Landing in Your Inbox

48 - let it snow

"My father has not taken it well. It's not the first time things didn't go with me as he planned." His head bowed down.

"What was the first time?"

"When I decided to be a pianist."

"Because he really wanted you to be a pilot?"

"Me and my brother, both."

"How about your mother?"

"My mother has always been supportive of her children's wishes."

Seri smiled, "She seems that way to me. I only saw her briefly but I can see she's very kind and loving...How is she now?"

"She didn't like me leaving the house..." Jeong-hyeok made a long exhale. "But I think she understands, too."

"So distance wasn't the reason why you didn't want to stay." Seri surmised.

"It was, the house is really far..." Jeong-hyeok insisted, "But my father will always be reminded of a failure as long as I stay."

"Hey, don't say that." Seri scolded, "Didn't you hear the news? They're calling you a hero, an angel even."

For the modest Jeong-hyeok though, those lofty words didn't mean anything to him. His eyes hovered over her lips. "You have chocolate stuck on your lip." 

Seri tried to lick her lips clean. "Gone?"

Jeong-hyeok shook his head and wiped the thin mustache of chocolate on her upper lip clean with the back of his thumb, lightly brushing the tip of her nose. "Gone." 

"Oh..." Seri's face became red anew, albeit for an entirely different reason. "Thanks." 

"How are you feeling?" Jeong-hyeok checked the heater, "Do you want me to adjust the heat?"

"I'm better, stop offering to do things." Seri lightly chided, "I'm the one with two useful legs."

Jeong-hyeok's mouth gaped open. "It's not as though I lost mine..." 

"I'm saying please sit back, Mr. Lee. Let me do the moving." She leaned forward to inspect his mug, close enough that Jeong-hyeok caught a whiff of her hair. "Are you finishing that? I'll clean up."

"You really shouldn't, you're my guest." Jeong-hyeok's grip on his mug handle tightened as though prepared for when Seri would snatch it away from him.

"Your guest wants to clean mugs and pots, what do you have to say about that?" Seri challenged.

A sigh escaped Jeong-hyeok, his arms crossed with the mug dangling over the crook of his elbow, "Your host says rest up. Leave it for tomorrow. It's late."

"Yes that's true...but I also like working late...Unless there's a lights out curfew I don't know of? Wait right there, I'll have to call Kwang-beom to verify." She reached for her phone.

"He has a flight." Jeong-hyeok said flatly. "You moving around the house to clean will make me uneasy. Do you want to bother me that much, Yoon Seri?"

"Wow." Seri uttered, taken aback, "Lee Jeong-hyeok...are you threatening me?" She gasped, her hand upon her chest.  

"I...did not," Jeong-hyeok stuttered, "Which part did I threaten? Threatening means I'm trying to intimidate you when I merely suggested the notion that I will be restless if you should be busying around..."

"Oh but you were just intimidating right now. 'Do you want to bother me that much, Yoon Seri'?" She mimicked, "Gosh, I didn't think you had it in you."

"That's not what I meant!" Jeong-hyeok argued.