Sight Unseen

Chapter 7

Luna laughed so hard at that comment that she began to snort. Finally, she took a few deep breaths and calmed her laughter. "No, Beomgyu is like the little brother I never wanted," she joked. "No, seriously, I love him to pieces, but it's not the way I feel about you. It's totally different," she assured him.

"So, how do you feel about me?" he asked.

"Oh, we're doing this? Okay, okay," Luna replied. "Well, the way I feel about you is that you make my insides all shaky and wobbly. Beomgyu doesn't do that to me." Luna slid over on the coach and put her arm around Yeonjun. She whispered the next part in his ear. "You make me all crazy in the wee hours of the morning, thinking about you --- the way you smell, your gorgeous smile, your sexy lips." Her mouth was hovering over his now, and she could feel his breath on her lips. Yeonjun lay her gently on her back as his legs straddled hers.

"I feel a certain way about you too," he said against her neck. "You're so bossy, but I kinda like it," he whispered in her ear.

Luna chuckled as she pulled his mouth to hers. As they kissed, Yeonjun let his hips drop until they met hers. He pressed against her rhythmically until she began to grab at his back desperately. With an extended squeaking noise, she arched her back and then fell slack against the couch.

"Wait, did you ---?" Yeonjun asked, incredulously.

"It doesn't take much," Luna replied. "I mean, at least not with you," she clarified.

"I gotta say, I feel very accomplished right now," he answered with a grin.

Just then the door beeped and Beomgyu entered the apartment. "Get a room!" he called out as he passed by them, shielding his face with this hand.

"You have terrible timing, Beomgyu," Yeonjun called out after him. But, since the moment was broken, they both sat up again.

"I'm hungry," Yeonjun said, in a surprising admission.

"I'm gonna make you something," Luna declared. "I just bought a bag of quinoa on my way here," she said as she rooted through her oversized tote bag. Pulling out a plastic bag filled with tiny circular grains, she began her preparations. "You know, if I'm doing this anyway, do you care if I record it for my blog?" she asked.

"It's fine as long as I don't show up in it," he agreed.

So, Luna set up her phone on a tripod on the kitchen counter and hit record. "Hi, guys. This is Luna here. I'm making healthy food for my honey today. So, I thought I would bring you along for the ride." She held up the bag of quinoa and then put some in her hands to display them in front of the camera. "Guys, if you aren't familiar with quinoa, they are little seeds that have protein, fiber, B vitamins --- they've got it all. And they decrease inflammation in the body." She poured some of the brown seeds into a measuring cup. Then she dumped them into a sieve to rinse them. "So, rinse your quinoa first," she said as she dumped it into a pan, tapping the sieve lightly until the wet seeds came unstuck.

"So, I've got one cup of quinoa, and I'm going to add two cups of water. You can use chicken broth if you're not vegan," she explained. "You've gotta season that water pretty aggressively with salt and pepper," she continued. "So, you're going to bring this to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cover it with a lid and let it simmer for 20 minutes, just like rice. Easy peasy, guys!" she said animatedly.

"Do you know what's cool, you guys? Quinoa was farmed by the ancient Incas of South America in 3,000 B.C., if you can believe that! The Incas saw it as sacred and called it 'chisiya mama' or 'mother grain'," she told the camera. "And I promise, when you eat it, you will feel all warm and full inside like you used to feel with your mama's food when you were little," she vowed. "That's why I always say that indigenous people are way ahead of the rest of us when it comes to nutrition. If you're a person who is out there right now considering going on a strict diet, listen to your girl, Luna. I'm telling you, just eat like 80% indigenous food like quinoa, beans, lean meat, nuts, vegetables --- stuff like that. And then you can have like 20% of the foods that modern people eat. I call them 'white-people' foods because mostly these refined grains and sugar come from the culture of the colonizers. So, you can have some treats here and there, but remember to mostly keep it natural like the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Incas --- all the great cultures that made Latinos who we are," she added.

When her quinoa was ready. She poured some into a bowl and turned on the camera again. "Well, guys, I'm gonna take a bite and see how it is." She blew on the hot mixture and took a big bite. "It tastes great, guys! You should try it," she encouraged. When she turned off the camera, she handed Yeonjun a spoon and they ate out of the same bowl.

"Mm, it's pretty good," Yeonjun said. "You know what it needs, though?" he asked rhetorically as he rooted through the refrigerator. He pulled out a container and opened it. The unmistakable smell of kimchi filled the air. "We're going fusion on this one," he said with a grin as he plopped a big pile of kimchi on top of the quinoa.