LOYALTY

Traditions

His lazy eyes were wide open, his hair messed up and small creases on his face. A sign of an amazing sleep.

"Yah!! How dare you kick me?" He yelled as he rubbed his butt and hip bone still sitting on the floor.

"It was your own damn fault!" She matched his pitch of voice, pointing her index finger at him as she stood up on the bed.

"My fault? You were the one who kicked me?" He quickly stood up from the floor, irritation and annoyance clear on his face as he mirrored her actions.

"You were the one who licked me." She shrieked as if she wasn't just sniffing him like a pervert a few minutes ago.
But he doesn't know that.. Hehehe...

"You- WHAT!? I can never do that.." He shrieked too, offended.

"Yes you did. You were hugging me like a baby!!"

Their unending bickering continued for 10 whole minutes before they got tired of speaking so loudly. Jaison's hip bone was hurting as well. It concerned her too. She gave him a few tips and ways of massaging a few joints to relieve the pain. He stomped into the bathroom saying he'll never take her advice but ended up trying them anyway. The massage actually relieved some of the pain. But the sensation of being kicked so hard still made him limp.

FLASHBACK  ENDS

"But on a serious note, food ordered from outside is not healthy. Its nutritious value is very low. Why don't you just eat homemade food?" She questioned genuinely, sitting on the chair of the island.

He too sat on the other chair with a bottle of protein shake in his hand.
"I don't know how to cook." He simply shrugged.

"How about hiring maids and what about the food cooked at your parents house?"

"I personally don't like the idea of hiring maids." He took a sip." The food cooked at my parents house is also cooked by maids. My mom cooks occasionally, whenever she feels like." He gulped the shake again.

"I could have cooked something but the fridge is legit empty. And drinking protein shakes alone won't give you much nutrition. Having a balanced diet is important. If you just focus on protein and neglect carbs, fats, vitamins and roughage content  , you can develop deficiency symptoms leading to various diseases." She snatched the bottle from him while he stared at her dumbfounded. She kept it far away on the island, out of his reach.

"Firstly, I told you, 'no cooking' and secondly how do you know so much about this?"

He seriously thinks its too much. Its literally taught in 6th grade. Looks like the mother and son get impressed too easily.

"Firstly, I'll not take orders from you. I'll cook if I want and-"

The doorbell rang making them look at the front door. She turned to him with a big question mark on her face while he just shrugged his shoulders.

Jaison was about to get up to open the door but Akira held her hand to his shoulder, pressing it down for him to remain seated. She walked out of the kitchen to open the door.

The door barely opened when she heard an enthusiastic shriek as she was engulfed into an embrace. She was hardly able to register the hug when the lady pulled back and smiled wide showing her white teeth.

"How was the first night?" Mrs.Park held Akira's shoulders as she chirped, wiggling her eyebrows.

"First lets get inside. We are standing on the doorstep." Mrs.Kim sighed as she shook her head.

"Oh, right. Hahaha." Mrs.Park backed away as they entered the apartment.

"I told her that we should come later on but-"

"But I wanted to interrupt their business. I mean to greet them. Yeah, to greet them." Mrs.Park scratched her nose as she laughed.

"Anyway, I brought some food as I knew Jaison wouldn't come today." Mrs.Kim smiled warmly at Akira as she passed on the tiffin box to her. Akira smiled back at her, thankful. She was really hungry and didn't want to leave for work on an empty stomach.

"Mum?" Jaison had slowly walked upto the ladies in the living room." What are you doing here?"

"Oh my, why are you the one limping Jaison?" Mrs.Park gasped with both her hands on her opened mouth." Was she the one who went hard on you?" She narrowed her eyes mischievously.

Well. Technically...yeah. But I can't say that to Mrs.Park, she'll definitely take it the wrong way.

When she didn't get a reply from any of them she gasped again." Oh my gosh, I didn't know you were like that. You looked so innocent."

Mrs.Kim was having a good show as her body shook as she laughed silently.

"Anyway, lets all eat food. I only have 45 minutes left." Akira cleared her throat as she changed the subject.

All the others in the room knitted their eyebrows at her statement.

"45 minutes to what, sweety?" Mrs.Kim asked, stepping closer to her.

"I have to leave for work. So.." She trailed off as she noticed the changed look on the elder women's faces. Jaison who stood behind Akira looked down at his feet. He knew where this was going and he didn't like it a bit.

The women looked at each other with uneasy gazes and turned back to Akira.

"You are- I mean we women are not allowed to work after marriage, Akira."
Mrs.Park said softy, having a disappointed edge to her tone.
"The Parks, Kangs and Kims are really close families and from many generations they rigidly followed the traditions made by their ancestors. Many  other families broke those traditions but we haven't."
She reasoned.

"I'm so sorry sweety, I should have informed you sooner-"

"Its okay. I won't go." She didn't  say anything further and quickly walked into the kitchen. When she walked past Jaison he could see her drained face. She wasn't happy. His own face morphed into a bitter one as he clenched his jaw.

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