[This one is gonna be a pretty long one. Sorry, not sorry. 😅]
**October 6th**
Mariana:
안녕 9:05 a.m
Seon:
What's up? 9:15 a.m
Mariana chuckled a bit and switched her phone's keyboard to English.
Mariana:
You wanna come over for a movie tonight? I'll make dinner. 9:17 a.m
Seon:
😃 Can I request that "Jamerican" barbecue pork cutlit thing you used to make all the time in Japan when you got homesick?
9:19 a.m
Mariana:
😳 Your memory scares me sometimes.
But, yeah, sure. 9:20 a.m
Seon:
I only need once to remember when food was good! 9:21 a.m
Mariana:
Fair, I guess. But I only made it for you once, and you even remembered the term I came up with for it. 😳 9:22 a.m
Seon:
🤷♀️🤷♀️ I really liked it. 9:23 a.m
What movie do you want to watch? 9:23 a.m
Mariana:
I don't know yet. I was kind of hopping you'd have ideas. 😅 9:24 a.m
Seon:
We can always figure it out later. 9:25 a.m
Seon:
What kind of sheet masks do you like? 9:26 a.m
Mariana:
🤷♀️🤷♀️ 9:26 a.m
Seon:
What do you mean you don't know? 9:26 a.m
Mariana:
🤷♀️ Never tried one. 9:27 a.m
Seon:
🤨 How have you lived here almost four years and never tried a sheet mask?!
They're like 1,000 Won at the grocery store! 9:28 a.m
Mariana:
🤷♀️ 9:28 a.m
Seon:
🤦♀️ 9:28 a.m
Lucky for you, my niece left half a grocery bag of them here last weekend. I'm bringing some so you can try one. 9:29 a.m
Mariana:
Works for me! 9:30 a.m
Seon:
What time do you want me over? 9:30 a.m
Mariana:
Whenever works best. I'll be home all day. 9:31 a.m
Seon:
👍 Cool. I'll see you in about six hours! 9:31 a.m
Mariana chuckled before sliding her phone back into her pocket as she decided to finish cleaning up the apartment before Seon got there.
Seon:
Do you need any supplies for dinner? 9:33 a.m
Mariana:
Nope. I've got everything here. Thank you though! 9:34 a.m
Seon:
You're welcome! I'll see you tonight. 9:35 a.m
Mariana:
See you then! 9:35 am
**
Mariana had just hung a new, clean dish towel over the stove handle when there was a knock at her door.
"Coming!" She exclaimed and took the few steps over to her door to let Seon in.
"I just brought the whole bag." Seon said with a smile as he stepped inside and held up what Mariana assumed was the small half of a bag's worth of sheet masks.
Mariana chuckled. "That works."
"Do you want any help with dinner?"
"Um, sure. Do you want to do the sauce or the rice, and I can get the rest?"
"Sauce AND rice. Got it."
Mariana hesitated for a minute as she had to replay what Seon just said. "I didn't say..."
"I know what you said." He started with a smile. "But you're high if you think I'm gonna let you give me a pitty helper job."
"I..."
"Just because we didn't talk regularly for a couple of years dosen't mean I forgot how you work.
Mariana audibly inhaled and hesitated. "...Are you sure your brain isn't just a computer, because you remember A LOT of little details."
"Well, the last time I had a CAT scan, everything looked meaty, so I think I'm okay."
Mariana's head twisted in curiosity. "Wait. When did you have a CAT scan done?"
Seon had to think for a minute. "Mmmm. one month after we broke up? 2 months? Something like that; one or two months afterward."
"Why'd you have that done?"
"I was going in for my annual physical checkup, and they found a bump on the back of my head. My doctor wasn't sure what it was at the time, so he took me in for a CAT scan to make sure it wasn't a tumor...or worse. It was just a lipoma though, so it was an easy removal, and you can't even tell I have a scar." Seon explained and pulled some of his hair on the back of his head apart and showed a small scar that his hair had grown in around.
"So, I broke up with you, and then you had a cancer scare? That's awful!" Mariana exclaimed with a guilty chuckle.
"I won't lie, my drinking got worse really fast after that." Seon admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. "And I didn't have a wake up call until after I followed you home that night.........." Mariana's features softened as Seon nervously played with his fingers. "I am still so sorry about that night, Mariana."
"I can feel the guilt radiating off of you. We don't have to talk about it. It's in the past now. Besides, you learned from it."
Seon let out a breathy chuckle. "Yeah, I did....Min Yoongi is a lucky guy." Seon thought he said to himself, but his eyes widened as soon as his mouth closed.
Mariana's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "I...I...I haven't...h...how do you..."
"I remember who punched me that night." Seon hesitantly admitted. "I didn't recognize him that night, but I saw you two at the ice skating rink, and I knew. Because of who he is, I understood you probably wouldn't tell me until you told the whole world... that, and part of me thought I was just seeing things. So I just let you think I didn't know. You'd tell me when you were ready." Seon explained. "Or I'd slip up, and you'd find out." He flatly added.
