"Hahaha!" Min Jae laughed as Jae Kyung finished telling her story. "You went dumpster diving?" he asked as he held his stomach that was aching from laughing.

Jae Kyung glared at him. "You're supposed to sympathize with my woes, not laugh at them."

"I'm sorry," he said as he wiped tears from his eyes. "But picturing what you probably looked like after trash picking…" Min Jae let out a happy sigh. "It's too funny," he said with a big grin. "So, what happened at Ji Hyo Noona's?" he asked, curious and excited to hear more.

"Well first I have to tell you that Ji Hyo Unni is pregnant."

"Really? Congratulations to her!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But her pregnancy is what ruined my stay with her." Jae Kyung shuddered as she recalled the few months she was living with her older sister. "Living with a pregnant Ji Hyo Unni is something I wasn't ready for," she said as she filled in Min Jae of the difficulties she suffered with her elder sister.

It was a Wednesday night and Ji Hyo was at home feeling bored. She was on maternity leave from the hospital and she didn’t know what to do with all her free time. Her husband, had the night shift at the hospital and wasn’t going to be home until much later.

“Maybe I’ll bother Jae Kyung,” she said to herself. She walked over to Jae Kyung’s room and knocked on her door. “Jae Kyung-ah, are you busy?” she asked as she opened the door. Jae Kyung was sitting at her desk typing away on her laptop. She looked up to see her sister at the door.

“Oh, Unni,” Jae Kyung acknowledged her sister as she looked up. “What is it?” she asked turning back to her laptop screen.

“I’m bored,” she pouted. “Come play with me.”

“Unni, I really have to finish this paper due tomorrow. I’m sorry,” Jae Kyung answered, continuing to type.

“Please,” Ji Hyo whined. “I’ve been bored out of my mind staying at home all day.”

Jae Kyung sighed and then closed the lid of her laptop. “What did you have in mind?” she asked, turning her full attention to her sister.

Ji Hyo grinned. Soon they were sitting in the living room, a movie playing in the background while they did each others’ nails.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Ji Hyo complained as Jae Kyung tried to paint her toe nails. “Look, you got some on my skin,” she said as she pointed towards the spot where Jae Kyung went out of the line.

Jae Kyung blew a strand of hair out of her eyes as she tried to stay calm from her sisters’ constant nagging. “I’m sorry. Let me wipe it off and do it again,” she said with a forced smile.

Ji Hyo turned her attention to the movie. It was a romantic comedy, a genre that Ji Hyo usually never watched, but for some reason she was in the mood for it that night.

Jae Kyung concentrated on painting Ji Hyo’s toe nails, sweat forming on her forehead as she tried to stay in the line between her nail and toe. She looked up when she heard sniffling. Ji Hyo was staring at the screen and tearing up. Jae Kyung turned her head towards the TV and was baffled because it was a funny scene.

“Unni, why are you crying?” she asked in concern

“Because,” she sniffled, “the poor shoe must be hurting.” Ji Hyo was now in tears.

“What?” Jae Kyung asked with a confused look.

“The guy and girl were fighting over the shoe because it was the last one in the store. The poor shoe was pulled back and forth and now, it must be in pain.” Ji Hyo bawled.

Jae Kyung stared at her older sister, dumbfounded. Ji Hyo was never really the girly type. She rarely wore make up, she rarely dressed up, and she rarely cried, especially over something like a shoe’s feelings.

“Unni, I think your hormones are messing your brain up. It’s just a shoe,” Jae Kyung tried to reason with her emotional sister.

“What do you mean just a shoe?!” Ji Hyo shot at her sister angrily. “You don’t understand all the hard work that a shoe has to go through to keep the owners’ feet protected and clean. You shouldn’t take something so important for granted!” she yelled in tears.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry,” Jae Kyung answered with her hands up in defense, her right hand still holding the nail polish brush.

“What are you doing not painting my nails?!” Ji Hyo yelled when she realized Jae Kyung had stopped.

