- October 26, 2005 - 

“Okay, so everyone,” Professor Sprout said, effectively quieting the class before they got too rowdy. “Split up into pairs, and start harvesting the dried nettles. Make sure you’re wearing gloves.”

Gilbert raised his hand, and she nodded to him. “We’re saving the actual nettles, right?” She nodded again. “What about the stalks?”

“Set aside the stalks for the kitchen to make nettle soup.” Kibum patted Minho’s knee before he got up to grab the vials, tweezers, and one of the bundles of nettles that had been drying for the past month in Greenhouse 4. Minho reached across the table, grabbing two pairs of gloves to protect their hands.

He handed a pair to Kibum as he returned, dumping all the things onto the table before them. “That’s so weird, making soup out of nettles.” 

“I’ve had it.” Minho glanced over at him, his eyebrows shooting up. “It’s not bad. Neither is nettle tea, and Grandma says nettle wine is pretty good, so...”

“What does it taste like?”

Kibum pulled a couple of nettle stings, dropping them into the glass vial. “Kinda like...spicy grass.” Minho coughed, laughing, and pushed himself away from the table. “What? That’s what it tasted like!” Kibum said, giggling himself. Both sobered up quickly when Sprout cleared . 

They went back to plucking the stings, Minho shaking his to settle them to see how many he had so far. “There’s not very many.”

“It’s just one stalk, though,” Kibum said, discarding his now cleaned stalk in the center of the table before reaching for another one from the bundle. 

“Don’t we need these for potions?”

Kibum hummed, nodding. “The Boil-Cure is the only one I can think of at the moment, but I know there’s more.”

They were quiet for a moment, concentrated on getting as many done before class as they could. When Minho finished his third, he dropped his tweezers on the table and stretched his hand out in front of him. “There was this nettle bush behind our house in Korea.” Kibum glanced over at him before he went back to plucking. “Jinki -- that’s my friend -- “

“You’ve mentioned him.”

“Yeah, anyways, Jinki and I were playing in the backyard with Minseok one day, hide and seek, if I remember right.”

Kibum set his tweezers down, massaging his hand, as Minho picked his back up. “Oh, no, did he hide in the nettles?”

Minho shook his head. “Yeah, no, he tripped and fell into them. We had to help him get out so we got stung, too. The next day, my dad went out and got rid of it, so at least there’s that.”

“At least. Were you guys okay?”

“No. We all died.” Kibum snorted, smacking Minho’s arm. They both glanced over at Professor Sprout, who was inspecting the vial that Candace brought to her. “Come on, we’re almost done.” He shook his head, still smiling, and Minho grinned as he picked up the last stalk from their bunch.