Haneul woke up startled the next morning. It was getting warmer that she thought Myungsoo was hugging her but when she looked around, she was all alone. The futon that he used the night before had been folded roughly and placed in the corner of the room. She felt lonely though was also very miserable when she was reminded of what happened.

“Where is that byuntae…” Haneul got down the bed and looked at her phone. To her surprise, it was already 10 am! It was very rare for her to wake up that late. It must because she was so deep in sleep -thanks to him making her came… and how he saw a lot of things…

Haneul shook her head to get rid of the thought and stared at the sunlight coming into the room. No wonder it felt warm, she thought. She then opened the door and peered outside but it was very quiet. Next she looked around the kitchen and the bathroom and even went around the house. But Myungsoo was nowhere to be found.

“Myungsoo…?” she called out but slowly so. When there was no answer, she sat in the kitchen and hugged her knees. “He must have left for work… While I slept in… This is embarrassing…” Sighing, she looked around the kitchen and then saw something under the food cover on the counter. There were bread and sunny side up egg that had gone cold. Haneul’s face became warm. “What is this… Did he prepare breakfast for me or this is leftover…?”

Haneul noticed something under the plate and quickly pulled it out. It was a note.

Please eat well. I will be back in the late afternoon.

- Myungsoo.

“So he prepared it for me?” Haneul stared at the bread and egg and then felt her heart going a bit fast again. Her thoughts kept clashing with one another; she was embarrassed and slightly angry because of what he did but at the same time, she was really touched by this act from him. Haneul washed her hand and then grabbed the bread and egg and ate them. It was cold but it made her heart warm.

She then busied herself, making the bed and organising their stuff before taking showers and began studying recipes. She thought that since Myungsoo cooked eggs for her, she would try to make egg cuisine for him then. However, the recipes mostly scared her and the one she thought she was confident to try was egg roll. It looked rather cute and didn’t require much ingredients and technique except well, rolling it.

So she cooked some rice first and then prepare the vegetables for frying. Then she beat the eggs and put all the ingredients and was ready to cook the egg. The first later seemed like it was okay but as she added more batter, the egg was becoming soggy and instead of rolling, they were just piling up on the other… She thought that she would leave the pilled egg to make sure it’s cooked properly but it soon burnt.

Haneul was devastated but she couldn’t just waste the eggs so she took some time to at least organise them in the lunch box. It didn’t look pretty but at least it was edible, she thought. It was already lunch time so she hurriedly left the house and went down the hill. Myungsoo had told her the location of the orchard the day before but she still had to ask the villagers for directions. When she arrived at the small hut in the orchard, she was all sweaty and tired. She put down the lunch box and fanned herself and scanned around but Myungsoo was nowhere to be found. After a minute, she decided to venture into the orchard to find him. Though once she saw Myungsoo, the feelings from last night all came crashing back.

So she hid behind a tree, watching Myungsoo who had fully adapted to the work it seemed. He was wearing a white outer shirt, with his jeans rolled up to his shins and he was also wearing a straw head. It made him looked much like the ahjussi who was working under a different tree. Even so, his rather tall built made him looked kind of y… When his arms flexed to reach for the fruits on the trees, his muscles began to show. Haneul’s face reddened, “What am I thinking…”

Then Myungsoo who kept reaching up suddenly was rubbing his waist. She remembered how hard he fell off the bed and felt sorry for him. It must have hurt, she thought solemnly.

“But who told him to be so byuntae…” she muttered to herself and kept on peeking at him. However it only made her more miserable thinking why she couldn’t be more helpful. It was Myungsoo doing all the work again…

Slowly she turned away to go back to their accommodation. When she arrived, she looked around to see if there was anything she can do. She decided that she can cook later since she had already prepared the ingredients so she scanned the room and saw a pile of clothes near Myungsoo’s bag. She was kind of wary to go through his stuff but decided that those must be dirty clothes since they smelled. She gathered them all into her arms and went to the back of the house while frowning because of the accumulated stench and dumped the clothes into a big basin. She fetched the detergent she saw in the bathroom and poured the powder and began filling it with water. Then she let it sit for a moment before starting to scrub them one by one.

