Chapter 4

Crazy Sisters

자매

“Oh, it’s you.” Seulgi had opened the house gate the following morning to find her friend Soo-Young standing by the entrance.

“Who else would it be?” Soo-Young said as she walked past Seulgi and headed into their house. She often came to the Kangs’ house uninvited. It was not like Seulgi and Wendy had other close friends who would visit almost every single day. To Soo-Young, there were no such things as “boundaries.” They were neighbors, but she thought of Seulgi’s house as an extension of her own. “Did Wendy Unnie leave for that baking job already?”

“Yeah, she left before I even woke up,” Seulgi said in a rather lifeless tone. She slept at a late hour last night because she kept thinking of what Joohyun said to her at the restaurant.

“Well, that . I wanted to tell her to ‘break a leg’ or something—whatever you say to part-timers. Are you studying again all day today?”

“It’s not like I have anything else to do.” Seulgi followed Soo-Young into the house and slipped off her slippers before stepping onto the floorboards.

“Where’s your super fun dad? It’s unusually quiet here in this house today.”

“Dad’s on a business trip for the weekend. Mom went grocery shopping. She’ll probably back later.”

“Oh, okay. So you’re all alone...”

“Just tell me where you’re going with this conversation,” Seulgi said, getting impatient. She knew Soo-Young had some agenda by the tone of her soft, sultry voice. Seulgi can admit to her dumbness, but she was not that clueless.

Soo-Young pursed her lips before answering and raised a brow. Then, she leaned closer—a distance (or lack thereof) that Seulgi was definitely uncomfortable with—and softly ran her fingers over Seulgi’s arm, giving her goosebumps due to the tingling sensation. Then Soo-Young seductively whispered, “I’m visiting the bakery. Wanna take a break from studying and come with me?”

Seulgi froze for a second, feeling awful chills run down her spine at the sound of Soo-Young’s breathy drawl in her ear. Her flustered face suddenly burned a bright red. But then she broke away from Soo-Young and called out, “Look, Park Soo-Young, I don’t have time for your crazy games—”

“Oh, come on, Unnie!” Soo-Young’s voice turned to a louder, more demanding tone. “You know you want to come! Wendy Unnie is our friend! It’s her first day on the job too! We need to support her, maybe bother her a bit, and at least see if she’s doing well. Your grades can’t possibly be more important than your best friend!”

“Why do you always have to be such a bad influence?” Seulgi whined.

“Don’t you think it’s such a great idea? Surely, she’d be glad to see us too! Who knows? We can even score some great snacks. And just so you know, I texted your mom for permission before coming here, and she already said yes.” Soo-Young held up her phone to Seulgi’s face. She was so close to Seulgi’s family that she knew Seulgi’s parents’ and brother’s phone numbers. She might as well be adopted into this household.

Seulgi suddenly remembered what Wendy just told her last night—Joohyun worked at the bakery too. Now who would be as stupid as to miss a chance of seeing pretty Joohyun Unnie again? Certainly, not her, right?

“Okay, fine,” Seulgi agreed, as if she had no other choice. Miss Temptation was hard to resist, especially when she offered too many great rewards. The bear had always been so easily persuaded, especially by Soo-Young. “Let me get ready first.”

With a loud slap of Seulgi’s hindside, Soo-Young exclaimed, “Atta girl! Make it quick!”

“Ow! You can’t go a day without harrassing me, can you?!”

Earlier, Wendy eagerly got up to begin her first day at the bakery. When they entered the shop, Joohyun immediately briefed her on her schedule. As her first assignment, Wendy helped out Joohyun set up the store. Then Joohyun briefed her on all the names their stock. She had to memorize each type of baked good, their prices, and the places they were all stored. She also showed her the kitchen equipment taught her rules of proper organization.

When the pastry chef shop owner, Chef Taeyeon, came around at around 10 a.m., Rookie Wendy was instructed to bake a fresh batch of chocolate-chip cookies and brownies. The experience was different from baking at home. Here at the bakery, the equipment was at its latest and were made for producing larger quantities of supply. It was all a bit new and a lot to take in, yet she still felt very proud of herself.

10:45. Joohyun, who oversaw the cashier, went into the kitchen to find Wendy and Chef Taeyeon diligently kneading dough for baguettes.

“Um, Wendy, someone came to see you.”

