Don't Cry Over Phở

Chapter 17: Sweet and Spicy

My eyes twitched as I slowly grew more aware of the sunlight casting a warm glow on my face. I yawned and stretched, arching my back a little. I rubbed my eyes wondering why this morning seemed to be so particularly sunny.

I rolled over, peeking an eye at the alarm clock on my stand. It read 10:31 a.m. Wait, 10:31?! School started like almost 3 hours ago!! I was late! Panicking, I jumped out of bed and practically speed ran brushing my teeth and getting dressed. Why didn't my parents wake me up?! Usually my mom would have been running and screaming into my bedroom by now. I was never late for school and she made sure of that.

I ran down the stairs 2 steps at a time, my feet thundering on the wooden stair steps. The whole floor was practically shaking and creaking at my panicked frenzy. I was breathing hard when I reached the kitchen. To my surprise, my dad was calmly seated at the dinner table, sipping a steaming mug of Vietnamese coffee and reading the newspaper.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Liên, be more careful running down the stairs. Those laminated wood floors were expensive you know!"

I was late for school and he was worried about the wood floors?! "Ba! I'm late for school!! Why didn't you and Mẹ wake me up?!" I exclaimed.

"We decided to give you the day off so you could sleep in and rest a little. You were just hospitalized," he said. My heart rate which was beating like crazy just a few minutes before, started to subside as I realized I wasn't late for anything. My relief washed over my body.

"Oh," I said bluntly, a little embarrassed that I was caught panicking over nothing. "Thanks Ba, I'll just go back upstairs then...?" I questioned, unused to taking sick days. He nodded, going back to reading his favorite Sports section of the newspaper.

I snagged a random croissant to eat for breakfast, before running back to my room. Hooray for no school!!

I was a little worried about falling behind in school since I wasn't going to school today. Hopefully I wasn't missing anything important. A familiar small ding! sound came from my phone, interrupting my thoughts. I glanced down at it to see a message notification from Hailey. I sighed, turning my phone over and ignoring it. She had been trying to text me ever since I found out her true feelings about me in the bathroom. It was obvious she only felt guilty for being caught.

Whatever. Enough about Hailey. I pushed any thoughts about her away and finished up a couple of homework assignments I wasn't able to do yesterday because of my fainting incident. Once that was done, I flopped on my bed bored and unsure of what to do next.

Rest? Check. Homework? Check. Complete the restaurant flyers? Will be checked eventually.

The doorbell suddenly rang and I immediately sat up, feeling alarmed by its intrusion. I wonder who it could be. I wasn't expecting any visitors and I doubt my dad ordered some kind of delivery service.

"Liên! Someone's here for you!" my dad called from downstairs. Huh? Someone was here for me? I hurried downstairs, curiosity and suspicion burning in me. I wonder what this person could possibly want.

I stopped at the foot of the stairs in shock. Zoey stood in the doorway with a sheepish smile on her face. "Wha- Zoey?" I said in disbelief, "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you were hospitalized yesterday so I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. My parents allowed me to see you for like an hour before I go back to school," she explained. She suddenly smirked at me, holding up a plastic bag with a rectangular shaped box inside. "Plus I brought Korean food."

The initial shocked expression from my face dropped as a broad grin replaced it instead. "Oh my god, you really didn't have to. Seriously, thank you," I said, suddenly feeling a little choked up from Zoey's thoughtfulness. I wanted to continue, but my mouth kept opening and closing as I was at lost for words on what to say.

Zoey must have understood my unspoken gratitude because she laughed, "So are you going to let me in or what?"

"Oh yea sorry, come in!"

As I led Zoey upstairs to my bedroom, my dad yelled from the couch in the living room, "Don't forget to save some for me!"

I jokingly rolled my eyes as Zoey chuckled. "Sorry for the mess. I wasn't expecting any visitors," I apologized, quickly shoving some dirty clothes under the bed and kicking away some stray stuffed animals when we reached the bedroom.

"Nah, it's okay. I didn't tell you I was coming. And also is your room really yours if it doesn't have your own unique mess?" Zoey asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Okay true," I laughed.

Zoey plopped her plastic bag onto my bed, unwrapping it to reveal a large glass container. Even before she opened it, I could smell the delicious aroma. It was a container of spicy looking ramen noodles covered in melted cheese with what looked like rice cakes, fish cakes, boiled eggs, and green onions. It was topped off with some sesame seeds.

My mouth watered at the sight and Zoey excitedly took out some chopsticks, handing a pair to me. "This is called tteokbokki. It's one of my favorite dishes."

We dug in and although I wanted to eat it fast because it was so good, my mind told me to slow down to really savor each bite. It was spicy and somewhat sweet. It was nothing I've ever tasted before. I need to get my hands on this dish more often!

"So are you going to tell me what happened?" asked Zoey as we chewed in silence for a bit.

"Apparently I fainted from stress and exhaustion."

Zoey stopped eating for a second, shooting me an incredulous look. "Allison!"

"I know, I know it's bad," I said sheepishly. I then explained my entire restaurant dilemma to Zoey and the workload I had from it combined with school. She mostly listened in silence, chewing her rice cakes thoughtfully.

"So that's why you've been working with Luca huh?" Her smile was teasing.

"Yea, we're business partners," I said bluntly, trying to emphasize that there was nothing between us. I tried to avoid thinking about that weird moment between Luca and I yesterday. As long as we were on good terms for now, nothing else mattered.

"Uh huh," said Zoey. Her cheeky grin told me she wasn't convinced.

Reaching over to my night stand, I took a binder that was sitting there next to my lamp. Flipping through the pages inside, I handed it to Zoey.

"These are some flyers I've designed so far. I haven't decided on one yet," I said nervously. I didn't know if they were good, but I made a bunch of different ones to choose from. Most of them were rough sketches, but the idea was still there.

Zoey held the binder in her hands and flipped through the pages, smiling down at them. "These are really good, Allison!" she exclaimed in awe.

"Thanks," I smiled.

"You should run them by Luca and your parents first."

I nodded, hoping my hard work paid off and that they would like it. I had no idea when I was going to show them. Whenever we were all at the restaurant, I guess.

Zoey suddenly flopped the binder onto the bed with a giant smile on her face. Excitement shown in her eyes as she leaned forward. "Wait, I have a perfect idea on how to promote your restaurant!"