wow this was supposed to come out earlier but I was distracted by tumblr lol if anybody is wondering it's junhongover(.tumblr.com). i apologize for any of my subscribers that have been to Korea and understand how it is there, I try (I know that the restaurant in unlike some Korean restaurants) to do my research and represent as well as I can. hope you like this update~ hehe

 She took out a small tortoise, and Sooyoung found that she couldn’t control her laughter. Yoona kept a completely thrown off and confused expression as she held the cute reptile in her hand. It changed onto an irritated one and she rolled her eyes, “Yuri! Did you switch out the pets again? Don’t you know how much Miso hates the smell of him in the place she calls home! Why did you have to do this prank today?” 

  As expected, the older woman walked into the room from right outside, a truly happy smile on her face. “I knew it would amuse the guest, and that you wouldn’t be mad at me because of that same reason. You always fall for the oldest trick don’t you?” The teasing her voice was unhidden as she headed slowly toward the two. 

  “I’ll get back at you, you know. I always do,” Yoona sighed and Yuri changed into a secret glance that made Yoona’s smile beam through. “If you even think of bringing that up I’ll give you the worst thing you could imagine.” 

 Yuri didn’t seem phased, “What? Like you’d bring back my worst memory?” Yoona lowered her eyes and changed the way her eyebrows were arrayed, a devious smile appearing. They’re real roommates, that’s all I can say. Yuri shook her head slowly, “You wouldn’t.” 

  “I would, and I can,” Yoona’s voice began to sound menacing and she turned back to Sooyoung with the usual innocent face, entirely different than it just was a second ago. “Excuse us for that, I’ll get Miso while she can introduce you to Bruce.” The way she pronounced the name “Bruce”, made Sooyoung giggle again; making Yuri look at her oddly as Yoona left. 

  “What?” The older of them asked, holding the tortoise in her palms. 

 “Nothing, show me this precious smelly ‘Bruce’,” Sooyoung smiled and turned her attention to the reptile. 

  “You are right, he is precious. He was a gift I got from Yoona a year ago, in return for me giving her Miso the year before. We shouldn’t handle him much, so she has to hurry with the cat. His name is Bruce because that’s the best name we could think of for a turtle,” Yuri explained and let Sooyoung pet the back to help soothe him. 

  “He’s so adorable, will he get bigger?” Sooyoung asked curiously as Yoona walked into the room, and just when it was becoming awkward between the two. 

  “Yeah, but not too much bigger, just enough to be a man while still being cute,” Yuri responded and turned to Yoona. “And this is Miso, the resident cat queen. As I’ve told you, she’s about two and half years by now I think.” 

  “Thanks Yoona, you came at the right time. I’ll have to repay you for that later,” Sooyoung whispered to the younger person; hoping that Yuri couldn’t hear. 

  Thankfully, she understood and whispered back, “You don’t have to do that, I just came in because I had found the cat, not because of perfect timing.” 

  Sooyoung shrugged, “I’m still going to repay you later for it.” Making sure that Yuri didn’t seem left out from the quiet conversation, she said out loud while looking at the very fluffy white cat in Yoona’s arms. “So this is the famous Miso, she’s so cute!” 

  Yoona smiled and gently held one of the feline’s paws, “She says hello to you too, and that you should pet her.” Sooyoung listened and pet the animal’s fuzzy fur, it was very soft, and made her remember the cat she had as a kid. As Yuri went to put Bruce away, the quietness began to become awkward, and it wasn’t long before Yoona had something to discuss about. 

  “So why are you here? Not to mean it in a rude way, but I was just curious.” That question struck her for a second, but she knew the answer immediately, although it started out chokingly. 

  “T-to see my family, catch up with my home country, and see what kind of friends and family my wife has,” she replied and shrugged, “Nothing much. Plus it’s nice to visit here once in awhile.” 

  Yoona nodded and set down Miso, “That’s true. Let me go show you the rest of the house!” And that’s how Sooyoung learned that roommates are a mixture of both friends and family, also that Bruce is the best name for a turtle. 

The next morning they had planned to go sightseeing with Sooyoung, although Yuri couldn’t make it due to work and Jessica was coming late. So, the morning and early afternoon was only Yoona and Sooyoung. In Sooyoung’s opinion, it didn’t go bad. As for Yoona’s, it could’ve been better. 

