After rain comes the clear sky (Kaoearth)

78. Initiation ceremony

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Earth pouted as he sat on Kao's lap with his hands around his boyfriend's neck.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you beforehand!" Kao replied kissing the top of his head. "Why? You didn't like my surprise."

"No. Not at all." Earth blushed and burrowed his face into Kao's chest.

He was shocked beyond words when Sarocha introduced Kao as the new Chairman of the School Board in the morning assembly. 

Almost all the students of the school had seen Kao picking him up from school every evening. After the assembly, he was swamped by questions about his relationship with Kao. He had to lie to everyone that Kao was just his elder brother.

However, a large population of students believed otherwise. They could sense the obvious tension between the two just from the way they interacted. They acted nothing like brothers as Earth claimed.

"Ahem Ahem!" Sammy cleared her throat, making the couple snap out of their own world.

Earth slid down from Kao's lap upon seeing that his friends arrived. He still had Kao's arms around his waist.

They were in their secret hideout in the school that Kao had visited once with Fluke. 

Kao had no idea why the four children had invited him over. But he was more than willing to entertain them.

"Split up love birds. It's time for the ceremony." Prem announced as he walked in with a huge box.

"What ceremony?" Kao asked.

"The initiation ceremony" Prem answered with a smile.

He walked to the side and pulled down the huge white sheet. It revealed a wooden table that had benches attached to it.

"Fluke will be hear in a minute. Get the things ready." Prem instructed.

Sammy got to work as soon as she heard it.

"What initiation ceremony?" Kao asked his boyfriend.

Earth could only shrug his shoulders as he was as clueless as Kao was.

Soon Fluke entered the room with a carton of eggs. "Got it!" He was panting heavily, seemingly after running all the way here.

"Great!" Sammy cheered.

"Fluke, what exactly is going on here? What initiation ceremony?" Earth questioned as he had no idea what his friends were up to.

"Nothing much, babe. We just wanted to welcome your man into our group officially." Fluke answered with a wink.

Earth looked at his boyfriend who seemed comfortable with the idea, so he just let his friends do what they were doing. His boyfriend pulled him to the couch to be an audience along with him.

Prem took out a transportable gas stove from who knows where and set it up on the wooden table. Sammy simultaneously unpacked the box that Prem had brought in earlier. 

The contents of the box made Earth frown a bit. But he didn't comment. He just watched.

Fluke lit up the flame and placed a tope utensil on the stove. He poured two bottles of water into the utensil and let it boil.

Sammy brought out two family packets of instant ramen. She opened the package and handed it to Fluke.

He took the raw instant ramen cake and added it to the boiling water. 

By now, Earth understood what his friends were doing. Their group had some weird traditions one of them being eating ramen from the same pot. In most of the celebrations, they opt for this shared ramen.

This tradition started around the time Beau allowed Fluke to cook on the electric coil. As kids, they were very impressed that Fluke could cook back then. It was Prem's idea that Fluke should cook all of them instant ramen to celebrate his first solo cooking.

Ever since that day, Fluke often cooked for all four of them. But the instant ramen still had its own place on their menu. Being cheap and affordable to a bunch of kids who were still too young to earn money on their own, those noodles became the best option to commemorate their happiness.

At the side, Fluke had heated a pan on the other burner. He poured a few drops of oil into it to fry the bacon strips. Simultaneously, he took a bowl and added the sauces and the tastemaker and mixed it well.

"Prem, go get the bowls and the chopsticks!" Fluke instructed and Prem ran off.

He carefully opened the lid of the tope. The ramen was half cooked and the water was still boiling. He slowly added the mixed condiments from the bowl into the ramen and stirred it.

Next, he opened the carton of eggs, picked out the eggs and cracked them open into the boiling ramen. He stirred the ramen again.

He then chopped a few bell peppers and scallions along with blanched bean sprouts and added them to the tope as well.

He finished it off by adding some crushed dried seaweed and sesame seeds on top of it. He turned the stove off as the ramen was ready.

Prem brought back the bowls and chopsticks as he was instructed. He distributed it to everyone.

"Thank you for the food." The four teenagers said in unison, holding the bowl and chopsticks.

Kao was a bit confused seeing the small bowl in his hand but still followed the youngsters "Thank you for the food."

The four kids stared at Kao, waiting for him to begin. Kao on the other hand didn't understand what he was supposed to do.

Feeling his boyfriend's confusion, Earth spoke. "P' Kao, you have to start eating"

"Eat?" Kao wasn't really sure what he was supposed to eat as the portions weren't distributed yet.

"P' Kao, we eat directly from the tope." Fluke chuckled. "You have to take some ramen like this and use your bowl to cool it before you eat."

Kao frowned and looked at Earth.

Earth smiled. His boyfriend was cute when he was confused "Let me show you how it is done." He picked a few strands of ramen from the tope and placed it on the small bowl. He blew it a few times to cool it down and then slurped it.

Kao closely mirrored his boyfriend's actions.

The other three smiled and dug in as well.

Sammy distributed the drinks to everyone. Soft drinks for them and beer for Kao.

"How did you guys get this beer?" Kao asked looking at the beer can in his hand and then at the four teenagers.

All four of them looked away, avoiding Kao's gaze.

"Do you guys drink this often?" Kao questioned.

"Not often, phi. Just once in a while. Until now we have had it only three times." Prem answered.

"So you guys do drink this!" Kao stared at the bunch of teenagers. "Don't you know that these contain alcohol?"

"We know" Sammy mumbled with her head hanging low.

Kao let out a low chuckle upon seeing the guilty look on everyone's face. He himself was one of the students who used to drink beers behind their parent's back. He just wanted to tease the kids. "Just give me a non-alcoholic one. I have a meeting with Achaan Sarocha."

The four teenagers looked up and saw the teasing smile on Kao's face and let out a sigh of relief.

"For a minute I thought you were mad at us, Phi" Prem said patting his chest.

"What to do? Now I am one of you guys." Kao shrugged and the others smiled.

"Okay," Fluke stood up. "Let's raise a toast to the newly added member of our group"

Everyone raised their drinks and clinked them together.