Kai is surprised just how fast the days pass. He feels absolutely spoiled by Khánh’s diligence and care, which goes above and beyond.

He doesn’t think he can possibly repay them. He wants to do something, like clean around the house, polish the floor, install some shelving for Khánh numerous books and trinkets… but it hurts to move, and when it doesn't hurt, he’s asleep.

He’s able to make lists, though. And plans, a lot of plans of all the things he wants to do, and lists of what he needs to acquire to make it happen.

Soon, another week passes, making it two weeks since the surgery and since Kai started staying with Khánh.

“I think I can start some of my freelancing work again,” Kai says to Khánh one morning. “So maybe I should move...”

“No, just work here! You can work on the dining table...or! Or I can buy another desk for you, would that be okay?”

Kai’s heart immediately feels tight. “I should sit on the couch—”

“Oh, of course! I’ll buy a table that you can use while sitting there,” Khánh decides. “I can order it and have it sent. How about your things, though? I’ll drive you to collect more of your clothes as well.”

And that’s how they end up at the place where Kai lives. It’s a shared house in the suburbs.

“I needed to save money, so…I don’t have my own house like you...”

Khánh smiles faintly. “Kai, there is no need to explain. Now remember, you’re not allowed to do any heavy lifting, so let me, understand?”

Kai nods wryly.

Luckily, the house is empty during the daytime, with all the housemates out at work. Kai is not too embarrassed about Khánh going through his underwear drawer as part of them packing more of his clothes.

Kai doesn’t have many things, and Khánh insists on packing up enough to fill their car, which ends up meaning all of Kai’s personal belongings are taken back to Khanh’s house.

Not long after, the adjustable-height, moveable desk Khánh has ordered for Kai also arrives. Khánh helps adjust the desk, so Kai can sit on the sofa comfortably and work on his laptop.

“I’m going to stream now...but don’t push yourself, okay?” Khánh hovers worriedly. “If you’re hungry, there is some food in the fridge. I won’t stream too long, then we can make dinner together later…”

“I know, I know,” Kai says, smiling. “Thank you for your help.”

Khánh immediately waves the thanks away. “No thanks between best friends!” they declare.

Thus, with the best intentions, Kai picks up some work again, mostly some tutoring work online.

But he still gets tired easily and really has no energy for doing anything more, so after he finishes the work he’d signed up to do, instead of hunting for more work, Kai ends up looking for Khánh’s livestream.

He cracks a smile when he sees what it is. It’s a Minecraft server filled with food sculptures painstakingly made out of various blocks.

Khánh’s voice flows through his headphones, chatting about food and the latest food sculpture they are making. The scrolling comments are a bit too fast for Kai to read entirely, but a lot of them are like:

[So hungry!!]

[Agreed!]

[Sounds so yumm….]

[HOW???]

[How much money for you to send me this??]

...Actually, it is starting to make Kai feel a bit hungry too, especially when Khánh responds to some comments about how to make those dishes.

Kai decides to make an account. His own comment of [Your sculptures are so awesome!!] quickly get buried under the other comments. He also sneakily subscribes to Khánh’s stream, highest tier.

Khánh’s voice is very nice to listen to. Kai sort of...wants to hear Khánh to read a bedtime story. When a viewer sends money into the stream, Khánh personally thanks them.

Hmmm…

Kai quickly adds money to his account and throws it all at Khánh. He grins when Khánh notices, saying, “Thank you to Mr. Turtle for the support!”

Eventually, Khánh wraps up the livestream and says goodbye to their viewers. “You can get all the recipes on my blog, linked below. Have a good day!”

This is the perfect time for Kai to quickly close the livestream tab and innocently open up a tab about home renovation.

Khánh walks quietly over, peeking into the living room.

Kai smiles unconsciously. “I’m done, can I help you make lunch?”

“Okay, you can help me peel the soybeans,” Khánh decides. They quickly head over to push the desk back and help Kai stand up.

In the kitchen, there is a pressure cooker on the stove, the heat long off. “I cooked the soybeans this morning,” Khánh says as they drain the liquid. “And now before I can make soy milk, we peel the skins like this.”

Khánh shows how the skins of the soybeans easily slip right off. The process is not hard, just tedious.

“If you can do that, I can make our actual lunch, which are bánh bao!”

“Bao buns?” Kai says uncertainly. “The ‘bánh’ means bread, or some kind of flour-based product?”

