Since Evan confessed he couldn’t cook, he asked from the start to light the fire outside. And he too cheerfully boasted he’d light a magnificent fire and went out.
After assigning a task and safely sending one person out, the words he heard were Louis’s question, “How do I cut onions?”
“Mm. Can you chop them up into small pieces? I’m going to put them in spaghetti. I’ll also ask for the bacon to go with it.”
“Order received! Onions and bacon for the spaghetti.”
Contrary to his worries, hearing Louis’s bright answer, Siwoo moved quickly. He put water on the fire to boil pasta, peeled mushroom skins, and recalled the ingredients they’d bought haphazardly.
“Is this enough?”
Was asking him to cut it appropriately for spaghetti such a difficult request? Louis, whose large eyes had been brimming with tears, shed tears drip-drop while saying those short words. If someone saw, they’d think I made him cry.
“Um… Louis, how about going out to help Evan?”
Seeing the onions cut into several large chunks and the finely minced bacon, Siwoo spoke as gently as possible. Rather, cutting it large like this was better. If he’d minced it like the bacon, that would be more work.
Even in that short time, Louis’s eyes still continuously dripped thick teardrops, perhaps still stinging, and sniffling sounds were coming out.
“Huh? Louis. Are you crying?”
What timing could be more dog-like than this timing? Louis sniffling and wiping tears with the end of his sleeve, and Siwoo watching him like that.
Hyunsu, who was just entering the kitchen, was alternately looking at the two.
“The onions are too spicy.”
“The onions are at fault.”
At the sight of Louis murmuring and approaching Hyunsu going “bweeeh,” and Hyunsu receiving him, only then did Siwoo exhale the breath he’d been holding.
It was a moment where he almost made Phantom’s entire fandom his enemy. They said they’d cut out scenes that seemed problematic, but fandoms were really scary. Those who suffered in nano units found an incredibly large amount of things in videos.
Siwoo went to the onions Louis had stopped cutting and grabbed the knife. If you’ve gotten your two-person portion of screen time, please leave. I want to be alone. It seems I can do it much faster and more deliciously alone.
Spaghetti wasn’t a difficult dish either. Since everyone was making a fuss about being hungry, he planned to simply fill their stomachs with spaghetti while lighting the fire.
When the water boiled, he just had to boil the spaghetti noodles, and stir-fry the prepared mushrooms, onions, and bacon, then just boil it with the spaghetti retort tomato sauce they bought.
I should have just asked Louis to organize the ingredients and cut the onions myself from the start.
“Need help with anything?”
Louis left saying his eyes were too spicy and he was going to wash his face, and Hyunsu, who remained, spoke to him. While doing so, why are you deliberately taking out the bread that was neatly organized on one side, throwing it in the air, catching it, and crushing it? If you crush it like that, I’ll have to press it back to its original shape later.
“It’ll be done once the water boils. Hyung. If it’s okay, can you go out and check if the fire’s lit?”
“Really? Evan’s lighting the fire, right? E~van!”
When Hyunsu waddled out putting inflection on Evan’s name, Siwoo started moving the knife in earnest.
Ah! It really is spicy. It seems spicier than Korean onions.
It seemed even spicier because Louis hadn’t cut it cleanly but as if crushing it. Siwoo raised his head diagonally and blinked several times.
Even while doing so, his hands moved diligently.
“Ugh…”
Unable to touch his eyes, Siwoo’s face was a mess with tears as he put the finely chopped onions into the deep wok. Unfortunately, the top he was wearing now was a short-sleeved plain T-shirt, so unlike Louis, he couldn’t wipe on his sleeve either.
“Sniff.”
It was fortunate if only tears came out—sniffing in the nose that flowed ungracefully together, Siwoo shook his head finely. Done, done. Hurry, hurry. After safely moving the onions to the wok, he just had to quickly put the cutting board in the sink, wash his hands, and wipe the tears.
“Coco?”
Siwoo, who threw the cutting board into the sink, hurriedly turned on the water and washed his hands first. Even while doing so, because of the tears flowing ceaselessly, he tilted his head back and stamped his feet lightly.
“Are you crying?”
Huh? This just happened with Louis and Hyunsu hyung. This part already got screen time. So go away.
“No. I was cutting onions…”
Siwoo’s words, which he was answering, were abruptly cut off by Evan’s action of suddenly approaching forward and cupping his face with both hands. What is this person’s personal space? He’d been tilting his head back anyway because he didn’t like the tears falling, so Evan’s face was right in front.
“…and.”
“Onions?”
Water from the tap was still pouring over Siwoo’s hands as he watched in real-time the surprised muscles of Evan’s face softly relax.
It was already flustering that he just cupped his face, but Evan was wiping his cheeks with his thumbs.
