“Noona, don’t be angry”

-Kim SungMin

BREAKING: SEOUL SUPERWOMAN- A SUPERHERO WHO TURNED INTO A VILLAIN

[Reporter]: Today, Miss Kim SooJin had a press conference at tvN09’s headquarters and had exposed the truth regarding the Cinderella Couple. Turns out, it was all an act. The whole nation is in shock over her confession. There are some who can’t believe that their beloved modern superhero has turned into a villain and others are busy asking for Nike to withdraw their Superwoman collection from the shelves as it can be a bad influence to the youngsters. Sources had said that the meeting with Mr. Lee SaeHyun is probably the reason why Miss Kim has come clean about her relationship with Mr. Kwon MinWoo. Some speculated that Mr. Lee SaeHyun has threatened Miss Kim that if she doesn’t tell the truth, he will ruin the Kwon’s family business. However, we are yet to confirm on the news. The Kwons have refused to comment on this matter and have asked the reporters to respect their privacy while Mr. Kwon MooWon is heading for surgery. Miss Kim SooJin was last seen leaving the tvN09’s headquarters with a man whom some pointed out to be her old flame. Could it be that Miss Kim SooJin is trying to fool everyone for money and live with her ex boyfriend as the rumours were saying? Watch out for further updates.

 30| Confession 

“So do you want to add any drinks to that, Ahjusshi?” I asked, “Don’t be a cheapskate. It’s only going to cost you 50 cents more.”

The Ahjusshi, my customer, just flashed me a toothless grin and took out his water bottle. “No, thank you. I already have my water with me,” he stated.

I gave him a look. “Ehem,” I cleared my throat and pointed at the ‘No outside food allowed’ sign that was hung above his head. “Read that.”

The Ahjusshi just shrugged his shoulders as though my words meant nothing. “It says food, SooJin, not water,” he said. “If it says no outside drinks allowed then you’re right.” He flashed me yet another toothless grin. I guess he was trying to be clever.

Aish, this Ahjusshi!!

Whatever you do, don’t ever fight with an elderly. My Appa had been hammering the thought into my head ever since I was little. He said those who do are scums of the Earth. So that was why I was holding on from strangling this old Ahjusshi’s neck.

Without muttering another word, I took a marker pen from the counter and took down the sign. I jotted down ‘/drinks’ beside the word ‘food’ and smiled in satisfaction as I showed the Ahjusshi the new and improved sign.

No outside food/drinks allowed. Yeah, take that Ahjusshi!

The Ahjusshi rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll take the drink. God SooJin, you’re always trying to milk cash from your customers!”

It was my turn to roll my eyes. As if he was a cash cow to begin with. “That’s a good boy. One beef noodle soup with a drink coming right up,” I said happily and heard his loud groan.

It had been three months since I work as a waitress at the noodle shop and the old man was my regular customer. He was just pretending not to know the rules and always like to bicker with me each time of his visit to the shop-which means every single day.

“Did you fight with Yang Ahjusshi again, SooJin?” my good-natured lady boss, Mrs. Oh chuckled when I handed her the Ahjusshi’s order, “You two are always fighting each other.”

“I wasn’t fighting him, Mrs. Oh!” I said defensively, “He’s just trying to be a cheapskate.”

Mrs. Oh shook her head and laughed quietly to herself.

I scanned the customers at the shop and saw a new couple coming in. I quickly took the menu to take their orders. “Hi, welcome to Oh Noodle Shop. May I take your order?” I said and flashed them a huge smile. I could tell that the couple was not from around the area judging by their stylish clothes. They must be from Seoul, I had thought.

The guy just gave me their order and I jotted it down. I noticed that the girl was looking at me weird. I have gotten used to some male customers staring but never once had I experienced it with a girl before. I figured that she might be in awe of my ethereal beauty, if I do say so myself.

“Yes, Miss?” I flashed the most beautiful smile I could produce at her.

