Chapter 23
Attayear***Possibly a double update***
After an altogether pleasant day and a good night’s sleep, the next morning was not a very pleasant start for Jinsu. The mystery chef had put a little more effort into the food’s presentation than previously, setting it all out (except for fruit and kimchi) in a lotus flower shape on one big plate. Whoever it was had mashed a fair amount of potato as natural glue and then formed the lotus flower by hollowing out the middle enough to fill it with mushrooms and half-sausages sticking up, and the petals had been made with triangularly cut pieces of bacon. There was a spoon as well as chopsticks by the plate and baked beans surrounded the food flower. Jinsu was unsure if the beans were supposed to be leaves or water, but it was an altogether aesthetically pleasing dish.
Until Minhwan showed up and made her ruin it just as she was crouching to pick it up.
“What this?” he asked, pausing alongside her. He was munching on toast (there was no toast or egg today, Jinsu realised with a bit of sadness, as the soldiers had been one of her favourite parts of the breakfast) and his hair was damp. Judging by the towel on his shoulders, he was freshly showered. “Who’ve you managed to turn into your b*tch?”
Jinsu shut her eyes, trying to to quell the feeling of frustration rising inside her, but Minhwan just didn’t know when to stop.
“Hey, boys!” he bellowed along the balcony corridor, to the instant result of doors opening all along it to see what was going on. “The b*tch has got herself a b*tch! I didn’t realise there was somebody willing to hire themselves out as a slave for the girlie who can’t get anywhere without Daddy’s money.”
The only reaction Jinsu heard was laughter. She forced a smile. Be the better person. You can try to solve this nicely. Do not throw your food at him because Mystery Chef is probably watching and it might offend him.
Feeling disgusted with herself, she looked up at Minhwan. “Is that a childish-tantrum way of saying you’d like some? If you ask nicely I have no objection to sharing good food with you. Would you like some?”
Silence descended on the corridor. The shock was almost palpable. Minhwan looked distinctly taken aback, then interested in the food, then wary. It was an effort to keep the smile, but Jinsu did so as she took a deep breath and scooped up a spoonful of baked beans and potato, complete with a bacon petal.
She made the mistake of looking down at the lotus food flower that she’d just wilfully destroyed for somebody other than herself, and suddenly the frustration was back, much stronger than before. Minhwan had edged a little closer, his desire for piping hot foreign food apparently overriding the fact that it was coming from somebody he considered well below his dignity, and something deep inside Jinsu snapped.
To hell with it, she thought, the smile wiping from her face, and she twisted her wrist to flick the food off the spoon at him. He let out a shrill yelp of pain as it struck in on the jaw, the mash sticking there and the beans and bacon dropping off to land on his towel.
Jinsu froze, partially in fright and partially horrified at herself for wasting good food and potentially offending whoever’d been making her the food for so long. She didn’t really have chance to full process that before Minhwan was snarling obscenities at her and then full-on body-slammed her into the wall, making her stumble over the breakfast tray.
Alarmed yells broke out all down the corridor, followed by a mass of stampeding feet. It was only seconds before Minhwan was pulled off her, but Jinsu was dazed from her head cracking against the wall, and all she could really think was that yes, Minhwan really was that much worse than Baekhyun because the closest Baekhyun had ever come to physically harming her was throwing a ball at her locker.
Somebody had ushered Jinsu back into her room before she regained proper coherency, and then she was presented with a glass of water.
“I’ll get painkillers,” said Jongdae’s voice. The arm around her shoulders remained, though.
“Are you okay?” Chanyeol asked her. “I can’t see any blood. . .”
Wincing, Jinsu raised her head. “You have four fingers,” she told him.
He jumped. “, I forgot to check for concussion! Thanks!”
Jinsu managed a wan smile. “I think I’m okay. I want my breakfast, though. I don’t know why I wasted it on him.”
Still looking a little anxious, Chanyeol grinned at her. “I’d go get it before somebody else eats it, then.”
It was a good point, but it reminded her of the laughter and Minhwan’s scathing judgement on whichever kind person was leaving her the f
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