Movie Night

T.O.P. sat on his couch and meticulously arranged the food on the sofa table. He opened the lid to the box of donuts just enough to tempt someone to reach for one of the glazed masterpieces inside. Then he straightened the bars of yang geng, that red bean jelly snack, until they were perfectly lined up. But what he was really excited about was the ice cream. He stared at the two empty sundae bowls on the table, thinking about all the toppings he had laid out on the kitchen counter – nuts, chocolate chips, sprinkles, whipped cream…

He smiled and closed his eyes, envisioning him and Bom in the kitchen making their sundaes and then returning to the couch where they’d feed each other spoonfuls of that cold treat and kiss the whipped cream off each other’s lips as they watched horror movies all night. She’d latch onto him during the scary parts, burying her face against his chest while he put his arm around her and assured her that it was just a movie. And then they’d kiss some more, their lips still sticky and sweet from the ice cream.

It was going to be perfect.

When he heard her knock at his apartment door, he quickly fixed his shirt, brushed off his grey jeans, and walked to the entranceway somewhat giddy with excitement. “Annyeong!” he said, as he opened the door.

She bowed slightly in the cute babydoll dress she was wearing and then smiled so widely that it made her eyes, which were darkly lined, look like two half-moons. Holding up the picnic basket she had brought with her, she said, “I brought lots of food and movies!”

T.O.P. childishly bounced up and down and then ushered her inside. “What did you bring to eat?” he asked.

Bom was about to answer but she became preoccupied with checking out his new apartment. “Oh, you hung pictures of us!” she said, pointing to the brick wall behind the sofa where two large photos of them were displayed. But then she looked down at the sofa table and saw the donuts, yang geng, and two sundae bowls. “What’s… this?” she asked.

T.O.P. walked over and clasped his hands together with a big smile. “Treats!” he said. “Nothing but sugary goodness to eat all night.”

Bom looked up at him, somewhat pouting.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I can’t eat that.”

“Why?”

“You know why. I’ll get fat.”

T.O.P. was confused. When they had planned this date, they said that they’d each bring their favorite things to eat and watch and not worry about anything. He realized now that she hadn’t answered his question before. “What did you bring to eat?” he asked again.

Her face suddenly lit up. She opened the lid of the picnic basket and held it open for him to see. T.O.P. smiled at her and then peeked inside, but his smile slowly started to fade. “What’s… this?” he asked. All he could see was corn.

“My favorite,” she said.

Now he was the one pouting.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I can’t eat that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s… it’s just corn.”

“Yeah, so…?” Bom placed the picnic basket down on the table and put her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong with corn?”

“It’s… corny,” he said.

“Corny? You’re corny!”

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re an alien… from Planet Corn!”

Bom’s mouth fell open. But then she gathered herself, raised her eyebrows at him, and without saying a word, sat down on the couch and pulled out one of the cobs of corn from the basket. With her eyes still on him, she plucked a kernel of corn from the cob and dropped it into one of the sundae bowls.

“What are you doing?” T.O.P asked, bewildered.

She plucked another kernel, and then another, letting each fall into the bowl.

“Stop that!” he said. “That’s for ice cream!”

She smiled now and continued filling the bowl with corn.

“Yah! Stop!” T.O.P. said, reaching down now to grab the bowl from the table. He stared at the corn in the bowl. “Now I’m going to have to wash this.”

“Or eat it,” she said, smiling. “Corn sundae. It’s a compromise.”

“How is that a compromise? We’re not eating any of my stuff. We’re just eating corn.”

“In a sundae!” she said.

“In a sundae bowl,” he said.

“Corn topping?”

“What?”

She shrugged. “How about we make it a topping?”

“You want to put corn on… ice cream?”

She shrugged again. “Maybe it will be good?”

T.O.P. closed his eyes and shook his head. “Aish, what am I going to do with you?”

“Love me forever,” she said sweetly.

T.O.P. tilted his head and stared at her, unable to hide his smile. “Okay, if you eat some of the sweets, I’ll eat some of the corn. But we’re not mixing them into a sundae.”

“It all gets mixed in your belly anyway,” she said, teasing him.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to taste corn and ice cream together,” he said, as he sat down beside her on the couch. “So, we have a deal?”

She turned to him and shook his hand. “Deal.”

“Good,” T.O.P. said. He leaned over and pecked her cheek.

Bom put a hand to her cheek, still feeling the wetness of his kiss. “What was that for?” she asked.

“Because you’re cute,” he said.

“You’re cute,” she said.

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re an alien… from Planet Cute!”

“Aw, Toppie,” Bom said, leaning toward him now to kiss him properly. She held his face and pulled his mouth close, letting their tongues meet for just a moment before she closed her lips with a light smack against his.

They both smiled as they parted lips, unable to take their eyes off each other.

“So, wanna watch a movie now?” she asked.

T.O.P. got excited again and bounced up and down on the sofa like an overgrown child. “Okay!” he said, quickly and lightly clapping his hands. “I have this all planned out.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, so first we’ll start with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Then, we’ll move from that American classic to another… Child’s Play. And then we’ll end the night back in our country with The Host.” He bit his lip and smiled as he waited for her to respond. “What do you think?” he asked.