  The morning started when Sooyoung woke up while Yoona was taking a shower. Sooyoung sat at the kitchen table, hungry. Sadly, she had forgotten what Koreans eat for breakfast and ended up sitting there after looking around the kitchen for a box of cereal for nearly twenty minutes. 

  After the sad outcome of her search, she had nothing better than to do than sit at the table and flip through the television channels. “No wonder I left here, it’s really boring. The news isn’t interesting, and I don’t know what’s going on in the dramas. It’s an awkward time so I can’t watch a variety either.” 

  “Korea’s boring eh?” Yoona’s voice on the left shocked her, and her heart raced for a slight second of surprise. She turned her head to see the girl dressed fully with black skinny jeans and a light blue shirt. “You’ll learn today that there’s more to this beautiful country other than dramas, varieties, and idols.” 

  Sooyoung got out of her position and stood up, facing Yoona. “You shower for too long, I’ve been switching through the channels for a half hour, plus the twenty minutes beforehand where I was searching everywhere for cereal. Give an American a break, gosh.” 

  Yoona laughed kindly, “I’m sorry we don’t have the ‘American’ feel in our apartment, you can bring it in if you want. As for the long shower, I’m sorry for that too. I wasn’t showering the whole time though, I had to shave and put on makeup too.” 

  “I may have to, I have a bad memory and don’t remember what you guys have for breakfast here. So I’ve been both bored and hungry,” Sooyoung added and flashed off the TV, now curious what the day ahead of her was headed. 

  “I apologize for that too, I should’ve been considerate and remembered I had a guest over.” Yoona summed up the one discussion and changed it immediately, “Anyway, we eat whatever we want really. Sometimes we have cereal or waffles like what you’re used to, but I prefer some morning rice and a cup of tea.” 

  “That sounds...weird, to me. I think I’ve been in America for too long,” Sooyoung shrugged and headed toward the fridge. 

  “No, it’s just because you’re used to those things. Since you’re the guest, what do you want to eat for breakfast?” Yoona asked and followed the visitor. 

  “I’m trying to get used to the new Korean things, so I’ll have what you like to eat in the morning.” She replied and turned around back to the kitchen’s table, sitting in the seat Jessica had sat in the night before. 

  “Alright,” Yoona responded and changed the topic quickly as she prepared the breakfast, “Did you sleep well? I hope the couch was comfortable enough for you.” 

  “It was, thanks for asking. You have a great apartment here, when did you move in?” She stayed on the obvious questions, not trying to be too intimate when they barely just met.

  “Four, three years ago? Somewhere around there, when my mom kicked me out and I had no place to go, Yuri and I agreed to share an apartment with a fifty-fifty type thing.” Yoona replied casually, the tone more cheerful than earlier. I still can’t trust her, she and Yuri may be serial killers working together. I have to test them with knives sometime soon...

  The rice and tea weren’t terrible in her opinion, although she thought a quick cereal or some pancakes would’ve been much better. As for afterward, the two were on the streets of the busy Sinpodong. By lunch time, which was about 1PM, the two decided on a restaurant and sat down to eat. 

  “So how do you like the market so far? I’m sorry if I’m boring, it can be harder to talk with you because I’m not very good at English.” Yoona began as they sat down at their table, facing each other. 

  “It’s okay, I’ve actually got used to the accent, plus makes you even cuter,” Sooyoung teased while the waiter was setting down the menus and introducing himself. 

  “Hello I’m Jiwon, and I’ll be your waiter for today. Here are your menus, I’ll be back in a bit for your orders,” he said, or at least that’s what Sooyoung was pretty sure he said. The two nodded lightly as he walked away toward another table. 

  “I think he was my waiter before, but I can’t remember where or when, his face looks familiar,” Yoona added but turned back to the guest. “Do you want anything? I know some of the stuff here is really good, so I suggest anything.” 

  “Oh, not really. I’ll probably end up having what you’re having, since I forgot what a majority of these taste like,” Sooyoung replied, twisting her head to look out the window to her left. “Any news of when Jessica’s coming? Not to sound rude, you’re awesome, just it’s a bit awkward and I’m like a total foreigner here and yeah...” 

