(3 years ago)

It was time for lunch but she was waiting for Yoo-na to get back with it from the restaurant across the street.  Ji-won stood at the counter pretending to wait for customers while she in fact was really hoping there wouldn’t be any.  Without customers time would go slow, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make especially because of how rude the last few had been to her.  

“Yoo-na!”  she shouted as a hand came through the sliding doors.  She only saw the bag of food and didn’t realize it wasn’t Yoo-na until the body the hand belonged to came through the doors.  It was a he and not a she, and Ji-won was lucky he didn’t hear her.  He walked past her and headed straight to the office.  Smelling the food through the brown bag made her stomach grumble and she began to wonder how much longer Yoo-na would take. 

“It’s him again,” Yoo-na said, suddenly appearing out of thin air. 

“Who?” 

“Sae-mi’s cousin.  He brought them lunch last time too.  He is a cutie.” 

“Yeah?” 

He walked back down and both pretended to be busy, separating bags and dusting the counter.  He grinned at them, and Ji-won’s face flushed pink.  She hoped he hadn’t noticed their staring. 

“Yoo-na!  Where’s my food?”

“Unnie, sorry.  I left it in the lunch room.” 

“What?  You were in the lunch room this whole time?  I’ve been starving down here.” 

“Sorry.” 

Ji-won ran upstairs to dig into her fettuccine alfredo.  She couldn’t wait to taste the buttery sauce and the sourness of the sun-dried tomatoes in .  It was enough to make her drool on the way, but luckily she didn’t.  

In the lunchroom, she found Sae-mi and her sisters eating their lunch.  She grabbed her pasta from the microwave and sat down next to them.  

“Ji-won, you want to go out with us tonight?” 

“Ji-won!” 

“What?”  She had been concentrating so hard on eating and savoring the taste she hadn’t realized anyone was talking to her. 

“We’re going out tonight.  Do you and Yoo-na want to come with us?” 

“Sure, what’s the plan?”  She nodded her head to reaffirm her answer but quickly turned back to her pasta.  The sundried tomatoes were absolutely exquisite, tangy bursts in . 

“Ji-won!” 

“Hmm.” 

“We want to go out to dinner and then a party.” 

“Okay.” 

“Can you tell Yoo-na our cousin is coming too?” 

“Who?” 

“The one that just brought our lunch.” 

“Okay.”  

Six hours after having had her lunch with Sae-mi and her sisters, Ji-won was again sitting across from them with the addition of Yoo-na, the cousin, and the brother-in-law.  Ji-won was beginning to feel a little awkward as her suspicion grew that she was only invited along to ensure Yoo-na would come as well.  Half-way through the dinner, Sae-mi tried to get a conversation started between Yoo-na and the cousin but that conversation fizzled.  Ji-won could feel Yoo-na’s discomfort.  It was not hard especially since Yoo-na kept nudging her every a couple of minutes.   Ji-won figured the only thing on Yoo-na’s mind was, “Alex is going to kill me!”   

To try to set Yoo-na’s mind at ease, Ji-won decided to start up the conversation so Yoo-na wouldn’t feel like she was on a group date but just with friends and she’d stop obsessing over Alex finding out because there was nothing to be found out. 

“Cousin, what was your name again?” 

“Oh, Jae-hyun.  It’s very nice to meet you.” 

“Jae-hyun ssi, how is your food?” 

“Yes, I’m doing well.” 

Obviously, he wasn’t in his right mind either so Ji-won decided to stop the conversation and concentrate solely on getting both her and Yoo-na out of there.  Dinner didn’t seem to end soon enough and when it finally did, both got up ready to leave but were prompted to sit back down because no one else was ready.  For another thirty minutes, Sae-mi and her sisters ordered drinks while Ji-won was thinking of a plan.  

“Let’s decide which club we want to go to or how about that house party?” 

“I was thinking—” 

Yoo-na’s phone began to vibrate and she quickly looked at it for fear it was Alex but when she saw the name and number, she glared at Ji-won.  Yoo-na ignored it and continued to sit through another round of drinks.  One more time it began to vibrate and one more time Yoo-na checked it.  She was about to ignore it again but Ji-won kicked her underneath the table and she immediately stood up. 

“I have to take this call.  I’ll be right back.”  Yoo-na walked outside and came back in. 

