siwoo comes back into the kitchen after about five minutes. she smiles at us as she walks in and offers me a drink. she then comes up with the idea to sit down and write a list of the different meals i'd be happy to eat as i'm staying here and some people are picky.
after a little while, yeonjun appears. he walks into the room while rubbing his eyes sleepily. he's changed into some comfortable clothes, and is wearing black jogging bottoms and a white tank top. i don't know if he wore that intentionally to show off his muscular build but that's what it was doing. the white color also compliments his skintone. i don't stare though. that would only boost his ego.
he sits down on the stool next to me, at the end of the kitchen island. he doesn't look at me or anything, he just startes tapping on his phone. i know he doesn't want to be here, he only came down because his mom spoke to him.
"yeonjun, we're coming up with meal ideas. have a lok, this look good to you?" siwoo says, sliding the paper in front if him, encouraging him to talk.
i'd say he glances at it for about three seconds to scan to over before nodding half-heartedly and looking back at his phone.
"yeonjun." jihye says.
"mm." he says, still looking at his phone.
"look at our drawing." she says.
he doesn't respond for a few seconds as he's typing something, but he eventually looks up and follows her finger to the fridge.
"cool." he says after glancing at it for less than a second. but then he takes a double take. that kind of makes me feel good about it, as he clearly was expecting it to be complete shit. but he looked twice, as he wasn't expecting it to actually look like her.
"she's a good little artist, isn't she?" siwoo says, referring to the face, not the hair.
i smile at her.
"yeah." he says. that's it. that's all he says. i'm not hoping for compliments or anything, i'd say i'm a very modest person but i'd at least hope he'd say more than one word, because his blunt responses is making it very difficult to talk to him.
"you should show her your art, yeonjun." she suggests.
yeonjun does art?
he shakes his head down at his phone.
"why, i'd like to see it." i say. partly just to rub it in his face that i'm being all nice with his family to prove how nasty he's being.
he looks up at me, a dark glint in his eye, almost a glare. he's careful though. i don't think either his mom or sister saw that.
"yeah, you should show her." siwoo says.
"got rid of it all." he says. he doesn't really acknowledge her. he just looks back to his phone.
what? why? so much time and effort goes into art, so why would he throw away everything he's done? i understand if there are a few pieces he gets rid of because they went wrong and he's a perfectionist, but getting rid of absolutely everything? why would he do that?
she looks at him. she doesn't ask why he got rid of everything. i can sort of see cogs turning in her head as she figures out the reason for herself. no one bothers to tell me though. clearly it's a bit of a taboo situation because she changes the subject.
"any other meal ideas?" she asks the two of us.
"no, i don't think so. i'm not fussy so i'm happy with anything, really." i say to her.
"alrighty." she smiles, before looking at yeonjun. he says nothing. "yeonjun?" she says.
he looks up.
"any other meal ideas?" she asks him.
he shakes his head. he's so rude. he won't hold eye contact and his responses are so half-hearted and blunt.
"okay." she says. "well i'll head out to trader joe's to get some croceries. hye, why don't you come and help pick out some snacks?" she asks her.
"i want to stay with chaewon." she says
"well if you come, you can pick out your favourite american candy's to show her when you get back." she says.
"oh, yeah! okay." she hops down from the stool and goes to put on her shoes.
siwoo smiles at me. "just to give you a little break from her." she whispers. "too much jihye can be a lot to handle all at once." she says with a smile.
i laugh slightly. she's so nice. their whole family is, except for yeonjun of course.
"won't be long." she says.
"bye." i smile at her, and she leaves the room with the list.
now it's just yeonjun and me. i look to him, studying him.
there's silence for a while as he just taps away on his phone.
"can i help you?" he says, without having his eyes leave the screen.
i pause. "do you...have a problem with me?" i ask him.
he shakes his head with his eyes glued to his phone. "nope." he says.
i hesitate. so why is he being like this with me. i decide not to question him further to avoid getting into another disagreement. i just lean my arms on the table and rest my head on them. my eyes are closed but i can hear that he stops typing to look at me. after a few seconds he speaks up.
"what now?" he asks.
"did i complain?" i ask him innocently.
"you're acting bored." he says.
"maybe i am bored." i say simply.
"there you go, a complaint." he says.
i roll my eyes as i sit up.
then my phone starts to ring. it's a FaceTime call from home. i answer.
