The house was empty when I came in. As usual.

Mom doesn’t get home till 5:30 and that’s the time when dad finishes work and it takes him around 20 minutes to drive from work. Its only 3:23pm.

Going to my room, I threw my bag near the bed and changed my uniform to some comfy home clothes.

My sister and I would usually walk together from school to come home but today she seemed really excited. Said something about wanting to bake. Actually, it started yesterday. She hogged the computer all to herself while looking at some recipes before finally deciding to make brownies because “they look the easiest”.

So today, instead of taking that left turn with me, she walked forward towards the grocery store. I offered to go with her but she just looked at me like I was making a corny joke, then she said bye and kept on walking. Like what the hell? I was being serious. Girls.

I went to the kitchen to find something to eat. There wasn’t really much except for a few fruits and a bottle of water. Gosh. I knew I should’ve come with her. I went to the living room and turned the TV on. There aren’t really much that was on right now so I just watched some random anime.

I heard the door open about an hour later and some shuffling of plastic.

“Oppa!” I heard Jieun say.

I went to the front door to see her removing her shoes.

“Did you find everything you wanted?” I asked her, as I went to take her two shopping bags that she put down. I picked it up and started walking towards the kitchen.

“Yeah, I didn’t get any sugar though. I’m sure we have enough. At least I hope we have enough”. She said as she walked behind me, following to the kitchen.

I put her shopping bags in the counter and turned to her.

“What are you doing again?”

“umm brownies?”

“no, I mean, why?”

She blinked while looking at me and – is she blushing?

“yah!”

“w-w-w-what do you mean why?” she answered back to me while stuttering. She then walked towards me and grabbed the bags from the counter behind me. She quickly took it and moved them to the table.

She took all the things out. Flour, chocolate bars, cacao powder and other things. Then she opened the cupboard where the baking trays are. I frowned. She wasn’t really much of a kitchen person. She does help up when our parents are cooking, but other than that, you wouldn’t really find her in the kitchen. Weird.

“Jieun!”

“Huh? Huh? What?” she looked at me startled. What the hell is she doing?

“What are you doing?” I asked, completely horrified.

“For the last time, I am making brownies!” She said as she put the bowl put of flour down and looked at me.

“I knew that! I mean why are you putting the flour in there?”

She turned to the big bowl where she was mixing everything up.

“Oh. It’s called sifting or stiffing. I dunno. Apparently, it makes it easier to mix the flour if you do this first.” She said, as she continued pouring the flour in the strainer, looking really confident.

As much as I love sweets, I would never understand how you make them. I turned and went for the living room to watch more anime. Now, I’m getting really worried for those brownies. This is her first time baking; alone as well.

Around half an hour later, more or less, no wait it’s nearly 6, where the hell is mom? Didn’t even notice it till Jieun changed the channel. When the hell did she get the remote? I swear I was holding it.

“Kids?” we heard dads voice call out.

“Sorry I’m late kids, I had to go to the grocery quickly. Lucky your dad picked me up” called mom.

Jieun quickly ran out to meet them while I was till sat there, dazed. Did I fall asleep? I heard their voices going towards the kitchen. Then suddenly the oven alarm went off.

“aaaah! My brownies!” Jieun yelled and I can hear dad chuckling.

Mid-way through dinner, I suddenly remembered something.

“So what’s the occasion?” I asked Jieun, as I swallowed.

We all turned towards her waiting for her answer.

“umm nothing. I just had the urge to make sweets... And can you stop looking at me like that”

My sister and I are pretty close and at little things like this, I know there’s something else going on in her mind. From the corner of my eyes, I saw mom and dad make eye contact.

“Did you know how your mom and I got together?” dad said suddenly.

We don’t. We’ve heard stories from them but not of how they actually got together.

“Well, your mom gave me a box. A big box.”  He paused.

“And do you know what’s inside?” he said leaning towards us. We quickly shook our heads.

“A cake!” he exclaimed then looked at mom who started laughing and slapped dad’s arms.

“Oh gosh. I remember that. It was a strawberry cake.” She said to dad but then she turned at us.

“It was love at first sight! We met in the dance club, he was so tall and looked like a lanky kid and was totally not my type! As you know, I like the muscles!  But for some reason, when I saw him, I knew it was love! Then he participated in a school program and rapped!!!" mom said excitedly.

"I was gonna confess to him sooner but I stupidly assumed that your auntie Sunhwa was good at baking as well. So I ended up confessing to him at the end of the year instead; didn't think it would take that much time to learn how to bake, so I decided to just buy one." she continued.

We all started laughing. Auntie Sunhwa is very good at cooking but she cannot bake at all! Wait-what?

“So you’re confessing to someone?” I quickly looked at Jieun horrified.

I didn’t really mind her dating. I think. But the thought of her with another guy doesn’t sound so good. And oh gosh she’s blushing again.

“erm well.. I, uh…”

“Jieun, why don’t we try the brownies that you made?” dad said to her. Mom looked at him and smiled. Are they not even worried?

Jieun quickly got up and took the cut up squared-brownies from the counter and brought it to the table. Well they looked like brownies. I quickly took one and put it on my mouth. I chewed and chewed and realised that Jieun was sat back down in her chair and was looking at me with wide eyes.

“raht?” (what)

I continued chewing the brownie and then suddenly I felt this really warm feeling. Like that feeling when I had a scratch in arm or that time when I tripped and I had this massive wound in my knee or when I had this paper cut in my finger, then mom taking care of it and kissing it after wrapping it with some bandages then suddenly, it doesn’t hurt anymore.

This is the best brownies I have ever tasted in my entire life.

“What? What? What? Really?” Jieun exclaimed then jumped around. Did I say that out loud?

I looked towards our parents to see them nodding at her, looking pleased, while still chewing. As I was about to grab more, Jieun suddenly hugged me.

“mhubit!” (Move it)

Then she kissed my cheek and ran out of the dining room. Girls. I quickly took the plate full of brownies and put them in front of me before dad could get more.

“YAH!”

So who are the parents? Can you guys guess?

PS. I think I'll have a part 2 for this