“Huh? Who?” Wendy had flour all over her hands and her apron. She was a little busy at the moment.

“Why don’t you go wash your hands and take a break?” the kind shop owner told her. “You worked hard! I’ll take care of this.”

The moment Wendy stepped out to see who came to see her, she could not believe her eyes. There before the counter stood a little thirteen-year-old girl cheerfully waving at her. Little Miss Pigtails was cute, tiny, and had a smile filled with mischief. The girl could not hold in her giggles at the sight of Wendy, whose eyes had grown about twice their size in horror, as if she had seen a ghost.

“Hi, Wendy Unnie!”

Joohyun glanced at the child standing before the cashier, then back to Wendy. “Is she your little sister?”

“I… don’t have a little sister…”

The kid let out a shriek of laughter and said, “Oh, no, no, no! We’re not related! She’s going to be my English tutor.”

“Oh, so you teach English too? That’s pretty cool. Maybe you can teach me some time,” Joohyun said, looking at Wendy as if she was the most impressive high-school girl ever.

“Yeri?! What are you doing here?” Wendy asked with her eyebrows furrowed, sounding a bit more hostile than she should.

Kim Yerim was the little cousin of Soo-Young, who often referred to her by her nickname “Yeri.” The kid often visited Soo-Young’s house during weekends for family gatherings, leading to a fateful introduction to the friendly next-door unnies one day.

Although younger, cheeky and tenacious Yeri had a playfully fierce personality that overpowered Wendy’s and Seulgi’s calm and behaved temperaments. She was a lot like Soo-Young; she liked to joke around and tease and push people around just because she thought it was fun. Free-spirited as she was, she also enjoyed breaking rules and doing whatever she wanted. Knowing this, Wendy feared Yeri’s shenanigans might end up getting her kicked out of this job on the first day...

“I came with my dad to buy bread as an errand. I heard from Soo-Young Unnie that you were starting a job here so we went to this bakery. He’s waiting outside, so you need to sell me something quickly,” Yeri said.

“How’d you even know where I worked?!”

Suddenly, the glass door swung open and two new customers entered the bakery. Joohyun craned her neck to check who came in. “Welco—”

“Wendy Unnie!” exclaimed the taller girl who just entered waving her long arms to greet the dumbfounded Wendy. It was none other than her friendly neighbor and school hoobae Park Soo-Young. She sped toward the counter in excitement, not even noticing Yeri due to her intense focus on Wendy. If Wendy’s eyes could get any larger, her eyeballs would have already popped out.

“You said you had good friends, but I didn’t know you were this popular,” Joohyun said with a breathy laugh.

Upon realising that Yeri arrived before her, Soo-Young gasped and lightly slapped Yeri’s shoulder. “Yerim, you beat me to it?!”

Joohyun and Wendy just blankly stared at the two, until Wendy snapped to her senses and yelled, “You guys—GOSH, I swear—if the two of you are just here to cause trouble…!”

“No, no, no!” Yeri shook her head, her pigtails swishing in unison. “I told you, I’m here for bread!”

“Oh, come on, I’m here to support you!” Soo-Young retorted with a stomp of her foot.

As the commotion kept going with Wendy eventually introducing Soo-Young and Yeri to Joohyun, Seulgi, who had come in with Soo-Young earlier, quietly stayed at the back—out of sight due to Soo-Young’s towering height. Awkward Seulgi never knew what to do when everyone was all talking at the same time. While Soo-Young was talking about how the three of them knew each other, Joohyun noticed the third girl standing at a distance. The same white baseball cap, casting shadows on a wandering gaze…

“Seulgi?” Joohyun said, cutting off the conversation. Everyone paused. Yeri and Soo-Young turned around, and Wendy craned her neck to the side to see past Soo-Young.

“Hello,” Seulgi coyly greeted Joohyun back and glanced at Wendy with a grin.

“Oh, I didn’t see you there,” Yeri giggled. She went ahead and gave Seulgi a big hug, to which Seulgi could not help but grimace. She was never the touchy-feely type of person.

“Seulgi Unnie, stop being a boring killjoy.” Soo-Young grabbed Seulgi’s arm and pulled her closer to join the little crowd.

Joohyun did not expect to see her here. But what is this? Joohyun looked at the group and asked Seulgi, “You know each other?”

“Yeah, I live with her family. It’s part of the exchange program thing,” Wendy explained. “She’s basically like my twin sister. I guess you’ve met her already.”

