"Professor Kira? Did you drive him all the way home?" Mei asked.
"Oh yes, yes. I took up so much of Mr. Aikawa's time that driving him home was the least I could do."
"Is that so? Then would you like to come inside for dinner? I took the liberty of digging through Isaac's fridge and managed to cook up something decent."
"I'm fine, thank you for the offer but I really must be going. I have things to attend to." He waved his hand towards the two.
Kira walked down the stairs to his car and heard metal clanging and shouting from the distance.
"Why is the pan so burned up?! And the drain's all clogged up!"
"Would you just sit down and eat first before throwing a tantrum!"
"Ah what a sick love story those two have," Kira said as he entered the car and drove off.
~~~
"So how is it?" Mei asked in anticipation of Isaac's answer.
"It's… Good?"
"Why do you sound unsure?"
"I mean it's great! Just a little teeny tiny too much salt. That's all honestly!" Isaac waves his hands in the air.
"You don't have to finish it if you don't want to. It's okay."
"Oh thank God."
"What do you mean thank God? It's not THAT bad!" Mei's eyes flared up.
"Uh, I meant… Well, we all have to start somewhere right?"
Mei pouted, sighed, and left. She entered the kitchen area and started cleaning up the utensils she used. Isaac was left at the dining table, confused and regretful.
"I put all this effort into this meal and it ended up like this. Geez, I should've ordered takeout." Mei murmured to herself.
Isaac followed into the kitchen. The countertops were cleaner from when he took a glance from the living room. He then noticed two trays covered with aluminum foil.
"What's that for?"
"THAT is the backup I made in case the meal wasn't good. Which… It really wasn't."
Isaac took a peek underneath the aluminum foil.
"Hey! Stop that!"
"Lasagna? You know how to cook lasagna?" Isaac asked.
"I… Watched a youtube tutorial." Mei twiddled her fingers together.
"Hey, there's no shame in using tutorial videos. And it looks and smells really good. Why didn't you go with this in the first place?"
"BECAUSE I WANTED YOU TO TRY SOMETHING I MADE! Not something I got off the internet." Mei sank deeper into her sadness.
"Eh… You're right, I'm sorry. But the dish really was decent. I just seemed like you lost yourself with the salt."
"Huh, really?" Mei responded, looking a little brighter.
"The chicken cuts also seemed undercooked at some parts."
"Oh," Mei said.
"And it was also too chewy. Did you leave the chicken out to thaw or did you just chuck it in the pan straight from the freezer?"
"Okay, you can stop."
"And the rice! You probably added too much water and it ended up being moist and slimy."
"ARE YOU DONE?!" Mei said with a smile while taking a large knife from one of the drawers.
The sound of the knife being drawn and the dark aura emanating from Mei sent chills down Isaac's spine. He decided to stop teasing.
"But the lasagna seems good! How about I pop this thing in the oven and we go do something else?" Isaac offered as Mei's threatening smile remained to loom over him.
Mei hands Isaac the lasagnas and he puts them into the oven. They decide to go back to the living room.
"Hey, is that your bedroom over there?" Mei pointed at the room with the slightly opened door.
"Oh that. That's where I paint and where I store some of the things I've made."
Mei looked at the room with amazement and curiosity.
"You wanna go take a look inside?"
Mei turned to Isaac with wide eyes, affirming the question with two nods. Mei led the way and Isaac leaned to open the door for her. He opened the lights and found that everything was as it should be. He looked down on the floor next to the door where he was found unconscious by Kira.
"Woah! This place is so big! *Sniff* And it even smells like you!"
While Mei continued to poke through the room, Isaac began to assess just how sanitary his workplace was.
"What's this? Your latest work?" Mei pointed to the painting at the center of the room.
"Yeah, I went to the firework show with Rikki and Sydney. It was actually all planned out by a certain someone."
"Hehe… Well, it looks great! Amazing even. Look at the detail on the water and the grass. The reflection on the water also looks clean. But…"
"But what?" Isaac asked.
"The more I look at it, the sadder I get." Mei extends a hand towards the canvas, almost touching it.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, I don't know anything about art. And it's really beautiful and all… But aren't firework shows supposed to be happy and fun?"
Isaac flinched.
"It's almost as if the artist themselves were battling with what kind of message they wanted to convey with this work."
He was speechless as he hid his trembling hands behind his back. Isaac walked closer, just behind Mei.
"Do you think it makes the painting bad?"
"Oh no! I just think that you could tell a lot just by looking deeper into it."
Isaac bent over with his head peering over Mei's shoulder.
"Wana make your own painting?"
Mei turned to Isaac and her eyes sparkled with excitement. Isaac placed the painting aside and put a fresh canvas on the stand. Mei started with her work, imitating poses artists did to visualize their work while doing dramatic brush strokes.
"Here, it's like this."
Isaac took Mei's hand and guided each stroke she made. They were now gentler and more defined than the ones she made earlier alone. While Isaac was focused on the work, Mei on the other hand was red as a tomato as she resisted the squeal raging inside her.
As Mei was putting on the finishing touches on her work, she flicked the brush to her side which ended up getting paint on Isaac.
"Oh shit, my bad! But hey, I always did say your wardrobe could've used more color," she said laughingly.
"Isaac smirked and flicked a small amount of red paint on Mei's cheek while she wasn't looking.
"Hey! That's too far!"
"Hm? What's wrong? Woah, your make-up is showing today isn't it?" Isaac said as he burst into laughter.
As revenge, the two started flicking paintbrushes at each other from across the room. They each took cover behind blank canvases while shooting from afar.
"Hey! These aren't cheap, you know!"
"Is that the sound of surrender I hear?"
"As if!"
The two continued like this until the last amount of paint was left at the center of the room in a small bottle. They eyed each other up and immediately lunged at the bottle at the same time. This ended with both of them clashing heads and wiping out on the floor. They moaned from the pain followed by an array of more laughter.
There was paint splattered everywhere as both sat up at the same time and found their faces inches away from each other. Immediately they got flustered but found themselves locking eyes. After a second, Mei closed her eyes and moved in closer, as did Isaac. The moonlight shined on them perfectly as their lips were coming closer into contact. Suddenly…
*Sniff* *Sniff*
"Is that smoke?" Isaac said, opening his eyes and realizing that they left the lasagna in the oven for too long.
He quickly helped Mei up and both came rushing into the kitchen and they removed the burnt pasta from the oven. They take a minute to catch their breath then chuckle to themselves.
"I'll order take out then?" Mei asked as she went back into the living room.
Isaac was left in the kitchen. He thought back to the moment they just shared. It made him happy, but he couldn't help but also feel regret.
"Shit…" He said as he lightly hit the countertop with his fist.