Kudos if you made it past the last chapter! Here is to meeting Jeno, an introduction to the rest of our cooks, and a reminder that even if failure comes our way, don't feel espresso depresso :) 

NEO COOKING TECHNIQUE ACADEMY

After a few wails of goodbyes and the same backpack I came with, I left Asian Street and went on my way with Director Kyungsoo to the new renovated building of Neo Cooking Technique academy. He was chattering on how his students were his prized glory, and they were all amazing in what they did.

“Will you teach me how to dry heat?”

“Yes, Bunny.”

“How about how to saute?”

“Yes, Bunny. We will have to evaluate your current skills first, and then we’ll see.”

We reached the academy after the train ride, and I followed Kyungsoo while dragging my bag with me. There were white buildings, and screens everywhere. I saw a few photos of star students on the screen.

“The bakers are at the left wing. A warm bunch, they are. Here it is,” he motioned to a bulletin board. “Na Jaemin and Jungwoo. Jaemin is amazing with vegan pastries as well. Jungwoo makes the best sponge cakes. He was sent off to America to compete in “Bake a Cake Season 4”.”

I had no idea how to bake a cake. The only cake I knew how to bake was the one you popped into a microwave in a mug with crunched up oreos and milk. I saw it on Tiktok.

“French Cuisine is taught by Park Nabi.” We both stopped in front of a kitchen classroom; a female with her long hair tied back, with strands framing her face looking up to notice us. “Here she is…”

“Director…” Park Nabi had an ambience of elegance to her, the female giving me a soft smile. “Finally got a new student? It’s been a while. Not since you’ve got Chenle last year.”

“This is Kim Bunny, today will mark her first day at NCT academy.”

Oh thank god he referred it to “NCT academy” instead of “Neo Cooking Technique Academy”. The latter was a mouthful! I did not say that, and gave her a shy bow.

“This Park Nabi, Bunny. She studied in Le Cordon Bleu for three years, then moved to France to learn about French cuisine.” Kyungsoo looked proud of her. “She wanted to be closer to home, so she moved back, and agreed to teach the french cuisine classes for the newcomers.”

“To which I am teaching to senior students because we haven’t had newcomers in awhile,” she quipped. Kyungsoo told her not to be too passive aggressive.

“All the more to polish their skills. Cooking is a never ending journey of development,” Kyungsoo said.

“Nice try,” she commented before turning to me and extended her hand. I took her hand gingerly. “You have nice hands,” she observed. “Do you bake for a living?”

I shook my head, giving her hand a shake before retracting it. She had her eyes strained on me as if she was trying to figure me out.

“Interesting,” she replied almost instantly, and I could feel the air tense up with a little bit of judgment. As pretty as Park Nabi was, she had an aura of someone that was somewhat similar to my brother. She seemed perfect.

A scream echoed from one of the hallways, and I jolted up like a scared bunny when a female stomped out of the room. Her long black hair was curled at the edges, and her perfect painted red lips and dark eyeliner were put on perfectly.

Despite it being a culinary school, she had perfectly manicured nails and dangly earrings. Her hands were on her hips, and I could swear that I could see fumes coming out from her ears.

“Holy ? Why are second years so annoying?” She spoke, ending each sentence with a high note. “I told Chenle to slice the beef thinly. Thinly.” She enunciated the word. “He decided to chop it up, and drop it on the pan without oiling it. Now guess who has to scrape off beef scrap from the pan!”

“You?”

“Definitely not me, Kyungsoo.” She wagged her finger at Director Kyungsoo when she saw me. She pointed at me. “Wow, you work fast, dude.”

“Dana, please refer to our director on formal terms,” Nabi warned. I felt Dana’s eyes on me, and I shuddered at how intense her gaze was. “This is Bunny. Bunny, this is Oh Dana. You might know Oh Sehun from ‘The Final Table’. This is his younger sister.”

My jaw dropped wide open. Oh, I knew Oh Dana, alright! She came from a family that had a chain of restaurants in Shanghai. When she was 12, Oh Dana entered a prodigy cooking show. It was rumored she was trained under Gordan Ramsey, who later starred as one of the judges of the show.

“You were the girl who went viral on Tiktok!” I exclaimed excitedly, my arms shaking rapidly. “Gordan Ramsey insulted your donut because you baked it and instead of shaping it due to the time restraint, you stuck your finger into the dough to make the hole!”

She raised her eyes at me. Once Oh Dana got eliminated due to her poorly shaped donut, she insulted Gordam Ramsey on live camera.

“Hey, in my defense,” she hissed. “I. do. not. bake. Besides, if you want someone to bake then, I don’t know? Go to Na Jaemin?”