“Seulgi Unnie and Wendy Unnies are the same age and even have the same birth month, but they are actually very different!” Soo-Young told Joohyun with another round of cackles. “The other one’s a genius, while the other one isn’t!”

Seulgi’s entire being burned red with embarrassment due to Soo-Young’s deriding remark. The bear then lightly grabbed Soo-Young by the collar with her wimpy hands. “Why you... Park Soo-Young!”

“Yeah, I met Seulgi coincidentally a few times. I didn’t know you know each other. This is really interesting,” Joohyun said with a motherly smile. Seulgi immediately calmed down and let Soo-Young go at the sound of her soothing voice.

“Uh, I think we should buy something already. I mean, we’re kinda blocking the cashier here,” Seulgi told them, just to end the conversation here. Although she was used to the never-ending jeers by the same rascals she had called friends, it was just so embarrassing in front of Joohyun. They can embarrass her any time they want, but please, not in front of Joohyun Unnie.

Yeri bought some bread and left because her dad was still waiting outside. Soo-Young and Seulgi, however, stayed to eat some chocolate croissants and chat with Wendy. Wendy felt proud as she watched her friends eat their fill. Although this bunch of weirdoes drove her insane, she was filled with gratitude for their support of her first job. They may be a crazy group of friends, but she would not trade them for the world.

“So that was the pretty unnie Seulgi Unnie kept raving about the other day,” Soo-Young mumbled, subtly glancing at Joohyun as the three of them sat together at the small dining area near the glass windows. “Anyway, congratulations, Wendy Unnie, on getting the baking job! Obviously, you’d get hired, I mean, duh, who wouldn’t hire you, am I right?”

“No need for such flattery.” Wendy smugly raised a brow with a crooked smirk.

“So, about that discount…,” Soo-Young started again, trying to annoy Wendy.

“I told you, no discounts! Besides, it’s my first day!”

“I was kidding,” Soo-Young said with a laugh, leaning toward Seulgi, who was sitting beside her. “Gosh Wendy Unnie, you’re no fun sometimes… Right, Seulgi Unnie?”

Seulgi, who was low-key spying on Joohyun with her little eye, just nodded and continued eating. She noticed how Joohyun politely accepted a card from a customer and swiped it on the cashier.

 How could someone handle cashier duty with such grace? The money is so lucky… All her customers are so lucky to be greeted by such an angelic face… The bear’s brain drifted off again.

“So anyway, Yeri is coming over to your house on Tuesday,” Soo-Young said, changing the topic.

Wendy’s smirk disappeared.

Seulgi, on the other hand, noticed that Joohyun’s eyes suddenly darted in her direction. Joohyun seemed to have noticed that Seulgi was staring at her. The “angel at the cashier” giggled, making Seulgi’s heart skip a beat and her entire face turn red once again. The shy bear immediately looked away and pretended like she cared about her two friends’ conversation.

“Oh, so you finally agreed to teaching her English?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s going to be a very interesting Tuesday evening,” Soo-Young said with a devious smirk.

“Yeah right, very interesting.” Wendy could not hide her sarcasm. “Tell your aunt I’ll try my best.”

“Too bad I have to go to math hakwon until 9 that day,” Soo-Young groaned. “I can’t see Teacher Son in action on her first day.”

“That’s good, because nobody invited you to watch,” Wendy muttered in annoyance.

Soo-Young affectionately leaned her head against Seulgi’s shoulder, who had been quietly munching on her food beside her. “Seulgi Unnie will just have to tell me all about it then. Besides, Yeri’s my baby cousin. I need to make sure, she gets quality education,” Soo-Young said with a whimsical, high-pitched laugh. “It’s okay, Wendy Unnie. If Yeri does something dumb, you can call on me, and I’ll fight her myself.”

When it was time to go, Seulgi and Soo-Young bid Joohyun and Wendy goodbye. As Soo-Young dragged Seulgi out, every fiber of her being wanted to stay. She came all the way here to see not just Wendy, but Joohyun too. Unfortunately, all she did was steal a few glances and said nothing but “hello” and “goodbye” to her. It didn’t matter though. She would rather not talk to Joohyun while her crazy friends were around. All they ever do was embarrass her anyway.

Wendy bid them all farewell and got ready to go back into the kitchen. She spent around 30 minutes with them. That was enough of a break.