Jae Kyung grit her teeth and she was shaking in anger but she forced herself to calm down because she knew it was her sisters’ hormones from her pregnancy that was making her act this way. This is the last time I’m going to “play” with Ji Hyo Unni when she’s pregnant, she thought to herself.

It was dinner time and Ji Hyo called Jae Kyung to join her and her husband at the dinner table.

“Wah, you made a lot, Unni,” Jae Kyung said with a gaping mouth at the dishes.

“Yes, honey, you sure went all out today,” Soo Young remarked.

“Well, being home all day, I had nothing better to do. So dig in everyone!” she said with a bright smile.

Jae Kyung didn’t have to be told twice as she picked up her chopsticks and immediately went for the fish. She took a piece and popped it into , chewing happily…until her taste buds kicked in and her face went blank. Her chewing slowed down and her face contorted into one of pain. She quickly spit the fish out into her hand.

“Yah, Jae Kyung that’s disgusting!” Ji Hyo reprimanded her younger sister.

“Unni, what did you do to the fish? It’s so salty!”

“What are you talking about? Out of the four of us siblings, I’m the best cook. There’s no way I put too much salt,” she defended.

“Hyeongbu, why don’t you try?” Jae Kyung nodded towards the fish.

[Hyeongbu: How to address the husband of a girl's elder sister. This is what Jae Kyung calls Soo Young.]

“Should I?” he asked hesitantly.

He had a feeling that Jae Kyung was right, but he didn’t want to admit that to his hormonal wife. He cautiously took a small piece of the fish and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. He slightly shuddered at the saltiness but kept a straight face.

“It tastes fine,” he said with a forced smile after he swallowed.

“See?” Ji Hyo said with a look of “I told you so” to Jae Kyung.

Jae Kyung narrowed her eyes at Soo Young. He felt her glare at him and his forehead started sweating.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Soo Young’s pager alerted him to call the hospital.

“Oh, the hospital is paging me. I better call them back,” he said as he got up and went into his room to call the hospital.

“Unni, why don’t you try the fish then?” Jae Kyung sneered at her sister, not wanting to admit defeat.

“Fine!” Ji Hyo said as she put a piece of fish in and chewed. “It tastes just fine,” she said as she swallowed.

Jae Kyung stared at her with wide open. “You’re kidding, right? Oh my god, that thing in your stomach has warped your taste buds,” she said with a look of disgust as she pointed at Ji Hyo’s belly.

“Yah! How can you call my baby a thing?!” she yelled at her sister.

Soo Young came back into the dining room after talking on the phone. “Sorry, honey, but I need to go to the hospital. There’s an ER patient that they need me to look at.”

“What about dinner?” Ji Hyo asked in worry.

“Uh…I’ll get something from the hospital cafeteria. I’m sorry I couldn’t enjoy your lovely dinner,” he said with a forced apologetic expression.

Ji Hyo sighed. “It’s not your fault. But honey, I feel like you’ve been working more since I went on maternity leave. I barely see you,” she pouted.

“I guess there just aren’t enough doctors in this world,” he said with an awkward laugh before grabbing his keys. “I’ll see you two later,” he said as he left the apartment.

Jae Kyung grit her teeth as Soo Young left. Psh, he’s lucky he has an excuse to not eat Ji Hyo Unni’s cooking.

Jae Kyung and Ji Hyo went back to dinner. Jae Kyung tried some of the other dishes but was met with the same over-saltiness as the fish.

“Unni! I can’t eat any of this!” she complained after washing the salty taste from by drinking a whole glass of water.

“Fine! Then don’t eat!” Ji Hyo yelled back in frustration at her sister.

“Fine! I won’t! I’m making Ramen!” Jae Kyung huffed back at her sister as she got up and went to the kitchen to pull out a pot and a pack of Ramen.

“Jae Kyung-ah,” Ji Hyo whispered to her sleeping sister as she gently shook Jae Kyung’s back that was facing her.

Jae Kyung groaned as she turned from her side to her back and opened her eyes. “Ji Hyo Unni?” she asked in a raspy voice when her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and she could make out the figure that was hovered over her.

