A Good Doctor

The Grocery Store
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It has been almost 3 weeks since Chaeyeon went back to Korea but Sakura's life has never gone back to "normal". Because of the creation of the IG account and Facebook Page, which are in both the Korean and Japanese, the Miyawaki Grocery Store starts to attract more visitors from South Korea, as well as other parts of Japan. Even Sakura's ex-colleagues in Tokyo are planning a marathon visit and they nearly block booked the Airbnb room for one month. The description of "Old Japanese Grocery Store 2/F near Shorinji Park with free parking" on Airbnb is now changed to "2/F@Miyawaki Grocery Store in Tokugawa Machiya". Even though Sakura has raised the rent, it has become more competitive to book the room. Sakura has to turn down a few bookings in exchange for some rest days.

For this reason, Sakura is inspired to learn Korean in a proper way, although the real trigger point was Chaemin – Chaeyeon's baby sister. One night when they were doing v-call, someone knocked on Chaeyeon's door. Chaeyeon went to open the door and an XS size Chaeyeon peeked into the room.

The two sisters look exactly the same!

"Chaemin, go and say hello to Sakura eonnie."

The little girl jumped and close up her face on the phone.

"Hi," Sakura waves to the girl.

The girl suddenly smiles and says, "Kkura eonnie!"

"It's Sakura, not Kkura. Say it again!"

The girl giggles and tries to get away. Chaeyeon grabs her with her left arm and put her on the lap to make her say the word correctly. And Chaemin keeps refusing.

Finally, Chaeyeon gave up.

"So, this is Jaemin too?" Sakura asks.

"No, this is Chaemin." Chaeyeon suddenly finds it hard to differentiate the two pronunciations. "Okay, Chaemin is similar to Chaeyeon, Chae and Chae, the same in Kanji, but Jaemin is totally different. Chae is a girl's name and Jae is a boy's name."

This only makes Sakura more confused. To her, Chae and Jae make absolutely no difference. Maybe it's time to learn Korean properly to understand the differences.

Suddenly, Chaemin squirms to speak into Chaeyeon's ear. 

"Why don't you tell Sakura directly?" Chaeyeon rubs Chaemin's belly gently and urges her to be brave.

"Kkura eonnie, you are so beautiful," Chaemin says and buries her face in Chaeyeon's neck.

"What did she say?" Sakura thinks Chaemin is so cute.

"She said you are so beautiful."

"You are lying." Sakura laughs quietly. She indeed feels a bit sad when Chaemin reminded her of her own baby brother. They should be around the same age, she thought.

"How old is Chaemin?" Sakura asks.

"12, Korean age."

"Means she is 11?"

"Yup."

Her brother is 13. Sakura thinks. She is not sure when she will meet him again.

"Okay, Min, why did you come in? You have something to ask?"

"Yes," Chaemin's expression is serious, "our new puppy still doesn't have a name."

Chaeyeon translates for Sakura.

"Do all your sisters including the dog have the same name Chae?"

"Yes." Chaeyeon scratches her head. "Chaeyeon, Chaeryeong, Chaemin, Chaeso, Chaeri...and..."

Chaemin suddenly exclaims, "Chaekura!"

"What!?" Both Chaeyeon and Sakura yell through the screen.

But Chaeyeon immediately changes her mind and thinks this is a good idea. She cackles, "that is a good name, isn't it?"

Sakura pretends she has fainted and falls out of the camera.

Not all v-calls have a happy ending.

Sakura discovers she and Chaeyeon start to develop small conflicts as their proximity reduces. For example, they argue a lot on the grocery store publicity plan. When both of them are in very different positions and face very different issues, miscommunication sometimes became inevitable. At first, it was always Chaeyeon to give in to settle the dispute, but Sakura would feel very uneasy and demand a more equitable way to solve the issue.

This, in turn, makes Chaeyeon feels uncomfortable and she will explode, "Saku-chan, Why don't you just count me as a hopeless slave? I know it should not be. But can you let me be for a while?"

