Seriously Yours

Chapter 8 - Grocery Shopping

It is already ten in the morning but I still haven't seen Se Ri go out of her room since last night. Yes, I would have known it if she had sneakily gone to the kitchen. I wonder if she even had her dinner outside before coming home. Did something happen yesterday?

Pushing my thoughts aside, I go to the kitchen and took a whole chicken out of the refrigerator. I prepare the ingredients for samgyetang, a Korean ginseng chicken soup, on the table. After washing the chicken, I stuff it with sweet rice, ginseng, garlic cloves, jujube, ginkgo nuts, and chest nuts, crossed the chicken legs and tie them with a cotton string, then let it boil. After it was already cooked, I put the dish on the table, looking satisfied.

Hearing light footsteps approaching in the kitchen, I stand on my side of the table with a proud face. Se Ri appears, looking the same way she was yesterday morning. But the difference is, her hair is more disheveled and she has dark shades under her eyes. She is holding a cup of noodles as usual.

'What was she doing all this time to look like that?' I say to myself and then lower down my stare at her cup noodles, 'No, not a cup noodle again.'

She is obviously surprised to see me in the kitchen. Without a word, I point to the bowl prepared in front of mine, silently telling her that it is hers.

She is about to open her mouth to say something when her stomach grumbled. I stare at her impatiently and gesture her to take a seat. She takes her seat slowly without taking his eyes off me. Why is she acting strange today?

"Did you cook this?" she asks in a low and dry voice. Sounding not her usual self.

"Yes. We have a saying that goes, "fight heat with heat" Since spring is coming and it's getting warmer, I thought of this dish," I say proudly, ushering her to take a taste. Samgyetang is a popular stamina food in summer and spring, it can supplement one's lost energy by having this soup and judging at her frail face, she will really need this.

"Oh, fight heat with heat," she murmurs to herself.

Excited for her to taste my dish, I tell her how I prepared it, only to see her hesitating and playing her spoon.

"Why?" I ask, frowning.

She looks at me furtively then said after a second she comes up with an absurd excuse... obviously.

"Ah, in the country where I came from, we let the one who cooked the food taste it first, cha!" she lifts the spoon towards me.

"I have my own too," I say coldly. Then I furrow my brows after realizing something.

"Wait a minute, are you suspecting that I put something on your food?"

"No! Of course not!" she replies hastily.

"Ah, you thought I'm gonna poison you," I said while folding my arms in front of me, giving her a somber look.

Evidently, she looks guilty so she immediately put the spoon in her mouth instead. I watch her while she chews, so she tried not to look like she is forcing herself. But after a while, her expression changed and she was chewing it enthusiastically.

"This is so delicious," she says surprisingly. She takes another spoon then another until she's inhaling the food ravenously.

I smirk and start to eat too. It will sound like a brag to say this but my dishes tasted like those served in restaurants. I actually planned to take culinary arts before but my father wanted one of his sons to take after his profession. I couldn't do anything but follow in my father's footsteps since my brother had set his mind against it.

I clear my throat after remembering something and asked: "By the way, who was that person you took a ride with yesterday?"

She lifts her face to me and gulps her food before answering, "He was Yoona's brother. Do you remember her? She's the daughter of one of those ahjumma that visited us yesterday morning."