“You guys are so cute—like a family of sisters,” Joohyun said, as Wendy passed behind the counter to enter the kitchen.

“Us? Oh, well, I guess,” Wendy said, turning shy again. “They all drive me crazy to be honest. Don’t get me wrong; I love them with all my heart, but just between you and me, they’re all nuts.”

That Tuesday evening, Yeri came over as planned. Her wide-eyed glances shot from one direction to another the moment she had hopped off her father’s black sedan.

Ding-dong! rang the doorbell. It was 7 o’clock. It could not have been anyone else. Wendy took deep breaths. You can do this, Wendy! You’ll be a great tutor! I hope…

The moment Wendy opened the gate, she was greeted by a big warm welcome.

“Wendy Unnie!” Yeri exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Wendy’s waist ever so tightly. Nothing could have felt more constricting for Wendy at the moment.

“Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” Wendy said with a fake smile that Yeri could easily read though. Though she may be at the young age of thirteen, she was very clever. Cleverness, however, was not necessary to see through the oh-so-transparent Wendy.

“Ha, we’re doomed, aren’t we?” Yeri chuckled some more, feeling slightly embarrassed and a little worried about the situation. “I can’t believe my mom. She has the worst ideas sometimes.”

Yeri also felt the same way about receiving English lessons from Wendy: she thought it was a ridiculous idea. Yeri had always been a fast-learning child, especially when it came to learning languages. Not only was she the top of her class in creative writing and poetry, she has studied Japanese and English as a hobby since she was ten. Though it may sound arrogant, she always thought that a clever child like her did not need to be tutored. Besides, when she finally moves to Britain, she can naturally learn conversational British English there. Why hire a Canadian high-school girl to teach her stuff?

Truth be told, Wendy honestly wanted Yeri to like her. Every time Yeri came over, Wendy often coddled her and spoiled her with all the food she wanted to eat. Wendy had always wanted to have a younger sister, so she treated Yeri like one.

However, when it came to working together and cooperating, everything would just go downhill. Whenever they played a game together with Soo-Young and Seulgi, she always unluckily got paired with Yeri leading to teamwork disaster. Thus, they were both the biggest losers in games. Wendy and Yeri were actually close—close enough that their incessant miffs defined a big percentage of their relationship. Apparently, Yeri had the power to bring out Wendy’s immature little devil from its sleep. Isn’t that what real sisters are like? Maybe Wendy did get what she wished for.

“Just get in.”

“Yeah, so, we don’t really have to do this,” Yeri said as she walked straight to the Kang household’s refrigerator and opened the door. “When my mom asks, just pretend like we did something and move on. Where’s the cake?”

“Hold on, so you’re saying we deceive your mom, and just play around when you’re here?” Since Wendy had always quietly lived by the rules, she hated the idea. “Why am I not even surprised by this evil plan?”

“I mean, you don’t want to do it, and I don’t want to do it, so why not?” Yeri said, casually taking out the left-over cheesecake from the refrigerator without anyone’s permission. Then she called out, “Seulgi Unnie! Where are you? Show your face!”

Wendy stopped and considered Yeri’s proposal for a while and then violently shook her head. Lie to Yeri’s mom?! How could I even consider such an idea?! “Kim Yerim, you conniving little brat! No way—not even in Park Soo-Young’s grave—am I letting you off the hook.”

Yeri turned to face Wendy with a swish of her dangling pigtails. She looked so adorable and innocent with those sparkling brown eyes. Specks of crumbs trailed on her puckered little lips after having a mouthful of cheesecake. As cute as she was, Wendy will not let her run loose on her boisterous whims.

“I don’t want to do this either, but your mom trusts me, and you need to study so I will do my best to teach you and…,” Wendy chided on—speed-talking once again. The kid could get into trouble for her disobedience, and getting dragged into others’ messes was the last thing Wendy wanted.

Suddenly a squeaky whine was heard from the hallway. “No! My cheesecake! That’s mine! I was saving that!”

“Oh, hi Seulgi Unnie,” Yeri laughed. “Sorry, but you live with Wendy Unnie anyway. You probably eat this stuff every day. I don’t know how you never gain any weight…”

Seulgi, who had just entered the scene, just got her heart broken by a simple cheesecake. Without bothering to fight, Seulgi the harmless bear just frowned at the loss of her precious cheesecake and let Yeri eat the rest of it.

