The Thin Line Between Love and Hate

42

"I don't have the patience to be a mother," Soojin laughed as she heard Shuhua talk as she was chopping mushrooms for dinner, with the previous issues out of the day they manage to have some time to each other once Shuhua was able to escape family gathering for a few seconds to call Soojin. "I swear to god if they call me again just to show off the coins their father gave them-"

According to Shuhua her cousins are demoniac, that alone was enough to make Soojin burst into laughing as she could hear their voices in the background going 'Shuhua! Shuhua!' over and over until they got the Taiwanesse's attention; The twin girls, according to Shuhua herself, were like Yuqi and Miyeon had children and that was the result: loud, full of energy and lots of love to give to their adorable cousin. 

"Maybe they just missed you" Soojin replied, trying to defend the girls despite the younger's complaints.

"They are nine!" Shuhua said. "They couldn't miss me because they weren't even born when I left," She added. 

Soojin was about to reply but then she heard the two high pitched voices in the back again and started to giggle despite not knowing what they're saying, but she could hear them calling Shuhua's name again and how tired the other girl sounded. 

" I'm on the phone with a friend. Don't speak too loud! " She lectured and both girls covered their mouth so Shuhua could keep her conversation. "Sorry, they wanted to show me their new toys" She told Soojin. 

"What did they get?" The older asked, with genuine curiosity; She did want to know more about Shuhua's family. 

"Huh…" She turned to both girls. " My...Friend… Want to know what you two got? " Those words were enough to make the pair energetic again as they opened the box to show it off to Shuhua, all while Soojin heard from the other side, smiling at their excitement. "They got an oven toy and… I dunno, some cleaning toys too? Who thinks a broom is a toy?" Shuhua mumbled. "Tell me about your expectations of their future, Uncle" Shuhua added, more to herself than to Soojin, as she rolled her eyes.

It wasn't needed to be a genius to realize how traditional Shuhua's family was, from both sides even if her mother had no contact with her parents anymore; Sometimes it made her worry about their reaction if… When they find out about them, as much as she would keep it a secret for as long as Shuhua wants, Soojin also knows that no secret can be kept forever and one day Shuhua's parents will find out about it, whether they like it or not; Most of the time it was a thought that stayed in the back of her head, forgotten. But then there are times, like right now, that made her realize that it was something they would need to talk about sooner or later. 

"You should buy them actual gifts," Soojin suggested.

Shuhua turned to the kids again and once again spoke with them in her mother tongue and Soojin giggled at how she was basically their translator right now, The girls must have liked her suggestion because they started to cheer loudly before Shuhua quickly shushed them. 

"I'm guessing they liked the idea?"