The girl was still looking at me strange. “You look familiar,” she said, “Have I seen you somewhere? Were you on television before this?”

Sh1t!

During the initial period of my work at the noodle shop, there were some people who would recognise me so I had to wear fake glasses as a mean of disguise. After a few weeks, when the television had been showing lesser news of the Cinderella Couple and nation’s number 1 most hated person –me- I had stopped wearing the glasses since no one had seemed to notice me.

Apparently, there are still some people recognizing me-especially people from Seoul- like this girl in front of me. I tried to look cool about it. “Me? On television? I wish!” I feigned a laugh.

The girl was still looking at me strange. Then she said to her boyfriend, “Oppa, doesn’t she look familiar?”

It was the guy’s turn to take a good look at me. Lucky for me, he did not seem to recognize who I was. “No, I don’t think she looks familiar,” he had said.

The girl did not seem to be listening to his words and was still looking at me, still trying to figure me out. “I swear I have seen her somewhere,” she mumbled.

I took it as my cue to leave the couple before they finally figured out who I was. I handed their order to Mrs. Oh and she too was looking at me strange.

“They’re not from here, are they?” she inquired and I nodded glumly. “Do they know you?”

JiWoon had told all about me to Mrs. Oh when I first arrived at GwangJu. She had been nothing but sympathetic towards me and had always tried to cover for me whenever I was in the danger of being found out. I think I got lucky to have the opportunity to work at a place like this. However, I had never met with JiWoon’s friend—the one who was kind enough to introduce me to the place.

“The girl said that I look familiar,” I said, “but luckily she doesn’t remember where she has seen me.”

Mrs. Oh gazed at me with those motherly features of hers. “Don’t worry, SooJin-ah. I’m sure people don’t hate you anymore. It has been three months.”

She did not need to remind me how many months it had been. I had been counting the days ever since I had arrived at the GwangJu town.

“It’s only three months, Mrs. Oh,” I pointed out glumly, “People just don’t forget the villain. Ever.”

A sad smile began to appear on her features. She turned to look at me with those sad eyes of hers. Without saying another word, I understood what she was trying to convey through her eyes—she was telling me that I was strong and could face all the hurdles in my life no matter what stupid decisions I had made in the past.

“I think you’re done for the day, SooJin,” Mrs. Oh finally said, “You can go home now. Didn’t you say that your best friend is coming to visit you today?”

Damn it! I had forgotten all about HaNeul coming to visit me that day. I thanked Mrs. Oh for her kindness and rushed to get to my rented tiny 1 bedroom flat. It was all I could afford at the time. Mind you, being a waitress is not exactly luxurious.

HaNeul had called me a few days before that telling me that she was coming for a visit—her third to be exact. The GwangJu town was not really far from my village—it took about 4 hours drive—so that was the reason behind her frequent visits. Besides, she had always told me that she felt bored at the village without me being there and was afraid of becoming more and more like my Umma. I couldn’t blame her though, whoever in their right mind would want to become like my Umma?

However, there was something amiss when HaNeul had called me that time. I was sure she was hiding something from me. I mean HaNeul had always been a bit on the cuckoo side but it had seemed that she was acting stranger than her usual self. I bet it had something to do with her love life. I did not know why she was acting all secretive about him. She had only told me that she had a boyfriend about a month ago and refused to divulge other info about the guy. Heck, I even had believed that maybe there was no boyfriend after all—that maybe all HaNeul had was an imaginary boyfriend.

Funny come to think of it. I had gotten myself a fake fiancée and HaNeul was happy with her imaginary boyfriend. We were best friends after all. Maybe we both had gone bonkers.

When I got to my room, I tidied up the place for a bit before turning on the television. The television was my only way to know about Haraboji’s condition. I had found out that Haraboji had successfully gone through with his bypass surgery and was recuperating well at home. I also found out that Lee EunJae had gone back to her father although I thought that it was strange that she had voluntarily gone back. I thought she would not, not until she was married to MinWoo or something. Well maybe Lee SaeHyun had actually listened to my words and gave them his blessings.

