It seems like everyone around Eric can cook. All of his hyungs know how to cook and his best friend recently started learning how to cook. Of course, this makes him want to try cooking too. It does look like fun, and he has helped his hyungs with tasks in the kitchen before. How hard can it be for him to do it on his own?

He decides to start big, not small, by cooking dinner for the members one night. This is the chore he never gets assigned because the boys do not think he can do it, but he wants to prove them wrong today. 

"Eric, are you sure you don't want any help making dinner? You've never made any type of meal before, especially by yourself." Juyeon says. 

"I can do it, hyung. Just trust me." Eric smiles. 

"Alright." Juyeon nods. 

The least his hyungs can do is give Eric a chance, so they all agree to stay in the living room while he cooks, just in case he does ask for help or something catches on fire again. 

Eric is going to make something simple for his first attempt at dinner, beef and broccoli with rice. He wanted to do chicken, but the boys did not want to risk anything if he ended up undercooking it. All he really has to cook is the beef, since the broccoli is just a packet to toss into the microwave for it to cook and the rice will go in the rice cooker. 

"You can do this, Eric. All you have to do is watch this beef cook." Eric tells himself. 

Eric sets up the pan on the stove and puts the meat in when it is all heated up. He watches it cook for about three minutes before getting bored. 

How do his hyungs do this? It is so boring just watching food sit in a pan!

Looking at the beef reminds Eric of cows, and he starts thinking about what it would be like if cows ran free like dogs do. What if he had a pet cow? That would be so cool, he could ride it to school and feed it grass. 

"What would I name my cow?" Eric thinks to himself. 

He ponders that and is about to come up with a name when he smells that the meat is starting to burn. 

"Uh oh." 

Eric quickly turns the stove off and takes the meat out of the pan. It is not too badly burned, still edible. 

The rice cooker beeps, indicating that the rice is also done now too. All Eric has to do now is heat up those microwave vegetables. The packet says to microwave for three minutes, but that seems like too long, so Eric only does one minute. 

When the broccoli is done, he adds it to the beef. Dinner is finally completed. 

"Hyungs, dinner is ready!" Eric calls. 

To be honest, the boys are not excited about Eric's first unsupervised meal. However, they do not want him to feel bad, so they all show up to the dinner table and have dinner together. 

"We are so proud of you for making dinner all by yourself, squishy."

"Thank you, hyung." Eric smiles. 

"Do you guys like it?" Eric adds. 

"Eric, what really matters is that you made this yourself." Younghoon says. 

"Does that mean you don't like it?" Eric questions. 

Sensing that Eric would be upset with the truth, Jacob steps in. 

"That's not true, we love it. This dinner that you made tastes really good, babykins. Right guys?"

The rest of the members go along with Jacob and compliment Eric on the meal. 

"Really?! Yes! Can I make breakfast tomorrow too?" Eric asks. 

"Of course you can." Sangyeon answers, hoping breakfast will be better. 

Not surprisingly, Sangyeon's hopes are crushed the next morning. 

Eric makes some undercooked pancakes, unseasoned eggs, and overly crispy bacon. The only enjoyable item at the meal is the fruits. Hopefully he washed those before putting them out though. Even though Eric has not shown any improvement in his cooking abilities, the boys still praise him. 

"You did a really good job with this, Eric." Chanhee says. 

"Yeah, this is some good bacon." Jaehyun adds. 

"Thanks guys."

Eric smiles widely as his hyungs compliment his cooking for a second time. 

Since his cooking seems to be going well, Eric decides to try some baking. Sure, he should probably ask Kevin for help with this, but he is just so energized by the praise, that he decides to make cookies on his own later that evening. Sugar cookies should be easy enough, they are such a simple cookie. 

Eric finds a recipe on the internet and decides to make adjustments to make it his own. Those adjustments include, adding twice the amount of sugar in it and completely leaving out the salt. Who wants salt in something that is supposed to be sweet? Thankfully, these do not come out under or overcooked. 

"Hyungs, come see the cookies I made!"

"You made cookies? Without help from hyung?" Kevin questions. 

"Yeah, all by myself. It's my special recipe and it's perfect." Eric replies. 

Eric really does mean that, he has had three cookies already and he loves how sugary they are. Kevin never makes cookies this powerful. 

The members decide to try them and are instantly hit with how sweet the cookie is. It is definitely something Eric would like, he loves sweets, but it is sickly sweet to everyone else. They would spit it out, but once again they do not want to offend their hard working maknae. 

"These are good, squishy. They are so sweet." Jaehyun says.

"That's why they taste so good. I added an extra cup of sugar." Eric smiles. 

Eric is really pleased by how much his hyungs love his cooking. It almost seems too good to be true that he is so skilled despite never having cooked before and not following the recipes exactly. Well, he learns the truth the next day.

Eric comes back from school early and is about to go to his room when he hears talking coming from the living room. 

"It's so nice to be able to eat something edible. I never thought I would treasure chicken even more than I already do." Jaehyun says, eating another piece. 

"I know, Eric has been cooking all week. Maybe one of us should just tell him the truth." Sunwoo adds. 

Eric hides behind the coat rack, wanting to know what they will say when they think he is gone. 

"And tell him what? Turn to him and say Eric your cooking and we don't want to eat it anymore? He would be crushed."  Jacob states. 

"But I know none of us want to keep eating undercooked vegetables and burned meat."

"And those cookies he made were way too sweet. I really don't want to find out what will be next."

"We need to find some way to let him down gently." Changmin suggests. 

Eric decides it is time he shows himself. 

"You guys won't need to do that, I already know." Eric announces, stepping out from behind the coat rack. 

"Eric, why aren't you at school?" Juyeon asks, trying to hide the evidence. 

"I got out of school early today. Do you guys really not like my cooking?" Eric responds. 

The boys all sit there in silence, until their leader decides to speak up. 

"Kiddo, I'm gonna be honest with you." Sangyeon begins, walking over to Eric and putting an arm around his shoulder. 

"We don't like your cooking and we lied to you this whole time because we didn't want to hurt your feelings. You were putting effort into this whole cooking thing and we didn't want to discourage you, so we ate the food even though we didn't want to." Sangyeon explains. 

"We're sorry we lied to you." 

The rest of the members agree and apologize to Eric. 

"It's alright. I'm glad you guys were thinking of me. I really didn't think my cooking was that bad, I guess I probably should have tasted my food first and watched it more carefully." Eric admits. 

"You know, you can still keep cooking. I think it would be better if you started off with some help first though, then you can get better and eventually cook by yourself."

"That sounds like a good idea. Will you guys help me?" Eric replies. 

"Of course we will, squishy." Sangyeon replies, pulling Eric even closer. 

"Can we start tomorrow though? I want pizza today." Eric says. 

"I'll order it!" Haknyeon exclaims, excited to have even more food.