Jessica stood on the sidewalk bouncing up and down on her toes.

“Boo!”

“Aahh!” A pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders, preventing her from jumping away. A low chuckle echoed by her ears as she turned around to smack the culprit. “Wu Yifan!!”

“Sorry, couldn’t help it. You looked as though you were in your own world...which I bet you were.”

“Whatever, so why are we meeting here? We haven’t come to this cafe since college.”

“One, there’s the railroad station nearby. And two, I had to study with a classmate this morning and he happens to live 5 minutes from here. So this way!”

Holding her elbow, Yifan pulled her along the sidewalk.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” The two walked in companionable silence as Yifan gently led Jessica through the crowd to the subway station. Boarding the subway car, they talked about school and work - Jessica once again unhappy with the company culture.

“Have you spoken to your dad? Did he have any thoughts?”

“He said that’s just the way things are and I should just get used to it. But I don’t want to get used to a working situation like that. It’s just going to end up making me complacent and not motivated to work hard. You should have seen our department head - he lectured the division head for 30 minutes in front of everyone at our morning meeting yesterday about using company funds for personal use. Then a binder came to me in the afternoon filled with receipts for personal purchases the department head made himself.”

“How do you know they’re personal?”

“A Coach suitcase and a vacation to Bali, what do you think?”

“Oh...yeah....”

“And my dad said to just deal with the receipts and make sure I covered the department head’s tracks well...how can my dad say that?” Jessica stomped her feet loudly making people around them stare.

“Shh,” Yifan pulled Jessica closer to him, letting her hit his chest with her fists instead. “Well today, forget about work and what your dad said. I want you to not think today and just have fun.”

“What are we doing?”

“You’ll see. Next stop.” Making their way off the subway, they came out on a large street but with few people. Yifan pulled Jessica along down a side street, following it down to another side street. After 10 more minutes, he stopped in front of a small building. Pushing open the front door they found themselves in a small foyer with doors off the hall.

“Wait here one moment. You brought slippers like I told you?”

“Yeah...but....”

“Just put those on, you can leave your shoes in a cubby hole there,” pointing where a floor-to-ceiling bookcase lined the wall, divided into small cubbies. Spotting shoes already sitting in some holes, Jessica slipped off her shoes and stuck them in a cubby near eye-level and slipped on her slippers. She turned around to see Yifan come back out of the door right off the foyer followed by a middle-aged woman.

“Ahjumma, this is Sooyeon. Sooyeon, this is Mrs. Cho.”

“Ah yes,” smiling warmly she nodded her greeting. “Yifan has told us a lot about you.”

“Ye....s...hello,” Jessica bowed.

Slipping off his own shoes and putting on a pair of black slippers, Yifan whispered to Jessica, “I told her your Korean name. She has a difficult time remembering English names, hope you don’t mind.”

“No it’s fine. You brought slippers too?”

“I leave mine here in the office. I got them when I went in to let ahjumma know we were here.”

“Yifan, where are we?” Jessica frowned, still unsure of where he had brought her.

Instead of answering, he smiled. “You’ll see. Come on!” Grabbing her hand he pulled her along down the hallway following Mrs. Cho.  Jessica peeked into the rooms they passed by and saw groups of children studying. “We’re at a school?”

“This is an orphanage. A couple of my classmates and I came to volunteer here at the beginning of medical school. I still come whenever I have free time. The kids here are younger, babies to 9 or 10.”

“Yifan’s right. They’re in school right now but they’ll be done in 10 minutes.”

“Where do they go after 9 or 10?”

“There’s a larger orphanage nearby where we send them. We’ve only been operating for 4 years. We’re trying to expand but it’s hard because a good number of the children have a medical condition so most of the resources are devoted to treatment.”

“How many children do you have?”

“We have about 60 children right now. We just sent 6 to the larger orphanage last month. We try to send them together in groups so they’ll still have some familiar faces with them.” As Jessica asked her questions, the three of them put on aprons and plastic gloves. Yifan tucked Jessica’s ponytail under a cap before putting on his own gloves. They then went into a side room, revealed to be a kitchen, and joined two other women similarly attired.

