A Little Something Extra

            When I got home from work—or rather, the work I’m doing for my enlistment—I walked into the kitchen and noticed that Ryeowook was just starting to prep for dinner.  He was chopping some vegetables.  I walked over and picked up a piece, popping it into my mouth.

            “Don’t steal all the food or there won’t be enough to go into the dish,” Ryeowook warned me.  “I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet.”

            I watched my husband chopping for a moment.  He was so thin in comparison to most people I knew and yet, he ate the same food that I did.  Perhaps a little less.  Okay, perhaps a lot less, but I’ve gone two years without eating his cooking, which is my favorite thing in the world…besides him.

            “Could you make something a little healthier today?”

            Ryeowook stopped chopping and looked over at me.  It’s humanly possible I’ve never asked him something like that before.  “You don’t even know what I’m making.”

            I walked over to the cupboard to get a glass.  I was terribly dehydrated and would normally drink a glass of wine—or bottle—after work, but it contained so many calories.  Water had none.  “I know, but whatever you’re making, can you just make a healthier version of it.  Right?”

            Ryeowook stared at me, watching as I filled a glass of water and drank half of it.  “Kyuhyun.”

            “What?”

            “You aren’t fat.”

            I sighed heavily.  “I know you don’t think I’m fat, but a lot of the fans commented on how chubby I look!  I love your cooking, but I think you’ve been spoiling me a little since you returned home.  They aren’t wrong.  I have gained weight!”

            Ryeowook set his knife down on the cutting board and walked over to me.  He reached up and cupped my cheeks with his hands.  “You were really thin when I returned home and it looked like you hadn’t eaten anything remotely healthy in…”

            “Two years,” I honestly supplied.  If I cooked anything for myself, it was ramen.  And that didn’t taste very good, so I didn’t do it much.  Most of the time, I just bought food from a restaurant on my way home. 

            “You are much healthier now, since your food is unprocessed and contains so many healthy ingredients, like vegetables.  If you have gained a little more weight, it’s simply because you’re sitting behind a desk most of the time and then you come home to play video games.  You don’t walk around enough.”

            I didn’t have a good response, so I just kept my mouth shut.  I wasn’t burning the calories that I normally did, when Super Junior was promoting music and had dance practices. 

            “I will cut down on the amount of fat and salt that’s in the dish, if that’s really what you want, and add more vegetables instead of meat.  But only if you realize that it is just a healthier choice and you do not need to suddenly crash diet.  There’s nothing wrong with how you look.”

            “You have to say that.  You’re married to me,” I pointed out.

            “I do not have to tell you that you look good when you don’t and I promise that I won’t.  If I think you’ve gained too much weight, I will encourage you to work out with me and change your diet without consulting you.  But I think you look perfect.”

            “Promise?”

            He nodded.  Then he rose up onto his tiptoes and kissed me. 

            I changed into regular clothes.  Then I headed into the living room and picked out a game to play.  I told myself, for every time my player died, I would do ten sit-ups.  As it turned out, I never played as well as I did that night.  I never lost once.  Ryeowook finally told me to turn the damn thing off at two in the morning and come to bed.

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