Her mother chided, “I’d consider my duty as a mother done, nothing I could ask for more if she got married—”

“Mom!”

Ji Hyo quickly finished cutting the fruits and brought them into the living room, but not before Da Hae grabbed one in each hand.

“When are you getting married?”

Ah, how had this even come here.

“Auntie! We’re—” We’re not even really dating— “not even engaged or—”

Nonetheless her aunt had snatched that line up and ran as fast her tongue would roll, “What do you think about kids, Jong Kook-ssi?”

Jong Kook looked perfectly at ease, only the way he sought her hand under the table afterwards with a kind of desperation that made her heart beat, gave any tell to his nervousness.

If her mother and her aunt hung onto the silence before his next words any harder, then Ji Hyo was sure that she might have well physically seen their ears elongate until they resembled a donkey's sooner or later. It was an amusing thought, but to be honest, she was curious what Jong Kook would say.

He was at a loss. His words were not expected to be the aboe truth, but it would be impolite to not give them, these two matriarchs, a thoughtful, but not too serious of an answer. Jong Kook had wondered about the answer to this many times, for one thing. Espeically now he and his friends were past the age for one night stands and hook ups. Hell, ever since Tae Hyun had gotten married to the surprise of all of their friends who had joked Tae Hyun would wander the night streets of Anyang and Hongdae like a drunk wizard who doled out cryptic advice, with no attachments to this world.

He was rambling again, woops.

Jong Kook said, “I love kids, of course. Although we haven’t discussed that into our future..” He cast a meaning glance at Ji Hyo, wondering if it was alright to continue. She looked torn for a moment, eyes shaking slightly but still intent, but the graze of her fingers on his as a confirmation. “It would really depend on the person I'd like to marry, wouldn’t you say?”

There it was, the kind of hesitation which the ladies took as shyness that made for a good, honest enough answer. But really Jong Kook was unsure if he had even done the right thing.

Before she had left, her aunt had given a firm clasp on her shoulder and nodded solemnly.

It was a blessing once the quiet reigned in once more, allowing both Jong Kook and Ji Hyo to recover from that ordeal.

Ji Hyo was blissfully idle.

She loved the holidays, just chilling at home with food served at regular intervals. Even if she was a decent cook, Ji Hyo could never quite exactly recreate the taste of her mother's home cooking. Not to mention it was a nice break from having to prepare her own food and put everything away and keep track of everything that was in the fridge.... All she had to do were the dishes, and there was food three times a day. Even if Mother Song was fearsome in raising her children so they all pulled their own weight and did not rely on others to do their bidding, she was also adamant that none of her children ever went hungry. This and the comfortable warmth of her old family sofa and her blankets, were a nice break from the usual.

The difference was Jong Kook was also here at her home, a strange addition to her routine at home.

Upon observation, Jong Kook was a bit of a workaholic. Well, workaholic was a strong word, but he had brought some papers to look over from his department. Which he did for about an hour, and not once did Ji Hyo catch him looking at his phone when she glanced up. His phone rang, and he looked at it for a moment, shut it off, and then stretched, rolling his shoulder one way and then twisting to one side and back, until he heard a satisfying pop. 

Ji Hyo had been reading her book, sporadically only, since she wanted to catch Jong Kook doing.. Whatever she expected him to be doing. “Jong Kook, I feel like you’re… very disciplined.”

“What makes you say that?” Jong Kook had his glasses on, his eyes going wide behind the lenses.

“Not a lot of people bring their work with them on holiday you know? Don’t you want to relax? Do you really like working that much?” She really liked her current job as is, getting to work with different people, making people’s projects and dreams come true, and the thrill, shock, suspense that came with watching whatever their new product was thrown out into the market but Jong Kook was clearly on another level in terms of job satisfaction.

“It’s not like I working, I don’t think anybody does—”

“Hear, hear—” Ji Hyo fistpumped.

Jong Kook chuckled but continued, “But I guess what I like is a chance to find myself in the work, wouldn’t you say? Work hard, and when the work is done, play hard. And I just finished working, so that just leaves playing hard.” Ah, the way he said the last words with a certain playful relish, eyes gleaming sent a shiver up her spine for some reason. Jong Kook seemed none the wiser of this effect on her.

Ji Hyo decided to brush it off as nothing. “I’ve never seen you play harder than like… a shot of soju at night and even then, that’s rare. Well, I think my motto then is work hard, party harder.” She grinned. Jong Kook really needed to get out more.

“Is that a challenge?”

That’s how they ended up playing a racing game on her old gaming system at the living room television. She remembered playing with her brother years ago, and thankfully Jong Kook had never played so she was basically lapping him. At least that’s how they started.

Because by gods, Jong Kook was nothing if not competitive, and Ji Hyo was not one to roll over either. She had a competitive streak a mile long when it came to the right people and challenges and Jong Kook had brought that out, insisting she doesn’t go easy on him. For his effort, he caught up pretty fast to the controls despite saying he hadn’t touched a video game controller in his life (he was more of a sports and mobile phone kind of man).

“Loser grant the winner a wish.”

“Come on, Ji Hyo that's not fair. I literally just started playing today,” Jong Kook said, and he wasn't whining because Kim Jong Kook did not whine. Instead he bit his tongue as he curved his whole body in the same direction his in-game kart was turning into.

“It's not my fault you lived under a rock for the past ten years of your life.”

“Hey, I just wasn't that big on gaming…”

And then Ji Hyo had to take pity on Jong Kook, slowly moving up in the ranks but still stuck at 5th place overall. “Fine, if you can even manage to beat me once, Kim Jong Kook, I’ll call it even.”

“Oh, you’re on.”

Through a string of very lucky events and items (involving a blue shell and an impeccably timed lightning bolt and Starman combo) Jong Kook slid past Ji Hyo into second place at the last possible. From his shouts, Ji Hyo would have thought he had won a state championship or something. He was infuriating, bursting into a mini celebratory dance before quickly catching himself as her mother chuckled at the scene. Served him right.

Jong Kook could be absolutely infuriating. Despite having beaten him all the times before, Jong Kook made it seem this was the only thing that mattered.

“Aw, Ji Hyo, don’t be mad..” Jong Kook pressed into her side. Despite that, there was that tell tale smirk just at the corner of his mouth.

“Are you always like this?”

He watched as Ji Hyo pressed the buttons, going through the menus to start a new game. “I haven’t played a game like this before, so I guess that’s how I am,” he said cheekily. “I just like riling you up, that’s all.”

“Mhmm right. You rile me up one more time and that’ll be the death of you I swear.”

“Ji Hyo….” He tried but failed to hold back a snicker. She looked so cute when she was pouting! Although in the back of his mind, he wo