Chen and Baekhyun were grinning from ear to ear at Chanyeol. They were alone in the changing rooms at the moment, as the others were still back at the dance studio.

Chen began, “It looks like it’s been decided, then.”

Baekhyun joined in, “Yep. We all saw it. Nami-ssi’s your gal. She was the one who walked through the doors.”

Chanyeol tried to suppress his renewed irritation. He didn’t like the fact that the pair had such smug expressions on their faces. No one anticipated Nami to walk through the doors. When Chanyeol saw Xiumin arrive with Nami trailing behind him, his face fell. Chanyeol was confident in his ability to read girls like a book. And Nami was a girl. The only problem was, Nami wasn’t easy to read.

Chanyeol scoffed, “I can make her fall for me. You’ll see.”

Baekhyun let out a high-pitched laugh, “Yeah, good luck handling Nami-ssi!”

“She seems like a feisty one.” Chen added, “She might even end up handling you.”

“Hold on a sec,” Chanyeol replied, frowning at the pair, “you don’t know that. And you know what,” he says putting on his shirt, “I’m gonna make you eat your words.”

The pair let out a long ‘oooooh’.

“Still,” Chen considered, “you might have lucked out. If Nami-ssi didn’t come in when she did, you would have had to seduce Suji-ssi.”

Chanyeol was pensive, “But Suji-ssi is more of my type, though.”

“You like ’em bratty, huh?” Baekhyun joked.

Chanyeol glared at him.

The sound of the others coming into the changing rooms forced the beagle line to stop discussing their bet. But with quick glances at one another, the trio agreed to reconvene later on that evening.

“Is it just me, or can anyone else smell something burning?” Kai sniffed the air as he and the other members entered the dorm.

Sehun was behind him, “No, I can smell it too.”

The members rushed to the common area where they saw a soft stream of smoke coming from the kitchen.

“Is there a fire?” Suho shouted, searching around.

“Nami-ssi!” Xiumin called.

The members started coughing as the smoke drifted towards their direction. A wave of panic overwhelmed them as they searched the kitchen area for any sign of Nami. A few moments later, Nami appeared through the wall of smoke, wearing a plain red apron and holding a wooden spoon. “Omo. You’re all here?”

Suho breathed a sigh of relief while Chen and Baekhyun hurried to open some windows to get rid of the smoke.

Xiumin ran up to Nami, “Are you okay, Nami-ssi? You’re not hurt?”

Nami shook her head, “I’m fine.” She turned to the others who were inspecting the origins of the smoke. “I was just making dinner.”

D.O’s eyes rounded when he reached the hob, “Nami-ssi, what were you trying to make?” He peered inside the large pot and saw a brownish sauce with chunky bits of raw carrot and potato and charred beef.

“I was making Japanese curry” she replied. She walked over to him, “But it’s my first time making it so, I had a bit of trouble.”

“A bit of trouble?” repeated Kai sarcastically, “Smells like you were about to burn the whole dorm down!”

“Well, I’m just glad there wasn’t a fire.” Suho sounded relieved. The smoke finally started to dissipate so that he could see the others clearly.

“You’re just in time,” Nami chimed as she started setting out the dining table. “The rice will be ready soon and the curry is just simmering.”

The members glanced at each other as they took their seats on the dining table. It had been a couple of hours since they had last eaten so having dinner soon was a godsend to them. It was also the first time they were trying Nami’s cooking. To Baekhyun, Chen and Chanyeol, it was the moment of truth--how will Nami’s cooking compare to Mrs. Park’s?

Kai scrutinised the messy slop on his plate. Nami had served each member a large portion of her so-called ‘Japanese curry’ with rice but, instead of chowing down like Kai normally did, he took a moment to inspect the food in front of him. He was sceptical: it didn’t look like curry at all.

“Dig in!” Nami encouraged the members.

Sehun picked up his fork and tried to pierce a chunk of potato but, found that it was still too hard.

Chen took a bite of his rice and found that it was really crispy.

Suho tasted the sauce and found that it was too salty.

D.O tried a piece of beef and found that it was too chewy.

Chanyeol tried a piece of carrot and found it was still crunchy.

Kai took a bite of everything and nearly fainted from the taste.

But Baekhyun was the only one to spit out the food as soon as it entered his mouth. “Yah!” he shouted while reaching for a glass of water, “What kind of housekeeper doesn’t know how to cook?”

Nami’s face turned red, “It’s my first time, okay?” she replied defensively.

“You should have warned me before I took a bite,” Kai said while covering his mouth. He looked like he was about to puke, ”That" he signalled to his plate, “is not made for human consumption.”

“I tried my best, alright? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.”

“Thank God for that!” Baekhyun exclaimed, pushing away his plate.

Nami pouted. “By the way,” she said, suddenly remembering something, “who was the last one to use the bathroom this morning?”

At this, Baekhyun answered, “It was me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You didn’t flush the toilet after you used it.”

“Uh-oh” Chanyeol suddenly joined in, “did Baekhyun leave you a cheeky surprise?”

“Let’s just say it clogged up the toilet.”

“Yah, do you have to talk about that right now?” asked Sehun. “It’s putting me off.”

“Yeah, stop talking about it!” Baekhyun ordered. He glanced at Sehun’s plate. “But I don’t know why you guys would want to eat that. It looks the thing I forgot to flush.”

“Yah, Baekhyun!”

“Baek--you pabo.”

“Aish, you’re disgusting.”

The rest of the members moaned at Baekhyun for revealing too much information. In unison, they quit eating and had pushed their plates away from them. All but, one of them. While they did this, Xiumin continued eating.

“Hyung” Sehun says in amazement. “You’re still eating it?”

Xiumin looked up from his plate. “What? You’re not gonna eat your portion?” He grabs Sehun’s plate