According to Hakyun, the basic recipe for a perfectly made kimchi called for napa cabbage, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic (Merlin was not a big fan of garlic, but he decided not to let his taste buds ruin a perfectly good meal), Korean red pepper fkes, also known as gochugaru, scallions, and fish sauce. If any of these was missed, then the chef should be hanged.

  Chima didn’t care about all that, he was just gd that Hakyun was finally keeping to his bargain after more than a week since their bet had passed. It had taken a lot of bickering too. Merlin had been unable to sleep the previous night until midnight because of the fact that Chima and Hakyun had been arguing. But he was gd that it had happened, and finally he would get to taste kimchi.

  Maybe I should have added it to the list of things I should have eaten with Janeth… That thought bombarded him with emotions he wanted to forget. He sighed and shook them away from his mind, focusing on the present.

  “Hey, both of you, take off your uniforms and come help!” Hakyun roared as he put down the bag of foodstuffs from their shopping at the Square, rolling up his sleeves to get the preliminary stages of the cooking set.

  Chima sneered at him. “What’s the use of the bet if you don’t cook it alone?”

  Hakyun blinked. “Don’t be wicked now, brute. You can’t truly be expecting me to do all this alone? I’ll faint. Do you want to have to rush me to the ward? You don’t want to, do you?”

  Chima’s nose twitched. He scoffed. “Hmph… You’re not getting me with that shoddy manipution tactic. I’m wiser than that.”

  “Really?” Hakyun tilted his head, looking absolutely taken aback. Merlin knew where this was headed and instantly turned towards his room. “I thought you were dumber,” Hakyun spilled the beans.

  “You—”

  Merlin shut the door behind himself just before Chima’s roars could assault his ears. He took off his uniform, headed into the bathroom, washed his face, and changed into something more comfortable. And, sure enough, when he got back to the living room, those two were still at each other’s throats.

  “I’ll help, okay? So just stop. Goodness. You both will kill me before you kill each other at this rate. Ugh…” Merlin strolled to the kitchen area, releasing all his pent up frustration. It did very well to silence them, though, which he was quite gd for. “So? What should I do?”

  Hakyun forced his eyes away from Chima with every ounce of his strength, and Chima stomped into his room.

  Those guys.

  Merlin sighed and turned his attention back to the task at hand. Hakyun, even through his argument, had made sure he remained diligent. On the table were the equipment needed to cook neatly rinsed and arranged. Merlin appuded the boy in his mind because of that. The d was already quite smug, if he did it openly, things would only get worse.

  “So, have you handled a knife before?” Hakyun asked.

  “Well, it depends on where…” Merlin replied.

  “This is not a game, Merlin,” Hakyun snorted. “Kimchi is a delicate meal that should be prepared with the same grace as bosoms being caressed.” That was an uncalled for comparison. “So your experience with a knife counts. Can you do it?” He smmed his palm on the cabbage he’d brought out, angling his body. “Can you slice this round boy without ruining his curves?” His eyes narrowed beneath the lenses of his gsses.

  Merlin frowned. Why was Hakyun looking at him like that? How hard could it be to cut a cabbage?

  …A minute ter, Merlin bit his lower lip so hard it was a wonder it wasn’t bleeding. Hakyun was standing on the other side of the table, freshened up, and a mix of horror and annoyance on his face. Chima, on the other hand, simply shook his head, disappointed.

  “You didn’t, Mel,” he said. “This can’t be the same cabbage we bought.”

  “I’m sorry,” Merlin apologized. “I have no excuses.”

  Hakyun stared at the cabbage so intensely it was a surprise it wasn’t burnt to ashes yet.

  “I even removed the outer leaves, rinsed it, patted it dry, and pced it on the cutting board for you,” he grumbled. “All you had to do was quarter it and remove the core. I can’t believe my eyes.”

  Merlin lowered his head, his arms hanging at his sides like he was being scolded at a cooking show.

  “Just…move aside,” Hakyun motioned Merlin away. “I should still be able to salvage something.”

  “Uhm, but I want to help,” Merlin said, his tone daring not to be loud. Hakyun shot him a gre as he put on his gloves. “I promise I’ll do better this time.”

  Hakyun sighed. “Then…” He gnced around the kitchen, obviously looking for something low effort that he could assign to Merlin. But it seemed he found nothing. “Making kimchi is a step by step procedure, each one follows the other. Just watch for now.”

  Merlin pursed his lips and nodded. “Alright.”

  Hakyun cleared his throat and set to work on the atrocity Merlin had produced. A minute ter, Merlin wondered if the boy had a System reted to cooking he didn’t know about as his eyes widened at the superb result that had come about from the boy’s practiced handiwork with the knife.

  “Oh…” Chima’s eyes widened. “Nice work, four-eyes. Where did you learn such skills?”

  “My mom owns a food stall,” Hakyun replied as he pced the sliced cabbage in a rge bowl and deftly sprinkled salt over it. He then moved on to massaging it softly. “I always helped out every night before I came to the Academy.” His gaze went lost for a brief second. “She’s probably out there all alone now.”

