So I’ve been living with C for a little over 6 months now. Before I moved in, I made sure to check with them if they would have any problem with my style of cooking. I was just making sure I wasn’t using any ingredients that they were allergic to or had an issue with. They let me know that I should be fine.

A couple weeks ago, whilst I was in the kitchen, C informed me that they’d moved some of my stuff, including a bag of red onions, into one of the cupboards. I found it a bit odd initially as i would’ve expected them to have informed me before hand but i was fine with it as it was no big deal, or so I thought.

A couple days later, just as i was about to start making dinner i realize that all the red onions in the bag had gone bad. I was upset because it was too late to order in a new bag as all the grocery outlets were closed. I’m new to cooking and I only ever started cooking when I’d moved into this place so I really had no idea as to why they went bad in the first place. After learning that storing them in closed spaces with no ventilation can cause them to go bad, I inform C about it the next morning. I thought it was a funny anecdote and let C know that we probably weren’t supposed to store them in. This is when they inform me that they had moved my stuff in mostly because of the onions. They told me it was the smell and that the house smelled like onions. But the thing is I couldn’t smell any odor coming off of them unless I brought them too close to my face. Neither were any of the onions cut open so it only added to my confusion.

I tried bringing up alternatives, like placing them in a better wire basket, buying just a few of them in loose and not in bags of 8 and maybe even placing them further away on the kitchen counter. They weren’t too thrilled with any of my suggestions. All they kept saying was that they weren’t sure, or that it might help. I asked again if there was anything else such as an allergy but they denied. They also didn’t offer to get me a new bag of onions which I was completely okay with.

I haven’t been able to cook my favorite food the last couple days. Finally I caved in and purchased 2 enormous red onions. I’d left them out on the kitchen counter a little further away like I’d said. The sat there through the night and earlier today, I asked C again if they smelled onions and they said while it smelled like it they weren’t too sure about it. I thought it was strange, I could smell the apples, bananas and onions only if I were to bring them super close to my face. The house was not reeking of onions to me so I quickly grab one of the red onions and bring them over to C reaching my hand out hoping they would confirm that it was indeed coming from the onion. When I asked them if they could confirm if it were indeed the onions C responded with a simple “no”. seeing that they were disinterested in having a conversation as they were occupied playing a video game on their PC I let it be. I was still confused regardless.

A couple minutes pass by and they let me know that what I did with the onion was impolite. I hate confrontations so I immediately apologized and asked them if they were allergic to the smell or something. They told me they weren’t but wherever the smell was coming from was causing their eyes to itch. C also had some kind of an eye surgery sometime back and while they hadn’t brought this up today I was only trying to help them out.

C is American while I’m not so i can’t help but wonder if this was a cultural thing. So, AITA for holding up a red onion too close to my roommate?