Miss Incomplete | ✓

77 | He Loves Me

"I'm not stupid, Rei," he rolls his eyes, "there's a GPS."

"No, dumbass," I groan, "where are we going to eat? Do you even know how to leave this place?"

My brother bites his lower lip, contemplating as he reverses out of the empty parking lot. "I'm thinking... something Asian? Like Korean BBQ, or Hotpot?"

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, my eyes widen as my lips curved into a smile. I turn to my brother and from my reaction, he seems to regret his words. "You've never wanted to go out to eat Asian food! Holy crap, you're changing!"

"Oh jesus," my brother lowly mumbles as I ignore it and praise.

"Kenji, you know what this means? Without those toxic friends, you're actually embracing your culture, you're actually like, liking things in our culture."

"I just suggested Korean BBQ, a lot of people eat Korean BBQ,"

"But they're not you, are they?" The smile still broad against my lips, "this is news. This is big, I feel like I should text Graham or Iris about this new reveal."

"Rei, I'm hungry; pick where we're going," he drives off into the intersections, going in the direction of the city. My stomach clenched at the thought of my brother driving down the main road, but I withheld it long enough as I was more focus on important aspect of today's ride.

"Fine, fine," I pull out my phone and researching Korean BBQ before pausing. "How 'bout shabu shabu?"

"What's that?"

I sigh, "it's like the Japanese version of Korean BBQ. Same concept, just difference food and how to cook them. It's a bit more similar to Hotpot, though."

"Alright, fine," he shrugs, both hands on the steering wheel as I eye him carefully. "Just point and tell me where to go."

I pulled up the city's best shabu shabu, and decided on pointing Kenji to their directions. As Kenji drove, I would make comments to turn right or left, or proceed down the line and wait for further instruction. We came upon some wrong turns, and Kenji telling me I'm a terrible guide, but finally made our way in front of the restaurant.

"Finally," my brother exits out of the car, looking at the building holding in Japanese inscriptions. He turns to me, "can you read it?"

"Yeah," I nod, "but I struggle with reading a couple of words. Y'know, since we're born here, I'm better at talking."

My brother nods, dragging his legs over to the doors and pulling the door open for me to come through first. I smile, entering through as we go to the front and ask the person for a table of two.

The lady leads us to a table with a pre-assembled pot in the centre of the table. We sat down, in front of one another as the lady changes over to boil up the water, I pick up the menu and scan through the words before ordering the basic and the general goodies from shabu shabu. My brother eyes me carefully as I spit in Japanese words here and there.

She nods, taking down the order and leaves the table with the promise to come back in a few. I turn to my brother, settling in as he cocked a brow. "What do we do now?"

"So like in Korean BBQ, Hotpot and shabu shabu, it's meant for a place of waiting and conversation. Waiting for the food to come, waiting to cook the food, it allows us to break the silence and talk about things going on. Basically, a normal day at home."

My brother chuckles, picking up the chopsticks to play with as it breaks off the conjoined ends. "How was your finals?"

"Good, good," I nod, understanding my brother decides to stray away from topics that could bring me down; Julian, the prom, and anything related to my situation outside of home. "I think I did well, but I'm more worried about college. Stanford still hasn't sent out a letter."