The light passing through the flimsy fabric of the curtain and created a beautiful rainbow on the white surface of plate right in front of Sori. It was so beautiful Sori almost lost herself staring at it. Almost.

Unfortunately the giggle coming from across her brought her back to the world. Jin was sitting there, a smile brighter than the light of day on his face, and she could see him biting hard on his lower lip to keep himself from laughing. Sori felt a sudden rush of violence and it took all her willpower not to slap him on the head at the next snort she heard.

In her mind Sori was perfectly aware that Namjoon was waiting for her opinion, so it was high time she took a bit of the disgusting looking thing he’d served her, yet she couldn’t find it in her to taste it. It looked weird and smelled just as bad, which wasn’t really helping Namjoon’s case. Sori had an half idea to ask him whether it was supposed to be a salt or sweet dish out of curiosity, and the only thing stopping her from doing it was the fact that Namjoon might be hurt by her question.

The alpha didn’t cook often, which filled the hearts of the rest of the pack with gratitude. It’s not like he didn’t try to cook or didn’t like it, quite the opposite, but no one allowed Namjoon in the kitchen. He had a natural talent for destroying and almost killing everyone and everything around him, and that only got worse whenever he was trying to cook: he had to hold cutlery, pay attention to the fire, to the pots, be quick and keep his fingers attached to his hands. Not an easy task for Namjoon.

After he’d stabbed himself, Jin had finally took pity on him and had made up his mind on helping the alpha with learning the basics of cooking. Jin once had told her that in the past Namjoon hadn’t shown much interest in cooking, however that had changed after he’d found his mate. Maybe it was the fact that in the past centuries there were times in which there wasn’t much to eat or to cook in general, or maybe it was the fact that Namjoon had always been rich, so he’d always had servants to cook for him. Whatever it was that made him change his mind, Namjoon was putting a lot of efforts in cooking to impress Narae. Unfortunately though, Narae was the only one who never had to taste Namjoon’s food.

At first he’d experimented with simply cutting and cooking vegetables, but seeing he wasn’t making any progress a part from the number of times he cut himself, the alpha had decided to try his luck with meat, since he could buy the meat cut already. That phase had been the worse. Namjon had forced the pack to eat meat less that properly cooked for months or seasoned with weird stuff that completely ruined the original taste of the meat.

Now it looked like Namjoon was focusing on preparing a nice breakfast.

Apparently he’d been worried for Sori as he’d heard from Seokjin the she was feeling a bit down, hence he’d decided to cook some breakfast for her to make her feel better. As a consequence, now there was a weird-looking, brown thing sitting on Sori’s plate, waiting to be tasted. Sori was crying inside.

She should’ve guessed something was up the moment she stepped out of her room and the air smelled off. She should’ve known it was Namjoon again. She should’ve noticed and stepped back in her room, removed her clothes and slipped under her covers again. Instead she’d decided to go looking for the source of that pungent smell. The moment the girl found Namjoon in front of the stove she knew it was too late to run and she was going to be forced to eat whatever he’d prepared.

That’s how she’d ended up in this position. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because she really didn’t want to eat whatever it was Namjoon had cooked for her, also because the last time she’d eating something cooked by him she’d thrown up a couple of times and she’s felt sick for the rest of the day, but at the same time Sori didn’t want to hurt Namjoon by telling him his food .

Grabbing her courage in both hands, Sori lifted her chopsticks and lifted a small piece of the brown thing Namjoon had served her. Her alpha had been so gentle to cut it in bit sizes, so the only thing she had to do was bring it to . As she chewed it, Sori couldn’t quite grasp its flavour, but she could make out it was something floury and that the flour hadn’t been blended well with the other ingredients, since she was chewing on lumps. By then, Sori had also figured out that it was probably mixed up with milk, yet she still couldn’t pinpoint what it was that the alpha had tried to cook.  Out of nowhere, the flavour changed from tasteless to spicy. As in extremely spicy.

With the corner of her eye Sori caught Jin biting on his spoon to keep himself from laughing, but she didn’t have the time to kick him on the shin before she started chocking and tearing up. Something in her brain was yelling “attempted murder”. tasted sour and her tongue hurt.

