Wax

Valentine's Special: The Legendary Tale of the SeeSaw

"You will see none, I assure you," said the bean under his breath but despite so, he was feeling oddly electric about their little secret. That, and perhaps it'd been some time since he'd heard the tease in Leroy's voice; something he realized he missed.

"Exciting. My expectations are high, Mr. White." "Oh be quiet. You've seen me dice an onion—it was a disaster." "Which was very exciting." "You may stop with the teasing now." "I can't see your face but I imagine you're very excited." "All of a sudden, your vocabulary takes a leap of faith and you're an expert with words! Shocking." "I get good when I'm excited." "And now you may Google for synonyms of 'excited'." "Thrilled. Elevated. Stirred. Ex-hi-ler... ex-ur-ber... high."

Vanilla nearly burst out laughing. Aside, Violet was appalled at the blatant romance she could practically feel radiating from the digital screen despite not quite being able to see Leroy or hear him. Good god, were they annoying.

"Alright people, stop talking. Put everything away. I don't want anything on your counters except whatever's been pre-arranged. Notebooks only." Chef Marseille came right at it without delay as soon as attendance had been taken and the room quietened down at once. Vanilla picked up his notebook and pen like the model student he was—only this time, he raised it a little higher to cover the bottom half of his face.

"We're making something you'd see on every bar menu nowadays. Crispy fried squid. The flavor is up to you—please don't try silly things like chocolate or peanut butter and jelly you guys are in your second semester, stop thinking like kids—and the ingredients are as listed on the board. First, I'll demonstrate how to properly gut and clean a squid. Keep your eyes on the screen."

Above the demonstration counter was a HD camera that had its view fed live straight into two large screens above the white board, angled in a way that allowed students a closer look at the instructor's movements with ease.

"I think you're about to witness the greatest disaster of on a cutting board," said Vanilla under his breath, into his notebook as he penned down every step of the way.

"What's on the menu?" "Deep-fried squid." "You're making me very excited." "Oh I'm sure that'll all disappear in the next couple of minutes. Goodness, this is embarrassing."

Leroy's amusement in his ear was unsurprisingly very attractive because, well, the man was known for his attractive laughter and leaving Vanilla very attracted and very bothered twenty-four-seven. Being attractive to Vanilla was simply his full-time job.

This attraction was further explored the moment Marseille ended her demonstration and sent half the counters to collect their ingredients from the pantry and the other half to retrieve relevant culinary equipment; then, vice versa. Vanilla had slipped his phone back into his pocket and then placed it at the bottom of his ingredient basket for Leroy's limited vision.

"Get some lime." "Lime? Where's..." "Turn right. Behind you." "Oh. Kaffir. How did you know? A-and and how are you seeing all this?" "The school's pantries have the exact same layout all around." "I never noticed."

And so did everyone else about the one AirPod in his ear or the fact that he seemed to be talking to himself; albeit most people were talking amongst themselves. Vanilla happened to bump into Si Yin at the chili corner while he was picking out a couple of shishito peppers (as suggested by the magic man in his ear) and even she hadn't quite noticed it.

"Hey hey hey," she'd stopped him with a hand after taking one look at his face. "Is it me or do you look suspiciously excited about squid?" She narrowed in, squinting just for added effect.

"I-I, well, um." Vanilla was a terrible liar. The entire world was aware. "I'm actually..."

"Knew you were excited." "Oh shut up."