CHAPTER 9

     “Is the food done yet?” Changmin asked, looking over my shoulder at the pot behind me.

“Oh! Um, yes.” I spun around as if I’d forgotten the pot and it had suddenly burned me in the rear.

“I’ll set the table.” Junsu volunteered.

I started opening droors, trying to find pot holders and a spoon.

“Here, I’ll get it for you.” Jaejoong had somehow retrieved potholders out of thin air and brushed past me to pick up the big pot with them.

“Uh, alright, thanks.”

“Spoon’s in there.” He said, nodding the droor I was holding open as he passed me.

“Okay…”

I gripped the spoon and took a deep breath. I held the breath and squeezed my eyes shut. Please let it be ok. I prayed. I blew the breath out through pursed lips and walked confidently into the dining room with everyone else.

At the head of the table stood Yunho. On one side stood Yoochun and Junsu, and on the other side stood Changmin and Jaejoong. They looked at me when I entered the room. They were waiting for me. At the other end of the table, opposite of Yunho and in between Yoochun and Changmin, was a place set for me. I felt a small delight at getting to sit next to Changmin, and a strange sense of belonging as I took my place and we all sat down together.

“A toast!” Yunho raised his cup and everyone followed suit, including me. “To our new mother! Thank you for coming into our lives.”

I blushed and looked down, trying to hide my face. Don’t get your hopes up. I told myself. If they don’t like your food, it’s all over.

“May your stay here be long and pleasant.” Yoochun said next.

After that everyone seemed to think that they should take a turn saying something.

“I’m glad to have another living with us.” Junsu said next, giving me a kind, welcoming smile.

“I hope we will get along very well and have a lot of fun together.” Changmin said after him. I hoped so too…

And last was Jaejoong. “Thank you for accepting the job. No matter what, I’m glad to have met you.”

I smiled and blinked just in case there were tears that I couldn’t feel.

“Wait, can I say something too?” I asked. When Yunho nodded for me to go on, I said, “Thanks for giving me this job. You were there right when I needed you and I’m grateful. Even if the food isn’t good tonight, I hope you will still me a chance. I promise to always do my best for you, no matter what.”

We clinked our glasses together and Yunho exclaimed, “Let’s dig in!”

“I’m sure it will be good.” Changmin said encouragingly. “It smells great.”

Junsu lifted the lid to peek inside. “What is it? Soup?”

I nodded and watched nervously as they served themselves.

“Aren’t you eating?” Jaejoong asked when he noticed I hadn’t gotten any food for myself.

I just sat clasping my hands. I nodded but made no move to serve myself. I cleared my throat.

“I want to know what you think first.”

Then, because I was afraid they’d think that was because I’d poisoned the food or something, I put some in my bowl. Changmin was the first to taste it. I watched his face for any sign of disgust. He raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened as if he’d just gotten a shock. Oh no… I waited for him to say something.

“Wow! This is really god! Good job, Sun-hi!”

It took a minute for his words to register in my mind. Then, with a surprised face, I bowed my head to him and thanked him. With that, everyone else started eating.

There were exclamations all around the table of, “Oh, it really is good!”

“Sun-hi, you’re a good cook! This tastes good.”

“This is great!”

“I like it a lot, Sun-hi.”

“Mmmm… Mhhh ihm mmmm.”

Yunho whacked Junsu upside the head, almost making him choke. “Don’t try to talk with soup in your mouth, Junsu. That’s rude.”

“Ouch! Hyung, why do you always have to hit me?” Junsu gave a wounded frown.

“What are you talking about? I only hit you when you deserve it.” Yunho gave a smug grin.

I finally spooned the soup into my mouth. Oh, it really doesn’t taste that bad. Maybe this will work out after all. And that was how I become DBSK’s maid.

     When I arrived home, Ae Cha was still in a bad mood. Worse even—if that was possible. She’d glare at me from across the room as I was annoying her by just being there. I sighed and let her be.

“What am I gonna do about her?” I asked Ji-hyun. “I can leave her like this. But if she won’t even talk to me… I don’t get why she’s being like this. It’s not like we all expected to be together forever.”

