Chapter 18: Gone Buying Chicken

-

“Wha- Oh my, how long has it been? I missed you! But in a manly way, of course,” Jae Hwa smiled incredulously.

Wait, what? I’m kinda not catching on to the situation here.

“Dae,” Hae Young whispered, voice low. “You know this guy?”

Daehyun responded with a mere nod (he already guessed that Hae Young knew of his old buddy), and Jae Hwa finally acknowledged Hae Young presence.

“You’re here too? Oh gosh, this calls for a celebration!”

-

 Out of three houses, how could we have ended in mine?

“Um Dae, are you sure you could take a day off? We could have this ‘party’ another time-“

“No no no no, hush Hae, hush. I’m not going to have any of that, I’m not gonna haaave it. I haven’t seen Jae Hwa’s face in what? Five years? Come on, I put precious friendship before my work. Besides, Himchan hyung’s covering for me, it’s not like I’ll get fired,” he whispered in reply, then turned to the other male with a smile and a conversation started almost instantly.

And out of all the other guys in the world, why him?

-

Daehyun stood up to leave.

“No, Daehyun, you really don’t need to do this, man, I can get some tomorrow-“

“It’s all right. I mean, you just got here from - I dunno, my memory fails me sometimes -  like about a week ago, and I still vividly remember your strong love for grilled chicken. All you need to possess is patience, ‘cause it’s going to take a bit. Quite far from here, you see.”

An artificially sweet smile crept up on Jae Hwa’s face; everything was going along well, just as he expected.

Hae Young racked her brain for any plausible excuse she can come up with to not be left alone with one heck of a douche right in her house.

“Daehyun, can I possibly tag along? I’ve never tasted chicken from that place before,” she pleaded with her eyes.

Daehyun beamed.

“Well, why n-“

Before he could let out the rest of his sentence, Jae Hwa obviously (well, obviously) cut him off, saying that he would feel uncomfortable being left alone in a house unfamiliar to him and made Daehyun feel a little bad.

‘Don’t worry Hae, I’ll come back as soon as my motorcycle allows it’ he mouthed to Hae Young.

He spun around, put on his jacket and stepped out of her house, sent off with a whisper.

“Please hurry.”

-

He sent her flirty, revolting (according to Hae Young herself) and suggestive looks.

Hae Young prefectly aimed her demon eye-sparkles back; and she kept those particular ones just for Jae Hwa (there were many versions of her eye-sparkles, you see).

How sweet.

But unfortunately, he took this as a good sign as he was able to get a response form her. Thus, he got up and sat next to her as they were actually sitting on separate couches, but just a little bit too close for Hae Young’s liking.

“W-what are you doing?” she stumbled on her words, unable to pronounce them correctly, for a certain mischievious hand was on to its…

Mischievious doings.

It went under her skirt, attempting to go further. By then, the poor girl couldn’t do anything, just like any other female of her age put in such a vulnerable position such as this one.

But being Hae Young, she quickly snapped out of it, and she knew she wasn’t going to stay still. One can’t easily escape from the lewd hands of Lee Jae Hwa.

I’ll just have to play along, then.

“Uh, op-oppa…” the words, coated with just the right amount of ‘lust’, were delivered perfectly, judging by the expression on Jae Hwa’s face.

“Why don’t we… have a drink before we proceed? To, you know, set the mood in a much more… sophisticated manner. I don’t think Daehyun oppa would be back so quick, so let’s just go slow.”

Jae Hwa readily agreed, to which Hae Young got up (gracefully; she really wanted him to fall for this) and went straight into the kitchen with an ugly plan brewing in her mind.

-

She thanked God for giving her the idea to stay up late two nights prior; a cocktail mixer wouldn’t be by her side at such a crucial moment if she hadn’t ordered it after getting lured in by flashy advertisements promoting the product.

The marketing strategy was simply brilliant.

Hae Young now realised she had to give in to her temptations more often, but dissmissed the thought as it was a different matter entirely.

She reached far back into one of her many cupboards and pulled out a carton of spoiled milk that she probably purchased more than a month ago, left in room temperature.

Well, at least it’s not as useless as it should be. Plus, my cupboard won’t be as smelly as before.

She stared at the cocktail mixer sadly, for it had to make contact with such repulsive things in order to successfully carry out a task.

“IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT THERE? WHY ARE YOU TAKING SO LONG?”

Hae Young rolled her eyes twice.

“Hold on, I’m just looking for the Martini glasses!” she chirped back.

After an audible grunt was heard, she waited for a few seconds.

That ought to shut him up for a while longer.

She continued to look around for more unpleasant things to add to her “special concoction”; the spoiled milk alone does not suffice. She stopped her search when her eyes caught something reflective, and she held in an evil chuckle.

This is going to taste delightful.

-

“Oppa, here you go,” she passed the drink to Jae Hwa, who eyed her suspiciously.

He drew the glass close to his nose, just to bring it away instantaneously.

“May I ask, what drink is this? Never have I seen such a… bizzare looking - but unique - one.”

Hae Young paused, then spoke again.

“Oh, this was sent all the way from… uh, Hawaii, yes, Hawaii. Drinks from there are so very well known, and my parents were there on vacation so… why not send their beloved daughter a drink?”

There was a slight silence before Jae Hwa could pull himself together to respond.

“Why of course,” with a hesistant look, Jae Hwa downed the drink.

At first, it tasted good, but…

The scenes that follow could be predicted easily. 

-

Daehyun got through the door right at the very moment Jae Hwa threw up all over Hae Young’s rug (she couldn’t care less; there was a good enough reason to get a new one).

“Oh! What happened?” Daehyun set down the bags of chicken and went straight to Jae Hwa.

“Oh my! What have I done? I’m sorry, Jae Hwa oppa! I didn’t know this would happen!” Hae Young said in such a calm tone that her words and the way she said them didn’t really quite match.

Jae Hwa stood up slowly, teetering to the left slightly and regaining most of his balance after.

“It was nice running into both of you again, but I guess I have to… rest. It was a long day, you know. Meet y’all another time!” without looking back, he staggered out of Hae Young’s house and went on his way back to the comfort of his own.

“All the more chicken for us!” Hae Young exclaimed.

 Upon noticing Daehyun’s slightly confused, slightly saddened face, she added, “When in doubt, place your complete trust in rotten milk, a load of sugar and a whole tube of herbal toothpaste.”

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;) 

Sweet like --strawberries