He felt his smile grow when he heard Misono shriek, followed by a more unfamiliar shriek, the stalker friend, Yesung guessed. So he'd surprised them. He was taking his coat off when Misono skidded to a stop in front of him. "Do I get chocolate, too?" he asked when she started blathering about who they'd made it for. Yum, chocolate.
Of course he had some reservations about the sukiwhatever, but Misono had been pretty good to her word and had stopped making weird Korean food, so maybe this would be good. He'd just taken his scarf off when she grabbed his hand. "Of course I'll say hi to Meisa." And maybe get some water before collapsing. He didn't remember getting so tired so easily before he'd broken his ribs. Before, four hours were nothing; he was used to doubles and sitting awake all night and coming back in like it was nothing.
"Hi, Meisa," Yesung greeted when Misono pulled him in the kitchen. Her arms were full of bowls and he wasn't sure, but there may have been some kind of filling on her face. "Work's pretty good. How've you been?" He pulled a glass out of the cabinet.
Did he get chocolate? Misono giggled again. He was going to get the most chocolate. The most ever. But that was a secret for Monday. "You can sample!" she offered, hiding another giggle.
She scooted around Yesung and went back to gathering dishes to wash. She didn't speak, wanting to let Meisa and Yesung talk to each other. And also, she wanted to watch Yesung as he filled his glass. He looked so tired. He was probably going to go to bed super early again. Dumping the dishes into the sink she started the water. "You should go sit, Yesung. I'll bring you another glass of water and we can have dinner." She moved to the table and picked up one of the chocolate hearts sitting out still. "It's jam in the middle," she said, offering it out. "You can sample one now and one after dinner if you want!"
Turning to Meisa she smiled, "You can go sit with Yesung! I'll get the dishes started and bring out drinks!"
The jam on Meisa's face was probably from earlier when blowing her hair out of her face hadn't worked and she had finally given up and brushed it back with her hand. Yesung was looking at her oddly. "Do I have something on my face?" Weird. Why was it that she felt like she had asked him this before?
"Work has been hectic lately. Cold and flu season is in full swing." She smiled, shrugged, and said something similar to what she had told Aiba last week, "What can you do? People get sick."
"That's the blueberry filled one," Meisa informed Yesung before turning to Misono. "Are you sure? I can help clean up if you need it."
"Yeah, something just about here," he said, motioning towards his cheek, before taking the chocolate Misono offered. He popped it in his mouth. "Delicious." He wondered if there was a way he could beg for more...
He finished his glass of water and refilled it. "I haven't had a cold in years," Yesung said. Not since he'd been turned. "But there's one going around my work right now. Two of our cooks have been out."
Misono had thought the swipe of jam on Meisa's cheek was cute. She was pretty sure she had syrup in her hair, herself. But she beamed when Yesung pronounced the chocolate delicious. She couldn't resist him in the slightest. She held out one of the macadamia truffles. "Try this one!" she offered. She wanted to see if he liked them; she'd--oh, crap! "Because I'm thinking of handing these out at Come Again!" she covered. Not because you're getting lots of them, she thought.
She waited until he took it before taking the bowls from Meisa. "I can get the dishes! I seriously can! I can wash them while we eat. You and Yesung go get comfortable." He was on his second glass of water--he was definitely going to sleep early. "Even if he never gets sick, Yesung should still relax! And Meisa-chan, too! You work hard, too! I'll get drinks and bring the eggs and even some chocolates, maybe. Leave everything to me!" Kitty von Catcat meowed. "To us. C'mon, Kitty von Catcat, you can make sure I've got everything all set to go!"
"Thanks," Meisa mumbled as she wiped the jam from her cheek. She almost giggled at Misono's cover, knowing that a bunch of the macadamia truffles were going to Yesung.
"You're sure?" she questioned, almost insisting that she help. But Misono had that look in her eye that Meisa had learned earlier meant business so the dishes and everything else were going to be done in no time at all. Smiling, she turned to Yesung. "The Captain has given orders, let's go check on the sukiyaki."
Once the two of them were out in the living room, Meisa lifted the lid to check on everything, moving some food about with the chopsticks on the side. It smelled delicious. "So," she started, looking at Yesung with concern, "Misono-san said that you've been getting a lot of headaches and have been tired. Have you though about going to the doctor's to get checked out?"
