Hyewon's POV

         Halmeoni arrived with two bowls of rice and placed them on the small table at the center of the room with two bowls of tojangguk and four bowls of banchan: jeyook bokkeum, dubu jorim,  gyeran jjim and chonggak kimchi. I was too surprised as she did all that food in less than 45 minutes. Nam Woohyun and I stood up and sat down again on the puffs of the small table. The food looked as good as it smelled.

         “Halmeoni, when did you cook all these?” Nam Woohyun said, as surprised as I was. She did really cook fast.

         “Is it too much?” She asked, clearly worried.

         “No!” Both Nam Woohyun and I said at the same time, raising again the awkwardness between us.

         Halmeoni looked at us, from Nam Woohyun to me as she laughed meaningfully. “An elder just learns to cook fast as the years pass by.” She laughed and squeezed her hands, shyly.

         I grabbed a small amount of the rice with the spoon and took some tofu from the dubu jorim in my mouth with the steaks. It tasted awesomely. I think it was the best tofu I had ever eaten. Nam Woohyun too took some rice with the spoon and a bit of the eggs in the gyeran jjim and made a tasteful look in approval.

         “Halmeoni!” He cried. “This tastes so good!”

         “Yes!” I nodded, joining his opinion, as halmeoni just laughed. “I don’t think I could ever cook all these in just 45 minutes even if I’m 90 years old, you know.” I said, feeling too useless because I used to cook ramen with any vegetables as my daily food.

         “Of course you won’t cook all that because when you’ll be 90, you won’t cook anything, pabo.” Nam Woohyun put his fist on my head, messing a small part of it as I moved my head to dodge him, and narrowed my eyes at him again.

         “Yah!” I cried as he just laughed.

         “Aigoo, these kids.” Halmeoni once again laughed, reminding me of her presence there. I lowered my head to my rice bowl and kept eating in silence as she passed her eyes from me to Nam Woohyun and back at me. “Aren’t you going to tell me what’s happening here?”

         “Wh-what are you talking about, halmeoni?” I said with a trembling voice, feeling too nervous and my chest pumping hard.

         “Your jokes, your teasing, your looks, the silence, the awkwardness between you two. You seem to be communicating each other with your thoughts. Those are things that Hyunsoo and I were used to do just when we met each other and were starting to feel something else than friendship towards the other.” She said, suspiciously, making me feel uncomfortable and more awkward.

         “Ha-ha-halmeoni! What are you trying to say?” I said rather too loud, even more than expected.

         “Aigoo, Hyewon-ah, you’re always like this?” Halmeoni smiled and looked pitiful at me.

         “Yes, halmeoni, she’s always like this. She’s naïve, innocent, funny, cute…” Nam Woohyun looked at me and I couldn’t help but to look up at him and there was that bright in his eyes that overwhelmed me and made unable to look away.

         Just when halmeoni cleared was when I finally looked away, down to my food and started to eat, feeling my stomach quite empty now, as if the ton of food I was eating then wasn’t enough to fill it. Nam Woohyun stared at me for some seconds more after I looked away till he too when back to his food.

         Halmeoni just stared at us, as we started to eat just in silence, the three of us feeling the awkwardness in the atmosphere. After many minutes, both of us finished our food and halmeoni took the plates away, even when we were reluctant to let her but she’s even more stubborn than us.

         “Halmeoni, Hyewon-ssi and I are leaving now.” Nam Woohyun said suddenly, as halmeoni came back to us after washing the dishes. I felt very bad for making her cook and wash the dishes where we ate and just leaving after eating. I wasn’t used to do any of that. I usually would wash the dishes of harabeoji, halmeoni and mine.

         “Oh, okay, okay.” She rushed to us and hugged me. She released the embrace and stared at me but didn’t say anything, just caressed my cheeks softly. She then cupped Nam Woohyun’s face and caressed him too. “Please, take care you two. And Woohyun-ah, take care of our Hyewon, hmm?” She said, smiling meaningfully.

         “Of course!” Nam Woohyun said rather too excited. He looked at me smiling but I just felt awkward again. “Bye, halmeoni.” He said before putting his shoes on and going out the house.

         “Bye, halmeoni.” I said too, awkwardly smiling at her and waving shyly. I didn’t know why I was feeling out of place but everything then just made me feel uncomfortable.

         We reached my department in silence, as I was remembering our whole conversation and I felt like blushing when he said that about kissing me. I stopped at my front door.

         “What’s wrong, Hyewon-ssi? Aren’t you going to open?” Nam Woohyun said, furrowing slightly but with a look on his eyes that I didn’t understand.

         “Oh, you’re coming in too?”

         “Sure? Why not? You don’t want me to enter?” He said, moving backwards, making me feel bad. I was confused once again and would like to think more alone but I also didn’t want to make him feel like I didn’t like to be with him. Plus he told me he would stay with me the whole day.

         “I didn’t say that…”

         “You didn’t say otherwise either.” He was kind of claiming me for something I didn’t know why.

         “Let’s just come in.” I sighed and took out my keys to open the door. We entered and Nam Woohyun sat on the puff he was used to as I sat next to him, sensing the awkwardness between us.

Woohyun’s POV

         I wanted to cook something for her that’d make her feel special. I wanted to do something for her that’d show her that I did care for her. But that stubborn girl was too annoying and wouldn’t let me please her. It was frustrating but I couldn’t do anything.

         I didn’t want to visit halmeoni that day. I wanted halmeoni to see us together again when something good happened to our relationship. I didn’t want her to see that we hadn’t progressed anything and the tension between us was still there. That’s why I asked her to call me in a closer way, though I’d like her to say other thing.

         Hyewon seemed to enjoy the whole routine but when we finally got to her flat, something was clearly wrong with her. Even though Hyewon wasn’t a talkative girl, her silence and weird attitude was worrying.

         I decided to speak up first. “Hyewon-ssi, what’s wrong with you?”

         She looked up at me with that expression that I couldn’t read and worried me more, and e