“I’m sorry.  I have to leave.  It was a really important call.” 

“Is everything okay?”  Sae-mi turned to her and looked very concerned. 

“My mom just called.  I need to go home.” 

In a rush to leave before they could question Yoo-na some more over her important phone call, Ji-won grabbed her bag and quickly stood up without first looking behind her.  She turned around and immediately met up against a platter of crab legs, butter, and lemon juice including a side of shrimp cocktail.  Ji-won her lips and let out a loud sigh.  Tonight was not her night; no night was ever her night.  

“I think.  I’m going to.  Die. Of embarrassment.”  Ji-won could feel at least a hundred pairs of eyes looking at her.  Yoo-na was no help as she pretended to be concerned but was also trying not to laugh.  Ji-won flicked her cocktail slathered bangs and walked to the restroom.  

The gentleman sitting a few tables down turned around to see what accident had occurred for there to be such a commotion, bowls clattering and lots of shouting.  The culprit: a woman in a white t-shirt stood covered in cocktail sauce and crab legs hanging onto her shirt.  Rather than apologize to the woman, the waiter immediately rushed to him and apologized for the inconvenience, his sea food platter would take a little longer than as previously mentioned.  He grinned when he saw her pull out a piece of shrimp from under her chest and eat it as she walked to the restroom.  

Ji-won went into the bathroom to remove the excess food from her shirt.  It must have been fate for her favorite tee to be in the laundry basket, because it would have been that instead of the plain white shirt she had decided to wear covered in seafood and sauce.  

“Go ahead and laugh.  I know you’re dying to.”  With Ji-won’s permission, Yoo-na laughed until her stomach ached.  

“This always happens when we go out.  You never pay attention.”  Yoo-na was still able to choke out words through her laughter.  “Was it any good?”

“The shrimp was quite scrumptious really.  It tasted a lot better than what I ordered for dinner.  You should be thankful.  You were the one all fidgety and couldn’t sit still.  I was trying to get you out of there so your precious Alex wouldn’t strangle you.” 

“No one asked you to call me.  We would have left, eventually.” Yoo-na left Ji-won alone in the restroom to clean up.  

Ji-won washed her face and tried to get as much out of her hair as possible.  Her hair remained sticky, and she stunk like shrimp cocktail.  Looking in the mirror, she saw she had done as much as she possibly could without taking a shower and calmly walked out of the restroom.  

“Unnie, they all left already.  They’re heading to some club downtown.  Sae-mi mentioned that someone settled the bill already.” 

“The cousin?” 

“I don’t think so.  She said it was some guy.” 

“Well, at least dinner was on him. Okay.  Let’s go.  I’m in need of a shower.” 

“Unnie, dinner was on you.  You smell so good too!  I could just eat you.”  Yoo-na snapped as if biting onto something. 

With arms interlocked Yoo-na and Ji-won walked to Ji-won’s apartment which was just a few blocks from the restaurant.  Along the way, they stopped at the little corner food stand for real food, ddokbokki and kimchi-chigae. 

“Ahjumma, I’m hungry.” 

“Ji-won ah, are you here tonight again?  Here!” The ahjumma practically shoved a bowl into Ji-won’s hands.  “Take this out to the man out there.” 

“Ahjumma!”  Ji-won protested, and pretended to whine just a little bit but took the bowl nevertheless. 

The gentleman looked up and was surprised to see his server was the girl from the restaurant who had tragically been the recipient of his seafood platter.  He smiled to see her but she was unaware of who he was.  Her shirt was still stained yellow and red yet here she was in public serving him his late night meal.  A few tendrils were still plastered on the side of her face and she rather reeked of cocktail sauce.  He admired her audacity to still be out and about.  

Ji-won returned from serving the bowl of soon-doo-bu chi-ggae and sat beside Yoo-na with a plate of ddukbokki and a bottle of soju to share.  They chatted away while from a distance the gentleman continued to steal glances at her and smile.  He hailed the store owner and inquired about her. 

“Oh, she lives just down the street.  A sweet girl but she never cooks.  She’s here just about every night.” 

“What is her name again?” 

“Kim Ji-won.” 

“Ahjumma, can you give this to her for me?”  He pulled out a couple bills and wrote on his napkin a few words.  With that, he got up and left leaving a stunned ahjumma behind and an even more stunned Ji-won when she received it.