“Mark won’t text me back.” Cora pouted, moving into the kitchen with MinHee, who was fixing dinner. It had been a long, long weekend, and she had work the next morning. Cora had caught up on the episodes of the variety show to the third episode. Needless to say, she was jealous. “I know he’s rehearsing, but I need to tell him something.”

MinHee turned to her, smiling. “What? You want to ask him to guess your height? Do you want to ask him what your nickname is, and why he calls you that?”

Cora frowned. “That’s so not what I wanted to talk to him about.”

“Right. You wanted to tell him you’re glad Suzy didn’t think much of him, right?” MinHee laughed.

“You know what?” Cora smacked the bowl of ramen MinHee was making into the sink. “Screw you and your insinuations.” MinHee continued to laugh, and Cora fought a smile. “Besides, I was seething when it came down to her final pick and it was between Mark and Bambam. I know we weren’t exactly dating at the time, but-”

MinHee was now holding the counter to keep her from falling as she continued to laugh. “You are so jealous right now, it’s almost comical.”

“Clearly it is comical, since your laughing so hard. There is no almost.” Cora pulled the now chipped glass bowl out of the sink and placed it on the counter. “Hurry up and go to the bathroom before you pee your pants.” MinHee told her she was fine, though she continued to laugh, and moved to finish her ramen. “So hey, I noticed you and Jackson went for a walk last night, during the fireworks. Everything okay?”

MinHee stopped moving and her eyes widened. She turned to Cora. “Why? Did it seem like something was wrong?”

“Not necessarily, but he came back without you, and then you showed up five minutes later with Jinwoo. And when Mark asked Jackson what he thought of the fireworks, Jackson said he missed them.” Cora pulled herself onto the counter and crossed her legs. “Did something happen?”

MinHee shook her head, watching as Ginger leapt onto the counter and made herself at home in Cora’s legs. “Nothing happened. We were just walking and talking. I saw the fireworks. I don’t know how he could miss them.”

Cora nodded. “Okay. As long as he didn’t, like, defile you or something.”

MinHee, who was lifting a spoon to to taste the broth for the ramen, choked and threw the spoon down. After a few minutes of deep coughing and waving her hands like a seal, she collected herself. “I’m fine, he didn’t do anything to me.”

Cora nodded. “I mean, that’s good right? Since your dating Jinwoo?” MinHee nodded and poured the ramen into the chipped bowl and reached for a fork. “Anyways, I think Jia might really like Jackson. It’d be cute if they ended up together.”

MinHee’s fingers curled around the bowl harder than she thought. It was thin as it was, and there was now a fissure through the middle, due to Cora’s faux rampage. The bowl smashed in MinHee’s grips. Cora screamed and leapt off the counter, leaving Ginger to hiss and claw her way up Cora, who screamed more due to the scratching the cat was doing.

When Cora finally threw Ginger to the side, she ran to MinHee’s side. MinHee stood in the same spot, wide eyed and bleeding. “Jesus Minnie!” Cora hissed, grabbing her friends arm and pulling her towards the bathroom. “What the hell happened?” She asked, and MinHee shook her head. Cora directed her to sit on the toilet while she gathered her medical supplies.

“Don’t do anything! I mean it, don’t even sign to me.” Cora demanded, sitting in front of her on the floor with a pair of tweezers in one hand and a metal bowl in the other. “Looks like we’re going to have to go back to children’s diningware.” She sighed and took MinHee’s right hand. “You need to be more careful. I’ll call work and tell them there was an accident. They’ll never let you work in the kitchen with that many cuts.”

MinHee shook her head and moved to sign. “Don’t!” Cora demanded, so MinHee sat still. Cora went to work pulling the glass from MinHee’s cuts. MinHee sat quietly and let Cora clean her cuts, silently thinking about what she had said. Jia might really like Jackson. “All done.” Cora said as she wound gauze wrap. She stood and grabbed the bowl that held all the glass shards. “Please stop going hulk. I don’t think I can single order a bowl from that collection.”

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