FIREFALL, OR IN EXO WONDERLAND ▷ COMPLETE

Wherein Kris was Not Too Cross

CHAPTER 38: WHEREIN KRIS WAS NOT TOO CROSS

A kitchen is an inappropriate place.

An inappropriate place to reflect if things are going tough, though being a place filled with reflective things or boring stuff.

As an example, Eun-soo took a knife from a black block of D.O's and prepared it to chop some carrots. She was careful with the knife, and for the same reason she chopped the carrots a bit too slowly. She wasn't the only one aware of it. Someone else noticed her tortoise chopping speed. A figure was reflected on the knife's silver—with the messy blond hair and the self-congratulary look on its face.

"What are you doing?" a deep, husky voice asked. Sure enough, that was none other than Kris.

"Digging for apples. Why?" Eun-soo replied, eyes still fixed on the chopped carrots. Kris had anticipated the sarcasm.

"Apples, my eye! You're chopping the carrots too slow! Let me help. I'm good with both swords and knives!" Kris stood closer behind Eun-soo. He took her right hand and brought it up and down, chopping a whole carrot in three seconds.

"Yah, Kris! What are you doing? Your presence in the kitchen will only bring bad luck!" Eun-soo grunted. Her hand was under his bony grip. No, no. Remember the pepper? Just speak roughly to the boy! But she couldn't. She swallowed down the recollections.

"It's your good luck that I'm here." he pushed her hand to the right so the knife-blade could sweep the chopped carrots aside. "Save some for Ace, he would like them carrots!"

Eun-soo's cheeks went apple-red. His fingers slid perfectly through the spaces between hers. "Yes. For Ace..." she mumbled.

"I can't wait to see him grow up in a sane Wonderland. I want to take him to my village and show him to my Mamma." Kris continued.

"Yes, I see." Her heart went out of the chop-chop rhythm of the blade. It created an inane rhythm of its own. "Now excuse me, sir, may I do my work myself?"

Kris's long fingers skated away. "You're stubborn, aren't you?" he smirked. "So stubborn... No one could be stubborn enough to withstand the madness of Wonderland better than you. That's a noble quality."

"T—Thank you..." tingly haemoglobin tendrils slithered from the nape of the neck to her face. She flushed deeper.

He snatched the knife and pushed it into the black block. He drew out a long breath afterwards. "Eun-soo ah, where is the phial Suho gave you?" he asked.

Phial? Suho?

Eun-soo tried to make something out of those clues. Yesterday's imported gift.

Yes, Suho once gave her a phial...

After Kris flew away, Suho resurfaced from the lake to keep Eun-soo and Ace company.

"Eun-soo," said Suho, giving her an important reminder, "Tell Kris that if he drank too much of the Bandersnatch's blood, he'll be stuck in a wretched height."

"Well, can't Kris be a little larger?" Eun-soo was confused by Suho's meaning of 'wretched'. "Or are you saying that being short is very wretched indeed?"

"Yah! Being short is not wretched!" said Suho angrily, jumping out of the lake in his robed human form. The water sphere spilled out of the lake. Standing on human feet, Suho was only slightly taller than Eun-soo, but then...

"Why don't you ask me?" Luhan popped out from behind the pink curtain. He was about to refill a teapot. "I was given the phial to keep!" he said.

Kris crossed his arms, saying, “Don't say that you had the phial with you all along."