Pink Lemonade ✓

xviii

      Jeongguk tiptoed over the glass, even though he was wearing shoes, as he didn't want to ruin them. When he was close enough, she hissed, and not exactly in a low voice, "What is he doing here?"

      Jeongguk sent Jeongyeon a warning glare and glanced behind him and unfortunately, Jin was looking their way. For a moment their eyes met, but Seokjin quickly diverted them and pretended he hadn't heard a thing.

       "Jeongyeon," Jeongguk said, as she picked up the bigger pieces and threw them into the bag, with a little too much force. "Be polite."

       She only glared at him and started sweeping. She didn't ask anything else though. Jeongguk took that as his cue to leave and settled down by the kitchen table, someplace he deemed safe, where he could observe in peace. His mother was picking groceries out of the bag. There was a cheer in her step.

      "Jin, you should join us for dinner."

      And Jin, ever the chef, nodded eagerly. "Gladly. I'll help you cook. What are you making?"

      "Japchae-bap"

      Jeongyeon had just returned from throwing the glass out in the trash and she sat down on the table next to Jeongguk. There was a tug in her eyebrows, probably because she was used to being the one to help.

      "What should I do?" she asked.

      "You can cut the vegetables," his mother said.

      She walked to the fridge returning with carrots, spinach, yellow onion, bell-pepper, mushrooms, green onion, as well as a cutting board and a knife. She sat down and stared at the heaps of vegetables in front of her.

      Jeongguk leaned in. "What about me?"

      Without looking at him, Jeongyeon pointed at the green onion. "Cut these," she said.

       So, he started cutting, keeping an ear open as he listened to his mother and Seokjin talk. They were standing next to each other, his mother marinating the beef, Seokjin cutting the noodles to the right size.

      "So, dear," his mother said. She seemed to be using that word more than she usually did. "What have you been up to?"

      "I've been travelling a lot, all across the country. Recently I've been in Busan and the near countryside, for filming. I bought a place there actually. When I got the invite to the wedding I just knew I had to come back ..."

      So it really was Jeongguk's fault.

      Seokjin turned around and looked at Jeongyeon. He had probably been hoping for an answer, as that was the reason he was here in the first place, to talk to his sister but Jeongyeon meerely shrugged and gave a firm nod. She started looking out of the window, into the garden, studying the trees. Jin just turned back to Jeongguk's mother, the only person in this house interested to speak to him, or so it seemed. Thankfully their mother hadn't been looking or else Jeongyeon would be in big trouble right about now, she was too focused on cooking.

      Jeongguk nicked Jeongyeon in the shoulder, pulling her eyes away from the garden. He pointed down at the table. "More?" he asked.

      She looked down at the small pile of green onion and frowned. "That's barely anything."

      She then looked up, still frowning. "Wait," she said, and for the first time this evening, she spoke to her old friend. "If you live in Busan how did you get the invite?"

      Jin turned around. "Well, I came to Seoul and sold my old home a few months ago. All my mail has been forwarded to me from that address since. When I saw you were getting married–"
"You thought you'd pay me a visit?" Jeongyeon said, but she sounded very bitter.