"hi love! you alright?" my mom asks. i can see her sat with my older sister on the sofa. they have matching brown hair and beauty marks. it's so obvious we're related.
"hi, yeah i'm good-" i start saying.
"have we caught you at a bad time?" she asks me.
"no, no, it's fine." i say. "i'll just take you upstairs." i start standing.
"what's yeonjun like?" my sister, chaeyoung asks. "is he there?"
"uh-" i start saying, and suddenly yeonjun is behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder to sit me back down. it feels slightly forceful, yet he's smiling in a friendly way to my phone. what? i've never seen that smile before.
"hey." he smiles at them.
"oh, hello!" my mom says. "i'm eunji, this is chaeyoung." she says.
"hi ladies." he smiles, but not in a creepy way. in a funny, approachable way. what is happening?
"is he driving you mad yet?" chaeyoung grins innocently.
i scowl at her playfully through the phone, to which she laughs.
"aha, no of course not. we're getting along just fine." he says, running his hand through his hair. "how are you?" he asks them politely.
what the fuck.
"yeah, we're good thank you! just watched some gavin and stacy." mom says.
"without me?" i whine at them.
"how many times have you watched it?" chaeyoung laughs.
"but it's tradition!" i sulk playfully.
"aw, diddums." she sticks out her bottom lip.
"would it make you feel better if we watched it here?" yeonjun says to me with a laugh. that laugh is heavenly. he's also very close to me, with his hand still on my shoulder which i can't help but notice. why is he acting so different?
"aw yeah, do that! that's a great idea!" mom laughs. "anyway, what have you been up to?"
i look at yeonjun. let's see if he can answer that one. let's see what he can make up.
he starts talking. "not much, just got back from school, been listening to some music in the car. you've raised her to have good taste." he says jokingly. oh he's good.
"aha, that's my girl." mom says. "glad to hear you two have been getting along." she says.
"how was it going to an american school?" chaeyoung asks me.
"really weird. it's so different." i say.
"were they all nice to you?" mom asks.
"we took care of her just fine." yeonjun says with a smile.
"good!" mom says. "good to know we can trust you to look after our little minks." she jokes.
"she's in safe hands, aha." yeonjun says, smiling the most devilishly attractive yet innocently charming smile imaginable. now i see why all the girls are head over heels for him. i stare at him for a second, before snappong myself back to reality.
"right, we just wanted to check in on you." mom say. "we should be getting to bed soon though, work early in the morning." she says.
oh yeah. time difference. it's around four o'clock here meaning it would be around nine at home.
i nod. "okay." i say.
"we'll talk to you two soon, okay?" mom says.
"see you, ugly." chaeyoung says.
"it was nice meeting you both." yeonjun smiles to them.
"yes, lovely meeting you, yeonjun!" mom adds. "goodbye you two!"
"bye."
they hang up and i immediately turn to yeonjun as he sits back down, picking up his phone.
"what the hell was that?" i say to him.
he looks up innocently. "a facetime call."
i give him a look. "how come you barely take any notice of me, yet you're suddenly super friendly and talkative to my family?" i ask him.
he shrugs. "they seemed nice."
i pause. "what, and i didn't?"
"i'm just joking with you." he says. right. real funny. "where was your dad?" he asks.
there's a slight tug in my stomach as he asks that. "oh, um." i look at the counter. "he's dead."
i can see in the corner of my eyes that he looks up from his phone to me. "oh." he says. "i'm sorry."
i smile weakly. you kind of learn to do that when people say that. it's a habit. there's not much else to say or do. just smile weakly.
"how long ago?" he asks.
"almost three years." i say. "car accident."
he puts his phone down on the table. "i'm really sorry." he says.
well that's the nicest he's genuinely been to me since he met me. "you don't need to say that." i say to him quietly. " but thanks." i look up.
he smiles at me. an actual smile. that's the first time that has happened. he's smiled to my family, but now he's genuinely locked eyes with me and given me a meaningful smile. "you want to watch gavin and stacy?" he asks me.
"i thought you were kidding." i laugh weakly.
"i was." he admits. "but i've never seen it. why not?"
is this him making an effort? he probably just feels bad for bringing up my dad.
"you probably won't get the british humor." i inform him. "and it's really old and pretty dirty."
he shrugs slightly. "apparently british humor is the best."
"where'd you hear that?" i ask him.
he shrugs and stands, leading into the living room and turning on the tv.