (Translation: It doesn’t matter.) He turned to me with that stern look on his face and it kind of occurred to me like a slap to the face that he probably isn’t aware that he’s speaking to me in Chinese. “Nǐ xià sǐ wǒ le.” (Translation: You scared me to death.)

I just stared back at him and his now ranting Chinese mouth. Wow, he’s worried about this whole thing to the point that he’s rewired himself to revert back to his native tongue? Good grief. I opened my mouth to correct him otherwise I will never be able to understand him nor the lesson for that matter.

“K-Kris... uh...” I held onto his sleeve but he was out of it as he took out the utensils from his bags. He seemed to have brought the ingredients for our next dish with him as well. He ignored my words as he looked over to my side where the rest of the equipment that was already out to begin with lay in wait. He glanced at me and I stiffened.

“Shénme dōu shìdàng ma?” (Translation: Is everything in order?) He asked, pointing to the other utensils. I darted my eyes to them, not really understanding what in the world he had just asked of me. I gulped before breaking out a very awkward grin.

“Ah... haha...” I laughed it off, hoping it wasn’t some kind of request of me to pick up an item. Anyway, I still have to drill it in his ears that he’s speaking in a language I am not very adept in. “Yeah, um, Kris... wait a minute, you’re kind of speaking in Chin—“

“Hǎo,” (Translation: Good.) He once again brushed aside my attempt at trying to save the lesson and our entire conversations in the future. I am so screwed. I gulped as he took out a bunch of ingredients. He pointed to on