“No need for profanities, Dana. I’m taking Bunny over to her first test.” Kyungsoo said it in a little bit of a too chillax manner, and just from hearing the word “test”, I felt the sudden anxiety settle on the bit of my stomach.

“Test?” My voice rose. “What test? No one said anything about a test! I have… test anxiety!”

It would all be fine, Bunny. That was what Kyungsoo said. He told me to trust him.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

EVALUATION ROOM

I should not have trusted Kyungsoo, because in ten minutes, I was sitting in front of a bunch of people staring at me while I had food laid out on the table in front of me. I didn’t even get to process the introduction.

“The name is Johnny. Johnny Suh.” The tall man wearing an apron and smelling like a grilled cheese sandwich thundered with a dad-like authority. “I specialize in breakfast…. What are you doing?”

I was standing on my tippy toes, sniffing his shoulder. “You also smell like breakfast.”

Johnny placed a finger on my forehead, and pushed me away. Nabi explained to me that by breakfast, she meant everything for breakfast. From eggs, to brunch menus, to homey recipes

Dana scoffed from the sidelines. “Johnny invented the piffle. Like, what exactly is a piffle, Johnny?”

At Dana’s comment, Johnny’s nostril flared. Even if those two looked like they would kill each other, I saw how Dana stuck her tongue playfully out at him. I also saw how Johnny took a deep breath, placing a hand on his heart as if to calm it down.

“It is a cross between a pizza and a waffle. Now if you do not like that much. Maybe you shouldn’t eat it next time you sleep ove—”

“Do I get to join if you guys have sleepovers?” I asked. “I would love to try a piffle!”

“No, it’s a private sleepover.” Johnny stared at me. “And usually it’s only Dana who gets invited.”

“Alright, Johnny,” another man said, cutting Johnny off. Dana’s face looked red. They must be really good friends to have sleepovers! “My name is Nakamoto Yuta, and I specialize in… fish. Seafood. Anything that comes from the sea. This test is simply here to make sure you are able to grasp the basics of culinary arts. That is Kun.”

Another stoic looking man next to Nakamoto Yuta. He gave me a small nod, and I saw a small sauce on the tip of his finger. He was taking in the smell, the gears in his head turning.

“He recruited all of the Chinese members. He specializes in herbs, fermentation, and sauces. Combining and utilizing the flavors of each ingredient. Have you heard of Laoganma? One of his students, Chenle, invented it.”

“Cacti…” Kun murmured. “Who put cacti in the sauce?”

Before anyone answered, Kyungsoo had entered the room. The start of the test was easy enough– I had to fry an egg. The white had to be fully cooked, but the yolk must be runny. I was brought back to the memories of my grandmother, how she would teach me to count the seconds so I knew when to turn off the stove.

“Pass.” Johnny ticked something on his clipboard. “Funny how Mark Lee failed this test, and now he’s one of the best home chef’s in the academy.”

A few of the other tests that followed were based on stamina, technique. I had to whip my own whipped cream, sweat beading from my forehead. My tongue stuck out the side of my mouth, and I placed a lot of my strength in whipping the whipped cream.

Soon after, I went through blind tasting (which I ed up reaaaaaaaaaaal bad).

“It’s a cake!” I announced after eating a bite. “It’s spongy and moist! Is it a piffle?”

“Not everything is piffle, Bunny.”

I called out. “Cinnamon! I taste cinnamon!”

“Yes, Pigtails!” Dana cheered from the side. “You go, girl! Johnny, give her some points!”

“And pistachio.” I paused, chewing on the little amount of pastry that was given to me. “And lil’ bit of brown sugar, because white sugar is for the classy ones…. Huh, why did you add salt?”

“I didn’t,” Kun replied, his nose scrunching up before he pointed to Johnny. “Did you?”

“I didn’t.” Johnny raised both his hands into the air.

“One of you did!” I pointed at one of them (Honestly, I did not know who because I could, for the god of me, not remember their names). “Oh, peach?”

A shake of their heads. “Banana.”

“Banana? This tastes nothing like banana!”

The end of the test ended with Yuta telling me to debone a fish. I had no idea how. I deboned it how my grandmother taught me. She would take the fish and massage it with her fingers until the bones stuck out, and I did just that.

I removed them one by one.

But I guess that was not how it was done, because the test ended with them telling me I failed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lee Haechan, The Butcher Boy

It was time for the second years to choose their team for evaluations. Haechan loved it. Life was boring without competition. Oh Dana, his favorite mentor had just arrived, complaining about some new girl that Kyungsoo brought in.

“She’s can’t even debone a fish properly,” Dana complained, slamming her clipboard against the table before clapping her hands twice. Haechan heard about the new girl, but if she was anything like the rest of those who came for the glory… She wouldn’t last a day.

