(tysm for the feedbacks!)

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I WOKE UP to the chirping of the birds nearby, and the first thing I did was to instinctively check the time.

My wristwatch tells me it’s already half past six, and seeing everything bathed in the morning calm, I suppose I overslept and completely lost the thought of time in the comforts of my dreams and snores. My plan was to only rest for a couple hours and hit the roads back at four, but I had no alarm clock to wake me up, and it’s hard waking up without such nuisance.

Chaewon was still in deep slumber on the shotgun seat though, head leaning against the glass panel with her knees raised, tugging on the sleeves of her pullover. It was kind of a rough pose for sleeping personally, and the fact that she managed to doze off with it speaks how tired she must have been just watching me drive for almost a day.

I decided not to wake the sleeping princess, so instead, I refilled the fuel tank first then made sure if the engine and tires have no problems for another long trip; by that I meant opening the bonnet and only staring at the oil-vapoured machines for a second or two before shutting it close again. Truthfully, I did not know how to check if a car’s fine or is about to explode—Father taught me how to and I tried hard to listen. I guess trying isn’t enough.

After making sure everything’s good to go, I started engine and hit the roads once more.

“Morning, looks like we’re still in the countryside.” Chaewon wakes up a couple miles afterwards, rubbing her eyes while extending her other arm that it blocked a portion of my driving view.

“Hey watch it.” I caught her fist mid-air, immediately letting go as she yanks it back. “You’re going to get us killed again.”

She snorts as a response, once again pulling the end-sleeves of her pullover to cover her hands. In my peripheral vision, I could see her warming the insides of her clenched fists. “You just wouldn’t let it go.” 

“I definitely won’t let go of an incident where I nearly died.”

“That was one time, Minjoo. One time.” She replies, then extending an arm once again as she covers her yawn with the free hand.

I was about to reply when—finally—the hunger that I felt the night before strikes once again.

It was expected; we’ve been travelling for more than 24 hours and I’ve never had a decent meal other than that one ramen bowl I took yesterday and the snacks I packed in my luggage. On the other hand, Chaewon had absolutely nothing in possession other than some clothes and a bunch of fuel bottles she flexes too often about—not the very ideal things to bring for a runaway kid, but it’s Chaewon, who knows what’s going on in her mind.

Cold sunlight greets the asphalt of the empty road as we—the sole vehicle around—passed through, its rays peeking from leaves of trees and occasionally glowers at us if we pass through grasslands. There’s a minimal number of traditional houses by the fields and a few farmers doing their farming works.

I took a left turn when we encountered a split road and that seemed to bother Chaewon a bit.

“Where the hell are you going?” She utters, eyes going back and forth from the map to the road ahead.

I kept my eyes focused. “Trying to find a place for breakfast.”

She watches me drive as I took another turn, hoping to find at least a small traditional shop to stop by; to no avail, there were only acres and acres of grasslands that it’s sort of a relief to see how agriculturally-inclined this place still is, no matter the industrialised skyscrapers the cities are known for.

Chaewon didn’t speak all throughout the morning ride, her mind seemingly adrift to heaven knows where.

“Could you hand me the map?” I then told her, stopping over the side of the still empty road. A bus stop stands ahead as Chaewon hands it to me seconds later.

“You won’t find any shops there, there’re only express lanes and tollways.” She then moves closer to me, elbow bumping over the gear lever in the process. I almost panicked when she did that; if it weren’t for the engine being dead then we could’ve had our second almost-death situation while crashing straight towards the bus stop.

Good thing, our asses were saved.

“Look. The expressways are here,” Chaewon points an index finger on the map, right where the highways supposedly are. Said map looked like it will be ripped off at any minute now, even with us handling it with utmost caution.

“So, we must be around…” the side of her arm bumps into mine as she estimates our location on the map, fingertip tracing the fragile paper, “…here. I guess, hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Gwangju.”

I peeped at her, eyebrows slowly furrowing. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve kept track.” She shrugs, view still glued on the map. “Besides, this place looks really familiar to me. I can’t remember but I’m certain I’ve been here before.”

