Eternity [ryeji]

Chapter 25

Mr. Hwang steps out of his room to see Ryujin sitting on the couch, watching a morning cartoon show on TV with the volume turned down.

"Good morning, Sir." Ryujin immediately stands up, nearly knocking her cup of coffee over in her rush.

"At ease, Ryujin," he says. "Don't be so stiff and awkward around me. You can consider me your uncle or something."

He goes to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, perfectly aware of the woman following him.

"Can I not do that?" Ryujin asks meekly, sitting at the counter, watching the man.

"Why don't you want to do that? I was close friends with your father, you know." He turns around, taking a sip from his mug.

"But I... I mean... Yeji and I... Um..." Ryujin looks down at her own mug, unsure how to say what she has in mind.

"It's just a figure of speech. We are not related in any way so don't worry," he says in understanding. After all, he was married once. He knew the fear and uneasiness of dealing with the in-laws and the worry that he could be related to the person he was in a relationship with.

Ryujin looks up. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," he says. "There's no marriage ever recorded between our families. I've checked."

"Thank goodness." Ryujin exhales in relief and drinks the rest of her coffee.

"Have you eaten?" he asks.

Ryujin shakes her head.

"Do you want cereal? Or toast? Or sandwich? Yeji really loves peanut butter and jelly sandwich so there's always bread around the house." He starts checking the cabinets.

"I'm fine with anything, Sir."

"Oh I know!" He abandons his search and goes to check the fridge instead. "How 'bout some toast and scrambled eggs? American style breakfast?"

Ryujin smiles and nods. "Sounds great."

"Awesome! You should try my scrambled eggs. I learned from a five-star hotel chef who was the best cook in the nation at that time." He checks the shelves and claps his hands. "Ooh! Yeji even has bacon and sausages!" He takes the packaged meat out. "Tomatoes too! Awesome! I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"

"You're over your jet lag, Sir?"

He nods. "Been over it for a couple of days now. It's strange but I get over jet lags pretty quickly. Not sure why that is." He starts taking out the frying pan and spatula. "How 'bout you? Did you sleep well? Was the couch comfortable?"

Ryujin looks at him in surprise. "How did you know?"

She has indeed slept on the couch, sneaking out of the room after making sure that Yeji's asleep.

"I knew that you would feel uncomfortable with me around and since you wouldn't sleep in Jisu's room, the only place for you to sleep is the couch," explains Mr. Hwang. "Plus I saw the folded blanket. It's not the usual blanket Yeji or Jisu places on the couch. You brought that out of her room, didn't you?"

He turns his head to look at Ryujin. "Thanks for being considerate but when I told you that I was okay with you staying over and sleeping in her room, I meant it. You didn't have to sleep on the couch."

She nods and quietly watches as he goes about making breakfast while talking about art since he knows what Ryujin does for a living.

He's almost done cooking when he realizes that his daughter is still asleep. "What time is it?"