They’re halfway their way home, but Hyun Hae can still hear Minsoo’s words inside of her head. I wouldn’t imagine this guy to have those thoughts inside of his head; I wouldn’t imagine him being a romantic lad that he apparently is.

They are walking their way to the house when she suddenly thought of something to ask him.

“How did you end up renting the room in our house, by the way? I mean, ours is an hour away from the airport, it’s not easy to find your way here”, she asked.

Suddenly confused and a little frightened of his little secret being known, he tried acting cool.

“I took the train straight from the airport and picked a stop to alight on randomly, then I picked this. I tried walking along this street when I found the room for rent sign. I took it immediately since it’s already late and I’m beat from the flight”, he explains, trying to sound truthful and convincing while praying that she’ll buy his story.

Luckily for him, she just shrugged and seems pleased with his explanation. They continue walking home.

When the two reached the house, they tried greatly to hide from Takada for the surprise to remain a surprise. Luckily, everybody else must be somewhere off the house. They then silently slipped into the kitchen, made room for the cake in the refrigerator, and hid the mini barrel of wine under the dining table. She grins at Minsoo after hiding the parcel. Then they moved to find Haruhi when Minsoo suddenly slapped his face hard, Hyun Hae turned her face immediately at him. She saw him scratching his cheek near his jaw like a maniac. She figured a mosquito bit him.  

She then grabbed his hand and pulled it away from scratching his face. “Yah, don’t scratch it like that, you’ll injure your skin more”, she said then replaced her hand to scratch the part of his face that the mosquito bit using the back of her nails gently.

“This is how you should do it; do you know that our nails can inflict a bigger damage to the skin? So you should try scratching using the back of it since it’s smoother, then just pat it like this after”, she explains then started patting the sore part.

She’s so absorbed into her little lecture that she doesn’t noticed the startled Minsoo at her sudden action, and how his stare locked onto her face. After a while, she reclaimed her hand and continues searching for her mother. Minsoo suddenly flicked her head that made her face him again, this time, with an irritated look plastered across her face.

“What right do you have to flick your noona’s head, huh?”, her voice slightly louder.

“What did you say?”, Minsoo asked nonchalantly.

“I said, what right do you have to flick your n—“, she cut her sentence off, Minsoo is smiling at her.

“You’re allowing me to call you noona? I can call you noona, now?”, he stated, joy evident on his boyish face.

“Yeah, whatever, it’s not like I prohibit you from doing so”, she shrugged it off, but inside, she’s a little embarrassed.

Haruhi then found the two of them.

“So, you two have arrived”, she said smiling before whispering yet again, “so, have you bought it?”

“Dae, the cake’s on the ref so don’t let Sobo get anywhere near there, and the wine is under the dining table.”

“Good. Okay then, I’m letting you prepare and cook tempura, make it the best, okay?”

“You know I always do”, she said proud.

“As for you, Minsoo-kun, you can now rest, we’ve disturbed you enough already, you might have plans coming to Japan, right? Anyways, thank you for helping out”, she said bowing her head a little at Minsoo.

“It’s nothing, Obachan, I’m glad to help, and about my vacation, I still have five days, that’s still a lot of time to explore Japan”, he said smiling at the old lady.

________________

Minsoo settled himself on the couch in the living room, reading a book that he took out of Hyun Hae’s pile of Fiction novels. Through Violet Eyes is a book about the ‘violets’, they are a group of people who has violet eyes. But what made them distinct is not the unique color of their irises but the power that goes with having those. Violets can speak to the dead. They can communicate with them and let the families of the dead to talk with them even after leaving the material world. Through that ability, Violets are being used to solve murder cases, which they proved to be of great help with.

He was so into the story when Hyun Hae suddenly called out of the kitchen.

“Yah!”, she shouts. “Yah!”, she goes again when she heard no response. She can see Minsoo on the couch, reading one of her favorite books, so she called again.

“Yah, come here for a moment, please.”

Minsoo then made a mental note of the page and the part he was reading on before standing up and walking through the kitchen.

“Huh? What is it?”, he asked after seeing that everything seems to be in order inside the kitchen.

“Do me a favor, please”, she said, looking up at him from the batter in front of her.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Can you tie my hair? It’s been bugging me, I can’t do it”, she said as she shows him her hands. The other is covered with breadcrumbs while the other is wet with egg mixture—certainly practicing the ‘dry hand wet hand’ in the dictionary of cooking.

He understood and moved closer to her. “Where’s your band?”

“Look on the top of the ref, I know I put it there”, she instructed.

He walked to the refrigerator and found a tiny elastic band. He took it but a little skeptic about it.

“Is this it?”

“Yes”, she answered then motioned her back on him so he could tie her hair.

“Seriously? This is too tiny for your thick and long hair, this won’t do”, he explains.

“Oh, I have a bigger one in my room, it’s by the bedside table, can you get it then?” she asked, facing him again.

He thought for a while before telling her to turn around.

“Huh? Why?” she asked puzzled.

“Just turn around, I’ll just braid your hair, that way, this small elastic band can hold it”, he explains.

“Oh, you know how to do that? I’m surprised”, she said turning her back to him.

“Yeah, my noona sometimes asks me to do that to her hair when she feels like it, she taught me.”

“You and your noona must be really close, no?” she smiles at the thought.

He grabbed the mane of her hair from her nape, the tip of his fingers slightly touching her bare skin. She can’t explain it but the slight touch caused her to flinch a little. He then started snaking her hair down to a braid before going on with their conversation.

“Yeah, we are close, indeed. Given that we only have a year difference, we also share lots of things in common, cats is one of them, which you are apparently scared of”, he lets out a small chuckle.

She can feel that he’s almost done with her hair, he is now tying it, and then it’s done.

“There, all done”, he said, she turns to face him.

“Arigatou guzaimasu”, she smiled and gave him a little nod.

“Okay, tell me how to say you’re welcome in Nihongo”, he said guessing the little game she’s playing on him.

She chuckles, “Good, so, you say Doitashimae.”

“Doitashimae”,  he repeated.

“Good, that’s Nihongo 101 for you!”, she exclaimed, he softly laughs.

“Arigatou, Hyun Hae-sensei”, he said which made Hyun Hae’s eyes widen.

“Hey, you can speak some! Learned from Naruto? Kakashi-sensei?”, she teased, but is impressed.

“Haha, you got that straight”, he said before turning to leave and back in the living room.

“Want some spoilers about the killer?” she called out which made him look back at her with a confused look.

“Someone’s killing off the Violets, right? You wanna know beforehand who might be killing them?”, she asked, smiling. “Hell, no, don’t you dare”, he faked a threatening tone before running to the living room where he left the book by the couch.

“Okay, so the killer is—“, she let her words hung, awaiting his reaction. To her amazement, Minsoo covered his ears with both his hands holding the book in one.

“Lalalalalala, I can’t hear you, I’m not listening to you”, he chants before running to his room where he knows he wouldn’t hear anything she’s gonna say. He turned his mp3 on for safety measure.

Hyun Hae on the other hand laughed at his silliness before facing her tempura once again.

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forgive me for coming out of blunt titles, i just discovered that i at making titles. LOL!