Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

thirty-three

In which everything's cheesy

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After a tedious half an hour, they arrived to their untold destination.

The truck stopped in front of a small humble house that was surrounded by a metallic fence; on the front part there were chickens and hens roaming around despite the sun not being out yet. A woman was waiting by the door, and once Mr. Yoon got off, she waved happily at him. "You're almost late! The chickens were about to go back inside."

"Sorry, Mr, the road was too rocky to speed up."

"Does that mean we were actually going slowly?" Mirae blurted as she landed on the ground, her legs shaking under her. Jisung shrugged in response and they both joined the rest of the group in silence.

"Welcome, kids," Mr. Yoon said, "today you're going to learn how us farmers do the cheese you buy at the market."

"Oh, I hate cheese," Nora wrinkled her nose in disgust.

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Mirae washed her hands furiously, still being able to smell the cheese under her nails.

"Be careful, kid, you'll rip your skin off," Mr. Yoon chuckled as pointed with the hose to her hands as she washed down the soap.

"Sir, how long do you think the smell is going to last?"

"About another hour, I think."

"Have mercy," she moaned and dried her hands with the towel on the side. "Thank you."

She walked back inside the house and left the towel on the kitchen as she fixed the ends of the jacket. She went to the living room where she found the rest of the crew lying on the different couches and chairs, looking completely exhausted.

"Is there a way to get the smell off?" Nora asked as Mirae plopped down next to her.

"No. We have to wait another hour or so before it goes away. But I think it's going to last the whole day."

"What?!" Seungmin blurted, widening his eyes.

"What time is it?" Hyunjin lazily asked with his head resting on Felix's shoulder as he took a brief nap.

"Past noon, I think," she mumbled, trying to read the clock on the wall. "I can't see, my glasses are on my pocket."

"It's half past two," Nora whined and rested her head on the back of the couch. "I'm really hungry. When are we going to leave for lunch?"

"Ask Mr. Yoon," she shrugged, noticing how the rest slowly were drifting off to sleep.

Mirae got comfortable on the couch and rested her head back too, crossing her arms in front of her into a more comfortable position.

Ever since the time they arrived at five, they were under the smell of cheese.

The first thing they did was grab some big pots filled with milk, freshly milked from a stock of cows that lived behind the cheese-making place. They had to warm up the milk, then acidify it through a process that Mr. Yoon called 'direct acidification' where they poured vinegar or citric acid right onto the warm milk-they were split into two groups and each one used one of the two acids-.

With the acidified milk, they poured the milk into two smaller pots and worked on each one. They added the amount of coagulant Mr. Yoon and Mrs. Shang (Mo, as Mr. Yoon had addressed her before) specified, and stirred the mix until it began to form a 'gel'.