  “She said this morning that she’d meet us at my uncle’s store at two or two-thirty, and honestly, I don’t blame you, it’s really odd going into a completely different country,” Yoona said, her eyes looking toward the menu again. “I think I’ll have the ddeokbokki and...” she paused to think of something else, “Do you want meat?” 

  Sooyoung shrugged, “Sure, whatever’s the best to you. I’ll eat whatever.” An awkward silence  followed and she attempted a conversation again, this with her limited Korean, “We can talk in Korean if you’d really like, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable either.”

  Yoona coughed out something from and exhaled fully, “That’s okay, you don’t have to do that for me. We can just speak in English, since it’s easier for you.” 

  “Why not both? We can normally talk in English and then if you don’t know something in English, you say it in Korean. I can start a Korean conversation every once in awhile too,” Sooyoung was proud of herself for being able to say that sentence without any assistance. Maybe I should watch some Pororo again...

  “You don’t have to! I can handle all that English, it’s not like I don’t understand a majority of the conversation like you in Korean. Don’t feel bad for me, it’s helping me become more international,” Yoona responded just as the waiter came back to take their orders. 

  “Fine, but for that reason exactly you have to order for me. Also I forgot the whole ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ parts so I’m never sure which one I’m using,” Sooyoung confessed, embarrassed by the lack of information she had on her home country. 

  Yoona ordered what Sooyoung believed was kimchi, ddeokbokki, some type of meat she couldn’t specify, and another kind of soup or salad. She turned to face her guest after that, “You’ve only been using informal so far, so it looks we’ll be doing some teaching for you then. Especially if you want to buy something, you need some manners.” 

 “Well, as long it’s okay that I use it around you, since you’re younger than me, right?” Sooyoung continued to keep up the discussion in Korean, trying her best to not mess up by using the wrong words or something different. 

  “Right, though from a native’s view, you do have an accent while pronouncing the words. Like an American, you could say, with harder sounding endings and a bit messy sentence structure, but I don’t blame you at all.” Yoona voiced her opinion on the ‘fifteen-year break from Korea’ sounding talk and smiled, hoping it didn’t sound rude. 

  “I know, let’s change the topic off of me.” Sooyoung wanted to change it immediately, they were talking about the same thing for too long, but to her dismay, she couldn’t think of anything to talk about. 

  “Oh, okay. Then..um...” Yoona looked into the distance, making her best effort to not make the other person quiet and awkward. She thought of something quickly, remembering what Jessica had also told her about Sooyoung in the morning. 

  “Ask about her family life, I’m really curious about it and haven’t had time to get through to it. It’d mean a lot to me,” Jessica had said on the phone around six-thirty AM to a barely awake Yoona. 

 “Okay, family, got it...” Yoona’s words slurred while she sat up slowly from her bed. 

 “Don’t try to talk about me that much either, I’m sure she’s had too much of me when we were in the same room for three days.” Jessica added hurriedly, by the sound of the background, she was getting ready to leave for work. “Oh, and never mention Daewook, she doesn’t really like him.” 

 “Yeah, yeah, mention Daewook...” Yoona was too tired back then to fully understand what Jessica was saying, her ears only focusing on certain words. 

  “Wrong, don’t mention Daewook, it may get her irritated,” Jessica corrected her and she had heard keys again in the background. It seemed she had said more but Yoona dosed off and only heard, “I have to go, see you later!” 

  “What? Did you say something? Oh yeah, see you later, good night.” And she disconnected the phone, set it on her nightstand, and fell, literally, right back to sleep. 

  “We were talking about my uncle’s store, how many uncles and aunts do you have?” Yoona spoke in English again and entered it innocently, not trying to sound desperate. 

  “A couple, three or four each, my family’s big on both sides.” Sooyoung replied casually, starting to become curious why the question of family was coming up a lot recently.

  “Oh, that’s cool. I have two uncles on my mother’s side and one on my father’s. Have any siblings?” Yoona struggled to remember everything that was being said, like Sooyoung was in trial and she was the jury. 

  “Yeah, a step-brother and older sister...” Sooyoung’s voice was softer, unlike the overt first impression of her, her eyes also becoming lighter and very different from before. “But...one of them died three years ago...”

  “That’s terrible! I can change the topic if you want? I know it’s hard talking about dead loved ones,” Mission abort, retreat, retreat. After Sooyoung nodded, she smiled and added excitingly, “So how about sports?”