“I’ll just be in the kitchen with Grandma Lee,” Minjeong said, waving good bye as she navigated her wheel chair out of the patio because she wanted to give the ex-lovers some space. Definitely, there were a lot of things they would like to catch up on, as the smile on her face failed to flee for she couldn’t ask for more than to see her older cousin being happy, and what she meant being happy which was Jennie being around Lisa even though the former denied it countless times.

Sliding the patio door open even by just an inch, Minjeong could instantly smell the food that she was intimately familiar with, sniffing it in an open air as it made her appetite whet within close range by its alluring fragrance blossoming in the kitchen – the deep savory earthy smell of the black bean sauce. Beyond the shadow of the doubt, it’s the smell of her most loved dish of her entire existence, she could not and would never be wrong when it comes to her favorites, Jajangmyeon, her soul food.

“Oh, Minjeong, just in time. Can you taste this for me?” Grandma Lee beamed a smile when she saw the blonde who was grinning from ear to ear as she came in.

“Definitely! I would love to!” her eyes were animated, Minjeong was delighted as she quickly closed the sliding door behind her, making her way to the old caretaker who was cooking at the kitchen. It’s really just in time – this food brought comfort to her core every single time and she’s desperate for it now that she had an unexpected guest resting upstairs in her villa that suddenly made her world spiraling out of control where she barely managed to take charge as of the moment. Grandma Lee gave her a spoon with the thick sauce in it for the blonde to taste. Minjeong took a moment to savor the exciting flavors that was exploding in , causing her to close her eyes and enjoy every second of it. “Hmm,” followed by an extremely satisfied “wow,” escaped from her lips as she wobbled her upper body slightly in glee – just like a cheery puppy wiggling its tail when it heard the sound of the dog food pouring over its bowl.

“How’s it? Should I add a bit more sugar?” Grandma Lee asked. Amused to see the blonde girl’s thrilled reaction – and judging by the looks of it, the old caretaker guessed she shouldn’t ask anymore because the answer was evident in Minjeong’s enlivened face.

“This is so perfect!” Minjeong gushed in excitement. “I’m not going to lie Grandma Lee, but I swear this is the best Jajangmyeon I have ever tasted in my life and no one can beat your own recipe,” she complimented as she returned the spoon. “It’s the same just like how you used to cook it for me before and I really love it!”

Elated by a flattering remark, Grandma Lee took pride of her cooking skills over the years where she worked first as a nanny for Minjeong when she was a baby until she grew older, before she became the caretaker of the villa when the blonde relocated to Gangnam after the unfortunate accident during her last year in high school. “Of course, dear, I know this is your all-time favorite ever since you’re little. You used to ask me to cook this for you after you came home from school, and I can still remember your face easily lights up every time you eat this. Just like now,” the old caretaker gently poked the cheeks of the blonde girl whose smile couldn’t be erased just by tasting her favorite food. “Even though we’re not blood related, I always treat you like my own child. And just like any mother in the world, I always want you to be happy,” she added.

Her grin turned slowly into a soft meaningful smile as her eyes began to moist, Minjeong was deeply touched knowing that her old nanny still cared for her even if the blonde left her and the villa for years with the exception of occasional visits if she’s not too occupied in her writing career. She reached for the old caretaker’s hands to her own. “You don’t know how much I am grateful for you, Grandma Lee. We’ve been together a lot. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And don’t worry about me that much, I’m happy,” Minjeong sighed as she forced a smile. “or at least, I’m trying to.”

But based on the longevity of the years Grandma Lee took great care of Minjeong, the old nanny knew the blonde all too well even just by small details especially if she was upset or helpless – and she could clearly see that Minjeong was still suffering from a longtime pain that was haunting her where she lost her powers to fight over her demons in her head – all the old caretaker wanted for her is to be truly happy the rest of her life. Smiling back with a hint of pity and sadness, Grandma Lee shared something dear to her heart. “Do you want to know the secret why I cook this Jajangmyeon perfectly? But you better promise first to keep this secret between us.”

Minjeong giggled. “I promise.”

“It’s because this was also the favorite food of the only man I completely fell in love with,” the old caretaker smiled to herself as she reminisced. “Did you know that I can’t count how many times I failed cooking it before because it’s either too salty or too sweet?” she laughed as she continued stirring the sauce in the pan. “But as I keep practicing, I eventually cooked it perfectly just the way he liked it which is now just the way you like.”

