“What’s your name?”

A bored looking woman asked behind the table. Lia, unsure of what to make of her question, let her eyes roam around, trying to find a clue of what was going on.

“Name,” the woman repeated, impatience evident on her voice.

Lia’s eyes found the open area with tables and other cooking materials. She returned her gaze to the woman and the registration paper before her.

“Drat.”

“Drat?” the woman gave her a weird look then shrugged and wrote on the paper.

“No!” Lia was pretty sure she would not want to be called Drat. “Look, I’m not joining okay.”

The woman stared up, looking affronted. It was Lia’s turn to shrug, not like she ever wanted to be here either. She turned on her heels and began walking away when her eyes caught sight of him.

The four judges had already taken their assigned seats. They started chatting and whispering with each other. Except him who was busy having a staring contest with Lia.

The woman followed Lia’s line of sight and snickered.

“So you came for him too?”

Lia looked away first and gave the woman a, what she hoped, an incredulous look. Did she mistake her for some lovesick maiden like the ones from the crowd?

“You’re not the only one,” she said as she pointed to the participants who already took their places. Almost half of them were young ladies.

Lia was about to leave when she a tall man with pig-like nose came out. He went straight to Lia.

“Is she the last contestant?” he said.

“Yes,” the woman said it at the same time as Lia exclaimed a reverberating ‘No!’

“Girl, don’t waste our time, we’re about to start. Let’s go,” the man said pushing Lia towards the middle.

“Name.” the woman insisted.

“Li- Lin,” Lia answered dejectedly. So much for trying hard to avoid this damn day this damn contest. Doing all those stealth moves drained her. That conversation that went nowhere drained her further. What a day.

She sighed. Fine. If this was what people called destiny, so be it. She was too lazy to fight it. Fighting seemed futile anyway.

They reached her allocated table and her mind was pulled back to the event in front of her. A cooking contest. She did not prepare anything. She knew nothing. She scrambled for the things that happened in the novel. She did not pay attention to this part because she was so sure that she would avoid this event.

‘Overconfident, aren’t we?’

From what she recalled, there was a theme, something along the lines of food you would give to the person you love. Having the person she liked in front of her, she was inspired and took home the first place.

But Lia now was not eager to impress him nor was she eager to win. Too much trouble. It was already so much work to be in this place, at this time.

She sucked hard on her inner cheek as if steadying her will. ‘Fine, fine. I’ll do what I can but definitely not my best. Can’t be bothered to give that much for this.’