Well, smile when you speak hadn't worked out in the slightest. Nor had ask them about their day, don't raise your voice, and give them their space. Elijah has all the space she needs, truly, so Yohan couldn't even figure that last one out.

So here he is, after his butler had recommended looking up love languages, cooking breakfast. Acts of service. He can do that, sure. The rice is in the rice cooker. There is definitely a soup of something on the gas, and he's sure the chicken is cut and clean and skinned. There's also kimchi, procured from the fridge, of whose origins he's sure has to do with the second pest living in his house.

Right, Yohan reminds himself, catching on one of Elijah's remarks. The cat is not a pest. That other one is the only pest here. The water begins to boil over in the middle of his musings, and for a moment he wonders if the chicken should be served like this; bland but cooked.

No, no. His butler had definitely recited a recipe that had some amount of spice in it. And some chopped-up greens. And maybe some carrots? Yohan is too proud to ask it to repeat.

So he stands there with the gas half-way to ravenous and ponders between adding gochujang paste straight into a pot of boiling water or adding red-pepper flakes straight into a pot of boiling water.

"I think you need to add the fish sauce now."

Yohan doesn't jump. That would be beneath him.

"Do you even know what you're talking about?"

"You're back," Elijah replies, sated smile on her lips. "You were being so weird earlier, smiling like some lunatic."

"Smile when you speak," Yohan repeats to himself, reassuring.

Elijah has, meanwhile, stationed herself at the kitchen counter, peering suspiciously into the pot boiling away on the stove.

"You've made a right mess of this, I think."

Defensive of his hard work, Yohan demands, "How would you know?"

"I've seen Gaon do it before. I don't think you just let the chicken boil like this."

"You like to watch him, don't you?"

"Don't you?"

Well.

"Don't you?" Another voice parrots. Now both Yohan and Elijah jump, and he doesn't feel it's particularly beneath him anymore.

Kim Gaon stands, haphazard and leaning, against the door frame. "How either of you lived without me is a mystery," He declares, then takes the reins with smug contentment.