"You...you haven't, told anyone?" Mariana asked in shock, stress tears threatening her eyes.
Seon shook his head and looked at Mariana with soft eyes. "I care about you too much to ruin either of your lives."
Mariana speechlessly stepped into Seon and hugged him. "Thank you."
Seon wrapped his arms around her. "It's the least I could do for all I've put you through." Seon said with a little smile.
"I don't even know what to say..."
Seon smiled at her. "Don't mention it. Should we start dinner?"
Mariana stepped back and nodded. "Let's."
Mariana started getting bowls and utensils out while Seon started gathering food stuff and setting it on the counter. He opened the cupboard of dishes and glasses and stared at it for a moment. "Ana. You moved your rice cupboard..."
Mariana looked to him and snorted. "Rice stuff is on the bottom shelf in the tall cabinet by the fridge now." She directed. "I did some rearranging since you were last here."
"I see that." Seon said in amusement as he closed the cupboard door and went to the tall cabinet to get the rice and started blankly at the cabinet shelf. "Ana." Seon stated, taking Ana's attention again. "Where's the rice cooker?"
Ana raised her eyebrows and pointed to the InstaPot next to where Seon had gotten the rice.
"That's an InstaPot not a rice cooker..."
"It also cooks rice in fifteen minutes instead of thirty." Ana confidently stated with an emphasised point of her finger that landed her hand on her hip.
Seon pouted, but got the InstaPot out and set it up on the counter. "I'm going to get you an actual rice cooker for your birthday."
"Seon, I'll be really honest, I probably won't use it." Mariana admitted with a chuckle. "I have a rice cooker at my parents' house in the states. I didn't bring it with me because it takes me an hour to cook rice in it, versus the fifteen minutes in my instant pot. Maybe it's because I'm not from a country that eats rice all the time, but they taste exactly the same, I promise." She explained.
Seon sighed. "I'm trusting you on that."
"I promise, it'll be okay." She assured him.
As they got dinner ready and eventually moved to the table, they continued to talk and joke with each other like they'd never even been apart for two years, despite this being Seon's real first time over since before they broke up. It was something that drew Mariana to Seon in the first place all those years ago. She was never just his girlfriend, she was his best friend, and he was hers.
"Seon, can I ask you for advice on something?" Mariana asked a few bites of silence into dinner.
Seon swallowed his bite before speaking. "Of course. Fire away."
"Yoongi has been really distant the past few months. And on top of that, sometimes he forgets about dates or plans that we set up in advance. He's never been like this before, and..."
"And you feel stuck?" Seon finished.
Mariana nodded. "Yeah, but there's more to it. I've been having really bad nightmares again lately. Everytime I try to talk to Yoongi about it, he never responds, or he starts to and then drops off before I can get to it. I love him like crazy. But...I lost control, and made it worse the other night." Mariana sighed. "I don't want to bother you with this, but..."
"Ana, you asked me for advice. Give me all the details." Seon encouraged her.
"Well. Long story short, the other night, Yoongi and I had made plans to go see a movie. Normally he shows up an hour or thirty minutes early so he can have some extra time with me. Twenty minutes 'till, I still hadn't heard from him, so I assumed he forgot, and I asked Namjoon to go with me. We had a great time. And we both laughed about getting caught in the pouring rain on the way home."
Seon's expression had a tinge of concern. He could assume where Mariana was going with this.
"I invited Namjoon in to dry off and wait out the rain. We started talking like we normally would. And then we got a little deeper..." Mariana started rubbing the back of her neck in guilt. "And then I ended up pinned against a wall.....making out with one of my boyfriend's best friends."
"Just made out?" Seon cautiously asked.
"Yeah. We never went past that."
"Well. You definitely messed up...But. It is fixable."
"But I don't even know where to start." Mariana stated with a sigh.
"I'm going to be really honest here, Ana. As your friend, I'd say move on, because it seems like Yoongi's forgotten how to take care of you anyway, and Namjoon would be more than ready to step up. But, as a guy, I say talk to Yoongi. Have a long, lengthy, truthful conversation. Communicate and tell him what happened, and tell him how you feel about it. He'll tell you how he feels, and then you can decide what to do from there."
"Why does the friend in you want us to break up, and the guy in you say stay?" Mariana asked with her head tilted in curiosity. She'd expected it to be the other way around.
"Because I've never known you to put up with stupid crap, and I've come to love you like a little sister. I don't want to see you putting up with someone who's going to play with your emotions." Seon started, almost seeming like he was angry, but his expression softened. "But. I can see how much he means to you, and vice-versa everytime he mentions you. Considering all of that, if he's important enough for you to put up with all of this, he's worth keeping." He explained with a little smile.
Mariana smiled. "Thanks, Seon. That actually helps a lot."
"Don't mention it. That's what friends are here for, isn't it?"
Mariana nodded. "Yeah, it is."