Yesung followed Meisa out of the kitchen when Misono started standing up straighter. He had lots of experience in cooking with Misono, and when she said out, she meant then. He bit into the chocolate in his hand. "Macadamia nuts!" Maybe he'd stop by Come Again tomorrow after work, if he wasn't too tired.
He had just sat on the couch when Meisa started with the doctor talk. "I hadn't really thought about going to get checked out. I broke my ribs and they're taking a while to heal." Turning into a (much less scary!) monster probably hadn't helped the healing process any. "And maybe the weather is getting to me." And it wasn't like he was sick, just a little tired. And achy. And thirsty. He took another drink of his water. "I'm sure I'll be fine." He gave her his most winsome smile.
It didn't take long to gather together the stuff for drinks or the small bowl of eggs to use for dipping. "Is that everything?" she asked, looking to the cat. The cat meowed back at her. "Right!" She leaned around to peek into the other room. "Did you want--" she stopped. Yesung was smiling at Meisa. "Yesung! You're too cute when you smile like that! You can't smile at Meisa-chan that way! She's got a boyfriend now!" she shook her head at him, grinning.
The look on his face and on Meisa's almost made her forget what she'd been about to ask. "Ah! Did you want more water or did you want a coffee, Yesung? Meisa-chan, do you want a coffee?" Misono was going to have tea, herself. Though they probably should have had beer. Beer went great with sukiyaki! "Or there's milk! Juice?" Kitty von Catcat meowed at her again. "You're not getting milk--it's not good for you. You have your water," she said seriously. "That's good enough on a night when you're getting egg and sukiyaki."
She ducked back into the kitchen--they could just call out what they wanted to drink while she set the little tray and gathered an assortment of chocolates for after dinner.
"Have you gotten your ribs checked?!" she wasn't sure if Misono knew healing magic or not, but broken ribs were serious! Winsome smile or not, Meisa said quietly as Misono approached (in the same tone of voice she used to talk reluctant patients into getting admitted into the hospital for observation), "If it gets worse, please get checked out. For Misono's sake?"
She wondered why it sounded like Yesung hated getting checked out by a doctor as Misono asked about drinks. Laughing at Kitty von Catcat's attempt for milk, she called out to Misono's retreating back, "Tea? If you have any? But coffee is fine if you don't!"
Turning back to Yesung, Meisa told him, "If you guys have beer, beer is good with sukiyaki."
"Right after it happened," he told Meisa. "They said it'd take forever before they felt normal again." They'd felt pretty good until the full moon, and now they didn't hurt as bad as they had at the height of his injury, so he figured they were going to heal up eventually. He didn't want to say anything and agree to get checked out again; ugh, doctors.
"Coffee sounds good," Yesung called back to Misono. Coffee, elixir of the gods.
"I've never had sukiyaki before," he told Meisa. He had to admit, it smelled much better than some of the stuff Misono had made early on in them being a family.
The coffee was still warm from making the tiramisu filling from earlier and Misono poured that, as well as the tea, into some of her moustache mugs. Really, Yesung and Meisa were too cute with them. Yesung and Meisa. She paused in the door and watched the way Meisa was looking at Yesung. Something about it wasn't...it wasn't unfriendly but it wasn't friends either. Doctor face, she realized.
"We don't have beer," Misono said, carrying the tray in and setting it beside the donabe before beginning to pass out the bowls and eggs and cups. "Yesung doesn't drink 'cause he worries about stuff." She didn't add that she didn't drink because there had once been a 'no beer, Misono!' rule. That had been years and years ago. "But it does go good with sukiyaki!" She had had the feeling that Yesung might not have had it before. Aside from the fact that it was Japanese and he was American, he was ALSO Korean.
She knelt down beside the coffee table and pulled two of the small dishes toward her. She cracked an egg into the first and set the shell on the tray before whisking the egg with her chopsticks. She transfered bits of it to the other dish. "This is for Kitty von Catcat," she said as she poked into the nabe itself for some meat. "She can't exactly pick what she wants and then dip so she gets it all together. I'm not feeding you like a baby!" she told the cat. She looked at Yesung. "You don't have to dip in the egg. It's good that way but you don't have to."
