-"I'm definitely not questioning your cooking skills Kai... But are you quite sure this is edible?" You ask as you poke at the soggy brown mess in the container with your fork, wincing as the substance makes sloshing sounds due to the movement.
-"It's not funny," Kai glares at you. "I'm sure I followed the recipe perfectly. Besides, you're the one who dared me to enter for a cooking contest. This makes you my priority guinea pig."
-"What did the recipe include, exactly?" You enquire, still not convinced about the dish prepared by your best friend.
-"Cabbage, eggs, salt, olive oil, a few herbs, water and some pretty harmless stuff," Kai answers haughtily. "Also, just to make sure everything's fresh, I used ingredients from Kyungsoo's cupboard."
At the mention of Kyungsoo's cupboard, your wariness towards the dish goes down: Do Kyungsoo is the most meticulous student in cooking class and always uses products of the best quality to cook. You take a deep breath, plunge your fork in the dish and bring it back to your mouth but stop halfway as you realize that while the ingredients might be Kyungsoo's the cook is still your walking disaster of a best friend, who can effortlessly reduce instant noodles to charcoal.
-"What now?" Kai questions in exasperation as he sees you hesitating.
You do not answer and instead fold your hands in prayer, pleading to the legend of the twelve forces to protect your life such that the after world does not open up to you at such a young age. You see Kai rolling his eyes at your overly dramatic behavior but ignore him: your survival is much more important than his ego. After these much-needed prayers, you finally summon up all your courage and sample the dish. You instantly come up with the conclusion that it tastes strange, but that is only to be expected, you think: when has cabbage ever tasted normal?
In order to get a better idea of the taste, you have another forkful of the dish and realize it could have been much worse, considering Kai's previous cooking attempts. Realizing Kai is looking at you expectantly; you swallow and tell him with the finesse of an educated food critic: "It's not too bad for a first attempt... I think you got some of the amounts of seasoning wrong though. I think some of the flavors are too potent while others tend to get lost... Refine your technique, young amateur."
Kai opens his mouth to retort when Kris, the third member of your little friend circle, drops in an empty seat next to you, his usual stoic expression missing as he grins evilly at both of you.
-"What's up, Kris?" Kai asks while you delicately bring a third forkful of Kai's dish to your mouth, deciding it was definitely an acquired taste.
-"You know how Kyungsoo is the only contestant apart from Kai in the cooking contest? What happened is that there's no way Kyungsoo is going to win this!" Kris answers with a giddy smile that is ill-befitting to his intimidating face.
-"And why is that?" You ask amused, still eating the food as Kai leans forward to hear Kris better. While you do agree the dish has a unique taste, you think the probability of it being better than anything Kyungsoo cooks is close to zero.
-"Because I substituted some of the ingredients in his cupboard for others!" Kris announces triumphantly.
-"Elaborate on that, please," you whisper as you stop chewing the food in your mouth, heart filling with a sense of dread as you notice the way Kai's face also blanched.
-"Well," he says. "I exchanged the fresh eggs for ones that were a few days past their recommended date, olive oil with mustard oil, mineral water with soapy water, salt with ground chalk- Wait, where are you going?" He yells after you as you bolt from your seat, hands clasped over your mouth as you sprint towards the nearest washroom to purge your body of the contents of the dish, with Kai running after you while shouting apologies.