Young Life

Cooking

We all look over to the couch and see Mark sitting up, Buddi hopping up onto his lap.

"Glad to see you're awake," Mark's dad said. He goes to pop his knuckles when Jack gently grabs his hands.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Mark gives him a quick kiss, then sits between his parents at the peninsula.

"How's your nose?"

"It's fine. Doesn't hurt as much as earlier. How was school?"

"Fine." Mark mock glares at Jack, causing the said man to snicker.

"Hey, Mark, why did you never tell me you were a boxer?" His mom's eyes widen.

"You never told him?" Mark gives a shy smile and rubs the back of his neck, lightly chuckling. He then drops his hand and becomes serious.

"I never told you because I was threatened." My eyes widen.

"By who?" I ask

"By your parents. I was told that if I continued to date you, then they would kill me. I originally started to protect myself, but then eventually it was a way to vent my anger." We all sit in silence.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Also threatened. Your parents said that if I told you, they would kill both of us." More silence.

"Jesus, my parents were fucked up."

"Yes, they were." We all sit in silence before Mat gets up.

"Well, Mark, I'm glad to see you're doing just fine. Nate and I have some homework to work on, so we'll see you tomorrow after school." I stand up and grab Mat's hand.

"Have a good day. Nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Fischbach."

"Have a good day, boys. Good to see you too, Nate." As Mat and I are walking out the door, we hear Mark shout out,

"Use protection!" I turn around and flip him off, which ends up earning a slap from Mat." I hear everyone chuckle and Mat and I leave. We walk back into the house and lock the door behind us.

"Time to start homework?" He nods.

"Yep." We sit down on the couch and pull out our homework.

><><Time Skip><><

"Finally! It's over!" I throw my binder and finished homework on the ground while Mat gently sets his stuff on the coffee table. We both lean back on the couch. 

"What do you want to do?" Mat asks. I shrug my shoulders and lean my head on his shoulder. I grab my phone and check the time; it reads 5:43.

"You wanna try making dinner?" Mat gives me a look. "What?"

"Nate, no offense, you couldn't cook to save your life." I gasp and feign hurt, setting my hand on my chest.

"I can so. I don't know what you are talking about." Mat sighs as he chuckles a little. I stand up and take his hand, leading him to the kitchen. "One thing my parents taught me when I was forced to make them dinner was a traditional Korean dinner."

"What's that?"

"Hoeddeok, or sweet, syrupy pancakes. They're fucking delicious." Mat swats my arm. "What?"

"You know I don't like swearing."

"I'm sorry. They're frigging delicious. Better?"

"Better." His phone rings and he walks away as he answers. I look in his cabinets and pantry to see if they've got all the ingredients. I grab what I need and notice there are a couple things that Mat's family doesn't have. Just then, he walks in and sets his phone down on the kitchen counter.

"My parents said they're coming home early, so they're gonna run by the store. Is there anything we need?" He grabs a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Yeah. We need instant dry yeast, white sugar, finely chopped Walnuts, black sesame seeds, and ground cinnamon." He writes it all down and takes a picture of it, presumably sending it to his parents. "Now we wait because we can't do anything until we have all the ingredients." We both walk over to the couch and turn on the tv.

><><Time Skip><><

Mat and I hear the front door open and close. We turn off the tv and look.

"Hey, guys, we're home. What did you need all the things for?"

"Nate wanted to make a food called Hodock?" Mat looks to me.

"Close enough. It's called Hoeddeok and It's really good. It's kind of like a sweet and syrupy pancake." Mat's mom smiles.

"Well then, let's get cooking." Nate smiles. We wash our hands, then separate the ingredients into two piles: wet and dry.

"Mat, could you get two teaspoons of white sugar?"

"Sure." I grab the instant dry yeast and the flour and pour it into a mixing bowl. Mat comes over and hands me a teaspoon filled with white sugar. I pour it in the bowl, then Mat refills the teaspoon and I pour that into the bowl as well. I grab another bowl.

"Would you like to pour the milk and the water in?" He smiles.

"I sure would." He grabs the cup of milk and the ¼ cup of water and pours them in the bowl. I mix them all together, then put them in the microwave for 20 seconds.

I pull the bowl out and set it on the counter.

"Grab a fork and mix this in while I pour it." He nods and grabs a fork. As I pour the mixture into the dry bowl, Mat mixes it together with the fork.

While he does that, I get the flour and gently spread it over the counter. Once Mat evenly combines the dough, I grab the bowl and lightly pour it onto the flour. He takes the bowl from me and with both knead it for about two minutes, the dough sticking to our hands.

Mat cleans his hands and mixes the brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar, walnuts, sesame seeds, and cinnamon together in a Ziplock bag while I shape the dough into a ball. I cover the dough with a wet paper towel while Mat combines the stuff in the bag. I wash my hands and set a 10-minute timer on my phone. Mat sets the bag on the counter and we watch some tv.

When the timer goes off, I turn it off and we both make our way to the kitchen.

"Hey, Mat, could you grab a knife, please?" He nods and does that while I take the paper towel off the dough and throw it away. I roll the dough into a cylinder, then Mat cuts it into ten pieces. I roll each into a ball, then he grabs the rolling pin that resides on the ledge above his stove, and rolls each piece until it's a 5-inch circle. Mat sets the rolling pin down and we both grab two circles. He grabs another teaspoon and we both take turns putting two teaspoons of filling, the stuff in the ziplock bag, onto the middle of the dough. Once we do that, we wrap the dough around the filling, forming into a ball by taking 4 corners of the dough and pinching together in the middle, sealing it completely. We flip them all over, seam side down. Mat rolls each ball into a 5-inch circle once more, making sure the filling stays in the dough, while I pre-heat the oven.

When Mat finishes, I grab the margarine from the fridge and put it in the skillet Mat set on the stove. I spread it around with a paper towel, seeing as how I have a higher pain and heat tolerance. Once the margarine is melted, we place the dough in the skillet and we cook them until they are golden brown, around 8 minutes on each side. Mat and I separate them onto four plates and set them out. Mat grabs the syrup from the pantry and sets it out while I set out the utensils. We both sit down at the counter.

"Dinners ready!"