SeonYah still remembered the day when she had considered Simon her hero. He’d been over to her house after school and her dad had come home, drunk and angry. He’d lost his job that day and had tried to take it out on her. Simon had gotten in the way and convinced her dad to go sit down for a second, then practically dragged SeonYah out of the house. She’d stayed the night at his home and his parents had taken good care of her, something she wasn’t used to. She’d never been that happy before, and all she wanted was to feel that happy again. But it wasn’t like now she could just drive to Simon’s parent’s house. They still lived in the States, and SeonYah had moved to Seoul. The closest thing to happiness she had been able to find was in the boys of Dalmatian. After Simon had joined earlier in the year, they’d also taken her under their wings.

         Tonight was one of those nights where she felt that happiness. She stood in the kitchen, cooking dinner for the boys as they all set the table in the living room and cleaned up the floor. Simon took a seat on the counter beside SeonYah, instantly hypnotized by her fluid movements as she chopped up some vegetables and dropped them into the stew she was making. SeonYah continued cooking as she fell into an easy conversation with him. She kept her eyes on him, but never messed up as she chopped up pieces of beef for the stew.

         “You’re going to cut you finger open and ruin the meat.” Simon finally said, pointing to the huge knife in her hand.

         SeonYah waved the knife in her hand and rolled her eyes. “I’m fine, I’ve done this plenty times.”

         “Stop waving that around!” she laughed and went back to cutting the beef. “It’s like you want to kill someone.” He muttered teasingly.

         “Trust me, Simon Park, if I wanted to kill you, you would be dead.” She replied, smirking before turning to the fridge.

         Just then, Daniel tried sneaking into the kitchen to try some of the stew.

         “You’re not sneaky.” SeonYah called with her head still in the fridge. Daniel sighed and looked over at her.

         “Freakin’ eyes on the back of your head.” He muttered in English, before hopping up onto the counter and sitting next to Simon.

         She laughed and went back over to the counter. “Aigoo~ is our maknae upset?” she asked him in Korean before turning to the stew and dipping a spoon in it. “Do you want some?” she added, this time in English. That’s usually how their conversations went. Sometimes they would speak in Korean, other times they would speak in English; it all depended on what language they could remember a certain word. That’s also how it had always been with her and Simon. She knew Korean from her mother and English from her father and Simon had taught her Japanese, so their conversations were always multicultural.

         “Noona, you’re really good at this.” Daniel said, watching her stir the stew carefully. She smiled and shrugged.

         “I learned all of this from my mom.” This kind of conversation was usually avoided in the house of Dalmatian: SeonYah’s mom. She’d left SeonYah and her dad when SeonYah was still a kid. No one knows where she is to this day, and as far as SeonYah is concerned, she could stay far away.

         Knowing where this conversation was going, Simon changed the subject. “What exactly are you making anyway?”

         “Don’t tell me you forgot what this was!” she exclaimed, looking at him in disbelief. “You ate this all the time during the winter growing up!”

         “Yeah, hyung, all the time!” Daniel added, receiving a punch from said hyung.

         “I guess I remember.” Simon muttered. “Sort of.”

         “Aish, you brat.” SeonYah shook her head in disappointment. “Whatever, you’ll remember when you try it.”

         “I don’t know if I should now. What if you poison me?”

         “I would never waste poison on you.” She smirked at him before turning off the stove. “It’s done!” she called out to the rest of the boys. She reached out the grab the handle of the pot but ended up burning her hand on it, as it was still too hot. She winced and pulled her hand back, looking at the redness in shock.

         “Oww~” she whined, looking up at Simon.

         “Good one.” He muttered, sliding off the counter to get a better look at it.

         Daniel grabbed a rag from the drawer underneath the oven and carried the pot out to the living room, leaving SeonYah alone with Simon.

         “It hurts!” SeonYah whined, pouting slightly as Simon inspected the damage.

         “I know it hurts, it looks like it hurts.”

         “There’s a difference between looking like it hurts and actually hurting, Park Junho.” He decided to ignore her and went to get the first-aid kit.

         “What happened?” Inati asked, watching Simon pass by with the kit.

         “The genius burnt herself.”

         “I heard that!”

         SeonYah left after dinner, since she couldn’t stay too late, as she had classes the next morning. She entered her apartment, trying her best to not make too much noise and wake up ChinHo.

         ChinHo was her boyfriend of two years. The two had recently moved in together, since they planned on getting married soon anyway. Over the past few months they had been living in their apartment, though, ChinHo had begun to change. He had become a bit pushy, in SeonYah’s opinion. Of course, she’d grown up with abuse so it didn’t worry her whenever he pushed her or anything. She still didn’t like it, but she had come to the conclusion that because of ChinHo’s rough childhood, this was just his way of expressing his love for her. He didn’t intend to purposely leave bruises, right?

         The lights in the apartment flipped on before SeonYah touched them. She looked up and saw ChinHo standing in front of her.

         “Hey, you’re up.” She smiled and kissed his cheek before stepping into the hallway and going to her room. ChinHo was right behind her the whole time. She went to her drawer and pulled out a t-shirt and some sweatpants before turning to look at him. “Did you get dinner?”

         “I was waiting for you.” He said, in a flat tone. He crossed his arms and glared at her. “Did you get dinner?”

         “I ate over at the guys’ place.” She pulled on the sweatpants and smiled. “They really liked the stew I made. I can’t believe Simon forgot about it though. Growing up, that’s all he—“

         “So you were with him again.” ChinHo cut her off, frowning. “When were you going to ask me if it was okay to go over there?”

         SeonYah gave him a confused look. “I-I didn’t realize—“

         “You were just going to sneak around behind my back, weren’t you?” he snapped. “Too bad I’m not an idiot.”

         “It’s not like that—“

         “I’m so tired of you being like this!” ChinHo threw his arms up in the air. “When are you going to realize that I’m the only guy you should be with?” He shook his head. “The least you could do is be sorry!”

         “I’m sorry.” SeonYah said quietly, not fully understanding why she had to be sorry. “It won’t happen again.” ChinHo stepped forward, pushing her against the drawers and glaring at her.

         “It better not.” He said in a low voice. Then he left her to herself.