Finding the small bits of beef she'd put into the pot specifically for their cat, she set them into the dish and set it on the floor for Kitty von Catcat. "You can pick whatever you want," she told Yesung. "But I always eat the noodles last, after they soak up the broth the most." She picked up a mushroom for herself. "Itadakimasu~!" she said. Then she smiled. "I'm no good at going last," she informed them.
Meisa would be the first to admit that she sometimes slipped into doctor mode with her friends. It was mostly unconscious and really came out only when she was concerned about her friends. While she and Yesung weren't exactly friends yet, Yesung was Misono's family. It eased her mind to know that he had gotten the ribs checked out at least even as she wondered what he had against her profession.
"I hope you don't mind, it's Japanese and Misono said you weren't very fond of Asian foods." He was probably the first person Meisa had ever met who didn't like Asian food. "I suggested pizza instead, but she said hotpot should be fine and I haven't had it in sooo long."
She looked up when Misono came back and took what was passed to her. "Thank you!" Cracking the egg, she beat it with her chopsticks as she watched Misono talk to Kitty von Catcat in amusement. "Are those two always like this?" she asked Yesung, taking a piece of meat for herself after Misono pulled out a mushroom.
"Itadakimasu~!" she echoed Misono. Meisa didn't normally say it anymore, but gathered around the donabe, it felt proper to say it.
"I'll survive," Yesung said, taking the cup of coffee from Misono. Not that he wanted to seem selfless or anything, because really, he didn't hate every single thing Misono had ever made, just some things made him really uncomfortable. So far, he hadn't heard anything about this that would turn him away from it. He wasn't passing judgment yet though. If he found an eyeball or something, he was done.
Or maybe raw egg. They were eating raw egg. He did his best not to make a face when Misono said he could skip the egg. This was still nothing compared to the baby slime, though. Beside the raw egg, this even smelled okay.
"They're always like this," Yesung told Meisa, distractedly, leaning forward to see what was in the pot. "Sometimes I think Kitty von Catcat really understands her." It didn't look too strange, kind of like stew. He used his fork to stab something green and pull it out. He tried to smell it discreetly before popping it in his mouth. Huh, not too bad. Definitely not kimchi soup, which he was very thankful for.
Misono beamed as she watched both Meisa and Yesung eat. She'd known that Meisa would like it but she'd been a bit worried about Yesung. Especially since he was tired and thirsty and probably had a headache, she'd worried that he wasn't going to like it and be disappointed.
She poked into the pot again, managing to wrap some chrysanthemum leaves in a bit of meat before lifting it out and dipping it in her egg. "You know what's funny? Except for Kitty von Catcat, we all get to work on Valentine's Day. Aiba-chan and I are both going to be working all day because people have a lot of sex on Valentine's, you know." Misono suddenly stopped in mid-chew and looked at Meisa from under her lashes. Well. She wasn't going to think about that. Nope. She leaned against Yesung and looked up at him. Her beautiful, sweet Yesung. "If you wanna bring somebody home, you can say and I can go somewhere else for Valentine's night. Osaka-kun said girlfriend-chan is busy." She swallowed her bite and went looking for some tofu.
Meisa dipped the meat into her egg and popped it into her mouth. Mmmmn. It reminded her of home. She wondered briefly if Toma would be willing to try it if she made it. Sukiyaki wasn't terribly difficult to make, she couldn't mess it up too badly.
"Is that so? They're a pretty funny combination," she said, waiting for Yesung to pull out some food before going in for a mushroom and some negi with her chopsticks. Briefly, she made eye contact with Misono as she brought the chopsticks to her mouth. Misono was sort of looking at her funny. Did Meisa have something on her face again? But then her friend was looking up at Yesung before Meisa could ask and... and telling him it was okay for him to bring somebody home for Valentine's.
She blushed, unsure if she should be listening, and decided to focus on getting some noodles out from the pot.
"Yeah, they're a riot sometimes." Yesung glanced at Kitty von Catcat, who was very interested in her bowl, before he started digging around the pot again.
He'd just pulled out a piece of meat (pleasant! Beef!) when Misono offered to scram for the evening. "No, that's alright. I figured we'd just have dinner here," he said, not having any plans whatsoever to ever bring someone to the Jade Palace. "Unless you have plans with Osaka-kun already." Which would be disappointing, but not the end of the world. He wondered who Osaka-kun was; Misono had been talking about him a lot lately.