  Merlin and Chima gnced at each other, having the same thoughts. The mood was getting glum fast.

  “So how much water should I pour in? A whole bucket?” Chima asked, teasing.

  Hakyun shot a look at him. “Oh, no you don’t! Don’t you dare y a hand on my recipe!”

  Merlin and Chima burst into ughter.

  A few seconds ter, they were all seated in the living room. Hakyun had covered the whole cabbage with water and pced a can of beans on it. It was to stand for one to two hours.

  “Why did you take so long st night?” Chima asked when the silence stretched on for a while, obviously bored.

  Merlin blinked. “I was working out. Why?”

  “For almost five hours?” Chima gnced at him. “I doubt that. You did not look as spent as a person who worked out that long should look. Don’t forget I work out too.”

  Merlin didn’t hide the fact that he was taken aback like he had done that he had gone to pay Park Yuri a visit. After all, he was already having issues concerning Sofia; telling them about Park Yuri was just inviting misunderstandings.

  “I told you he went to see a girl,” Hakyun added bitterly. This guy. “It’s probably Kim Minji.”

  Merlin still didn’t understand where all this Kim Minji talk was coming from whenever it came to Hakyun, but he didn’t push the matter. He decided to tell the truth.

  “Okay. I went to see Park Yuri,” he said, and the room fell silent.

  “Piss off!” Hakyun swore. When had he learnt that? Merlin wondered if it was him, but he didn’t swear that much.

  “Are you serious?” Chima asked. Merlin nodded. He shook his head.

  “Well, will you let me expin? Stop jumping to conclusions.”

  “The floor is yours,” Hakyun mocked. “Let’s hear you speak, your grace.”

  Merlin clicked his tongue. “She wanted me to train her.”

  The silence deepened; Merlin shrugged.

  “The daughter of one of the greatest S-Css Mages wants you to train her?” Hakyun nudged his gsses upwards. “Interesting. You’re not pulling our legs, are you?”

  “What would I have to gain from doing that?”

  Chima hummed. “Well, I guess that’s not surprising.”

  Merlin grimaced. What?!

  “How come?” he asked.

  “What would be the better tool, no offense Mel, to practice with for a Mage, if not anti-magic? If they can overpower such an ability, it means that they have achieved the pinnacle of their strength.” He turned to Merlin. “I also felt that way during our practice.”

  Merlin blinked. “Then why didn’t you say anything?”

  Chima shrugged. “Well, we’re already training together, technically.”

  That made sense.

  Hakyun, on the other hand, remained silent, just staring at him with a look Merlin couldn’t for the life of him interpret.

  Well, he decided to move on.

  “By the way, I learnt something yesterday, guys.”

  Hakyun’s and Chima’s curiosity sparked. “What?” they asked in unison.

  “It’s about attuning with our mana,” Merlin began. He was feeling bad about keeping something like that from them in the first pce, so he was using the opportunity to clear that heavy weight on his shoulders.

  “Isn’t that a second year’s course?” Hakyun asked, perplexed. “Who could have told you about it?”

  “The headmaster’s maid, Miss Eun-Wol,” Merlin said with a smile, knowing that he had figured it out all on his own. But he wouldn’t be rubbing it in their face.

  “Why would she tell you about it?” Hakyun asked.

  Merlin shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she just thought I was too cool a guy to not have one or two secrets to spread.” Chima gave him a side eye. “It was a joke, okay? Do you guys want to know how it works or not?”

  They both clicked their tongues.

  “Of course we’re interested,” said Hakyun.

  Merlin nodded and expined all that he’d learnt about the attuning process, mixing in his own findings with Miss Eun-Wol’s warnings and advice, just like he had sent to Nora earlier on. He hadn’t practiced it yet, but now they could all partake in the act together. There truly was joy in sharing.

  “Okay, that sounds a bit complicated,” Chima noted. “How do we break down the molecur structure of our mana and understand it? No wonder it’s a second year course.”

  Hakyun stood up and went back to the kitchen area as soon as his watch beeped. Two hours had passed. Merlin and Chima joined him. As he picked up the cabbage and rinsed it three times in cold water, he made his own opinion on the mana attunement topic known.

  “So? How do we go about it without vomiting all over the carpet?”

  “That’s why I told you guys, so we can all think together.” Merlin had good intentions with those words of his, but the gnces of Chima and Hakyun made him feel like he had just stabbed someone. “What?”

  “So you wouldn’t have told us otherwise?” Hakyun asked, narrowing his eyes.

  Merlin jerked back. “Of course you know that’s not what I meant.”

  “That’s what it sounded like.”

  “For goodness sake, Hakyun.” Merlin was frustrated, he wouldn’t lie.

  “Anyway,” Hakyun continued. “I think I’ve got an idea.”

  Merlin’s ears perked up. “Oh. What’s it?”

  Hakyun shot him a gre and slid the bowl he had used to mix the cabbage and salt towards Merlin. “You said you wanted to help, right? Start mixing the spice.”

  Merlin sighed. “Alright.” Next time he would construct his words better.