Sweet Admiration (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 20🌻

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It was Saturday, his day off from work. Gulf woke up around the usual time, and started his first task of the day---making breakfast. He usually just made toast and milk, but yesterday, he had thought it would be nice to have rice and miso soup every once in a while, so on the way home from work he had picked up some ingredients. Gulf had always loved Japanese food. If he could have it his way, he would eat rice and miso soup every morning, but that would be very time consuming.

He couldn't spare even one more minute, one more second of his busy mornings, so he had made only toast for breakfast. But since he was off that day, he was happy that he could spend as much time cooking as he liked. He made some spinach seasoned with soy sauce and some grilled fish. Next, he expertly fried an egg, and then began to make the miso soup, using some kelp for stock. The main ingredients for his miso soup were simply onions and seeweed. To that, he added a bunch of toasted sesame seed. That was Gulf's own style of making miso soup.

After the rice had finished cooking, Gulf wondered what he should do next. Since he had gone to all that trouble of making such an elaborate Japanese meal, he wanted to share it with Mew, but he also didn't want to put his roommate in one of his moods by waking him up early on a weekend. Mew had come home especially late the night before, so Gulf wanted to let him rest. As he began to eat by himself, the living room door quietly opened.

Startled, Gulf looked up to see Mew come into the room unsteadily. He was wearing pajamas and looked like he was still half-asleep. He plodded towards Gulf on his bare foot with the pleasant pitter-patter sound a sleeply child would make.

"Ah...good morning," Gulf said.

Without answering Gulf, Mew tilted his head as if it were very heavy, and rested it in his right hand.

"Um, I made breakfast, would you like some?"

Mew didn't answer.

"I tried making a Japanese breakfast this morning," Gulf babbled. "It's only grilled fish, a seasoned dish, a fried egg...but if you'd like some, go ahead."

However, Mew absentmindedly looked around the kitchen as if he hadn't heard a word Gulf had said.

As his gaze fell on the table, he shuffled over and sniffed loudly.

"Smells good..." he nurmured.

Huh? Gulf thought. Did the smell of my cooking wake him up and lead him all the way here? That was amazing in and of itself, but Gulf wondered which smell exactly had such an effect on Mew and sniffed the air himself.

The smell of hot rice, the savory smell of the grilled fish, the sweet smell of the fried egg...but out of all of the various smells, the smell of the miso soup definitely stood out the most. Just then, Mew pointed at the miso soup and said, "Do I smell sesame?"

Gulf began to feel happy as he realized it had been the smell of the miso soup that Mew was reacting to. "Yes, I like putting toasted sesame seeds in my miso soup."

"It smells so good...so nostalgic," Mew said, captivated.

"Did your family add sesame seeds to your miso soup, too?"

"A long time ago, when I went to my uncle's house...he made miso soup that smelled like this. I loved the taste of it so mucb, but my mom couldn't make it like my uncle did. It's been such a long time..."

His uncle's house? He must be talking about the summer 12 years ago, when he came to the country, Gulf thought. He was just modeling his miso soup after his own mother's recipe. But maybe adding toasted sesame seeds to miso soup was a regional thing.

"P'Mew, go ahead and eat. It should be pretty good, so I think you'll like it."

"No, it's okay." Even though he had sniffed so eagerly, Mew turned away from the offer in a huff.

TBC