Love Is .........

19 장

Baking is one of the ways Eon Jin release her stress. That activity can put her mind off from the problem she is facing for a while. Focusing on mixing the ingredients and making sure the batter turns out well is like a brief therapy. After what had happened last night, she really needs to bake to cool down herself from the anger.

She took out one by one of the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies as her son's favourite. After all of the ingredients are ready, she put everything in the mixer and let the machine stir. As she is checking on the batter, her doorbell rings. She wondered who could have come to her house this early. It's not even 8 in the morning. She lowered down the speed of her mixer to avoid the dough being overmixed. Cleaning her hands clean and wiping them dry, she rushed to get to the door. "Oppa, is that you?" she asked from inside loud enough to get it heard by the other person outside. No response. Maybe he did not listen to her, she thought. When Eon Jin opened her door, she was greeted by an unexpected guest.

"Good morning," said the person at her doorway.

Eon Jin is out of words. "Jayson ssi, what are you doing here very early in the morning? It's..." she peeped at his watch on his wrist to see the time. "It's 7.40 am."

"Are you surprised?" he asked while showing his broad smile. The wrinkles around his mouth are showing but to Eon Jin, that is Jayson's charm.

"Of course, I am. Come on in," she invited the man who came all the way from Seoul very early on a Sunday morning. "Have a seat. Let me make you a cup of coffee," she asked Jayson to sit in the living room, but the man chose to sit at the dining table instead. Eon Jin walked to her kitchen and begin to brew some beans in the coffee machine. "Do you like strong coffee or mild?"

"Do you have somewhere in between? Not too strong and not too mild?"

"Okay, I make it medium," she brewed it just as Jayson requested. Eon Jin brought the freshly brewed coffee to her guest.

"Thank you." his eyes are fixed on the running mixer at the kitchen counter. "Are you baking something?"

"Since I have nothing to do, I guess I should bake something to kill time. Besides, it helps me to de-stress. My kind of meditation," she chuckled at her own words while turning off the mixer.

She brewed a cup of coffee for herself and took a seat in front of her guest, "So, what makes you drove down here very early? It's Sunday, and I don't think my boss would want to have a meeting on a weekend morning. His wife might kill him if he does."

Jayson laughed at her unexpected joke. Eon Jin sometimes can be funny with her words though it was not her intention to joke about it. "Okay, I came to see you. You sounded so stressed last night on the phone, so I thought you might need someone who can be a listener to you. Hence, this morning when I woke up at 4, I decided to drive here."

Once again, Eon Jin is speechless. This man woke up very early and drove three hours from Seoul just to comfort her. She wondered if it was obvious that she was furious last night when she talked to him on the phone? "Did I sounded mad?"

Propping his chin on his elbow and looking at her, he shook his head, "Not really. But from your tone, I know you are frustrated. I know you want to leash out your anger, but you can't as you don't know who you should be mad at."

'He knows me even when I don't say it,' Eon Jin monologued to herself. She just smiled guiltily at him. How kind of him to drive from Seoul to Daegu very early in the morning just to check on her.

"I admit I was mad last night, but this morning I am quite okay. At least, I am not furious like yesterday," Eon Jin sipped her coffee slowly. "Thank you for checking on me, but you know you don't have to come this far. A call or video call is enough."