There were a lot of T-shirts with only one pair of jeans and others are his boxers that she washed really quick. Then she rinsed them all, squeezed out the water and hung them on the provided clothing line. Once it was done, she lied down on the porch and sighed in relief and hoping that Myungsoo would come home quickly…

To kill time, she prepared ingredients for tomorrow and then took a shower. When she finished however, Myungsoo was already sitting on the porch, fanning himself. He turned around and Haneul went stiff.

“I’m home.”

“You’re home… Shower?”

“Oh? In a bit… I’m still sweating.”

“Oh…” Haneul momentarily forgot what she should do and Myungsoo was just watching her. So she quickly went to the bedroom to dry her hair. This is bad, she thought. When their eyes met, she was reminded of his sharp gaze as he was ling her the night before. She screamed into the towel while being miserable and when she heard Myungsoo was showering, she went to the kitchen and began cooking. Dinner that night was garlic chicken and though it was a bit dry, Myungsoo ate it well.

“Gomawo… for the lunch box,” he said, beaming while helping her to wash the dishes.

“N-ne…” Haneul kept on looking down, remembering the disastrous rolled egg.

“It’s the first time someone made me a lunch box. I’m really happy.”

Haneul looked up and saw his smiling face, causing her to feel shy and couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She was happy to hear that she was the first one.

“It was very yummy,” he said. She waited for him to further comment about the visual but he was just smiling. “Ah wait… you’re not the first one to make me lunch box. My mum made it for me when I was in primary school,” he said, smiling widely. Haneul felt a bit disappointed but his smile just made her heart felt a bit of swoon. She quickly dried her hands and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Then she was sitting on the bed, while Myungsoo was brushing his teeth.

Then everything from last night came back into her mind so she quickly lied down and closed her eyes. If she pretends to be sleeping, it would be less embarrassing, right? But what if Myungsoo sleeps on the floor again, she thought. She was already worried about his waist and he had worked hard at the orchard. It was cruel to let him sleep on the cold hard surface again…

She sat up when Myungsoo entered and both were kind of feeling awkward when their eyes met. Myungsoo didn’t say anything and was just going through his stuff and organising them a bit. Haneul took her phone and pretended to be playing with it while watching him. Then when he was about to take the futon to lie down on the floor, she called out with a small voice.

“Please sleep on the bed…”

Myungsoo’s eyes went wide and he was scratching his head while sitting on the bed. “Then…”

“Um, good night,” she said quickly and lied down while pulling up the blanket. She sort of rolled herself under the blanket so he couldn’t share it so Myungsoo just lied down and sighed silently while dimming off the lamp. But it was still early and their stomach was still full with their eyes wide awake. However both were just silent until Haneul spoke again while staring at the ceiling.

“How is it, working at the orchard…? Is it hard?”

“Hmm… the hard part is when the trees are so low so you have to like squat down to pick the fruits… Telling which fruit is good for picking could be confusing as well… I guess I’ll get better soon.”

“Is there anything I can help with…?”

“Please make me lunch again,” he said, and although she didn’t look at him, she knew he was smiling.

“Of course… But is there nothing else…”

“Well…” he sniffled and there was a long pause. “I could use a kiss…”

Haneul’s stomach immediately churned. Where does he want to kiss this time, she asked herself while looking to her left and wishing she could take back her question.

“Ahahaha, I’m joking! Don’t take it seriously.”

However his tone seemed like he was disappointed and that made her even more miserable. Haneul slowly got up and turned to him. Now it was Myungsoo’s turn to feel nervous because she was basically glaring at him. After a moment of narrowing her eyes, she lowered her face and kissed his lips gently and briefly. Then they were staring at one another and Myungsoo’s hand was about to reach for her face when she frowned.

“Andwae.”

“W-what? W-why…” Haneul lied down again and pulled up the blanket to her chin. Myungsoo blinked rapidly and sat up. “Are you still angry because I saw your ?”

“Saw?” She turned her face at him angrily.

“S-led…” he admitted and his face turned warm. He still remembered the shape and the taste of her … and also how his fingers were drenched with her flavour the night before. Myungsoo closed his legs immediately. “…Next time I’ll wait for your permission.”

“What next time?” she said flatly.

