From Foe to Fam (lil fishies check)

These lil whitebait were initially one of my most hated kyuushoku. I have a huge fear of dead things and I don't understand why anyone would voluntarily eat something with a face. They are soft and don't particularly taste like anything, so all they add to the dish is a smidge of protein and a dash of dread.

With that said, this is one fear I'm happy to say I conquered during my time on JET.

Do I buy them when I'm at the grocery store? FUck no. But if a Japanese friend of mine were to cook something for me, and I found the lil fishies swimmin around in the broth or something, would I pretend to eat them only to spit them out into my hand when nobody's looking and cram them into the pocket of my jeans, only to forget I had done that, so they congeal into a ball of rotting flesh, slowly drying over time while making my apartment smell like fish, until I eventually collect said jeans off the floor of my bedroom and throw them into the washing machine, and the water rehydrates the fish, and the wringer inside my Japanese washing machine breaks their lil corpses into parts, so when I go to hang my laundry up to dry I realize with a sudden burst of complete horror that my favourite blouse is covered in teensie lil severed eyeballs, heads and tails?

I can now scarf these bad boys down without batting an eye. It's something I'll eat if I have to, and while they aren't something I'll ever crave, I don't hate them. We're neutral. They aren't bae. They're just fam.