REGRETS. REMORSE.

THESE are the first words that come to mind when I rouse for my sleep. My head is pounding and dizziness is wreaking havoc on my body. It's like my body is trying to exorcise the alcohol in me.

"Give me a break." I mutter to my body. I must have lost my mind last night. Whatever did I consume so much alcohol for? I am so out of it that I barely remember the things I did or said last night, let alone the brand of alcohol I drank.

Oh my god, what did I say? And who was with me?

"Arghhh," I moan into my pillow and attacks with a series of unceasing blows, which I soon regret- again- because it worsens my headache but lets the stress in me ebb out swiftly.

"Leave your pillow alone, girl. And you stink. Shower quick." Pat advises while she sets a bowl of soup on my wall-mounted bedside table. After she does so, she lights a lavender scented candle and places it on the table.

"Thank you Pat, you sweetheart."

"You should tell him muchas gracias (thank you a lot)." Pat laughs peals of laughter as she says gaily. "I think you've got yourself a secret admirer. You go girl!"

I am confusion.

Pat just titters at my perplexed expression and heads out of the room, leaving me clueless and suddenly diffident. For a moment, I just sit on my bed and blank out and decide to sniff my hair.

Instantly, I recoil from my own hair. Pat was right- I am stinkier than a skunk. Eyeing the soup, I made up my mind to wash up well and enjoy it.

___

I wanted to hug whoever cooked the soup.

The soup was something I had never tasted before- it had a strong, intense savoury flavour that was somehow complemented really well with the pepper in it. The old adage 'Don't judge a book by its cover' really applied to this as appearance-wise, it was rather unflattering as the soup was of a murky colour. But it was definitely a delight to my taste buds and best of all, it cured my hangover too.

The lavender scented candle was doing a magnificent job at clearing my head too; after finishing the savoury soup and smelling the earthy floral lavender, I felt as fresh as a newborn baby.

"Hey Pa- oh! Joaquim!" I nearly jumped out of my skin due to his unanticipated presence that I almost dropped the tray. "I, erm, why are you here? What's up?"

"Heh, I'm just checking up on you." Joaquim stuttered while folding his hands. For some reason, he avoided my eyes.

"Do you know who cooked the soup for me? Is it by any chance you?" I queried.

"Yep, it's me. How did you know?" It was an unusual sight to witness him suddenly have a perkier attitude. Something's up for sure.

"Do you have a teensy bit of recollection of what happened yesterday?"

"Erm... Did I vomit on you? I'm sorry!"

"No... you spilled the tea on your family."

I spilled the tea on my family? To JOAQUIM?

The previous night's contents came flooding back to me instantaneously. It was as if the expression unlocked something in my brain and snippets of Joaquim's and my conversation started playing in front of me.

"Then shouldn't you be at his side? Most kids would take care of them you know."

"You don't know the hell I went through until I was 18. There's a reason why I cut-off ties with them the day after my 18th birthday."

"Did Ander call you when he realised you left?"

"Oh, he called. I didn't answer. In every bloody voicemail was him pleading me to come home."

"Basically they were 'I don't wanna deal with the old man'... America's my dream, Irina... I can't pay off the bills..."

"'Like mother, like daughter'. She left me, Ander and dad; and I left Ander and dad."

I am in awe of myself- I can't believe that I told him everything. I didn't spill the tea- I poured it!

Joaquim nervously comes towards me and takes the tray away from me. "Your jaw dropped and your eye is ticking. That means you're both astounded and furious at me. So, I'm taking the tray away- the probability of you dropping it is 95%." He sets the tray down on the counter. "Now, you can beat me up."

My black eyes meet his brown ones and this time, I take fast steps towards him. Now we are face-to-face and Joaquim's eyes dart nervously.

"Oooh... good luck Korl!" I hear Pat halt in her steps as she bumps into us. I smirk to myself; she knows what's up.

"Joaquim Korl. Give me your hand."

"My hand?"

"Yes."

The moment he places his hand in mine, I grab it and bite on it.

"OWWW!!! It hurts, it hurts, let it g- OWW!!" Joaquim yelps in agony, but I still bite on to it. My anger and frustration at myself gradually dissipates and I bestow mercy on him.  

As I release him, I inform him, "Pat's endurance is way better than yours. You have no idea how much she's suffered."

"Yup, you have no idea," Pat chimes in. "Yet I do feel a need to apologise to you. If it weren't for me, you would never have experienced Iri's sting. You see, in a way, I started this. When we were like, 14, the two of us got into a squabble. It's so silly that I can't remember what it's about. Nonetheless, in a bid to let peace return, I handed her my hand. I told her to bite it, and she did. She became less angry as time passed. So, sorry."

"You girls are sadistic creatures. What on Venus did you learn there?"

"And you!" I wag my middle finger at him, eyeing him with my piercing gaze. "What on Mars did you learn there? You should have shut me up and not gobble up all the juicy stuff I was telling you."

"I tried. But your mouth has a mind of its own and adamantly rejects zipping itself up. At first, I fed you beer in the hopes that it'll take you a while to drink it. I thought you'll sip it. Instead, you chugged it! Then I switched to plan B: force-feeding you crackers." Joaquim's gaze is full of weariness as he recounts his foolish plans. "It didn't work. You would munch on them but ended up spraying crumbs everywhere cos you couldn't shut up. So don't say I didn't try."

"I... Joaq, I'm not a baby. Why are you treating me like I'm a delicate, fragile fairy? I'm not. You can like tape my mouth."

"That sounds wrong. Really wrong. ANYWAYS, I hope you enjoyed your bak kut teh. This has been a weird conversation and I'm gonna leave now."

Bak kut teh? What? What even is that?

Before I could even bid him farewell, Joaquim dashed out of my loft at the speed of lightning. I think it'll be safe to say that I successfully scared him off.

___

Bak kut teh turned out to be that savoury, peppery broth that I had drank as a hangover soup. It turned out to be a famous and well-loved soup in Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia. It usually has pork ribs in it but Joaq didn't cook that.

He either ran out of time or lacked the skill to do so.

Out of the spirit of inquiry, I decided to investigate the real cause of my missing pork ribs via DM.

@irinotiris: whr is my pork rib

@joaquimishere: ?

@irinotiris: MY PORK RIB

@joaquimishere: why u text me w/o contxt? u talking abt the soup i made u? wlcm

@irinotiris: ... fp. Tell me why

@joaquimishere: ain't nothing but a heartache

@irinotiris: joaq, i'm serious

@joaquimishere: ain't nothing but a mistake. And it ain't a mistake when I didnt cook pork ribsss

i thot that u wldn't wan to chew a lot so i didnt add it in

Aww. He'll make any girl swoon with his thoughtfulness.

@joaquimishere: was worried that chewing too much will cause u headache again so i didnt add it. I hope i'll never have to cook it again for u

He is surprisingly sweet.

My phone 'dings' and I eagerly read the next message.

@joaquimishere: i carried u to ur bed n i regret it. u r heavier than a mountain

I take back my previous thoughts.

hey guys! Have you ever travelled to Singapore or another Asian countries? Where's the furthest you've travelled to? Please let me know (I'll love to get to know my readers better!) What's the most strange/exotic food/fruit/beverage you ever had in your life?

For me, the most bizarre dish I've ever tasted is actually a dessert. To avoid offending anybody from the country that I ate it in, I will not mention where this ice-cream is from.

Here's a pic of it below: (pic taken by me)

It was too organic for me to appreciate it... I remember that it tasted a little grassy... so yup here's the most bizarre dessert I've ever eaten. Let me know what's yours! 😊

I hope you a lovely week guys!