I watched her as she taps her fingertips on the map, noting how her eyes blink and her eyebrows furrowing in deep concentration. I’ve always observed the facial expressions of people, what they display so vulnerable on their faces whenever they’re talking, eating, sleeping, walking—it’s how I choose my response whenever they engage in a conversation with me. That’s why it was easy to for me to say that Father was lying when he told me about his sleep-talking, although it was a really obvious lie, the expression just solidified my assumptions.

And so, even if I wasn’t the talkative type, I have always claimed that I am good at people and their facial expressions. Though right at this moment, I’ve found out that that skill isn’t always applicable for all people I had and will meet.

Instead, I’ve noticed how the side of Chaewon’s orbs looked pretty when showered with morning sunlight, as if it were deep pools of sweet honey; eyelashes curled in just the right curve.

I think Chaewon’s beautiful—like objectively beautiful in the sense of when I’ll introduce her to some random stranger and still, they would certainly think the same as me right now.

“Why are you staring?” She suddenly asks after a stretched stillness. Instinctively, I tilted my head to what was in front of us, almost too immediate to appear as calm.

She then gives me a waggish smile, but said nothing other than the fact that she looked lightened up. I assume she remembered something then.

“I wasn’t.” I was, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to say that without any reason.

“You were.”

I tried to shrug it off in the most casual way I could, but rather ended up sheepishly. “Yes, ‘cause you had little dirt on your face, under your nose.” That was a lame excuse. All throughout this trip, I learnt that Chaewon likes—or is obsessed, who knows—seeing her reflection every time, noticing as to how she’d open the window to adjust the side mirror once in every while. I was even concerned that the mirror will just fall out of a sudden due to her constant adjustments.

A look of mischief was her counterattack, like she knows I am lying.

“There really is,” I extended my hand towards her as soon as I said that, thumb rubbing where the imaginary dirt is supposed to be, “right here.”

I pretended in removing the made-up dirt for a couple seconds more, cupping a portion of her cheek at once. Her upper lip twitches when my thumb got dangerously close, though the movement was at its subtlest that if I wasn’t entirely the focusing type then I would’ve missed it. Chaewon stays mum on the shotgun, probably staring at me dubiously or something. I can’t really pin point that out. Oddly enough, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable that I’m under her stare and am kinda caressing her cheek.

I backed off afterwards and heaved a quiet sigh. “Done.”

“Thanks. Though you could’ve just said that you were crushing on me earlier.” She mimics my action, resting an arm on the headrest as she faces me. “But you just had to lie.”

“There really was-”

“Anyway,” she cuts off mid-sentence, “I remembered that there’s this fancy restaurant straight ahead. They serve good grubs so we may as well take a look.”

“How’d you know it’s still there?”

She raises her shoulders only to drop it again. “Instinct. Besides, it’s the nearest food shop around.”

I was used to just follow what Chaewon says without much opposition. And so, we proceeded.

- 

Turns out, what she meant by fancy was a foreign diner serving foreign dishes while amidst of a very traditional town.

It didn’t really seem as a restaurant to me, but rather as one of those countryside lodgings that a protagonist stays for a night or two in western indie films. I think inn is a much more appropriate term for it—it has all its qualifications anyway. The place offered rooms for night-stays, breakfasts after the waking up and this huge- parking lot that is quite convenient since I always end up occupying two spaces when parking all at once.

The cuisine was obviously European, mainly so English. Even the structure and design of the building looked like it came straight out of a classic English town. Everything was tainted with russet; the wooden walls, the cosy radiance of the lights, the carpeted floors—now I don’t know much about contemporary arts and the likes, but if the current spectrum of it extends from being an actual medieval-like architecture to a ty, metamodern revitalisation of being medieval, then this place is somewhere in between the extremities.

The food seemed really savvy though, as I watch a group of foreigners beside our table devour the servings. Weirdly enough, there weren’t a lot of people around; I even expected this place to be flooded with foreigners but the majority are Asians.

Chaewon sits across me, elbow pressed against the table as she places her chin on her palm, seemingly bored more than anything. “I wish I brought my phone. At least I could see what’s happening with the world.”

“Cool. But phones are bad for the eyes.”

“And so is your Nintendo.” Answered the former, chin still being supported by her palm. She borrows my switch more often than I do during this trip-thing, and in one day she had managed to surpass my standings in Mario Kart while messing my creations in Minecraft.

Our orders came soon after.

It was the typical fry up, full English that I’ve heard are fairly known overseas, and I can de