“Evan. How about letting me go now? The water’s boiling and I need to put in the pasta.”
Siwoo pointed with his peripheral vision at the pot making bubbling sounds.
“But is it really onions?”
Evan’s gaze went to the pot and soon Siwoo’s face gained freedom. Sniffling, Siwoo wiped his face with a tissue and picked up the pasta he’d taken out in advance.
“The onions here are really spicy. Did the fire light? Then we need to grill meat. The spaghetti will be ready in about 10 minutes now, so eat this first while grilling the meat.”
Smack—
The problem was that Evan’s hand came into Siwoo’s view as he was speaking while spreading the noodles well so they wouldn’t stick. Right in front, one raw noodle broken off from the spaghetti went into his mouth. Up until watching him eat that tiny thing, he had no thoughts. But when that hand sneakily came back again to take the long noodle he’d set aside as extra, he unknowingly hit the back of that hand.
Ah! What did I just do here?
The end of the long noodle was touching Evan’s lips and Siwoo’s hand remained near the back of his hand. That’s not even tasty and raw noodles aren’t for eating, but it’s not like you’ll die from eating it.
No, I could have just said it with words, what kind of action is this.
“Uhahahaha. I can’t eat this?”
It was a short silence. Both Evan, who got his hand hit, and Siwoo were too flustered. What broke that atmosphere was Evan’s hearty laughter.
“Yes.”
One word popped out from the dazed-looking Siwoo’s mouth.
“Don’t eat?”
With a mischievous expression, Evan bit slightly on the pasta noodle he was still holding. Siwoo stared at Evan and shook his head. No, please eat it.
“Got it. I won’t eat it. The fire’s all lit. Should I take this meat?”
The pasta noodle that just created this strange situation was miserably discarded in the sink. Evan, who was looking around, grabbed the meat piled on one side. Then without listening to Siwoo’s answer, he left the kitchen whistling.
Left alone in the spacious kitchen, Siwoo only rolled his eyes around to steal glances at the cameras installed everywhere. Then with a long sigh, he stood in front of the wok with the onions.
It was a moment that could be sufficiently offensive. Because Evan laughed it off, it flowed as if nothing happened, but he probably needed to properly apologize for hitting the back of his hand. Feeling like things to resolve with Evan kept piling up, Siwoo, who was stir-frying the onions and bacon together, pointlessly looked at the door he’d left through.
Without any further special events, everyone gathered to eat dinner, and after finishing cleaning up, Siwoo entered his assigned room with plodding steps.
Fourteen hours of flight.
Since the camera started properly sticking to him, Siwoo had been in a tense state.
He hadn’t properly unpacked yet, and thanks to having a noisy meat party outdoors, the smell of meat vibrated from his body.
Grabbing his pajamas and entering the bathroom connected to the room, Siwoo pulled the end of his T-shirt to his nose.
Suddenly he remembered what Louis had said about Evan’s pheromone smell. No matter how much he smelled, all there was was the scent of the fabric softener he used and the smell of meat. Something he’d never thought about even once through countless regressions became curious.
It was a very simple thing—what would Evan’s pheromone smell be like?
The schedule didn’t end even after showering. The cameras filling the accommodation were all turned off, but the PD and filming members all gathered in the living room.
Everyone was definitely professionals. The appearances of noisily chattering and laughing with high tension just moments ago were gone. They didn’t hide expressing that they were tired and wanted to rest.
Since there were no cameras either, the blunt Yechan was lying spread-eagle on the living room floor without hiding his frame that exceeded 190cm.
Each time he breathed in and out, his chest muscles trained through exercise moved up and down, so Louis, who was squatting beside him, kept poking his chest.
“Oh. Really hard.”
“Wait and see.”
It was an instant for Yechan, who had been sprawled out like limp seaweed just moments ago, to suddenly get into push-up position.
“Hey hey. Will that even count as exercise? Louis. It’s fine, so sit on top of him. A guy whose hobby is exercise should be able to do that much.”
At Luca’s instigation from the side, Louis asked “Is that okay?” and climbed onto Yechan’s back.
Where did the people who were just saying they were tired and exhausted go—Yechan’s push-ups continued. With everyone’s eyes gathered, even Ian with a playful expression climbed onto Yechan’s back.
No matter how much of an exercise fanatic Yechan was, doing push-ups with two people on his back was too much. Perhaps as a last pride, with his arms extended, everyone burst into laughter at his trembling appearance.
Perhaps competition suddenly arose, as following Yechan, Hyunsu stepped up saying he’d try this time. Unlike his big talk, at the sight of Hyunsu wobbling unable to endure as soon as Louis climbed on, Ian had to wipe tears from rolling on the floor laughing.