“Ya, but you have to remember what she’s been through.” Ji-hyun tried to get me to understand. “Both her parents died before she came to college and it was just last year that her brother died while he was in Japan. She thinks everyone is destined to leave her. Just when she opened her heart to us and feel secure in our friendship, things change. She scared. As much as you assure her that things will still be the same between, it still feels to her like she’ll never see you again. She thinks you’ll find a life of your own and never talk to us again.”

“But I’d never do that!” I burst, forgetting that we were still within earshot of Ae Cha.

She glared us and we waited for her to return to her magazine before we continued whispering.

“I know you wouldn’t, but she still has that Everyone will eventually leave me mindset.”

I watched Ae Cha’s eyes scan the pages of her magazine. She wasn’t really reading it, only pretending to.

“So what I do?” I asked Ji-hyun, hoping she would have some good advice for me.

“Honestly…I don’t know.” She said.

I rolled my eyes. Oh, that was helpful… “What did we do to comfort her when her brother died?”

“We just let her cry on us and told her the pain would go away over time. Oh, and we made her 1000 crane as a tribute to her brother.”

I kept watching Ae Cha. “Hm…”

     Ji-hyun threw me a little “moving out” party. Really all she did was force Ae Cha to be there as she threw confetti at me and wished me lucky. There were even balloons and streamers. And she had a gift for me.

“It’s from both of us.” Ji-hyun insisted, nudging Ae Cha in the ribs.

“It is not!” Ae Cha protested.

I tried to ignore her as I opened the present. It was a little pink photo book full of the model pictures we had taken the night they took me to the club. My eyes filled with tears and I blinked them away. These weren’t just my friends. They were like sisters to me.

I hugged Ji-hyun and whispered, “Thank you so much!”

Then I turned to Ae Cha. She quickly glanced at me, but that was all. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug and she went rigid, but she didn’t push me away. I don’t think she hates. She’s just hurt and angry. I thought then, which gave me hope that maybe someday she’d forgive me.

     The next day, Ae Cha left the dorm without telling us where she was going.

“She just wants to be away today.” Ji-hyun told me.

I let the movers that DBSK had hired do all the work for me. I had something else I needed to do before I left. I locked myself in the dorm for ten hours. I carefully folded each crane with great care, making sure not to let my tears fall on the colored paper. I folded, counted, recounted, folded some more, and placed the cranes all over the room. Then I wrote note. I had meant for the note to be short, but it ended up covering both sides of the paper. I got up to go the bathroom and when I came, Ji-hyun was standing in the doorway, staring in disbelief.

“Did you do all this?” She breathed.

I nodded. “They’re for Ae Cha. Some of them may not be perfectly straight; I’m a little out of practice. I haven’t done this since that time a year ago.”

I looked down at my hands that were covered in stinging paper cuts.

“This is amazing. Are there 1000 of them, like before?” I nodded again. I had counted carefully three times to make sure. “Wow, Sun-hi… You should’ve told me, I would’ve helped you.” Ji-hyun said, taking my hands gently in hers.

I shook my head. “This was something I had myself. I want her to know how much she means to me; that I’ll never forget her, even when we do end up having separate lives. She’ll always be in my heart, no matter how much she hated me. Will you make sure she sees this and reads the latter before you clean it up?”

With tears in her eyes, Ji-hyun nodded and squeezed me in a hug.

“Yes, of course I will! And she doesn’t hate you, she’s just telling herself because she thinks it’ll keep her from missing you. And she will miss you. We both will.”

“I’ll miss you too.” I whispered.

I hadn’t wanted to cry today and it was all I could do to keep the tears out of my eyes.

“You come to me if you need anything. Anything at all—got it? And don’t forget to come by, at least once a month, to hang out, ok?”

I nodded. “Mhmm—“ I let out a choked chuckle. “Ji-hyun, I can’t breathe…”

“Oh sorry!” She let go of me and held me out at arm’s length. “You were always like the little sister of the bunch, even though you’re not the youngest. But I guess now you’re all grown up.”

I smiled. Then I looked behind her and nodded towards the corner.

“Can I take those with me?”

She looked back at the cluster of balloons she’d bought yesterday. “Those? Sure, if you want. Otherwise they’ll just sit there and deflate.”

“Great. Thanks.”