17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd2ndSTIwKb
---
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJDG1zUL22N
I was sitting at my friend’s house, chatting with her, when her brother kept walking into the room, asking things like, “Should I help you find your comb?” or “Where are the keys to your bike?” or “If you need anything, just tell me — I’ll get it.”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8muDmvkOlz
He was clearly trying to act like a hero, but all of it just annoyed me. I didn’t hate such people — but they really got on my nerves.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTQA6s1fXOH
Anyway, I had to tolerate all his nonsense for two whole hours. On the other hand, my friend’s mother kept giving me looks, wondering when I would leave — it had gotten really late, and I was still sitting in her house.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0C9BUSB8nM
To be honest, she wasn’t wrong. It was their dinner time, and I was still there like an uninvited guest. What could I do? I just kept sitting silently, like a statue. Somehow, I managed to survive those two hours there.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWK23asheZs
Then I called my cousins, and they told me they were back home. As soon as I heard that, I said goodbye to my friend and left.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ04GMM8xo4p
When I reached home, all three siblings — my cousins — were sitting together, chatting. Ali was also there. But I went straight inside. They were saying that our parents were going to stay the night at the relatives’ place, so who’s going to prepare dinner now?
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uNscbB1pb
This created another round of tension in my head. None of us knew how to cook! But out of nowhere, I said, “Let me try today.”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIxd44GgycX
Everyone was surprised, but happy too.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXy6cSZS1C
We couldn’t buy food from outside because we didn’t have money, and if we had asked the neighbors, they would’ve mocked us by saying, “Such grown-up girls and still can’t cook their own food?”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTIW44HkyuD
So, I started. I chopped onions, tomatoes, and prepared everything. But then, suddenly, my brain clicked — I remembered the noodles, tea, biscuits, and pastry I had made earlier for myself.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1WrufytppA
I searched the entire kitchen, hoping to find them, but nothing was there. I was still looking when Ali walked in and asked, “What are you searching for?”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJHSNrjGrn
How could I tell him that I had secretly made food for myself earlier?
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOr35RDE82
I stayed quiet. He then said, “You won’t find those things — because I ate them.”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2SDbGmBbXi
Hearing that, I felt deeply upset. And he, right in front of me, casually admitted it with a smirk, saying he really enjoyed eating it all. He was teasing me at that point.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzaQJVRQ3zW
I walked straight from the kitchen to my room. When I reached, one of my cousin-sisters was already there, studying with her books. She said, “Tonight, we’ll sleep with you!”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq6kL64DtI1
That would’ve been fine on a normal day — but today, I had come to my room to share my pain with myself. But now I couldn’t even do that.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0FexjPzMN
I just sat silently with them on the bed. I was still sitting there, thinking, “Maybe I should just explode and tell them everything” — when suddenly she said, “You were making rice, right? So what did you end up making?”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBz6yer84RA
Hearing that, I felt like screaming. Since morning, I hadn’t had a single moment of peace, and now all they cared about was rice!
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ1YufFYroG
Anyway, already half-burnt and irritated, I made it to the kitchen again — my brain was still stuck on everything that had happened today. I wasn’t even paying attention to how I was cooking. Only when the rice went on the dum (steam) did I finally realize — what did I even do?
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa2VG4ZxIaG
But now, what could I even fix? I would only know what mess I made once the dum was opened.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7jblE7ItmC
When I came out of the kitchen, everyone started asking, “How is it? How does it taste? How’s the salt, the spice?”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zYw361XRH
How would I know? I hadn’t even tasted it myself.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LaLQvtKQt
Still, I said, “Yeah, yeah — they turned out great! You’ll all love them! You’ll never forget that Alia once made rice for you!”
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMkggdB13K
Everyone was starving, so they had no choice...
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAzKyEeSoV
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡouNoWJTj7Z
