✔ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐖𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐃: 𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟

CHAPTER 18

"Would you like some more Ramyeon?" I asked as I stood in front of the stove, turned to my sister and held up the pan.

I loved having dinner with her because it gave me a chance to spend some quality time with her. Sometimes I felt sorry that I came home so late from school and that our mom didn't have time to pick her up either, but at the same time I was glad that Taehyun stepped in.

He really helped us because we didn't want to let her go home alone.

It had been a few days since our date and it still brought a smile to my face whenever I thought about it. The warm feeling in my stomach didn't go away straight away and I was sure it wasn't because of the food. His confession was floating around in my head and when I thought about the fact that I had actually misunderstood his compliment, I could only shake my head with a laugh.

Why had I been so stupid?

"Yes, please!" Minja replied to my question, looking much livelier than she had in the last few days. She was sitting at the kitchen table, her legs dangling back and forth as she happily hummed a nursery rhyme. "You cook much better than mom, too."

A slight smile crept onto my lips as I put another small portion on her plate. "Thank you, Minja," I said and yet I added: "Mom doesn't have much time to learn how to cook."

But I did, because otherwise Minja would have to go to bed hungry. I only started to enjoy it a bit a few weeks ago, when I started putting more effort into the various dishes. Every now and then I found recipes on social media and tried to copy them. Today's ramyeon were an example of this. I cooked a peanut butter sauce for them, which Minja seemed to like.

I put the pan back on the stove and sat down on the chair opposite my sister.

"Thank you," Minja said and immediately pounced on her portion, munching with relish. "And can you say thank you to Taehyun for me too?"

My eyebrows twitched upwards in surprise and I folded my hands on the table. "Because he always picks you up?" I asked, not knowing exactly what she was getting at.

Minja shook her head.

So violently that a noodle that she hadn't quite managed to get into her mouth was stuck to the tip of her nose. "He was talking to the girls who used to tease me. And they're quite nice to me now. The one girl who's always in charge keeps asking about him and always waits until Taehyun comes to pick me up. Yesterday she started crying because her mother was here earlier."

I stared at my sister in total surprise, if not shock. It took me a few minutes to understand what she was saying and then I fished the noodle out of her face. "He was talking to the girls? The ones who were always nasty to you? The ones who broke your dress?"

Had I heard correctly or did I have something in my ears?

Taehyun had helped her and she wasn't being teased about it anymore? My heart suddenly started doing somersaults and I couldn't calm it down.