“There is no next time?” Myungsoo blurted out and couldn’t even hide his shock. Haneul was staring at him in disbelief and began to even feel sorry for him. She was about to say something when her phone vibrated. She took it from the side table and frowned.

“I need to take this…”

Myungsoo saw her face hardened when she took her phone and got down the bed. He saw her sitting on the porch just outside the room but during the whole phone call, he could only hear her said yes, no and occasional hmm. He lied down on his side, watching her silhouette and waiting for her to finish the call but his tiredness were beginning to take over and his eyes were getting heavy and soon after he was fast asleep.

When he woke up, Haneul was missing from his side and he found her in the kitchen preparing breakfast. The first thing he saw was her red puffy eyes. It seemed like she either cried the night before or she didn’t sleep a wink. Haneul’s face suggested she didn’t want to talk about it so when she was sending him off, he patted her head, “Why don’t you bring lunch and we eat together at the orchard?”

At that suggestion, her expression softened a bit. He felt a bit relieved when she nodded but all morning at the orchard, he couldn’t help wondering about the phone call. It wasn’t the first time but he felt like he had no right to ask her. Thinking about it, he realised he knew almost nothing about her although they’ve been travelling together for some time.

Haneul’s face looked a bit better when she came by that afternoon. She was mostly silent but Myungsoo didn’t feel the same tension from before. She made the same rolled egg again, this time looking a bit better. When he thanked her, she even blushed a little, and said she will be waiting at home.

So Myungsoo hurriedly went home that late afternoon, eager to see her again. He even brought some fruits that the owner gave to him and couldn’t wait to show them to her. When he arrived, the house seemed quiet and Haneul wasn’t in the kitchen or the bedroom. He put the fruits in the kitchen, went around the house and saw her talking on the phone while standing in the middle of the yard.

As always, she was just holding her phone to her ear, staring up at nothing. But Myungsoo knew someone was talking on the other side of the phone. From the side, he could see that there was really no emotion on her face. Yet, there was a heavy feeling inside his heart.

Haneul ended the call and her arm that was holding her phone dropped limply to her side. She looked up the sky, took a deep breath and jumped when she turned and saw Myungsoo. From shock, her face went to panicky when he stepped closer and shocked again when he suddenly took her phone from her hand.

“Why…”

“I’m going to throw this away,” he said, and walked away fast.

“Huh? Throw away? Wait!”

Haneul quickly chased after him but Myungsoo ran so fast down the hilly road and when he reached the entrance of the village, he stopped and Haneul saw him putting up his arm and throwing her phone into the lake.

“Yah!!!” She rushed towards him and stared at the lake with disbelieved. “What… Did you throw my phone… into the lake…?” She looked at his hands and they were empty.

“Oh,” his answer and gaze were so cold. Haneul’s eyes started to water and she was about to lurch towards the lake when he stopped her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to take it back.”

He grabbed her arm. “The lake is too deep. Forget it.”

“Then why did you throw it?!” she screamed and pulled away from him. “Are you out of your mind? How can you just throw someone’s phone like that?”

“Because each time you look at your phone and answer a call, you will look sad or angry!” he screamed back. “So I threw it away!”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I don’t want to see you sad!”

“When was I sad? Did you see me crying?!”

“I don’t need to see you crying to know you’re sad…” he said, silently.

Haneul’s eyes widened and her breathing was getting faster. “That is none of your business!” she screamed again and tears started pouring out of her eyes. Myungsoo tried to take her hand but she pulled away. “Crazy… Crazy bastard… Idiot! Otaku! !” Then she turned away and ran off towards the direction of their rent house.

Myungsoo just stood there looking at the lake for a moment before heading back. Though once he arrived, he couldn’t find Haneul anywhere. He thought maybe she needed some time to calm down herself. So he took a shower and saw that she had prepared dinner halfway so he just did his best to finish them. While he was preparing, rain fell down unexpectedly and Myungsoo was so worried that he was already prepared to go out to look for her when she appeared in the front yard. She was drenched and so Myungsoo quickly fetched a towel for her. She entered the bathroom to clean herself and took a long time. Once she was dressed, she went to the room and lied down on the bed, buried under the blanket.

“Don’t want to eat dinner?”

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