The Cooking Lesson

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WITH THE COMBINED efforts of both me and Harr, we caught five fresh fishes of different breeds. In order to help us cultivate our skills, our meals for the first two nights would have to be prepared by ourselves. As such, we decided to stock up on our loot so that we needn't return to the riverbank every day to fish for dinner.

Since he had been the one to help us fish for dinner, Harr was excused from kitchen prep work. The moment we stepped into our quaint little lodging, he had disappeared in the direction of his shared room with Xavier to get a change of clothes for his shower. Jules, on the other hand, was hopeless in the kitchen. As such, we agreed that it was best for her to stay out of the kitchen and leave the cooking to me and Xavier.

Of course, all of this was just part of our scheme to impart knowledge to Xavier. After all, I had agreed to help him with courting Jules and yet I'd not done much other than advice him a little here and there.

"How hard can it be to cook fish?" Xavier yawned loudly, tilting his head left and right. Light pops could be heard as he moved, his joints cracking.

"Very," I snorted, tying the knot of my apron securely behind me. Reaching into the kitchen drawers, I pulled out another apron that had been prepared by the lodging and tossed it to Xavier. He caught it at the last minute, stumbling a little in shock. "Especially since we're making one of Jules's favorite dishes with the fish we caught."

"Which will be?" He asked, picking up one of the kitchen knives. Xavier ran a finger across the dull edge of the blade, watching the steel shine under the ceiling light above us.

"The taste differs with the type of fish, of course, but we're going to grill up some lemon butter fish fillets with a side of mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables."

I dug at the sack of potatoes on the floor, courtesy of the school since there wouldn't be carbohydrates in our meal if they hadn't provided us with this. There wasn't exactly a farm anywhere near the camping grounds and as such, other than protein and maybe some wild mushrooms and fruits, there wouldn't otherwise be any greens on our plates.

From my back pocket, I pulled out my phone, swiping until I found the image captured of the journal. I stopped at the photo of the recipe I had scrawled into the book, propping it up against the wall so that we could refer to it with ease. Certain pages had been taken down for the sake of convenience since it would've been awkward if we were caught by Jules with the physical guidebook in our hands.

"Do you want to prepare the fish or make the sides?" In one hand, I held the freshly caught fish. In the other was a bunch of vegetables I had grabbed randomly.

Xavier looked at his choices, scrutinizing both options until he reached out and grabbed the fish from my hands. My eyebrows raised at his bold and daring choice, genuinely surprised that he would pick the main star that was both simple to perfect and easy to mess up. Especially for a beginner like Xavier.

"Oh, I see we're starting big," I laughed.

Prepping the chopping board for the both of us, I started on my vegetables some distance away from Xavier, glancing over in his direction every once in a while to make sure he wasn't about to set the entire kitchen on fire.

I started on the potatoes first, chopping them into large chunks while waiting for the pot of water I had prepared beforehand to boil. Once it started to bubble, I tossed the potatoes in, adding in salt before wiping my hands down on a kitchen towel.

To my right, Xavier was still fiddling with the fish clumsily. Every few seconds, he would look up at my phone, his frown deepening before sighing heavily at the fish.

"Need some help?" I suppressed a chuckle, leaning against the counter with my arms folded across my chest. At my words, Xavier's face darkened even further.

Although there were clear instructions written down in the recipe, including how to prepare freshly caught fish, Xavier couldn't seem to figure out the movements. Yet, he was as stubborn as a mule, insisting that he didn't need any help.

"I'll figure it out in a bit. Don't you have vegetables to prepare?" He scowled.

My amusement peaked, returning to my side dishes with a shrug.

"If you're so sure," I sang.

In a flash, the assortment of vegetables selected by the school for our use had been chopped and seasoned. Once it was popped into the oven, a gentle fragrance started to waft through the room, surrounding us in the savory aroma.

It had been a while since Xavier had started on the fish. Yet, he didn't seem to be making any progress. While I was fishing the potatoes out of the boiling water, he was still cutting at the fish haphazardly. Blood spilled on the chopping board, making me move even further away from him than where I originally worked.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" While my hands worked, my eyes were trained on him. There was a fixed crease between his eyebrows, his frown darkening even further before finally sighing.

Xavier dropped to the floor in defeat, curled into a ball with his knees to his face. He let out a long groan, practically screaming his throat hoarse.

I quickly finished up with the potatoes, whipping them and setting them aside with a cover before washing my hands.

"Scoot over. I'll demonstrate it once for you and you can prepare the rest on another day. How about that?" I offered.

