forty

“Huiling, pass the sub.”

  “It’s Huiling-noona,” she corrected him teasingly, handing him his turkey submarine sandwich. “Most people say that men become more polite and gentlemanly after the army, but your disregard for your formalities have not changed one bit.”

  Jun stifled a laugh. “That’s because you don’t really mind.”

  “That’s because you think I don’t really mind,” she chuckled good-naturedly, taking a large bite out of her own sandwich.

  “Ling, seriously? You’re not trying to adopt Seonjung’s attitude, are you?” Jun raised his eyebrows at her, leaning against his chair. “She’s giving me that attitude at least three times a day, and you ought to be having pity for me instead of purposefully mocking me. Or do you find her inspirational, in some weird sense?”

  Huiling shot him a wry look. “If you’re at your wit’s end with Seonjung, then you shouldn’t even have agreed to date her. You both looked a lot better when you were best buds, really. Just saying,” she added her last phrase, feeling a bit awkward afterwards.

  But Jun barely noticed her slight discomfort. “Now you’re sounding like my mom,” he chortled in response. “For the past few weeks, Mom’s been telling me to break the truth to Seonjung. But hey, I can’t. We’ve both known Seonjung since we couldn’t even walk, and it doesn’t make sense for me to break up with her when our relationship’s perfectly fine.”

  “What you think is perfectly fine and what the universe thinks is perfectly fine – it’s two different things, Jun,” Huiling advised, enunciating on her words. “Auntie Yoona’s got a point – breaking the truth will cause less hurt and waste less time, rather than dragging it on for another year. You’ve been complaining about this before you entered the army, Jun.”

  “Oh