Of course he had some reservations about the sukiwhatever, but Misono had been pretty good to her word and had stopped making weird Korean food, so maybe this would be good. He'd just taken his scarf off when she grabbed his hand. "Of course I'll say hi to Meisa." And maybe get some water before collapsing. He didn't remember getting so tired so easily before he'd broken his ribs. Before, four hours were nothing; he was used to doubles and sitting awake all night and coming back in like it was nothing.
"Hi, Meisa," Yesung greeted when Misono pulled him in the kitchen. Her arms were full of bowls and he wasn't sure, but there may have been some kind of filling on her face. "Work's pretty good. How've you been?" He pulled a glass out of the cabinet.
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She scooted around Yesung and went back to gathering dishes to wash. She didn't speak, wanting to let Meisa and Yesung talk to each other. And also, she wanted to watch Yesung as he filled his glass. He looked so tired. He was probably going to go to bed super early again. Dumping the dishes into the sink she started the water. "You should go sit, Yesung. I'll bring you another glass of water and we can have dinner." She moved to the table and picked up one of the chocolate hearts sitting out still. "It's jam in the middle," she said, offering it out. "You can sample one now and one after dinner if you want!"
Turning to Meisa she smiled, "You can go sit with Yesung! I'll get the dishes started and bring out drinks!"
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"Work has been hectic lately. Cold and flu season is in full swing." She smiled, shrugged, and said something similar to what she had told Aiba last week, "What can you do? People get sick."
"That's the blueberry filled one," Meisa informed Yesung before turning to Misono. "Are you sure? I can help clean up if you need it."
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He finished his glass of water and refilled it. "I haven't had a cold in years," Yesung said. Not since he'd been turned. "But there's one going around my work right now. Two of our cooks have been out."
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She waited until he took it before taking the bowls from Meisa. "I can get the dishes! I seriously can! I can wash them while we eat. You and Yesung go get comfortable." He was on his second glass of water--he was definitely going to sleep early. "Even if he never gets sick, Yesung should still relax! And Meisa-chan, too! You work hard, too! I'll get drinks and bring the eggs and even some chocolates, maybe. Leave everything to me!" Kitty von Catcat meowed. "To us. C'mon, Kitty von Catcat, you can make sure I've got everything all set to go!"
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"You're sure?" she questioned, almost insisting that she help. But Misono had that look in her eye that Meisa had learned earlier meant business so the dishes and everything else were going to be done in no time at all. Smiling, she turned to Yesung. "The Captain has given orders, let's go check on the sukiyaki."
Once the two of them were out in the living room, Meisa lifted the lid to check on everything, moving some food about with the chopsticks on the side. It smelled delicious. "So," she started, looking at Yesung with concern, "Misono-san said that you've been getting a lot of headaches and have been tired. Have you though about going to the doctor's to get checked out?"
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He had just sat on the couch when Meisa started with the doctor talk. "I hadn't really thought about going to get checked out. I broke my ribs and they're taking a while to heal." Turning into a (much less scary!) monster probably hadn't helped the healing process any. "And maybe the weather is getting to me." And it wasn't like he was sick, just a little tired. And achy. And thirsty. He took another drink of his water. "I'm sure I'll be fine." He gave her his most winsome smile.
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The look on his face and on Meisa's almost made her forget what she'd been about to ask. "Ah! Did you want more water or did you want a coffee, Yesung? Meisa-chan, do you want a coffee?" Misono was going to have tea, herself. Though they probably should have had beer. Beer went great with sukiyaki! "Or there's milk! Juice?" Kitty von Catcat meowed at her again. "You're not getting milk--it's not good for you. You have your water," she said seriously. "That's good enough on a night when you're getting egg and sukiyaki."
She ducked back into the kitchen--they could just call out what they wanted to drink while she set the little tray and gathered an assortment of chocolates for after dinner.
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She wondered why it sounded like Yesung hated getting checked out by a doctor as Misono asked about drinks. Laughing at Kitty von Catcat's attempt for milk, she called out to Misono's retreating back, "Tea? If you have any? But coffee is fine if you don't!"
Turning back to Yesung, Meisa told him, "If you guys have beer, beer is good with sukiyaki."
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"Coffee sounds good," Yesung called back to Misono. Coffee, elixir of the gods.
