Chapter 36 – Home Alone?

“So this was your room, then?” I asked staring at the posters of soccer players on the wall, incongruously paired up with child-like drawings taped up a little bit all over the place – the last remnants of the fact that a little boy had once occupied this room – considering the vacant state of the closet, and most of the shelves. On the desk were framed, elementary school pictures of Tae, which I was dying to go examine a bit closer, but I was much too comfortable in his arms – him lazily playing with my hair – and it was much too early to be even thinking about moving. For whatever reason, the room’s window also had no curtains. And though he’d kept on sleeping like a baby when morning had come, I was awake as soon as the first rays of sunlight hit my face. I tried my best to stay quiet and unmoving, but eventually, nature called, and I may have accidently-on-purpose woken him up as I tried to snuggle back up to him.

I’ll spare you the details of his awakening (since this is a G rated story) but now we were both pleasantly lying in the tiny bed, lazing the morning away.

“Yes,” he said, answering my question, “in first school.”

“Elementary school.” I said automatically, teacher-mode kicking in.

He repeated the word, very seriously, then looked up for my approval, which I gave, laughing a little, which did not please him.

“Yah! I’m learn English for you!” he retorted, half-angry, half-sulking.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I apologized, trying to stop laughing.

“You don’t even learn Korean…” he jabbed, and that shut me up. Then, after a little pause, “and you always treat me like baby!” he grumbled.

“Well you are a baby.” I retorted, knowing he wasn’t mad. We’d had this conversation many times, so I knew what was coming.

“I’m your boyfriend. You should call me oppa!” he sulked, crossing his arms over his (still ) chest.

Now normally, I would go on with a long schpiel about how my being 10 years older than him would make my calling him “oppa” a little weird. But instead I just screamed “Aaaaaaah!!!!” as something hit me – which at first startled him – and then just started laughing.

He pulled back a little, making a face at me like he thought I’d gone crazy.

“Eun-byeol.” I just said, between chuckles, trying to catch my breath, and he just shook his head at me like ‘What the heck is wrong with this girl?’

I took a deep breath and repeated the name. “The girl you had me roleplay;” I explained, “she could’ve been younger.” I finished, smirking at him.

It took him a while to finally understand the implications of what I was getting at, but when he did, he let out this wail of despair, and I really had no choice but to burst out laughing.

“Well, date is not over!” he exclaimed, rolling over me once he’d recovered from his emotions, “We can still roleplay…” he smirked down at me, trapping me with his arms on either side of my face, his bangs flopping into my eyes, and that grin, that I’m sure could’ve killed weaker-hearted girls than I, but I pressed my lips shut and violently shook my head left and right in denial. “Nope! Too late!!”

The next five minutes were spent with him trying to make me say uncle (or in this case, “oppa”) and me playfully refusing, and would’ve probably have ended in round number 2 if a voice coming from down the stairs hadn’t made us both stop and freeze in terror.

“Ajjumma?” a female voice came faintly from the kitchen, followed by more Korean words I didn’t understand, and Taehyung went, “Sh*t.”

But it wasn’t until we started hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, that he broke into motion, going “sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t…” with every step he took; quickly throwing some clothes on and throwing my shirt at me.

“Get dressed,” he ordered, and for the first time, I was actually scared, “I distruct her.”

“But Tae,” I asked, as he put a hand on the doorknob, “Who’s that?” I asked, not wanting to mimic his panic.

He turned around and looked me dead serious in the eye, giving me my answer before closing the door behind him.

“My mother.”

*** Interlude – Mommy Dearest ***            

(just please imagine that everything here is happening in Korean)

“Eomma!!” Taehyung cried out in delight, skidding to a halt at the end of the hallway, launching himself at the body of the frail woman in front of him.

“Taehyungie?!” she asked in disbelief as he nearly choked all of the air out of her lungs, “What on earth are you doing here?” she asked, once he finally let her go, taking her arm and forcing her back down the stairs, beaming his rectangle smile at her while she just let herself be led away.

“I came to leave money for the cleaning lady… what are you doing here?!” she asked, eyes going even wider than the perpetually startled look her cosmetic surgeon had given her.

“I wanted to surprise you!” he exclaimed, a bit over the top, throwing his arms out in a sort of star-shaped ‘ta-daaah!’ pose.

“Well congratulations…” she said, flatly, seeming at a loss for words.

“We got 3 days off, ma. THREE!” he exclaimed.

The woman – who honestly did not look old enough to be his mother – shook her head at him in an amused manner and finally let herself smile, “Only you would get excited about that…”

“But sweetheart, you should have called…” she went on, petting his cheek, “and you scared me, I thought I heard voices up there…”

Pretending not to hear her, Tae skipped ahead towards the kitchen so she had no choice but to follow him. he made his way around the counter, stopped, turned around and bent over it with his full upper body, sporting a look of childish naughtiness in his eyes before declaring “Make me hotteokk for breakfast.”

She laughed at him, unable to help herself, but successfully distracted. “But baby, there’s no ingredients to cook in this house... why did you even come here?”

“Eommaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” he whined, walking around her and giving her a long back-hug as he wailed that he really, really wanted home-cooked food.

“We can go to the grocery store! I can drive!” he exclaimed, grabbing her keys from the dresser, all ready to go.

“You got your license?” she asked in surprise.

“Well, almost….” He answered, and she gave him a flat look, swiping the keys out of his hands, “But ma… it’s super countryside here, no one will know!” he pleaded but his mother tucked her keys in her pocket and that was the end of the discussion.

“Besides,” she said, heading for the pantry, “I lied. There probably is what we need to make hotteokk in here… plain ones.”

At first Taehyung couldn’t help but let his excitement show, but then he remembered that Emma was still alone in his old bedroom, having no idea what was going, and he had to do something about it.

The boy’s mother took his frowning expression for residual resentment about the driving and offered “I’m sure your dad will let you drive around once he knows you’re here…” she said, in a soothing tone, which Tae didn’t even catch, “In fact, we should call him! I’m sure he could take off for –

“NO!” Tae lunged towards his mother’s hand, stopping it before it reached her phone.

A few seconds passed in silence, where Taehyung seemed to realize what he had done, but didn’t know what to do next.

“Tae…..” she said, staring at her son with the strangest expression, as the hotteokk could be heard sizzling in the pan, “What is really going on here?”

Taehyung sprouted a guilty look and slithered back to his seat behind the counter, looking down at his fingers.

“Taehyung-ah…” she went on in that tone that only moms seem to possess, along with the ability to make us admit our most shameful secrets.

He looked up at her, enormous puppy eyes declaring his guilt, and bit his lip as he looked right back down.

“…. Were you alone up there?” she asked, finally, in a softer voice than he could’ve imagined.

This time he didn’t even look up a he shook his head.

“No.”