Jamais Vu

Chapter 11

Sunhee had just finished cooking kimchi fried rice for the staff at the bakery. She usually cooks the food and 3 of them ate it during their break if they didn't plan to go outside for the meal. They took the break in turns so someone would always be in the bakery all the time. The fried rice smelled so good that she suddenly felt homesick. She missed her mom a lot.

Her phone rang as she scooped her rice on the plate. She took the phone put from her pocket and smiled as she accepted the call. "Eomma! I was just thinking about you," exclaimed Sunhee to the caller.

"Oh yes, you were thinking of me that you didn't even call me for a week," her mom started her complaints.

"I'm sorry, I planned to call you..."

"When? When I'm old and sick?" her mom cut in. Sunhee could always depend on her mom to be the drama queen.

"Eomma, you're young and rocking. You're even healthier than Aunt Yoon," Sunhee pacified her mom, referring to her mom's frenemy who was also the next door neighbour.

"Of course. I know that," her mom said smugly. "You haven't told me about that loan you were applying. Did you get it?"

"I got rejected again, eomma," Sunhee replied. "Hold on, eomma," Sunhee put the phone inside her pocket and brought her food and drink inside her small room. She knew the talk would be a long one. She signaled to Haewon that she would be taking the call in private. She then took a bite of the fried rice after she settled down on the mat in her small room. Her stomach was asking to be fed.

"Was it about collateral again?" her mom guessed as the talk resumed. "I told you to put the family house as a collateral. You could get approved easily," admonished her mom. Sunhee moved her ear from the phone. Her mom could be so loud when displeased. Her mom then went into the tirade of Sunhee living alone in Seoul, 160km away from her in Daejeon.

"I don't want you to lose the house if things go south. I got another option," Sunhee said in between her mom's incessant babbling.

"What is that? You won the lottery?"

"No. You know I don't buy lottery tickets," reminded Sunhee.

"You'd better start buying, who knows you might hit the jackpot," her mom advised.

"Like you always do?" Sunhee teased. Her mom was an avid lottery ticket buyer that she bought a lot in a month. Never won even once.

"I might win, one day. So what other option do you have if it's not lottery? A billionaire boyfriend? I sure hope it's not a sugar daddy, I want a legitimate grandchild from you. And don't you ever think about going to the loan shark. I'll be the shark myself and bite you off" her mom warned.

Sunhee choked on her fried rice and coughed. That was exactly what she wrote in her list. "No! I got myself a partner."

"A partner? Who is it? Another baker friend that you have? Anyone I know?" bombarded her mom again.

"Not a baker, not my baker friend and I don't think you do," Sunhee answered to all of her mom's question. Her mom wouldn't know any of Bangtan Sonyeondan's member, right?

"Is your partner trustworthy?"

"He is. We have a formal agreement and we go through the legal process and all that," Sunhee explained.

"A man, huh? Is he married?"

Sunhee rolled her eyes at her mom's question. "What does being married have to do with the business?"

"Just asking. Married men might have an interfering wife who might mess up with business especially if the partner is a beautiful and stunning single woman," stated her mom.