Charlotte set the coffees down and took the phone and started to chuckle.

“You’re still stressing about that recipe you failed at on Wednesday? The soup wasn’t that salty and once we added rice it was perfect”, Charlotte handed the phone back to her cousin.

“It was two teaspoons of salt, not two tablespoons”, Tiffany pouted and slipped her phone back into her pocket, “I was trying to cook and Jacob kept coming in to show me what he was building. I must have read it wrong.”

Charlotte walked over to her son on the couch and brushed his sweaty hair off his forehead and his eyes popped open and he looked at her.

“Is it dark yet? Did we skip a meal? Is it bedtime yet?”, he sat up and patted his mom on her cheek,

“Not yet, nope and not for awhile”, Charlotte said with a laugh as her led him to the bathroom to wash his hands for dinner. He went to play until it was time to eat and Charlotte went back to the kitchen, coffee in hand and watched her cousin finish up the pork cutlets that were dinner.

“Need any help?”, she said as she set Tiffany’s coffee beside her and leaned against the counter. Her cousin had just finished the breading and was about to cover each piece of meat in it before she fried it.

“Can you turn the stove on? My hands are gross. And hold my coffee so I can take a drink of it……. and text JunJin?”, she slipped the last one in quickly. Charlotte sighed and did the first two things then pulled her phone out and stared at it.

“Fine, if I do it will you leave me alone?”, she said as she unlocked her screen and started a new message.

“Yep”, Tiff said with a chuckle and went to wash her hands off while she waited for the oil to get hot then grabbed her coffee and stood beside Charlotte to make sure she texted JunJin.

“I have no idea what to say”, Charlotte whined and stared at the blank text.

“Just tell him you heard the radio program and you’re looking forward to the fanmeet”, Tiffany said impatiently.

“Who said I’m even going?”, Charlotte said and went to put her phone away.

“I said we are, so you better say it”, Tiffany gripped her wrist lightly to stop her.

“Why are you so hell bent on me getting back in touch with him?”, Charlotte pulled her wrist away and stared at her cousin.

“Because you’re miserable, Charlotte. Plain and simple. Before you stopped seeing him you were bubbly and happy and I could hear the joy in your voice when you talked about him. Now you’re glum all the time and flinch when his music comes on the radio. You can’t deny you like him”, Tiffany said firmly.

“I never said I didn’t”, Charlotte whispered, “I just think it’s easier for everyone involved if I stay away from him”, she said, her eyes focused on the floor.

“Nothing easy is ever worth having, now is it?”, Tiffany said gently and lifted Charlotte’s wrist and moved her other hand over the keys, “just tell him what I said and get it over with. He will either reply or not but you have to stop avoiding what you feel.” Charlotte looked at her and took a deep breath before she started to type.

C: you sounded good on the radio and I think I might come to your fanmeet next month……

Charlotte showed her cousin the message before she hit send. Then she put her phone on silent and tucked it behind a loaf of bread on the counter and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Okay, it’s done, can we just focus on dinner now?”

Her cousin had already turned to flip the first cutlet over and got another one ready to cook. They finished silently and when it was done, Tiffany went to get Jacob while Charlotte fixed plates and got them on the table.

“Mom, can we go for a walk after dinner?”, Jacob said as he sat down and looked at the food. He started with his vegetables first.

“I think we can do that, depends on if someone eats all their dinner”, Charlotte said as she sat down and Tiffany joined her and filled a glass of ice water for each of them.

“Plus I saw an ice cream shop the last time we went for a walk. I wanna eat there”, Jacob said through a mouthful of meat; his vegetable were already gone and his cutlet had a few big bites out of it.

They finished dinner and washed up before they got ready to take their walk. Charlotte got all the stuff from the park stowed away and grabbed her silent phone and slipped it into her pocket before they walked out the door and down the stairs to a beautifully cool evening. Jacob ran ahead and skipped down the sidewalk, happy to be outside again today. They walked until they reached the ice cream shop. There was a short line outside and they joined the other people that had the same idea that evening. Jacob started to play with some other kids that waited with their parents and soon the line had led them inside and they looked at the menu to decide what to have.

At the dance studio JunJin had stopped to take a break and check his phone. He was shocked to see a message from Charlotte. As he read it he felt his heart skip a beat.

“She heard it”, he whispered to himself and checked the time the message had been sent. It was over an hour ago, as he looked at it, he debated whether or not to respond. Just because she had sent one message didn’t mean she wanted to see him again; but she did say she might come to his birthday fanmeet. Should he arrange for her, Jacob and her cousin to receive free tickets? Or would that seem to strange? He sat on the floor and stared at the message.

He couldn’t discern much from the few words she had sent and he was worried he would push her even further away if he assumed things were back to normal. He scratched his head in frustration and tried to think what the other guys would tell him to do. Minwoo would probably tell him that if he really liked her he should pursue her relentlessly, lik