“Receiving a moral lecture from her already?” Seulgi asked Yeri. She then sat on the dining table that separated the small kitchen area from the living room and asked Yeri for a bite of cheesecake. “Didn’t you just arrive?”

“Yeah, I just arrived. Save me, before she starts talking like our church pastor again,” Yeri said, cowering over to hide behind the powerless bear.

“Well then, young lass, you better know the discourse is highly important—relevant, critical, valuable—when I start talking like a wise old man!” Wendy proclaimed in a rather old-fashioned tone of speaking.

Seulgi looked down on Yeri and gave her an apprehensive smile. She then mumbled in a low voice, “Just listen to her. She is older than you. And she’s your tutor.”

“Okay fine,” Yeri said, succumbing to the unnies’ demands.

Seulgi then left the bickering sisters at the dining table and went back to her room. She needed to work on her assignments, but nowadays, her focus often averted to other things.

Today, Wendy was the subject of her thoughts. Usually, Seulgi and her class genius roommate Wendy did their homework together. Unfortunately nowadays, Wendy was more preoccupied with other things.

Upon taking the seat by her desk, a small shot of downcast feelings and envy dispersed in Seulgi’s veins.

So now that Wendy has to teach Yeri, does that mean she won’t have time to help me with homework? And on weekends, she’s busy working at the bakery, so she probably won’t have time for me during the weekends either… Also, does that mean Wendy gets to work with Joohyun Unnie every weekend? Ah, so lucky… I met Joohyun Unnie first though…

Then her thoughts naturally transitioned to thoughts of Joohyun.

Joohyun Unnie is really nice. I want to see her every weekend too… I wish Joohyun Unnie can help me again, but… I can’t bother her again though. She’s a university student and is probably busier than me. She’s done so much for me, and I barely know her. I don’t even know if she thinks of me as much as I think of her. She probably doesn’t, doesn’t she? I mean, exactly why would she? I’m not that special. There could probably be more special people in her life besides some teenager she met at some bus stop, Seulgi thought to herself.

Ten minutes had passed. “Sluggie” kept flipping through the same few passages without completing any of her assignment questions at all. While Seulgi was inattentively browsing through her textbook, the door suddenly burst open and was slammed with a bang.

“Ugh, Wendy Unnie is so annoying…”

Seulgi looked up from her desk and saw Yeri whom had just entered the room. “Yeri?”

“Hey Kim Yerim!” A shout was followed by another swing of the bedroom door. In came Teacher Son, who has had enough of Yeri’s stubbornness. “So is this how you’ll play? You’re just going to avoid me?”

“You’re not going to make me do essays now, are you? I got plenty of school work. I don’t need any of that nonsense,” Yeri argued.

The innocent bear glanced from one to the other, not sure what to make of this situation. “Wh-what is going on?”

“She. Is. Cra-zy,” Yeri told Seulgi in English as she pointed at Wendy. Seulgi barely understood English though.

“Look at Seulgi! Though she’s not the best at it, she’s always studying! You should do the same! Just because you read Harry Potter novels in English, doesn’t mean you can get cocky!”

“Seulgi Unnie doesn’t even get decent grades no matter how hard she tries,” Yeri sneered. “Get a better moral example, will you.”

“At least she is always working hard!” Wendy argued back.

Seulgi stood helplessly in the middle of the two bickering girls and tried to stop them, but she was ignored. Finally, the bear roared as loud as she could muster, “Both of you, stop! I’m trying to study okay!”

Instead of stopping, the bickering sisters went on. It always frustrated Seulgi that when she was angry and serious, nobody took her seriously. Maybe she needed to work on her “angry face” or something…

“Get out of my room!” Seulgi yelled. The annoyed and frustrated bear had to grab Yeri and push her out along with Wendy. Finally, she pushed the lock on the door and went back to her seat. How am I supposed to study with them going on like that? Do they want me to fail high school?! They drive me crazy!

덜덜덜..ㅋㅋ

Totally Unimportant Author's Note: 

Ugh, I hate it when someone eats my leftover cheesecake. But if it was Yeri, I'd probably let her eat it too lol

Today is a snow day. No classes due to snow!! So I have time to write today. I can't believe snow actually came to Daegu. It barely snows here, but suddenly it did, and caused chaos everywhere. Just saying, incase you want to know current events on Irene's hometown lol