“Jae Kyung-ah,” Ji Hyo whined.

“What?” Jae Kyung answered in a rather annoyed tone since she had been woken up from her sleep.

“I’m craving ice cream. Will you go to the convenience store and get me some?” she pouted.

“What?!” Jae Kyung asked in a tone of “I can’t believe what you’re asking of me.” She looked over at the clock on her nightstand and her eyes widened. “Unni! It’s 3 am!”

“I know, but I really, really, really want ice cream right now.”

“Then ask Hyeongbu to get it for you!”

“But he just got back from the hospital a couple of hours ago. He must be really tired, I don’t want to wake him up.”

“And what about me? I have school in the morning!”

“Aww, please?” Ji Hyo whined.

Jae Kyung grit her teeth at her.  “Aish, fine!” she said as she threw her covers off and put on more appropriate clothes to go out in.

“Thank you, Jae Kyung-ah!” Ji Hyo said with a big grin.

As Jae Kyung walked back from the convenience store, holding a plastic bag in her hand with ice cream, she had a dark and irritated expression on her face. She huffed as she thought of all the trouble she was put through because of Ji Hyo.

“Aish, I can’t take this!” Jae Kyung yelled in the middle of the street. Luckily it was late and no one was around or they would have thought she was a crazy person. “I’m moving out,” she firmly stated to herself.

Jae Kyung was accompanying Ji Hyo to the hospital for her regular prenatal checkup. She waited outside in the hallway as the Obstetrician checked on the health of the unborn baby in the patient room. As she sat in a chair and shuffled her feet back and forth in boredom, she heard someone call her name.

“Jae Kyung-ah!” Soo Young called to her, in his white doctor’s gown, as he walked towards her.

“Hyeongbu! What took you so long?!” she whined.

“I’m sorry, I had to finish my rounds. But thanks for accompanying Ji Hyo,” he said as he sat down next to her.

Jae Kyung crossed her arms and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“What?” Soo Young asked, feeling uncomfortable under her glare.

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?” she asked, keeping her intense stare.

“Doing what on purpose?” he asked with a confused look.

“Working extra shifts and making up excuses to stay out of the apartment.”

Soo Young laughed awkwardly. “What do you mean? The hospital is short-staffed on doctors so they’ve been making me do extra shifts.”

“Mhmm,” Jae Kyung said with a tone of “I don’t believe you.” “Well, I just wanted to tell you that I’m leaving.”

“Leaving?” Soo Young asked with a look of shock.

“Yep. I’m going to stay with Seung Hun Oppa. You can handle my sister on your own. I mean it is your fault that she’s pregnant.”

“Jae Kyung-ah, please rethink your decision. You can’t leave me alone with her. I really don’t know how to handle all her mood swings,” he whined.

“How old are you that you’re whining like this? She’s your wife, you take care of her!” she yelled at him. “I’m going to take the bus back. Tell Ji Hyo Unni the news for me,” she said as she stood up and turned to leave, but turned back around. “But Hyeongbu, there is one good thing that comes out of her pregnancy,” she said with a smirk. “Since her hormones are particularly overactive, she’ll be getting…desires…often. And they’re desires only you can fulfill,” she said with a wink before turning to leave.

Soo Young stared after her, mouth wide open. “How can she talk about a subject like that to her own brother-in-law?” he bashfully muttered to himself, but then smiled. “Maybe being home more won’t be such a bad idea,” he said to himself when he thought about what Jae Kyung said. [Note: If you didn't get the hint, it's referring to ual desires, which are common among pregnant women ;) ]

Author's Note

If you've been with me since I posted the preview story, this chapter should look familiar to you :) And since this is one I've worked on for so long, it's much more detailed than the last one and the next one will be, but hopefully it provided my readers with some humor. One more house to go and then hopefully things with Jae Kyung's family will all make sense...and Jun Hyung makes an appearance! Then we get some of his back story ^_^

8/2/12 6:37 PM