Oh, it, I knew this was gonna happen. Why did it have to be me eating this ??

At the same time, Namjoon was flapping his hand here and there, not understanding what had gone wrong with his cooking this time, since he’d even followed the recipe. He didn’t know whether to pat Sori on her back or give her a glass of water, because it really looked like she was one step away from dying and he didn’t want to be charged with murder.

“Oh, , Sori are you okay?”, Seokjin half-yelled as he scrambled to pat Sori’s back. He bent his back over the poor girl’s shoulder to smell the rest of the food, sending a dark glare to his alpha as soon as he stood straight again.

“Water. I’ll get the water, okay”, Namjoon mumbled as he reached for the bottle of water on the fridge.

“N-no w-wa-ter”, Sori managed to say in between her coughs, “M-mi-milk”. To be honest the only thing she wanted to do at the moment was throwing up, but that would cause a lot of unnecessary drama, and she wasn’t up for that. Somewhere in the back of her mind the turned-were was also cursing at her best friend, who somehow hadn’t still tasted the things her fiancée cooked and put a final stop to these terrifying meals, if they could be called that.

“Oh, so it was too spicy?”, Namjoon stood there, with the bottle of water in his hands, staring at the poor girl as if he was even waiting for an answer.

“Namjoon, I think you should get her the milk and then ask her opinion about your cooking, you know…”, Seokjin calmly stated. The beta was still patting Sori’s back lightly, as the coughs were slowing down.

It wasn’t long before Namjoon stumbled in their direction once again, spilling milk from the bottle he’d uncapped as he was walking towards the table. He filled Sori’s glass to the brim and brought it to her lips. Sori snatched it from his hands and drank it as if was the first thing she drank in months. It took her four glasses of milk to able to speak and breath normally again, but felt numb and it still tasted sour. And to feel really, really nauseous once again. Perhaps drinking four glasses on a row wasn’t a nice idea, but whatever, it was too late to cry over spilled milk. And nope, the pun wasn’t intended.

Namjoon stood next to the table, fidgeting with his fingers, waiting for someone to break the uncomfortable and accusing atmosphere that had settled in the kitchen.

“So, Namjoon…mmm, mind telling me what did you cook for Sori?”, Seokjin voice out the question that had been swirling in Sori’s mind from the moment the alpha had shoved the plate in front of her face.

In the mean while, Sori was staring at the bright rainbow that was still dancing in her plate, willing herself not to throw up because Namjoon would’ve been upset if she did. She had to wait at least until the alpha left the kitchen.

Come on, Sori, just five minutes more, and then he’ll be gone.

“I just cooked pancakes, hyung”, Namjoon mumbled as he picked his nails, “I even followed the recipe, I don’t know what went wrong”. Perplexed, Sori glared at the mushy thing staring at her from her plate. That thing was supposed to be a pancake. Okay.

“But did you add anything to the recipe?”, Seokjin pushed, knowing his friend too well to believe he hadn’t added anything, and by the width Namjoon’s eyes reached, he knew he was right.                 

“I swear, it was nothing special! You find those ingredients in many recipes, hyung!”, Namjoon lamely defended himself. Sori almost cooed at him, unfortunately the fact that she was about to throw up made the knowledge of his embarrassment pleasurable. Seeing his beta gesturing for him to go on, Namjoon pouted and started listing the ingredients he’d used to prove his innocence. “I used eggs, butter, flour, chocolate – dark chocolate, actually -, milk, a little bit of salt and I also added a pinch of chilli powder, and a couple of black berries”, he lifted the last finger in the direction of the chef, letting him know the ingredients he’d used were perfectly normal.

Seokjin drew a deep breath, ready to voice out his perplexity, but just as he was about to speak, Namjoon added one last forgotten ingredient he’d used in his amazing recipe.

“Oh, and also half of a ginger”, he sent a proud smile in Sori’s direction, who was focusing on not throwing up as long as the alpha was there.

“Ginger?”, Sori repeated hesitantly. Only hearing that word made her stomach churn.

Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up.

“Yes! I heard from Tae that you weren’t feeling too well because of your period”, the alpha blushed a little , “so I looked around for things that could help you! If you look it up online, you’ll see I’m right, Sori”. Namjoon was pouting as the other two were staring at him as if he was really dumb.

Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up.

Sori took a deep breath, knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to keep the food down much longer. Maybe it was too late already.

“And what about the chilli?”, the beta deadpanned. Jin really despised the days Namjoon felt inspired to cook because he always messed up his kitchen and broke knives and pots, not to mention that the food he cooked was almost inedible. Such a waste of the food.

“Oh, I added it because spicy chocolate is good and also because it’s good for your blood, you know, period -”, Namjoon never got to end his sentence since Hoseok loudly smashed the door to the wall, panting as if he’d run for a hundred miles.

“Oh, , I think it’s too late”, he murmured barely audibly.

Jin didn’t even flinch, keeping his eyes on the alpha, unsure whether or not he really wanted to ask the next question at the sound while Namjoon almost peed his pants at the sound made from the door.

Hoseok He eyed the three inside the room and slowly took in the condition of the kitchen. Sori was visibly paling and sweating, but there wasn’t much he could do to help her at this point. Maybe he should’ve stopped Namjoon before he actually served her that . Maybe.

“And why didn’t you put some sugar and yeast in that concoction…ugh, I mean, dough?”. Against all his prediction, Seokjin ended up asking Namjoon about it.

“Oh, well, that was obvious, wasn’t it? I mean, I know Sori was and still is dieting, so yeast and sugar would’ve been no good for her. Not to mention that I used a whole lot of sweet ingredients, right?”, the alpha sort of asked, as if he was looking for approval, but also defending his choices.

Sori suddenly stood up from her chair, running towards the bathroom, heaving in the way. Hoseok made a disgusted face and shook his head, following Sori right away.

“Yeah, no, Namjoon. I mean, it was very sweet of you to keep in consideration all of these things, but…mmm, let’s say you should follow the recipes step by step when you cook, however…mmm, you should still practice a bit more before you serve other people your food, okay? Also, you should keep in mind other people’s preferences when you cook for them”, Seokjin told him as he stood up from his chair to pat Namjoon comfortingly on the back. Namjoon hadn’t really caught on with what he meant, so the alpha was staring at him as if he’d said something completely obvious. “Sori really, really, really hated ginger, Namjoon”. With that, Seokjin left the room to check up on Sori.

Jungkook brought the order to the table, trying his best not inhale the sweet scent coming from the tray of chocolate muffins. He could feel his stomach aching from the hunger, but there wasn’t much Jungkook could do about it until the time to leave finally come. Unfortunately he’d wasted his ten minutes break talking with his colleague, and he barely had the time to go to the toilet before he had to go back to the front of the diner.

The wolf had skipped his breakfast in order to escape the sad doom of whoever run into Namjoon’s horrifying cooking. He didn’t wish to immolate himself as a guinea pig for his alpha’s new experiment.

The previous night Jungkook had some problems with falling asleep since Sori kept polluting his mind, and he’d ended up falling asleep late, resulting in him stopping his alarm without getting up from the bed. He woke up a while later only to realize he could either wash himself or eat before he had to leave for work.

Once again, there was no breakfast ready for him when he dashed down the stair, hence he had no breakfast to eat on the go. Sori still hadn’t let go of their little argument, hence Jungkook really shouldn’t have expected any breakfast to be cooked for him by her, but at the same time he found himself disappointed as the only thing he could hear was Namjoon clumsily stepping around the kitchen and the clashing sounds emitted from the unlucky bowl the alpha was mistreating. Entering that room would’ve meant risking his life, but still…he was very, very hungry…

Splash.

Poom.

Sbang.

Those sounds in a quick succession were enough to have him running out of the house for dear life.