Mrs. Cho directed Jessica to the utensils and before she could ask any questions, a line of children appeared in the doorway. The man standing with them handed each of them a small tray. Following an invisible line, they went to Mrs. Cho, the two women and Yifan who each gave them a bowl of food: rice, kimchi, meat and vegetables. Noting the containers of chopsticks and spoons in front of her, Jessica quickly grabbed the utensils to place them on the trays as they came by. Thanking the new woman politely, the children quickly filed out through the doorway they came in. As the last child left, another group had lined up. Repeating the process five more times, Jessica watched as the adults each grabbed a tray of bowls, walking out to the dining room. Taking a tray herself, Jessica followed them out and watched them place a bowl by each child. Going to a table, Jessica smiled at each child as she distributed her tray.

Finishing the adults dispersed through the room to help the younger children eat. Yifan beckoned Jessica over where he was kneeling by a group of kids. “Everyone this is my friend, Sooyeon. She’s your unnie/noona.”

A chorus of hellos came from the table before they all turned back to their meal. Jessica smiled at the group who all appeared to be around 5-6 years old. A tug on her shirt pulled her attention to a little girl. Rice clung to her cheek as her chubby hand pushed away loose hairs that had sprung out of her pigtail. “Unnie...you’re pretty.”

Crouching down, Jessica helped push back her hair. “Why thank you. You’re very pretty too. What’s your name?”

“Min-ji...” came the shy reply.

“Min-ji is also very pretty. Can Min-ji eat some more for unnie?”

Nodding the little girl scooped out some rice and then tried to scoop some kimchi onto the rice, only to have the kimchi fall back down each time. Taking the chopsticks Jessica placed the kimchi onto her spoon. “Thank you unnie....”

“You’re very welcome Min-ji.” Patting the little girl’s hair, Jessica was soon drawn into the rest of the table’s conversation. By the end of the lunch hour, Seo-young, Joo-mi and Eun-ah had declared her pretty like Min-ji had, and the boys, Jong-suk, Dong-wook and Soo-hyuk, decided she was pretty cool, especially upon hearing she could play soccer.

Clearing up, the two ladies from before and the man lined the children up and brought them outside. Yifan and Jessica joined Mrs. Cho in sticking the trays and bowls into a large tub of water sitting by the kitchen door leading to the outside. From the kitchen,  a door led out into a small fenced-in area where an herb and vegetable garden grew. Sticking the trays into the tub of soapy water, they worked together to wash the bowls, utensils and trays. Transferring them to a second tub of clean water, they rinsed them off. Mrs. Cho then took the dishes and placed them in a large wooden rack standing outside. 

Removing their aprons and caps, Mrs. Cho motioned for the two to join the children outside as she had paperwork to finish up. They walked through a gate, entering a decent-sized play area behind the building. Spotting Yifan, several boys ran over to ask him to play. Pushing him ahead, Jessica watched him engage the group of boys in a makeshift game of soccer. She suddenly felt a small arm wrapped around her leg. Looking down Jessica saw Min-ji clutch onto her leg as she plopped herself onto Jessica’s shoe. She bent down and loosening Min-ji’s arms, picked her up.

“Unnie...”

“Mm?”

“I like you!” Min-ji threw her arms around Jessica’s neck and buried her face into Jessica’s shoulder. Before Jessica could say anything, she felt the little girl snuggle her face and drift into sleep.

“Min-ji must really like you.” Jessica turned around to see the gentleman from earlier standing by. “Min-ji doesn’t just let anyone pick her up.”

“Oh really? She’s very sweet.”

“She is. I’m sorry I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Mr. Cho, I run this place with my wife.”

“Ah, I’m Jung Sooyeon. Pleased to meet you.”

“You’re Yifan’s friend?”

“Yes, but I’m not a medical student. Yifan just thought I’d like to come today.”

“How are you liking our little place?”

“I...” Jessica paused. “I really like it.”

Big thank you to 'BornConfused' and 'CookiePicklePants' for upvoting!! 

So I didn't realize how little Kris-Jessica interactions there are in this chapter until I pasted it into AFF...>.< I meant to write this chapter to set things up because I didn't want to just constantly be giving descriptions and having little action/conversation.