Speechless and surprised, Minjeong dwelled in the state of amusement as she kept on listening; she never thought that her old nanny had been into a relationship before, because all along she thought that the old caretaker wasn’t interested in love because she preferred to remain single in her golden years. Grandma Lee continued. “He served in the army. And every time he was on his leave, I cooked this for him every day and he loved it too. Every time I saw him smile while eating this, it made my heart happy too. When I first met him, I knew right away that he was really the love of my life. He’s my soulmate,” she smiled as she looked into the blonde’s eyes and asked her. “How about you? Have you ever met your soulmate?”

Minjeong looked away as a sad smile formed on her lips, remembering her first encounter with the girl she considered her soulmate in that summer camp. “I did,” freeing a soft sigh, she quietly mumbled to herself which failed to reach the old lady’s ear. “And now she’s back.”

“What is it, dear?”

Minjeong shook her head lightly, smiling. “Nothing”

In a split second, Grandma Lee felt there was something going on but she could be wrong so she chose to shrug it off; in an attempt to bring back the blonde from her gloomy trip in her memory lane, the old caretaker took a moment as she spoke up again. “But did you know that we broke up just once before?”

“But why?” Minjeong asked, her eyebrows were curled in curiosity.

“You know, just like any other couples in this world, we had an awful misunderstanding and some shortcomings in both of our parts. We got separated for almost a year. No contact, no letters, nothing at all.”

“But how did you get back together?”

“Oh, I still remember it vividly,” Grandma Lee chuckled. “One day, he just showed up to our doorsteps, holding my favorite flowers in his hand to his chest, and those dazzling eyes… oh those eyes, they got me every time,” she smiled gently. “He apologized and begged me to come back as he told me that my absence made him realize that he couldn’t last a day without me and he felt incomplete. Who would have thought that some guy would go crazy over me?” she joked, earning a both of them a hearty chuckle.

“But did you know there were a lot of things I learned during the time that we’re both separated?” the old caretaker mentioned in a bit serious tone, as she rinsed the noodles in the cold water and drained it in the sink.

“Really?” Minjeong attentively asked. “What is it?”

“It made me realize that the reason why a person can’t move on, or why a person can’t stop the pain from a heartbreak or in an ended relationship is because that person is waiting for a closure… or perhaps, they are waiting for the person to come back and they’re just afraid to admit it to themselves,” the old caretaker smiled in defeat. “And in my case, during that time, it was the latter. I knew in my heart that he would still come back so I waited even though I kept lying to myself that it was just for closure, but the closure never really happened. And then one day, he did come back and we got back together.”

Those words hit Minjeong close to home as she pondered in her situation right now if she was just like Grandma Lee during her time who was just kept waiting for closure, but in fact, she was just waiting for anything else – the blonde kept waiting for the day where her first poetry book would return to her, where she believed that if ever, she would repossess that book again, she would get the closure that she needed all these years. But how funny the universe could be, when instead of the returning of the book, the person she wrote the book for was the one that suddenly showed up in her home. Shaking her head, the blonde broke up from her thoughts as she queried. “Is closure really necessary?”

“I think people are seeking closure to end things so they can start a new one. Because if they don’t, it will haunt them during the day when they are not doing anything, or it will just pop in their dreams every time they go to sleep. Just like a mystery that they can’t solve, they will keep on wondering what went wrong and so on,” Grandma Lee sighed. “But life doesn’t work like that all the time because sometimes we get a chance to get a closure and there are times that we don’t.”

Curling her tensed fingers up on her lap, Minjeong just couldn’t stop herself from expressing what she was feeling at the moment like she was on the verge of self-exploding in her own misery. “But what if the person you loved the most… that person you surrendered your heart completely to just suddenly shows up at your doorstep,” she struggled as her voice began to tremble. “But this time… this time she’s not holding your favorite flowers to her chest, because she forgot about it, not because she forgot about to pick some flowers on her way to your house to apologize and beg you to come back, or to tell you that your absence made her realize that she couldn’t last a day without you and she felt incomplete, but because she just forgot… she forgot your favorites, she forgot you, she forgot everything,” tears were starting to pool in the corner of her eyes with shaky breath, she tried so hard to hold it all in. “She just shows up like nothing happened without knowing why, and you have no idea why she’s there. Now that you have a chance and there are a lot of questions you wanted to ask, and a lot of things that you wanted to say but you just can’t, because chances are, she also doesn’t know. What will you do? Will you able to still get the closure? Will you grab the chance?”

Grandma Lee carefully pulled Minjeong for a hug, gently caressing the back of