Khánh nods, smiling. “Right. Many Asian countries have bánh bao. Today, I’ll be making a couple of different fillings.”

Khánh quickly makes the dough mixture and leaves it, covered, inside the oven to proof. In the meantime, while Kai is still peeling soybeans, Khánh preps the fillings, asking for Kai’s input along the way.

The traditional Vietnamese filling involves ground pork, wood ear mushrooms, Chinese sausage, and hard-boiled eggs. Because these bao are going to be relatively small, Khánh uses quail eggs. Meanwhile, the sweet bánh bao will have an egg custard filling.

Afterwards, while the dough is still proofing, Khánh helps Kai peel the rest of the soybeans. Half of the soybeans go into a blender with water, and then Khánh filters the soy milk into a saucepan.

“Kai, can you continually stir this? After 10 minutes, you can add in this sugar and these pandan leaves…”

“Yes, I can,” Kai immediately agrees. Even if he’s doing basic, easy tasks, he really likes the feeling of helping out in whichever way he can.

“We can make tofu and use the leftover pulp later,” Khanh says.

Now, Khánh starts heating up the water in the large steamer pot and takes out the bánh bao dough. Small pieces of dough are rolled out and filled. The large bánh bao are the savoury ones, and the smaller bánh bao are the egg custard ones, and they all go into the steamer.

Ten minutes after that, the fragrant green soy milk has cooled to a drinkable temperature, and the bánh bao are done.

“Some people say bao are the Asian version of sandwiches,” Khánh says, smiling. “Though, there’s the Vietnamese bánh mì so…”

Kai cracks a grin. “At least the fillings don’t fall out here,” he says. He pokes the bánh bao on his plate a bit; it’s too hot to touch immediately. He takes his glass of soy milk instead.

He’s no stranger to soy milk, especially after he began coming around to Khánh’s, but he’s never had homemade soy milk, and it’s never been warm or green before either.

He remembers the pandan scent from the waffles, but it’s definitely stronger in the soy milk. Kai takes a sip. Oh! The homemade soy milk tastes so much richer than the supermarket stuff. It’s like the full cream version in comparison to the commercial skim milk. The added sugar and pandan also enhance the soy milk flavour.

“This is so good!” Kai says happily. “I’m never going to be able to drink supermarket soy milk again!”

Khánh takes a sip of their own drink, their lips curving into a smile. “I’m glad you like it. It’s a small matter of adding less water. Oh, I forgot to ask, how was work?”

Kai looks away, a little sheepish. “It was fine, it was just, uh...part time.”

If anything, Khánh looks more worried. “Don’t push yourself, Kai! Did you work the entire time?!”

“No, I watched a Minecraft streamer afterwards.”

Khánh’s eyes widen. “You watched…”

“The food sculptures were so good. I hope they make a walkthrough later.”

Khánh starts to redden. “You watched me.”

Kai also feels like his cheeks are heating up. “Um, if you don’t want me to, then I can stop.”

“...Were you Mr. Turtle?”

Kai smiles sheepishly. “You caught me.” He grabs a bánh bao and takes a big bite, so he won’t say anything more incriminating.

The first thing he gets is the soft and fluffy outside. It tastes slightly sweet, and the chew of it is divine. The inside is a savoury filling, and the wood ear mushrooms give it a bit of bite and texture. And the quail egg is like the best little surprise in the center. Washing it down with the sweet warm soy milk, Kai feels really content.

“This is really delicious. I wish someone made these for me when I was younger. A lot better than school lunches for sure.”

“Hmm…” Khánh’s eyes go wistful. “I wonder what would have happened if we met as kids.”

After thinking about it, Kai makes a face. As a kid...he was a mess of puberty and dysphoria. “I think we met at just the right time,” he decides.

Khánh’s lips curve up. “You think so?”

“Yes,” Kai says firmly.

“Okay, I’ll agree with you.”

The two smile across the table.

*

Bonus scene:

Later, when Kai opens up his wallet to check out how much money he has on hand for those renovations for Khánh’s house, he finds that he has more than expected.

...Khánh must have snuck the money in after finding out Kai sent money during the stream. Kai can’t win, can he?

*

Bonus scene 2:

In an alternate universe…

Little Kai: Aw, peanut butter and jelly again

Little Khánh: *drops into the seat next to Kai and sets a huge container full of bánh bao down with an audible BOOM!*

Little Khánh: Did someone say they were hungry?