"Well, forget it. Let's eat." Kevin switched dishes and put the Kung Pao Chicken in front of him. It was his silent way to save Leena from eating a strangely sour dish.
"What the hell? Leena, what have you done? All these dishes taste sour and strange!" shouted Claire after spitting out her food. She glowered at Leena disapprovingly.
"Er? How can it be? Let me have a taste of them," said Leena in surprise. She put some food in her mouth, chewed it, and then just like what Claire did, spat it out. She raised her head confusedly and was at loss of what to do.
"You can't even swallow it, can you? It's reasonable to blame you this time." Claire felt elated as she could finally point out Leena's fault to her brother.
"It's weird. How could this happen? I didn't add mature vinegar to any of those dishes, as far as I can remember." It was then that Leena turned her attention to the other dishes. She was suddenly curious if all the other dishes had the same sour flavor.
"You should ask yourself. Are you playing tricks on us?" questioned Claire relentlessly. She dropped her chopsticks on the table and decided not to torture herself by eating this awful food. She had only tasted two dishes but both of them were awful to eat. How could Leena deliberately mess their dinner this way in front of her husband, sister-in-law, and guest? Did she do this on purpose?
"Claire, watch your mouth! You're in no position to judge my wife!" Kevin's palm hit the table and made everything on it shake. He had been holding on his patience for so long and decided that he had enough. "Apologize to her," demanded Kevin sternly between gritted teeth. He didn't believe that Leena deliberately cooked some awful food. Leena was too kind-hearted and reasonable to do that!
"How could those dishes taste sour? I didn't use mature vinegar at all. I don't even know what's wrong?" Leena looked at Kevin anxiously. She could have admitted the error if not all of the foods were messed up. She wasn't perfect and probably could have used too much vinegar on some foods by mistake. It was different though since the problem happened with everything. Had she lost her mind while cooking?
"Does every dish taste the same?" Kevin was also confused. Thus, he picked his chopstick up and tasted everything. Goodness! All those dishes seriously tasted the same.
"Now, you know I told the truth. And I don't get Leena wrong," said Claire matter-and-factly. The hurt expression on her face was so obvious as she thought that her brother deemed her wrong again by unconditionally defending his wife.
"I'm really sorry. I don't know what's wrong, but please don't eat those awful dishes. Fortunately, other foods taste good," said Leena apologetically as she face-palmed. She had attended cooking lessons and learned from the best chefs. She wasn't supposed to make such a foolish mistake. It was a few seconds more when she realized that something fishy was going on. It was just that she couldn't figure out what it was.
"Leena, did you leave this bottle of mature vinegar on the table because of the steamed dumplings we ate this morning?" asked Kevin curiously. He remembered going out that morning and buying steamed dumplings for breakfast. It was the only reason he could think of as to why the vinegar bottle was on their table. Nonetheless, shouldn't it stay in their kitchen cupboard rather than stand there?
"Yeah! You're right. I was in a hurry to go out this morning and didn't clear the table. I forgot to put the vinegar back in the cupboard. I would not notice this if you didn't mention. If this bottle is on the dining table all day and I cooked in the kitchen, why do my dishes taste of mature vinegar?" Leena tilted her head and started to think.
"That's a very interesting point. If you didn't add mature vinegar to your food, then somebody else must have done that." Kevin turned to scan Claire's face. There should be something in there that would give her mischief away.
"Hey, why are you staring at me? Do you really think that I was that bored to spoil our dinner? It does me no good, right? I need food to fill my belly, otherwise, I'm gonna starve." Claire felt her need to explain under her brother's compelling stare. His eyes were pressuring her and she couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
"Kevin, Claire's right. Are you suspecting us? We were talking upstairs before the dinner was ready." Louisa came to rescue Claire by emphasizing the word "we". She meant to stress that they were together all the time. If Claire was innocent, so was she.
"I'm not accusing you of tampering with Leena's efforts in cooking. It makes me wonder why you're so eager to defend yourself though." Kevin might be ignorant of what exactly happened in the room, nonetheless, it didn't mean that he didn't know who was behind the act. It was obviously either Claire or Louisa who made the scheme. The only thing unclear to him though was if they did this together.
"We wouldn't have to explain ourselves if you hadn't stared at us that way. You would do exactly what we did if you were charged with something you didn't do," Claire fumed before laughing ironically. "We aren't that different, right?" She even added. It was clear to her that his brother had been suspecting her of planning everything negative against Leena. It was natural since she and Leena never really got along with each other the whole time. She might be considered as a mean person who went as far as getting Leena embarrassed before their guest. However, as ill-mannered and self-centered as she was, she would never spoil their dinner and waste food.
Forget it, Kevin. I might have been confused in the kitchen. It was surely my fault. There's no need to blame others now, okay? Now let's remove those awful dishes from the table and eat others. Anyway, I'm just going to throw those dishes away." Leena stood up immediately after she said those words. It was a pity that she had been busy cooking those dishes for the family and for the guest. She was already holding one of the plates when a warm hand suddenly stopped her.
"Don't do that, darling. They're sour but not that bad. I'll eat them." Kevin gestured her to sit down. He intended to find out who committed this mischief as there was no way he would let this pass. It was fine for people to make jokes but to do something dirty to their food was unforgivable.