?The aroma of savory meat filled their dorms, making those inside salivate from the delicious scent. Various spices adorned the piece of meat, and the tenderness of it could be seen from a mile away.
June, standing before the stove top, tossed the meat with grace. Then, he turned to the other dish—a spicy stew of some sort, and he tasted a little bit with a small spoon, nodding to himself since it tasted just as he expected.
Then, he turned to the last dish—the beef steak. June smiled as he flipped it over, basting it with the butter inside the cast iron pan. The scent in the dorm intensified further, and those watching couldn't tear their eyes away.
The other members of EVE, who were already sitting at the dining table, gulped collectively when June started placing the dishes one by one on the table. They sizzled, steamed, and sparkled under the artificial kitchen light.
They held their utensils in their hands, ready to dig into the feast that June had created.
The Hanwoo beef, indigenous to Korea, was one of the most rare and expensive types of beef in the world. At first, the boys were pretty disappointed that they won meat for the pre-mission. However, looking at the array of dishes before them quickly changed their mind.
"I can't believe June has been hiding his cooking skills from us," Zeth whispered.
June shook his head. "This is the only time I'll be cooking for you guys," he grumbled, sitting at the head of the table. He could already foresee his members asking him to constantly cook for them, and that was the reason why he wanted to keep his cooking skills to himself.
However, being presented with such a luxurious ingredient made him step forward. There was no way he was going to let his clumsy members handle the expensive beef and turn it into something that could be sold for merely a dollar.
"Dig in," June smiled.
The members didn't have to be instructed any further. They quickly dug in, not even wasting a second.
The luxurious yet homey taste instantly invaded their taste buds, and a collective groan of appreciation was heard in the room.
They didn't even have any time to comment on the taste since they were too busy shoveling food into their mouths.
June, on the other hand, ate like the connoisseur that he was. He observed his members and shook his head.
"Slow down, will you?" he said.
The members stopped for a second, and with that, they finally started eating much slower to fully appreciate the taste of the expensive cut of meat.
"When did you learn how to cook?" Ren asked. "You cook better than my mom!"
Zeth smirked, nudging Ren's shoulder. "I'm going to tell your mom you said that when I see her again."
Ren clicked his tongue and subtly glared at his teammate. "Don't you dare," he warned.
June shrugged to answer Ren's question.
"It's been a long time," June said. "I cooked a lot for my sister, and she was a very picky eater, so I had to cook a lot of dishes."
His members turned to him, surprised.
"Sister?" Akira loudly exclaimed. "You have a sister?"
June froze, and his ears started ringing. He had let his guard down since cooking brought back a lot of good memories.
Jisung turned to him and even held onto his shoulder.
"We've been friends since Rising Stars, but you haven't told me about it," he said. "You actually have a sister?"
The members anticipated his answer, even taking a break from eating the scrumptious meals.
"Uh—yeah," June said. "By sister, I mean a distant cousin, yeah. A girl cousin that I call sister. Yeah, her."
"Oh," the members said, finally going back to eating.
"Well, is she pretty?" Akira asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
June's eyebrows furrowed, and he elbowed Akira's side.
"Just go back to eating," June grumbled. The thought of Akira even coming close to Mei Ling was already a disaster.
Akira held onto his side and sighed in disappointment. "I was just curious," he muttered.
The members finally dropped the subject, so June sighed in relief.
That was close. He had been thinking of Mei Ling less and less as he became busier as an idol, but in simple times like this, he also couldn't help but remember her.
"What if we talk about our upcoming performance?" Jaeyong asked. "We're bound to practice tomorrow, but we still don't have any idea how we're going to execute the stage."
Akira placed his chopsticks down and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"It's difficult," he said, finally going into professional mode. "We have to perform on a bare stage with our bare talents. There's not much we can do with nothing on stage."
Sehun nodded in agreement. "A storyline would also be difficult to execute since we don't have anything else to get the story across. Unless we're all good actors like June, I don't think we should go with that route."
June pursed his lips. "I don't think I can even do that," he said.
"And to add to that, we're singing 'Oasis' again. It's a song we already performed at the beginning of the show, so it'll be harder to beat that performance without any special effects," Zeth remarked.
Jaeyong rested his chin on his palm.
"What should we do then?" their leader sighed.
"I think we need to look at this differently," Casper suddenly chimed, surprising all of the members.
He really wasn't much of a talker, especially during these conversations, so he must really be determined to win if he was joining in.
"Well, you're fired up," Akira noted.
Casper shrugged, leaning against his chair. "I just saw some comments on Navel saying that there wasn't any purpose for us to work hard since CHAOS would win in the end anyway."
"So, do you have a concept in mind?" Jaeyong asked, filled with hope.
The other members also leaned on the table to hear Casper's suggestion better. Casper opened his mouth to speak, and the members waited in anticipation.
"No," Casper innocently smiled.
"I'm just suggesting we look at it differently."