At my words, he peeked up, jumping to his feet. A new light of determination shone across his face, nodding continuously with his fists clenched at his sides. He looked like a child at his first class, bright-eyed and eager to learn. Making way for me, Xavier moved a little to the side. He had his hands washed and pressed against the counter, leaning a little inwards so that he could see what I was up to on the chopping board.

Taking over, I started from scratch and tried my best to salvage the fish that Xavier had experimented with. I had it scaled, skinned, cleaned, and gutted before filleting the fish into a suitable portion. The entire process had taken me just a few minutes and before long, the fish was dried down and removed of excess moisture, lightly coated with a thin layer of flour, and was ready to be grilled.

"Simple enough?" I asked, wiping down my hands on a kitchen towel before picking up a pair of tongs.

I moved over to the stove, testing the heat from the pan before placing the fish down. Once the fish made contact with the hot surface, a satisfying sizzle sounded, followed by a lovely aroma. With some salt and pepper and a small cube of butter, the entire kitchen started to smell like a food fair.

Xavier breathed in deeply before exhaling, his eyes half hooded. His face had moved closer to the heat of the stove, hovering near my work station. All the while, his eyes had never left the fish on the pan. He simply stared at it almost lovingly, a faint smile on his lips and wonder in his eyes.

"You made it seem way too easy," he murmured. "I probably would've burned the whole kitchen down."

I let out a bark of laughter, chortling at his comment.

"Yeah, I can definitely imagine that happening."

Although my comment was far from a compliment, there was a gentle smile on Xavier's face. The corners of his eyes were wrinkled slightly, lips spread apart in a toothy grin. His porcelain pale skin seemed to glow under the kitchen light. In all my life, I had never seen Xavier Park so carefree and angelic. I couldn't help myself but wonder if Xavier had always been like this, smiling brightly and never up to any trouble that might bring about nasty rumors, would he still have needed my help?

Even with his current personality, he seemed like a good guy, someone worthy of Jules as long as he could prove it. If he were the sunshine boy that was before me at this very moment, would Jules still turn him down?

"Um..." I cleared my throat, tearing my eyes away from him and back to my task at hand. I tried to focus to the best of my abilities but I still found my eyes wandering back to Xavier's faint smile. "So, how's it going with Jules? Any progress so far?" I asked.

Instead of standing idle, Xavier had made himself useful by bringing plates and helping to portion out the side dishes. Once he had everything prepared, he started up the fire right beside me, bringing out a small pot to make the lemon butter sauce that will go on top of the grilled fish.

The smile on his face brightened at the mention of Jules's name, practically glowing brighter than the moon in the night sky outside. I could practically feel his happiness bubbling over, radiating in waves. The room suddenly felt so much brighter, so much warmer and lighter than it had been. Xavier's joy was infectious.

"Not bad," he beamed, "I mean, she's definitely a little warmer to me at work compared to when I first started out. Sometimes I see her looking around the corners near my work station of the day, acting as though she's looking for me but that might just be my own wishful thinking."

At his words, my heart melted. I had never thought that Xavier would be able to display such an affectionate expression when talking about something or someone he adored. It was a heartwarming sight, a relief to know that it would be easier to prove Xavier Park was not the malicious bad boy that he tried to portray himself as in school. It was always easier to show one's true self than to create a false image.

"I'm glad to hear that."

His movements paused for a second too long, simply staring at the bubbling sauce without any intention to switch off the flame. When he finally moved again, it was not what I expected. Xavier turned to face me, his face inches away from my own. I could see every detail of his features from such a close distance, every striking arch and curve of his stunning appearance was up close. When he smiled, the whole world seemed to go dark, leaving him shining as the singular source of light that monopolized the entire playing field.

For a second there, I couldn't remember how to breathe.

"Thank you, Aiko."

His sincere words stunned me to a still, leaving me unable to respond. I stood there wide-eyed in disbelief, staring at him unblinkingly. Even when he had withdrawn and turned back to the sauce, switching off the flame of the stove and plating everything perfectly, I still couldn't look away.

With a total of four plates on his arms and in his hands, he walked out of the kitchen, whistling a merry tune under his breath. Xavier left me there in the kitchen, grease over my apron and fingers still clutching the wooden spatula tightly as if my life depended on it. I continued to gawk at the same spot he disappeared from through the doorway. All there was in my mind was the image of Xavier's face too close to mine and too beautiful to behold.

My chest tightened painfully at that memory.

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