J  i  h a e

“And just what do you think you’re doing!?!” I shouted, running down the stairs up to the fridge where Kris was poking his head into.

“Calm down, I’m hungry.” Kris said calmly, taking out the leftovers from the Chinese restaurant our parents went to last night.

“Wait, I was just about to eat that!” I whined, stomping my foot. I’ve been craving Chinese all morning and I feel like my stomach’s committing suicide from my hunger.

“Oh well that’s too bad.” Kris said, closing the fridge door. I glared at him and tried snatching the takeout box from his hands, but he just smiled at me and lifted the box up out of my reach. I tried jumping up to grab it but he was just too tall.

“Fine, whatever. Eat it all see if I care.” I crossed my arms and looked away in defeat.

“That’s a good girl.” Kris smirked, walking away with the box. That jerk! He could have at least offered to share it with me. But I’m not going down without a fight.

“GIVE ME MY ORANGE CHICKEN!” I screamed, charging up to him and sprung up onto his back, tackling him to the ground.

“What the hell!” I heard him say as I watched the takeout box slide across the kitchen. I start crawling at full speed towards it until I feel Kris yank my foot back, swinging me to the opposite direction.

I grabbed a hand-drying cloth from a hook as Kris got to his feet and started running. I threw the cloth far across the floor, where Kris successfully stepped on and slipped into a plummeting crash on the ground. I laughed menacingly as I ran past him and grabbed the takeout box. I opened the top and was welcomed with the stimulating smell.

“MINE!” Kris (who was now on magically his feet and right next to me) yelled. He grabbed the bottom of the box and tried pulling it from me but I held a tight grip on the top flap.

“Let go!” Kris demanded, pulling harder.

And just at that moment, as if the lord was testing me right then and there, the takeout box broke in half and my beautiful noodles and chicken flew out a thousand different directions.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screamed in horror, falling to my knees.

“Great. Look what you did! Now not only do we have nothing to eat but now we have to clean—“

“Out.” I muttered under my breath.

“What?” Kris stopped his nagging and looked at me. He was covered with random strands of noodles.

“GET OUT!” I yelled, shoving him through the living room and out the front door. I slammed the door on his face and plopped on the couch, feeling very upset about my takeout splattered over the ground.

“Jihae! Jihae!” I heard Kris banging on the door and shouting. Yell all you want you Chinese leftovers murderer.

I started cleaning up the food on the floor while holding back my misery until I heard the door open.

“Jihae! How could you do this to Kris!” I heard my mom say. I groaned and turned around to them.

“He destroyed my breakfast!” I whined.

“You are just as much a part of it as I am!” Kris defended. He still had noodles in his hair.

“But if you would have just given it to me we wouldn’t have this problem!”

“Why? I had it first!”

“But I was thinking about eating it first.”

“Nuh-uh, when did you think about it?”

“Last night.”

“Well I was thinking about it last afternoon.”

“Our parents didn’t even come home until last night!”

“But I was still craving it for like 2 weeks anyway.”

“ENOUGH!” My mom yelled. Woops, forgot she was there. “You guys are in high school yet you still fight like children.”

“I wouldn’t call it fighting, Mrs. Kwon...” Kris defended.

“You know what you two need? Some bonding.” She declared.

“We’re bonded enough! We’re living under the same freaking roof.” I said.

“Well clearly that’s not enough. I think I’m going to have you two do some bonding activities together.”

“What?!” Kris and I said together.

“Yup. And you can start with helping me in the garden.”

“Mom, this really isn’t necessary—“

“I don’t want to hear any of it. You two need to learn how to love each other like the family you are.” Mom led us over to the backyard as we gloomily followed her.

Activating Mrs. Kwon’s Bonding Activity Extraordinaire #1: Gardening

“This is all your fault.” I mumbled at Kris as we raked past each other.

“It always is, isn’t it?” Kris mumbled back, annoyed. He raked his leaves into our large pile.

“Yes. Finally you admit it.” I snapped. I set my rake against the fence and stretched a little. My back is killing me!

“You are so hard-headed! I am sick of you always blaming me! Have you ever thought for one second that something might actually be your fault?” Kris threw his rake down.

“But it’s your fault!” I insisted.

“There you go again! You broke the box too, you know. And I had it first!” Kris argued.

“But you wouldn’t even share it with me or anything because you’re just a big fat jerk!”

“I wouldn’t be a jerk if you weren’t so annoying!” Kris spat.

“I hate you!” I sc