New World with Four Husbands

Several hours later, the team had ended up in Leroy’s small home.

They were all crammed into his kitchen with some of them sitting on chairs, others leaning against counters.

Leroy himself stood by the stove, awkwardly stirring a pot of something that vaguely smelled like stew, and the others busied themselves by watching him with mixed expressions.

Coco sat at the table calmly, waiting for food while occasionally glancing at Leroy’s clumsy cooking attempts.

After flicking Leroy in the forehead, Coco had ordered him, without raising her voice, to lead her and the team back to his house and she made sure that it wasn’t a request.

The punishment was clear.

Leroy, who was still dazed from being launched into the snow earlier, could only obey.

The walk back to the city gates and to his home was silent and tense— the team following behind as Leroy shuffled toward his small home.

Now here they were, with him stuck cooking while they watched like hungry spectators.

Seeing that he was cooking, Coco proceeded to ignore Leroy’s fumbling with the pot, her focus entirely on the paper in front of her.

She was scribbling down detailed instructions on how to cook adobo, but this wasn’t a typical one.

Her version included multiple cuts of meat; consisting of pork belly, chicken thighs, and some beef.

The recipe was meticulous, the proportions precise, the cooking times noted exactly.

She craved it for no clear reason, and what perfect timing it was for Leroy to do something outlandish towards her.

Coco kept writing, her nose occasionally twitching as the scent of Leroy’s stew wafted through the kitchen, with the aroma being decent— not amazing, but stirred her hunger.

She sniffed subtly again, her stomach quietly reminding her that she hadn’t eaten in a while.

Still, she didn’t look up from the paper... Too absorbed in perfecting every line of adobo instructions.

Leroy glanced at her over his shoulder, wondering if she even liked what he was cooking or not, but minutes ticked by, and he finally finished serving the stew.

He quietly handed out bowls to each member of the team, careful not to spill anything.

Then, he hesitantly turned his gaze toward Coco, stealing a glance at her paper, his eyes quickly scanning the page and all he saw was dense writing— sentence after sentence, ingredient lists with measurements, cooking times.

It looked like a professional chef’s recipe card. Not something hastily scribbled down.*

Still, Leroy set the bowl of stew in front of Coco, just as she suddenly whipped her head up and looked at him.

Before he could even react, she shoved the paper straight into his stomach.

The force wasn’t violent, but it was firm enough to make him stumble back half a step, making the team freeze mid-slurp, eyes darting between them.

Coco didn’t say anything and just pointed at the recipe on the page with her finger.

Leroy swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as he processed the silent command and without a word of protest, he nodded stiffly.

"I’ll cook it right away." He muttered, already turning toward his small fridge to gather ingredients.

The team watched in quiet fascination as Leroy started pulling out meats, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar— meticulously following Coco’s instructions to the letter.

The kitchen filled with new activity, chopping and sizzling sounds replacing the earlier stew simmering.

Coco briefly glanced at Leroy, watching him chop vegetables and arrange the meats in a pan, before her attention fully shifted to the stew in front of her.

She picked up her spoon and blew gently on a hot bite, then finally took a taste.

The flavor was simple. It wasn’t terrible. Decent saltiness, okay texture. Not gourmet, but edible enough.

Without comment, she just kept eating quietly while Leroy worked behind them, the sounds of his cooking filling the kitchen almost too loudly for her liking.

As she ate though, Coco mentally critiqued Leroy’s cooking.

It lacked the depth of flavor that Heiren or Zaque could achieve, the seasoning was bland, the meats not seared perfectly.. Nothing stood out.

Honestly? She would rather be eating a meal cooked by one of them right now.

But this wasn’t about taste.

This was punishment— Leroy had to cook for the whole team as part of his consequence for slapping her earlier, and so.. She endured it without complaint.

Snorting, Coco reached for another blank paper from the stack beside her.

Right, this was a punishment.

One dish wasn’t enough to serve as full consequences for what he had done to her earlier, no?

She grabbed the pen and started writing again, this time scribbling down instructions for another Filipino dish— maybe kare-kare or sinigang.

Hearing paper crinkling, Leroy glanced over his shoulder to look at his leader, only to see a new page forming, making his stomach sink slightly, because this meant he had more cooking ahead of him.

While Leroy was busy dreading and cooking, Coco had decided and wrote out the recipe for pork sinigang.

The tangy, sour broth, which is balanced with rich pork and vegetables— was a classic Filipino dish

So, she detailed everything.

From the cuts of pork, how to blanch them first, when to add vegetables and the exact balance of sourness.

Once she finished writing that one, too, she slid the paper toward Leroy without a word.

She planned to make Leroy cook both adobo and sinigang back-to-back, because this is about enduring a long, tedious cooking session as his punishment.

Besides, cooking is fun, right?

Leroy’s jaw dropped slightly as he stared at the new recipe, his eyes widening in genuine disbelief.

Did she just hand him a second dish?

His mind short-circuited, because cooking one dish was already challenging enough, but two different dishes, back-to-back?!

The flavors were completely distinct, too! One needed a careful balance of soy and vinegar; the other relied on sour tamarind broth! Their instructions said to make them taste exactly as the flavor in the paper!

He looked from Coco to the paper, then back at her, silently questioning her mortality.