Kwon Min Woo.

Even thinking about the name was bringing me pain. I wonder how he was doing with EunJae. I was sure they were already working on the rough patches and rekindling the old flame. The thought of them being so happy together was so upsetting that I flipped the television channel in fury. I finally settled on an evening drama.

“I love you,” the male lead was saying to the female lead.

“I love you too,” the female lead was saying.

Aish. Even the evening drama was trying to pick a fight with me. I flipped to another channel and another drama was showing.

“Why did you do that, Oppa?” the female lead was crying and her hands were gripping the arm of the male lead.

The male lead turned to look at her. “It’s because I love you.”

I flipped to another channel and decided to watch one which was showing a documentary about penguins. I thought that animals would never make me angry.

“So here we can see now that the male penguin is trying to mate with the female penguin,” the commentator could be heard saying while it showed a penguin making its way to another penguin.

You have got to be kidding me!

I immediately turned off the television and threw the remote control away in fury. I just had about enough with all these corny evening dramas and documentary. It was as though they were constantly trying to remind me of the fact that I was lonely and would probably die as a spinster.

To keep my cool, I went to the kitchen to cook. It was my only solace. Cooking had always been my stress reliever. I decided to make my infamous kimchi fried rice, Haneul’s favourite dish of mine. I tell you, that girl could eat like a horse.

It was not long after I had finished setting up the table that I heard the knock on my door. I immediately went to open the door and was shocked to find a grinning SungMin there.

“What are you doing here, ?” I asked, “Where’s HaNeul?”

HaNeul immediately jumped from behind SungMin. “Gotcha, didn’t I?” she chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. I welcomed them in although I was a bit perplexed about why SungMin was there too. They both made their way into my flat.

SungMin handed me a paper bag. “Umma asked me to bring this to you,” he said. Then he sniffed the air around the flat and flashed me a toothy grin. “You’re cooking kimchi fried rice, aren’t you?”

Without wasting another moment, the two guests of mine—although one was not invited—quickly sat on the floor around my tiny dining table. Then they ate like they were starving to death, acting as though at their own home.

“Yah! You two! Save some for me!” I shouted and sat opposite them at the table. I gave SungMin a look.

“What?” he asked and tried his best to look innocent.

“Why are you here?” I asked, “You’re not here to borrow my money, right? Like I told you countless times, I’m broke.”

“No, why would I need any money?” he scoffed. Weirdly enough, SungMin then stole a quick glance at HaNeul. “I’m here because HaNeul has something to tell you,” he said and cleared his throat awkwardly.

He did not even answer why he was there, that .

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and was looking at HaNeul expectantly. HaNeul looked like a deer being shone with headlights. She fidgeted on her seat and she too was stealing a glance at SungMin.

What is up with these two clowns?

“SooJin, don’t be startled okay?” she said finally, “It’s about my boyfriend that I told you about.”

I knew it. It must be an imaginary boyfriend.

HaNeul took a deep breath. “My boyfriend—is—him,” she stuttered, “SungMin.” They both looked at each other for a moment before turning their attention back at me.

“WHAT?!!” I could feel all the blood had left my face. “Are you being serious right now?”

HaNeul and SungMin had both nodded eagerly and as evidence, they had even held up their intertwined hands with each other for me to see.

It was as though a rain of rocks had fallen on my head. I could not even believe what I was seeing. My best friend with my brother—who would have thought?

“Since when?” was all I could ask. I was too dumbfounded to even speak.

“It’s still new, SooJin-ah,” HaNeul said, “Maybe about two months.”

My eyes nearly popped out of my eye sockets. “Two months?!” I shrieked. “Does Umma know?” I asked to SungMin.

SungMin nodded. “We told her last week and she gave us her full blessing,” he said.

I gave him a look. That definitely did not sound like my Umma. I was sure he had made it all up.