“We’re allocating teams. Team A’s evaluation will be today. Team B’s will be tomorrow.” Oh Dana snapped her fingers, her elegant fingers going up to her face to make an “I see you” motion towards Jeno and Haechan. “If both of you start anything, I can assure you that both of you will end up on a hospital bed, and I’ll be in jail.”

Haechan was fine with any team; he was one of their top students after all. He just hoped he wouldn’t be in the same team as Jeno. Last time that happened, both of them ended up on the ground with blood coming out of their noses. Park Nabi had to slam two pots above them to stop them from wrestling.

“And the dish for this quarter’s evaluation will be…” Dana paused, drumming her fingers on the table. “Tacos. Let’s…ing….go!”

“Dibs on Mark!” Chenle called out. “Just because I don’t want to be paired with Haechan or Jeno.”

“Nuh-uh. We’ll go the fairest way. Everyone of you pick a stick.”

Haechan went first, the male grabbing a stick and reading the name on it before he scowled. He turned to Na Jaemin.

“I got the baker?” Haechan whined, Jaemin’s jaw dropping open at the sound of Haechan complaining about them being on the same team.

“Excuse you?” Jaemin asked shrilly. He stood up, hands on his hips. “Listen, butcher boy. What exactly do you do? Whack beef?”

Haechan was not necessarily fond of the two J’s. Jaemin and Jeno were known to be best friends, while he was with Mark. The competition between them– Okay, scratch that. The competition was always between Haechan and Jeno. Mark never cared, and Jaemin… Jaemin just loved the drama, so he was always around.

Jaemin toddled over to Haechan, hands still on his hips to show to him how displeased he was at being teamed up with him. He grabbed a stick, reading out the name.

“Renjun.”

Haechan rolled his eyes. Great. ing great.

Renjun specialized in fine dining. Cooking was an art to him, but the problem with him was that all his portions were bite-sized. He had something to pick with everyone who cooked anything bigger than his thumb.

He was with the baker and the artist, Jeno getting paired with the home-chef and the sauce master.

Renjun, the Artist 
Jaemin, the Baker

“Team B, please leave the venue. Team A, stay right here while I give you the dish for your evaluation.”

It didn’t take long, Haechan watching Jeno give him one last look before smirking. The pit of Haechan’s stomach boiled, the male running his tongue over his teeth when Dana announced the dish.

“Tacos.”

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tacos… Tacos should be easy,” Jaemin chattered, his arms flailing around in sudden panic. “What do tacos have?”

“Tortilla’s,” Renjun answered. “There are three taco elements. The tortillas, the protein in the taco, and the salsa. Can you make tortillas? You’re a baker.”

“I bake pastries,” Jaemin hissed, a hand going to massage the top of his head. “I think I’ve made it once when I went to that trip to Mexico, and fell in love with this hot chick named named Esperanza—”

“This is not the time for another one of your preposterous stories,” Haechan grumbled, Jaemin whipping around to counter him.

“Mind you, there is nothing preposterous about my stories compared to how you cooked a meal for the squirrels in your backyard when you were 8, and they gave you a standing ovation!”

“Guys… I’m not sure if you’ve forgotten, but we’re having an evaluation?” Renjun pushed both of them away, grabbing a bunch of ingredients. “And unlike all of you, I have my dreams set to go to Auguste Escoffier and to cook for the President of the United States.”

“Let’s use beef for protein,” Haechan said, going for the easy choice. It was a choice he was used to.

Jaemin let out a guffaw. “Will you look at that! Butcher boy using beef–”

“WE ARE ON THE SAME TEAM!” Renjun bellowed from where he was at. “NOW… COOK!”

Five minutes later

“Let’s do a running theme of corn, and a running theme of beef. What do you think about that?” Jaemin asked, taking corn and removing the top part before shoving it into a bowl of warm water to soften it up.

“Sounds good,” Renjun answered, his fingers rapidly cutting up the tomatoes and lettuce. “The salsa is the crown of the dish. I’ll prep the vegetables for it…. Haechan? What on earth is that?”

Haechan had decided to try a new thing. The male had grabbed a handful of crickets, throwing them into a pan and adding oil. The pan heated up, his fingers going to the dial and turning it to the right for full heat.

Fire soared high, Jaemin screeching when he felt the sudden rise of heat, the male moving away from Haechan before skittering away. Haechan flicked his wrist, watching the crickets suspend midair, before landing down onto the pan with a soft plop.

“What are we making here?” Dana asked, watching her students frantically move around the kitchen. Jaemin was fighting with corn. Renjun had prepped the vegetables, washed and cut them into pieces.

“Tacos, woman. Get out of the way!” Jaemin slammed the corn onto the table. “I need to make corn taco shells, but it seems like we have no corn flour.”

That complicated