Einundvierzig

“Umma, Umma! Wake up~”

Startling awake as a heavy weight pounced onto me, I groaned slightly and opened my eyes. Gikwan was sitting on top of me, his curly hair flopped over his bright eyes and his lips spread wide into a large, mischievous grin. Squinting my eyes at the naughty kid who woke me up, I pounced back at him and wrapped him into a giant teddy bear hug, causing him to let out an excited shriek.

“Yah! Kim Gikwan!” I began attacking his sides with tickles, “Is this how you wake you mother up, huh?”

“But Appa told me to!” Gikwan defended himself through breathless giggles, “he said otherwise you’re going to be late on your first day at work.”

Blinking slightly, I stopped tickling Gikwan and stared at him. “Jongin’s still at home? Hasn’t he gone to work yet?”

“Not yet.” Gikwan took this chance to escape from my tickles and jumped off me, “he said it’s because today’s your first day at work so he’ll drive you there.”

A slight blush appeared on my face as suddenly, shyness crept under my skin. Unfortunately though, Gikwan caught onto the reddening of my cheeks and he let out a loud squeal.

“Appa!” Gikwan began hollering as he ran out of the room and downstairs, clumsy footsteps clambering down the steps, “Umma’s blushing! Her face is as red as a tomato!”

“Yah, Kim Gikwan!” I shrieked, my face only growing redder as I quickly followed Gikwan downstairs, fanning my face along the way to cool it down. Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, the smell of sausages sizzling immediately hit my nose, causing me to pause in my steps in surprise. But what surprised me the most, was the sight before me.

Jongin was standing by the kitchen stove, an apron over his expensive suit and his eyes trained on the sausages sizzling in the pan, its aromatic scent filling the entire space. His back was facing me, and as I tentatively made my way over to him, I noticed plates of pancakes, scrambled eggs and French toast already sitting on the table top – all of them my favourites.

And for some reason, my heart began flickering in weird rhythms against my chest.

“Oh, Nari. Good morning,” I jumped a little on the spot and glanced over at Jongin who spoke. Nodding his head slightly at me, Jongin acted cool as he directed one hand towards the table, “take a seat, the sausages will be ready soon-”

“-How soon is soon?” Gikwan whined at the side, jumping impatiently up and down on the spot. Looking at Gikwan, I couldn’t help but let out a smirk. His eyes was shining as he stared intently at the sausages, seemingly to have completely forgotten about tell-telling how I was blushing to Jongin.

“Be patient, they’ll be ready soon.” Jongin shushed Gikwan before turning to me, “Nari, have a seat.”

“U-uh...thank you?” Awkwardly clearing my throat, I then sat gingerly down at the table. As I looked at the plates and plates of my favourite food placed neatly before me, I found the flutters in my heart quickening rapidly. In a panic, I blurted out the most obvious questions in a rushed attempt to stop the flutters.

“D-Did you make all these?”

The moment the question left my lips, I wanted to swallow it back in. Of course he made them, what kind of stupid question was this? Yet Jongin didn’t seem too fazed by my dumb question, in fact, he even seemed eager to answer it.

“Well, of course,” Jongin straightened his back and cleared his throat, “I made them especially for you. Didn’t you say that you liked western food-“

“Appa’s lying.” Gikwan the tell-tale piped in, interrupting Jongin’s proud sentence, “he woke me up really early this morning to go buy them from this western restaurant. He only just put the food in the pan so he can show off.”

“Yah!” Now it was Jongin’s turn to turn red as he quickly turned over to Gikwan and shot him a glare. But Gikwan only shrugged his shoulders cheekily at Jongin before poking his tongue out.

“What? I’m telling the truth.”

“Yeah, but you’re not supposed to say that in front of your mother! What did I tell you in the car-“

Cutting himself off his agitated sentence, Jongin seemed to have realised that I was actually sitting right there the whole time, and his face turned a bright shade of red.  

Then, I burst out laughing.

At first, Jongin looked extremely embarrassed. But as I continued laughing on, the expression on his face changed, and he too, began laughing.

Soon, everyone was laughing – including Gikwan, though the boy looked confused as to what he was laughing about.

As the sound of our laughter rang throughout what once was an empty and silent house, happiness filtered my heart. Perhaps there was hope. Perhaps, if we continue going down this path, then there will be a happy ending.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

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