you're annoying | ryeji

TWELVE

chp. 12

Lightly closing the door behind her, Yeji entered her house with a sigh. She wondered what awaited her today, given that her father had already left. Little did she know, things were about to take an unexpected turn.

As she placed her sneakers on the shoe rack, a tantalizing aroma filled the air, wafting from the kitchen. Curiosity piqued, Yeji made her way through the halls, stopping at the doorway of the kitchen.

To her surprise, a feast was spread out on the dinner table, and her mother was busy cooking.

"Oh, you're back." Her mother's voice brought her attention toward the inside of the kitchen, and that was when Yeji noticed that her mother was actually cooking.

"...Why are you cooking?" Yeji asked with suspicion. "You don't voluntarily cook."

Her mother chuckled and spared her a glance before turning back to the stove, switching it off. "I'm a mother, I should be able to cook once in a while."

As strange as it seemed, Yeji wanted to push aside the fact that her mother was acting weird, only because of the miraculous smell of the food from the table. But before she could say anything else, the sound of toilet flushing behind her had cut all her thoughts off.

'Someone else is here.'

"We have a guest over, I hope you don't mind," her mother smiled, as if she sensed her daughter's skepticism the moment it surfaced.

Yeji nodded slowly as there were now footsteps behind her, so she turned around, met with a tall and matured man who was a lot buffer than her father.

The man smiled. "You must be Yeji."

"Yes," she said with a polite smile, shooting her mother a look. "Who are you...?"

"My name is Lee Junho," he glanced at Yeji's mother. "I'm here to talk with your mom."

"About?"

"Yeji," her mother warned, stepping closer as she took off her apron.

"What?" Yeji turned to her mom. "I'm just curious of what you'd be talking about with this man since you always go out for business."

Her mother narrowed her eyes, and that was the second warning.

Junho chuckled nervously, sensing the tension between the two as he stood by the side. "Well, um, Yeji, do you mind joining us for dinner? There's too much to eat and I don't think I can—"

"I'm sorry," Yeji said, her gaze stilled fixed on her mom. "But I don't think I should bother you guys," she turned to smile at the man. "Have a good talk with my mother, sir."

Then, she sped to her room, slamming the door close.

Yes, Yeji will admit that it was quite rude of her to cut the man off and leave with her words of sarcasm lingering in the air, but could anyone blame her? Yeji wasn't dumb, her mother never brought anyone home if they were to talk about business, because business was strictly business, it shouldn't involve her family.

Plus, her father had left not even 24 hours ago, she couldn't even wait until a week later?

Yeji scoffed at her thoughts, seeing the situation as complete disrespect toward her mother's relationship with her father — even if they had already separated.

Now that she was riled up, Yeji decided to sit down at her study table, pulling out textbooks to distract herself instead of expressing her emotions somehow. She knew it was unhealthy, but she didn't want to break the led of her pencil multiple times as she tried to write her angry thoughts down, nor did she want to make a hole in the wall trying to contain her emotions.