"I've never had sukiyaki before," he told Meisa. He had to admit, it smelled much better than some of the stuff Misono had made early on in them being a family.
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"We don't have beer," Misono said, carrying the tray in and setting it beside the donabe before beginning to pass out the bowls and eggs and cups. "Yesung doesn't drink 'cause he worries about stuff." She didn't add that she didn't drink because there had once been a 'no beer, Misono!' rule. That had been years and years ago. "But it does go good with sukiyaki!" She had had the feeling that Yesung might not have had it before. Aside from the fact that it was Japanese and he was American, he was ALSO Korean.
She knelt down beside the coffee table and pulled two of the small dishes toward her. She cracked an egg into the first and set the shell on the tray before whisking the egg with her chopsticks. She transfered bits of it to the other dish. "This is for Kitty von Catcat," she said as she poked into the nabe itself for some meat. "She can't exactly pick what she wants and then dip so she gets it all together. I'm not feeding you like a baby!" she told the cat. She looked at Yesung. "You don't have to dip in the egg. It's good that way but you don't have to."
Finding the small bits of beef she'd put into the pot specifically for their cat, she set them into the dish and set it on the floor for Kitty von Catcat. "You can pick whatever you want," she told Yesung. "But I always eat the noodles last, after they soak up the broth the most." She picked up a mushroom for herself. "Itadakimasu~!" she said. Then she smiled. "I'm no good at going last," she informed them.
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"I hope you don't mind, it's Japanese and Misono said you weren't very fond of Asian foods." He was probably the first person Meisa had ever met who didn't like Asian food. "I suggested pizza instead, but she said hotpot should be fine and I haven't had it in sooo long."
She looked up when Misono came back and took what was passed to her. "Thank you!" Cracking the egg, she beat it with her chopsticks as she watched Misono talk to Kitty von Catcat in amusement. "Are those two always like this?" she asked Yesung, taking a piece of meat for herself after Misono pulled out a mushroom.
"Itadakimasu~!" she echoed Misono. Meisa didn't normally say it anymore, but gathered around the donabe, it felt proper to say it.
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Or maybe raw egg. They were eating raw egg. He did his best not to make a face when Misono said he could skip the egg. This was still nothing compared to the baby slime, though. Beside the raw egg, this even smelled okay.
"They're always like this," Yesung told Meisa, distractedly, leaning forward to see what was in the pot. "Sometimes I think Kitty von Catcat really understands her." It didn't look too strange, kind of like stew. He used his fork to stab something green and pull it out. He tried to smell it discreetly before popping it in his mouth. Huh, not too bad. Definitely not kimchi soup, which he was very thankful for.
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She poked into the pot again, managing to wrap some chrysanthemum leaves in a bit of meat before lifting it out and dipping it in her egg. "You know what's funny? Except for Kitty von Catcat, we all get to work on Valentine's Day. Aiba-chan and I are both going to be working all day because people have a lot of sex on Valentine's, you know." Misono suddenly stopped in mid-chew and looked at Meisa from under her lashes. Well. She wasn't going to think about that. Nope. She leaned against Yesung and looked up at him. Her beautiful, sweet Yesung. "If you wanna bring somebody home, you can say and I can go somewhere else for Valentine's night. Osaka-kun said girlfriend-chan is busy." She swallowed her bite and went looking for some tofu.
Yum!
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"Is that so? They're a pretty funny combination," she said, waiting for Yesung to pull out some food before going in for a mushroom and some negi with her chopsticks. Briefly, she made eye contact with Misono as she brought the chopsticks to her mouth. Misono was sort of looking at her funny. Did Meisa have something on her face again? But then her friend was looking up at Yesung before Meisa could ask and... and telling him it was okay for him to bring somebody home for Valentine's.
She blushed, unsure if she should be listening, and decided to focus on getting some noodles out from the pot.
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He'd just pulled out a piece of meat (pleasant! Beef!) when Misono offered to scram for the evening. "No, that's alright. I figured we'd just have dinner here," he said, not having any plans whatsoever to ever bring someone to the Jade Palace. "Unless you have plans with Osaka-kun already." Which would be disappointing, but not the end of the world. He wondered who Osaka-kun was; Misono had been talking about him a lot lately.
He drank the rest of his coffee, delicious.
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