And this always makes Sakura gives in.

And there is one particular issue that is very hard to handle. Even though Sakura has said she doesn't care about Chaeyeon's past, she is actually very curious about the real relationship of Chaeyeon and her teacher. And this always drives Chaeyeon into silence whenever the topic is brought up. Like during the evening v-call when they reconnected.

"So Chaeyeon you can tell me why you spent so many hours in the park now?"

Chaeyeon raises both of her hands.

"What are you doing?"

"I surrender to your persistence."

Sakura snorts.

"Okay, Saku-chan, I actually do not know. I think I have fallen asleep in my teacher's car when she took me home, so she just let me sleep in her car until I woke up. I don't know why she has stopped at the park."

"Oh, she really cares a lot about you."

"Yes, she does."

"So you are not angry about her anymore?"

"Not anymore."

"Were you lovers?"

Chaeyeon keeps mum.

"You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. I am just curious."

"Yes, we were."

"Not anymore?"

"Saku-chan!" Chaeyeon can't help but raises her voice, "I am now with YOU! What are you talking about?"

Sakura sticks out her tongue. Chaeyeon indeed sounds quite angry.

Nevertheless, unknown to the lovers, these little conflicts help them to explore and learn more about each other and build up more solid trust that will eventually strengthen their connections.

 

****

 

The end of August approaches and Chaeyeon is happy to move back to the dormitory soon although she will miss Chaeri a lot. She also decided to seize the opportunity of the back to school sales to buy a new laptop. Learning from Eunbi, Chaeyeon is determined to start her final dissertation the earliest possible. To her frustration, while she is already very slow to work with only one hand, the computer is responding even slower. It becomes more and more painstaking to work on an old computer that takes ages to upload a picture and will suddenly hang for no reason.

While searching for new models, Chaeyeon suddenly has an idea. With the money Eunbi gave her, she can actually buy two laptops, one for herself and one for Sakura. That can solve many technical problems they are facing now.

But she cannot think of a good reason to persuade Sakura to accept the computer as a gift.

"Saku-chan, do you have a computer?" During one evening v-call, Chaeyeon decided to test the water.

"I used to have a tower for games. But Shige sold it for me after I left Tokyo." Sakura says while preparing food for the next day. "Ballerina doesn't need a computer."

"But you are a store manager now – the most beautiful store manager on earth!" Chaeyeon teases.

"Stop it!" Sakura darts Chaeyeon with a sharp look.

Chaeyeon laughs for a

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gumgumtara
So the long journey finally came to an end, and a new beginning is heading to start. Thank you all for supporting this story to its end.

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robogirl98
1687 streak #1
Chapter 26: oh my goodnesss!!!!!!!!!! this is so sweet! yes yes yes!!!!
robogirl98
1687 streak #2
Chapter 25: i'm so glad everyone got to meet and get the closure they deserve!!! here to the bright future for this big happy family!!
robogirl98
1687 streak #3
Chapter 24: ooo la la!!! go get them tigers!!
robogirl98
1687 streak #4
Chapter 23: sigh... man it went from the couple have a moment to the miyawaki family reunion!
robogirl98
1687 streak #5
Chapter 22: gahhh!!! i'm so happy! everyone is getting their happy ending!!!
robogirl98
1687 streak #6
Chapter 21: goodness, that secret was pretty big!
robogirl98
1687 streak #7
Chapter 20: wow wow wow!!! yes yes yes!!! go kang go!
robogirl98
1687 streak #8
Chapter 19: oh man, the rollercoaster ride with these visitors! no wonder she was tired!
robogirl98
1687 streak #9
Chapter 18: yes yes yes! a relationship is a two person job, both should push and pull to make it work! and communication is key!
robogirl98
1687 streak #10
Chapter 17: ohh so sweet! will kang and eunbi end up together or what!? they are so cute together and you can see how kang is treating eunbi like a gentlewoman!