one more coffee please

*SPECIAL* Lettuce Celebrate

Tao gets the honours of asking Suho to be the judge of the Battle of the Baristas. As soon as the man enters the café, he mawkishly compliments his plain everyday suit, face contorted with marginal restrain.

"Thank you," Suho replies promptly, suspicious. His eyes narrow, and then they widen fearfully. "What do you want?"

"You to be the judge of the Battle of the Baristas, which shall begin in a few minutes. Just say yes. No one will kill you- so stop looking like that- that is, only if you say yes."

"Yes," Suho mutters, visibly upset. His round eyes plead silently from person to person in the café, but everyone seems too caught up with the excitement of the inevitable competition.

With the air of an abandoned puppy, Suho lets himself be dropped into a chair.

"Welcome to the first year of the Battle of the Baristas," Tao begins, waving a dishcloth imperiously. "I am Huang Zi-"

"Tao, get on with it."

"-and here we have our esteemed panel of judges, Kim Joonmung-"

Suho cringes. "Just Suho, thanks."

"-Lay-"

"Unqualified," Jongdae mutters acerbically.

Tao shoots him an annoyed look. "-and Kyungsoo, and our contestants are Jongdae and Xiumin," he finishes quickly. "Each are to brew three cappuccinos and our panel of judges will give scores based on flavour, texture and aesthetics. You have 10 minutes to brew. Go!"

Jongdae zooms off into the kitchens, followed by a languidly moving Xiumin.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Luhan asks.

"I made kimchi again this time," Kris announces, pulling out a Tupperware container.

Sehun coughs and ducks under the table to tie his shoelace.

"What are you doing, Sehun?"

"Tying my shoelace?"

Luhan stares. "But you don't have shoelaces...?"

There's a lugubrious sigh, and what sounds like a facepalm. "Tying your shoelace, then, Luhan."

"There's been improvement," Kyungsoo nods at the kimchi, arms folded. When Kris takes off the lid, he bites his lip and looks heavenward. "You used lettuce again, Kris."

"Did I? It doesn't look like lettuce to me."

"Whatever, I'm hungry. Lettuce eat, guys," Lay says, whipping out several forks out of his right pocket, "D'you guys get it? Lettuce? Let us? Huh, I'm such a genius."

Luhan and Sehun are clutching onto each other with ebullient mirth- well, Sehun is clutching Luhan's legs and Luhan is pounding his fist onto the poor child's back. Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Kris are just suitably befuddled about the reason why Lay has so many forks in his pocket.

Tao only glowers accusingly. "I'm assuming you have the spoons too, then?"

"Oh how'd you guess? Let's save the trouble of getting them out until after the competition when we can enjoy Kyungsoo's pudding, alright?"

"How do you know I made pudding?"

"It was in the fridge. I saw it, you know?"

"Uhm?"

"I was hungry... so I saw the pudding when I was rifling through the contents of the fridge."

"Ah."

Jongdae steps out of the kitchen, visibly wincing and walking like he's doing some complex circus balancing act. There are three cups of boiling coffee balanced on his upwardly splayed palms. "Sorry, couldn't find the saucers or the spoons," he gasps, almost pouring out the contents of the cups in his desperation to put them somewhere else.