Jungkook had hoped to make in on time to work, so that maybe he’d also have a spare minute to devour a slice of cake before he had to start working, but obviously things hadn’t go the way he hoped: on his way there, Jungkook had met one of his co-workers, who also happened to be a very slow walker who talked a lot, add to that the fact that they also had to stop to buy him a packet of cigarettes. The poor were had tried and tried to make his co-worker walk faster, but the other was hopelessly lost in the story he was telling, and that’s how Jungkook  lost his chance to have breakfast.

No breakfast was still better than Namjoon’s cooking, though.

 As he was making his way behind the counter, Jungkook felt his skin prickling and weird feeling invaded his mind. His senses were screaming at him to pay attention at what was happening around him, yet there was nothing that seemed to be out of the ordinary. Moreover, it was lunch time, thus the room was full of costumers, which made it quite hard to spot whatever it was that was giving him this weird sensation on the back of his neck, as if someone was staring at him.

Jungkook grabbed a rag and started drying the counter, carefully trying to assess whether it was just him being paranoid or there was really something weird. Pretending to be looking for his colleague, Jungkook straightened his back and slowly let his eyes scan the restaurant. Albeit nothing seemed to be out of place, there was something bothering him.

Suddenly a thought crossed his mind: what if there’s something wrong at home? They would’ve told him, right?

The young were gathered his wits, willing himself to stay calm, before he took his phone out of his pocket to send Namjoon a short text, asking him if everything was fine at home, hoping his alpha hadn’t left his phone out of sight as usual.

Raising his eyes from the phone to check the room once again, Jungkook noticed a costumer making a gesture in his direction, as if he awkwardly asking for him to attend him at the table, hence Jungkook quickly left the counter and headed towards the costumer who was sitting alone in the corner of the room. Jungkook found it hardly surprising that nobody had taken his order since the man was sitting alone in dark clothes, being almost completely covered by the rest of the costumers sitting around him.

By his uneasiness, Jungkook could already tell the man wasn’t really practical or restaurants, which meant he’d probably ask him a lot about the various dishes and that would have also meant that he wasn’t going to check his phone for a while.

Amazing. Okay, Jungkook, calm down. Maybe you’re the weird one and nothing’s going on at home. Just stop worrying.

“I’m sorry for your long waiting sir, I’m afraid your order hasn’t been taken yet”, Jungkook started, wanting to know whether the man had ordered already and had to be served or he had to order yet.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not in a rush. I haven’t ordered yet, but at least I had enough time to figure out what I want”, he chuckled lowly, “I think I’ll take chicken wings and roasted potatoes”, the man told Jungkook, pointing what he wanted on the menu. Contrary to Jungkook’s opinion, the man didn’t ask any question about the various dishes, but there was still something about him that screamed “out of place”. He mentally shrugged and went on doing his job. The sooner he got the order, the sooner he could check his phone.

“And what would you like to order as a drink? Perhaps you also are interested in one of today’s desserts…”, the you werewolf’s voice trailed off when he noticed how the man was scanning him.

Ooookay. This isn’t weird at all.

“Do you need any help with your order, sir?”, Jungkook hesitantly asked. The man was now smirking lightly, but it didn’t look like an happy expression. Jungkook glued his eyes to the menu the man was holding in his hands, pretending he hadn’t noticed the weird tremor that shook his hands and lips every now and then.

With the corner of his eye, Jungkook analysed the man beside him. He didn’t look nor old nor young. He was one of those people you can never guess the age of. His hair was dark brown, the cut wasn’t anything too stylish but it wasn’t sleazy either. Brown eyes. Nothing special about him or his clothes. Just this weird feeling he was giving Jungkook.

“Excuse me, sir, what would you like to order more?”, Jungkook asked him again, trying to get the man to advert his eyes from his face. The man turned quickly his face to the menu, only to fix his eyes on Jungkook soon after.

“No, I…”, he trailed his finger along the list of deserts, “I’ll just order some still water, I don’t care whether it’s cool or warm”, he said closing the menu. His words weren’t anything special, however the smirk on his face gave Jungkook mixed feelings.

“Okay, I’ll bring you everything”. The young were knew well it wasn’t a polite way to end a conversation with a costumer, but he really wanted to put some distance between him and that we