2 Spit that out right now

When she opened her eyes, a set of brown ones were directly in front of her.

They belonged to a face framed by caramel wisps of hair and sickly pale in color. His stubble was long and unshaven while under his eyes hung circles so dark, he seemed like he had been punched on both sides.

For an unnecessarily long amount of time, they held each other's stare.

"Is she awake?"

He was the first to break the unofficial contest as his eyes darted over to the source of the sound. She followed his line of sight and there stood a somewhat-familiar man standing in front of a door.

She gazed at him blankly, long enough that he began to get uncomfortable, before quickly scanning the room she was in.

There wasn't anything special to say about the room except maybe for the fact that right next to her was a pack of surgical tools and hanging on the closet was her own bloody clothes. At this point, her drowsiness began to leave her system and she peered down at what she was wearing.

Seeing that her outfit was different from what she wore the night before, she locked eyes with the man in front of the door, a questioning look on her face. Though he continued wearing an indifferent mask, the tips of his ears heated up.

"Ah, right. My sister came over to change your clothes, not that guy." She turned her head to face the man by her side. "Oh~ Such a pure and innocent boy like Vanessa could not bear to do such a thing."

He dodged with ease as a fork flew over and embedded itself in the headboard.

"Last night I thought he was finally going to become a real man-" He quickly shut up as two hands wrapped around his neck. He gave her a mischievous grin to which she mirrored, before swinging her legs to the edge of the bed.

After waiting for the wave of dizziness to subside, she asked "Vanessa?" Her voice held a hint of mirth and 'Vanessa' sighed.

"Newt was just joking. My name's Kyle." He stretched out his hand and she grasped it.

"Yes, I am Newt. Newt Harrish, 174 cm, blood type BA, genius doctor of twenty-four years old, and Vanessa's best friend." He chimed in from the side, now talking freely without Kyle's threatening grip.

"Leila. Nice to meet you, Kyle, Newt." She squeezed the hand she held and nodded her head to Newt. In response, he wiggled his brows.

When she relaxed her grip, she realized the Kyle had yet to do the same. While waiting for him, she observed his hand. His skin was pale with peach undertones while hers was lightly tanned and golden from time out in the sun.

He finally noticed how long he had been holding her hand and stiffly released it. After taking a moment to recollect his thoughts, he coughed.

"Right. I came here to see if you were awake and tell you that I made breakfast."

"You.. cook?" Sounding as if he was unable to put the two words together, Newt dashed out of the room and his voice was heard soon after. "Is this even edible? This is poison, absolute poison. You're trying to kill her!"

Leila laughed and attempted to stand before she held out her hands in defeat. "Sorry. Help me up?"

"Of course." He grabbed her wrists and pulled with too much force. If she hadn't used her arms to create a gap between them, she would have crashed right into his chest. He immediately apologized.

"No, it's fine." She placed her hands on his shoulders to stabilize herself and was finally able to put enough strength into her legs. Then she moved to adjust her clothes.

"You have to be more gentle with girls, man. Especially with how she's injured. That must have hurt." Newt poked his head through the door and the two turned to check on her.

"It really doesn't hurt that much though." After she shook her hand, Newt hummed and disappeared once more.

"Leila?" Kyle looked back at her while starting to walk forwards. She made a slight noise of acknowledgment and followed behind.

Just right outside of the bedroom door was a table with four chairs. In the middle of the table sat a large bowl with three smaller bowls surrounding it.

As Newt had already taken a seat, she sat down and Kyle followed suit. She took a moment to study the barely discernible shapes held within the largest bowl. Turning her attention to Kyle, she slowly spoke with an unsure tone.

"Congee?" He nodded with a proud expression that threatened to make her burst out laughing. For his sake, she struggled to contain the impulse.

"Really?" Newt raised his face full of disbelief and murmured, "No way.."

Inside of the bowl was an off-white substance with, at least, half of it being brown or even directly burnt black. Rather than large, whole pieces, the rice was small and mushed together, seeming as if it were part of a smoothie concoction which wasn't blended entirely.

Scooping about a third into one of the smaller bowls, she took a spoonful of the mush and directly ate it. Glancing up, Newt's horror and Kyle's anticipation were directly transmitted to her. To this, she raised a brow and started chewing.

With so many flavors competing in her mouth, Leila felt a bit confused as to what the meal was trying to be. It was sweet, but also salty, sour, a little spicy, and had other strange tastes she had trouble describing.

Each time her molars came down, a series of crunches and cracks came from her mouth. As she swallowed, it scratched her throat and, for a moment, she compared it to ingesting some sort of slime mixed with tiny glass shards.

Right next to her, she was able to see Kyle's shining eyes. Taking this into account, she meticulously finished every bite, then lifted her head almost immediately.

"Where's the water?" Newt quickly stood up and poured her a glass before returning to his seat.

She easily downed the entirety of it and coughed to clear her throat.

"So how was it?" "How does it taste?" The two men asked similar questions once she set the cup down. She tilted her head, considering her answer.

"Mmmn. I think it wasn't.. that.. bad."

Although her answer wasn't confident, they both took it all the same. She watched in amusement as they loaded up their bowls and prepared to eat. The two reactions differed greatly.

As soon as the mixture had touched his tongue, Kyle removed the spoon from his mouth and lightly placed it back in the bowl. Stiffly and almost robotically, he turned his head and scrutinized her with a face full of concern and apologies.

Because he was so eager to taste Kyle's cooking, Newt had taken a giant spoonful of the compound. As the poison entered his mouth, his facial features contorted and he spat it out. Immediately he began to dry heave.

The culprit behind the scenario turned a bright red and he was unable to hide his embarrassment and remorse. His gaze flicked from her to the mess that was leaning on the table. A chuckle escaped her mouth as Newt's soulless expression came into her view.

Peeking over at Kyle's bowl, then at Leila's empty one, his eyes widened and he looked at her with two conflicting emotions. One was hatred for how she didn't warn him of the monstrosity that he had just attempted to consume. The other was fear as to how she was able to eat said monstrosity.

"Leila, you need to spit that out right now." She hummed in a slight agreement.

"It's too late though?"