​«Chapter ten»

"How Have You Been?"
 

Yuri started cleaning up the pan and got a new one. She sprinkled vegetable oil on it and waited until it was hot. Changmin was banging his fists on the table and bawling out.

“Fooooood!” the baby monster screamed.

As Sooyoung heard this, she literally flew through the oaken white door with a foolish grin and chanted together with Changmin, as if watching a soccer game. They were pleading for their morning munchies.

“Umma! I want Kimbap for breakfast! No, wait! I want chicken! AH! I. Want. Fried. Rice.” Sooyoung demanded and sat beside the boy.

“Food! Food! Minnie…Food!”

“Alright, Umma would cook you some food! Please wait quietly, mkay?”

Both of them nodded and zipped their mouths as they observed their parents walk around the kitchen back and forth.

Their Umma got the leftovers from the rice cooker and placed a scoop of butter in the now-heated pan. It sizzled until the little cube turned into a liquid, yellowish substance, melting with every second. She then got the rice and put it in the pan. The chopped and diced carrots and other veggies from the ref were added to the concoction and Yuri mixed the ingredients with great care. Yunho stared at his ex-girlfriend as she continued with her cooking.

“What’re you gawking at?” she questioned with a hand on her hip.

Yunho s his arms on her torso and wrapped it just like that for a few minutes.

“I was just about to ask what you were making…” he replied softly, his chin resting on her shoulders gently.

Yuri felt so uncomfortable in his hold. It had been months, years, since she felt his touch. Heck, she didn’t even remember when the last time he hugged her was. When they were in a relationship, skinship wasn’t part of it. They couldn’t even stay beside each other whenever there were press conferences and they never had time for each other. And they couldn’t manage to squeeze in some time for themselves whenever they were free.

She slightly tugged his arms away from her body and awkwardly faced him.

“Is something wrong?” Yunho asked in a whisper-like manner.

The lady avoided his gaze and tried her best to focus on her cooking.

“It’s…It’s just that…” she stuttered clumsily.

“Have you…perchance…got a new boyfriend?” he asked again, hoping that her answer would be a ‘no’.

“Well, not exactly. But Minho’s recently been asking me out on friendly-dates.”

Yunho chuckled with disbelief. He didn’t expect it to be like this. If there was something in his life that he regretted the most, it was sending Yuri that stupid text message that caused them to part ways. In all honesty, the man hasn’t really moved on yet. Well, if you’ve been in a relationship with a goddess such as Yuri, you won’t even consider the word, ‘break-up’ to be in your vocabulary. She’s too perfect for Yunho to break her heart. Too bad, he did. And it grieved Yuri so much.

Sigh.