Under The Veil of Night

"I say don’t wash any food with soap, why are you washing the rice with soap?"

"Your way of cutting is wrong!"

"Wait, don’t put on the fire too big!"

Seeing the fire in front of her, Misae wanted to curse at Kanae for making the usually easy cooking for her extremely hard. Taking a big bowl of water, she splashed it into the fire and put it out. As the result, the cooking failed miserably.

Looking at the dark rice on the frying pan, she got the urge to hit Kanae. No wonder that she made the utensil in her home unusable anymore. With how she cooked, it would be a miracle if she could make a good one.

"Don’t put too much oil and that big of fire...." Misae said helplessly.

"Sorry, are you alright?" Kanae looked towards Misae worriedly. Although she was the one cleaning up the mess, the one who got damage the biggest was Misae. Not physically, but mentally since this was the first time she met someone who cooked as poor as Kanae.

"I’m fine," Misae answered. This was not the first time she saw Kanae cooked, but every time she would get another mental blow.

"Shall we clean up?"

"Before that, why are you washing them with soap? Don’t you know that it will be inedible?"

Kanae scratched her head in embarrassment.

"Don’t tell me that you usually cook them while washing with the soap too?"

"I have not cooked in my place for a long time because I’m still unable to cook properly," Kanae answered.

Misae sighed. She recalled how panicked Kanae expression because of the fire and the confused expression on her face. When her thought reached that, a smile made its way to her face and in the end, she laughed.

"You’re now even laughing at me?" Kanae said helplessly.

"Learn how to cook better, then I would not laugh at you again," Misae smiled, trying to control her mood. She stood up, "Anyway, you better watch how I do it first before you try. Maybe at that time, you can do better than this."

Kanae sat down nicely as she watched Misae cooks. Misae was already used to cook in the kitchen and it didn’t matter for her to do two things at once. Because of her familiarity with cooking, she could do it swiftly and well.

"See, there is no damage to the utensil this way," Misae put the fried rice on the table.

Kanae nodded and headed to the counter again. This time, she tried to mimic what Misae did. Misae gave the instruction, but she noticed that Kanae could remember the recipe even though she only said them once. Still, Kanae’s movements were clumsy, so Misae helped her over and over again until the cooking was finally over.

"At least, you didn’t burn out the food again," Misae grinned.

Kanae nodded. By watching how Misae did it, it became easier for her to understand what the steps were and how to do them correctly. Maybe she would need to watch the television to see how they cooked some recipes to help her cook better.

"You’re really good at cooking."

"Everyone has their own advantages and weakness, you’re better at study while I’m better at cooking. But you can learn them," Misae pointed to the dish, "Now, let’s eat."

The two of them eat down their food. Misae ate hers while Kanae ate the one she cooks. The taste was similar because they followed the same recipes, but the one Kanae cooked was still worse since her skill was extremely poor.

After that, Kanae was busy cleaning up the kitchen with Misae instructed from the side. Although Misae also wanted to help, she was not comfortable with getting close to the mess. In the end, it was Kanae who had to work in the kitchen for hours.

By the time Kanae finished, it was already night and Clara arrived home.

"I’m back, kids," she said loudly.

Misae peeked from the kitchen. "Mom, you shouldn’t call us kids. We’re already 15 years old."

Clara was amused when she heard that. She walked to the kitchen and saw that the trash bin was filled to the brim. It seemed that they spent most of the time in the kitchen today and created quite a mess.

"What did you two cook?"

"Just some omelet and fried rice," Misae answered. "We’ll use the living room now, Mom."

"Please excuse us, Madam."

Misae and Kanae walked to the living room and Misae took out the board game from the stack of games. She started playing with Kanae and got happy very quick as she won most of the times.

"You have bad luck with the dice," Misae laughed.

Kanae took the dices and rolled it once again. Unfortunately, she got another bad number and had to move her tiles back a few steps. On the other hand, Misae often got the same number of dice, which granted her two chances to move her tiles.

"Kanae, Misae, do you two want to eat?" Clara called.

"I’m coming," Misae answered and stood up with Kanae followed behind her.

When they arrived in the dining room, they saw that the tables were filled with food. Looking towards the fried chicken, soup, and the others made Kanae’s mouth watered. She was genuinely hungry just from looking at those foods.

"Let’s eat," Clara beckoned them to eat together.

Misae sat down when she recalled something. "Is father not going to go home today?"

"He’s still busy because of work."

"Oh," Misae answered, but she didn’t ask anymore. The three of them sat and started to eat the food in front of them. There was no need to guess as Kanae was obviously the one who ate the most.

Looking towards the food that disappeared like lightning, Misae truly wondered if Kanae could eat them all. The amount was more than triple than what she and her mother ate.

"Kanae is still the big eater," Clara laughed when they finished eating.

Kanae grinned. "That’s because the foods you make are simply too good, Madam Clara."

"Don’t act with me, I know you just praise me because you want more food."

Kanae didn’t answer, but her face was still filled with smile. Still, she was not that shameless to ask for another portion after eating that much. Even if her stomach could handle more, she didn’t have the will to ask them to Clara.

After cleaning up, Kanae and Misae cleaned up themselves. Kanae changed to her pajamas that she brought because she had already planned to stay over.

"You can choose to sleep in the living room or pull a sheet," Misae said as she prepared herself to sleep.

"I’ll just take the sofa," Kanae shrugged. In any case, the sofa here was far comfier compared with her bed. It was already good enough for her to be able to sleep there.

"Okay, good night Kanae," Misae pulled the blanket and covered herself. She was too tired after getting angry towards Kanae over and over in the kitchen. If only Kanae was not her best friend, she wouldn’t have the patience to teach Kanae how to cook.

"Good night, Misae."

Kanae closed the door silently and walked to the sofa. She lay down on top of the sofa and used her hand as the pillow. Her eyes watched the ceiling for several minutes before she drifted to sleep.