The light from the window was fading into the orange hue of dusk, which illuminated the room a fiery red color. Ren was still in his bed, his hair still umcombed, waiting for the day to end. He had not eaten anything since morning when Aaron had made him a "breakfast in bed type of thing, filled with love and affection" (in Aaron's words.)

 

Ren scoffed as he remembered his breakfast today. Burnt bacon, soggy eggs, watered-down orange juice and some "sour grapes" (again, in Aaron words.) Breakfast was terrible enough to keep him away from food for the entire day. But this had Ren thinking why. 

 

Aaron usually does not prepare breakfast himself. Being only 19 and having been pampered all of those 19 years, Aaron knew as much about cooking as he did about singing. Today, Ren didn't know what got into that whimsical cousin of his. 

 

An aching in this stomach brought Ren's attention back to the present problem: he was hungry.

 

"Hyung!?"

 

Ren half expected Aaron to come bounding into his room but his cousin didn't. Ren checked his watch and saw that it was only 5PM. Aaron would still be in his summer school, trying to brush up on his korean. Whenever Ren thought about Aaron's korean, he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. If Aaron had not come to Busan to "take care of Renny as the new guardian" (obviously, in Aaron's words,) he would not have needed to give up NYU and force himself to enroll in a Korean University. Most of all, he would not have to take korean language classes. Aaron was born and bred in the United States so his korean was at best fragmented. 

 

"Maybe I should teach him Korean," reasoned Ren. "He'd save all the car fare..."

 

But on second thought, "Nah. I can't be bothered." 

 

After dawdling around for another hour, Ren could not ignore the aching in his stomach no longer. With a sigh, he slowly got up from his bed. The moment his feet hit the floor and he felt the stony coldness, he let out a small yelp. 

 

The heck? Was the floor always this cold? Ren squatted down and pointed an accusing finger at his floor. 

 

"Yah, you! Did you abandon me too?" 

 

The floor (naturally) gave no response. Ren sighed again and laughed at himself. So silly you are, Choi Minki, he thought. So silly. 

 

In his fridge, there was nothing but a slice of bread and a bottle of mustard. 

 

"I...I...I feel like a bum." Hanging his head low, Ren could only sigh for the upteenth time today. "No food in my fridge. No food? Is...is that even p-possible? No food...?"

 

Suddenly, Ren wished Aaron was home and not at his stupid language class. Surprisingly, his wish was granted for moments later the door was kicked open and Aaron strode in like he owned the place. In his arms were brown paper bags and tufts of greenery were poking out from the top. The door was swining on its hinge and Aaron, with both his hands full, wiggled around to try to close it.  

 

"Hyuuuuung," Ren whispered. 

 

"YOOOOO!" Aaron's necked shuddered twice. Ren thought that though Aaron was quiet lean, he did however have a pudgy neck that shook like pudding when the latter was scared. This observation made Ren smile a bit. Aaron turned around and saw Ren was standing in front of him in his pajamas, with no slippers, and frightfully messy hair. 

 

"Oh sweet, baby, tender, hairless jesus! Why'd you do that for, Renny? I almost ate my heart." Aaron hugged his vegetables tighter to prove his point. 

 

"Aaron, I'm hungry." Ren's eyes were staring dully at what he presumed to be the head of a carrot. "Can I have that?"

 

"Have what?" Aaron puckered up his lips and motioned to the carrot. "This? Raw?"

 

Ren nodded. 

 

"Oh my god, Renny. How long have you not eaten?"

 

Ren didn't answer.

 

"Don't tell me not since breakfast."

 

Ren nodded.  

 

"No, you cannot have that!" Aaron walked briskly to the fridge and roughly shoved his grocery inside. He lightly jogged up to Ren and clasped his hand onto his baby cousin's shoulders. "Let appa get you dressed."

 

Ren frowned. "You're not my appa."