Bom tilted her head just a bit and looked blankly aside, as if confused. “What’s Child’s Play?”

“You don’t know that movie? It’s the one with Chucky! You know, the doll that comes to life?”

“Horror movie?”

“Yeah, they’re all horror movies.”

Bom pouted. “I don’t really like those movies. They’re scary.”

“That’s the point! It’ll be fun. We said we’d have fun tonight, right? What’s more fun than getting all scared and screaming together?” He noticed her looking at him quizzically. “What?” he asked.

“How is being scared fun?”

T.O.P. slumped against the couch. “Because,” he said. “It’s just… fun. It’s like going on a rollercoaster. You’re scared, right? But you’re still having fun.”

“Erm…” Bom in her lips. “What about my movies?”

“Did you bring movies about corn?”

“What? There are no movies about corn!”

“Good!” T.O.P. said. “I hope they never make movies about corn so I never have to watch them!”

Bom playfully hit him and then grabbed the picnic basket, setting it down on her lap as she reached inside and pushed aside the corn to the DVDs on the bottom.

T.O.P. grabbed the first case from the stack she pulled out. “What’s… this?” he asked. “My Sassy Girl? Haven’t you seen this a million times already?”

“You said bring my favorites!”

“Fair enough,” he said, tossing it aside. He grabbed the next one. “The Notebook?” Based on the cover, which showed a white couple kissing in the rain, he guessed it was also a romance movie and quickly tossed that aside, too. “Did you bring all girl movies?” he asked.

“They’re not girl movies!”

“Yes they are,” he said.

“Guys watch them, too.”

“Oh yeah? What guys?”

“You!” she said, smiling. “Tonight.”

T.O.P. sighed. “I had this whole plan where you’d get scared and want to hold onto me and I’d protect you and calm you down and… what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because that’s so sweet,” she said.

“So, you’ll watch them?”

“No.”

“What? I thought I just convinced you!”

“Nope.”

“Aish,” he said, with a sigh. But then he thought of something and quickly leapt from the couch and hurried over to the entertainment stand, where he began sorting through his movie collection.

“What are you doing?”

“Aha!” he said, finding the DVD he was looking for. “Okay, you probably don’t know this movie. I think it’s British. Or maybe American. I don’t know. But it’s both horror and romance.”

“What’s it called?”

“Shaun of the Dead.”

“Shaun of the Dead? That doesn’t sound like a romance.”

“Listen, it’s about this guy, and he’s kind of a loser, but he…”

“What about this?” she asked, holding up the last movie in her stack. “This is romance and horror, too.”

T.O.P crawled somewhat across the floor to eye the movie she was holding. “Twilight?”

“Yeah, it’s a love story… with vampires.”

“I know what it’s about.” He wanted to protest but one look at her cute pouty face made him change his mind. He couldn’t say no to her. “Okay, how about a corn sundae compromise?”

“Huh?”

“We’ll watch Twilight and then we’ll watch Shaun of the Dead.”

“No Chucky?”

“No Chucky.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She crawled onto the floor with him and held out her hand for him to shake. “Deal,” she said, her smile lighting up her half-moon eyes again.

He playfully pulled her on top of him and tickled her neck with kisses.

She laughed uncontrollably and tried to push him off. “Ai, that tickles!” she yelled, as she fell onto the floor beside him.

He lay on his side, propping his head up with his hand as she stared at her. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

She tilted her head toward him while trying to straighten out her hair, which she was sure was a mess now from rolling around on the floor. “No I’m not.”

“Yes you are. You’re from Planet Beautiful.”

“Oh? I moved?”

“Moved?”

“First I lived on Planet Corn. Then Planet Cute. Now Planet Beautiful?”

T.O.P. smiled. “You’re a restless alien,” he said.

“And what planet do you live on?”

T.O.P. looked at her intently. “Whatever planet you’re on.” He kissed her softly on the lips. “I’ll follow you across the galaxy.”

“Even to Planet Corn?”

“Even to Planet Corn,” he said.

“Speaking of which…” She let her voice trail off as she stood from the floor and walked over to the table, grabbing the sundae bowl with the kernels of corn in it. “Let’s eat!”

T.O.P. smiled, grabbed the empty bowl next to her, and led her into the kitchen. He scooped out three heaps of vanilla ice cream for him and just one scoop for her, cringing a bit as he dropped her scoop of ice cream atop the corn in the bowl. “You sure you wanna eat that?”

“Sure, why not?”

With their sundaes made, they both plopped down on the sofa. T.O.P. dimmed the nearby light and then reached for the remote and pressed the play button, trying not to sigh at the thought of the next two hours he’d have to spend watching Twilight. At least he had ice cream, he thought, as he spooned some into his mouth. “Ah, so good,” he said.

Bom ate some of her ice cream too. “Mmm!” she said. She then spooned some out to feed T.O.P.

T.O.P. was about to open his mouth and accept the spoonful but paused when he saw the corn kernel mixed in. He breathed in deeply and stared at Bom’s beautiful face, again unable to say no to her. The things we do for love, he thought, as he let her feed him the corn sundae.

“Good, right?” Bom asked.

“Erm…”