 

Aaron ignored the comment and proceeded to push Ren towards his room. In the meantime, he kept on listing off the things that Ren will wear: 

"Imma put you in this cute little teeny weeny tee shirt, throw a huge cloth over you and tie it up with a belt. Then, Imma put this cute pink teddy bear shorts on you and then put on a nice little squirrel pant. Lemme get your cute little pink converses and a cute little pink hair band. Oh! You can also wear some pink frills at the ends of your—"

 

Aaron was cut short when Ren suddenly whipped around, shrugged off his hands and pushed him back a few paces. 

 

"Are you paying?"

 

Aaron blanked. "Hurr..."

 

Ren sighed and explain, "For the food. Are you paying?"

 

"Oh, yeah. Yeah! It'll be my treat for my precious baby cous!" Aaron exclaimed. 

 

"'Kay. Wait here. I'll change up."

 

 

//

 

 

Aaron brought Ren to a tiny family restuarent two blocks away from home. The name of the restuarent was 'Seeing Blue' and Ren thought it quiet quaint a name. Only, it did not match with the actual restuarent; nothing was blue, not the wall, not the ceiling, not the floor, and not the chairs either. 

 

"I don't see any blue..." mummble Ren, mostly to himself, but Aaron overheard. 

 

"That's cause you're not suppose to." 

 

Ren looked up from his menu and saw Aaron smiling mysteriously at him. He's expecting me to question further, Ren thought. 

 

Ren opened his mouth to say something—Aaron leaned in expectantly—but closed it again. When he did speak, it was only to ask for the waiter. 

 

"Jeogiyo!"

 

The waiter ran up and asked in a happy, loud voice, "YES? WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?"

 

Both Aaron and Ren winced. 

 

"MY NAME IS JR AND I WILL BE YOUR WAITER TODAY." 

 

"....Ne." Ren nodded politely. 

 

"CUSTOMER, YOU HAVE BEAUTIFUL HAIR. IT LOOKS VERY FLUFFY. AND YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL FACE. I AM HONORED TO SERVE YOU." JR blushed. 

 

Ren just looked up at his waiter, confusion written all over his face. "Thank...youuuu?"

 

Aaron, however, was not so passive. "Hey!! That's MY baby you're shamelessly flirting with!"

 

"I WAS NOT SHAMELESSLY FLIRTING. I WAS MERELY VOICING MY OPINION. YOUR BABY IS BEAUTIFUL, SIR."

 

"Oh, in that case, please, praise on." Aaron's expression, so chary a moment ago, was now happily beaming at JR. "After all, great art exists to be praised. And Renny's face is magnificent art."

 

"I AGREE, SIR. MAGNIFICENT." 

 

Ren scoffed. "Piss off."

 

Aaron chuckled and dismissively waved his hand at JR. "He's shy."

 

After they had ordered (and JR had repeated their order with his blaring voice,) Aaron finally settled down into his seat and had a blissful look on his face. Ren was expressionless. But, in truth, he felt a bit happy today. Not for any particular reason. Just happy. 

 

"Oh, Ren, I almost forgot to ask." Aaron picked up a chopstick and pointed it at Ren. "Did you finish your summer homework yet?" 

 

"Didn't even look at it," said Ren. 

 

"Oh. You better take a peek tonight then."

 

"I can't muster the effort." Ren slumped down in his chair. "I think I have to read a history book. Boring." 

 

"Oh? Well, you better be a fast reader, Renny." Aaron smirked. "Cause you have school in three days."

 

Aaron expected Ren's eyes to pop out or overflow with tears. He expected Ren to holler in despair and start choking up with emotions. He expected—secretly wished—Ren to fly into his warm embrace and pout and whine and say in an aegyo voice: "Hyuuung! Pweese welp meh. I no do homewak by meself. It tooo hard!"

 

But Ren, as always, never meets Aaron's expectations (or fulfill his rampant fantasies.) 

 

"I'll give it my 100 percent," Ren said stoically. 

 

Aaron was disappointed. But not for long. He thought of other things to tease his baby cousin with. "Ne, ne, Renny. Did you wear the teddy bear boxers like I asked you to?"

 

For a split second, Ren's left eye flinched. "Piss off. They're not teddy bears. They're dinosaurs."

 

 

 

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