Last Night at the Café

21 | Genmaicha

A / N

This chapter is dedicated to DiverseLiterati

Also LNATC is featured on Wattpad's Fresh Reads reading list! I don't know how it happened, but here's a grand welcome to new readers!

~

KAZU AND HIS sister were five years apart. Kai Lin was a law student at her brother's alma mater and was wont to tease her older brother at any chance she got. The moment Seollal entered the door, her head bowed in a greeting, the girl had drawn her in with an arm around her, chattering nonstop about how the whole family couldn't wait to meet her oppa's yeochin.

The thought of being known as Kazu's girlfriend sent pleasant shivers down her spine. His father, grey haired with pleasant eyes, bombarded her with all sorts of questions on the way to the dining table while his mother, a petite lady with her dark hair in a low bun threw her sympathising gazes every now and then.

"Don't mind him," she said, a gentle hand on her elbow as she smiled, "it's his work habit."

"What's that?" he called out.

"Anyone would think you're in the court room now!" his mother retorted. "Don't scare her off."

"By the way, I'm a fan of Maru and Hwan," Kai Lin declared when Seollal took her seat at the dining table.

Then she leaned over with a twinkle in her eye, her voice lowered confidentially.

"I heard my oppa's coffee was fuel for your soul."

Beside her, Kazu choked violently into a fist, the tips of his ears turning a bright red.

No way. She had seen that page? Her face grew warm as she recalled the message she had scribbled for him even before they had gotten together. Under the table, she, gripped tightly onto her knees, silent agony channelled into the action.

His whole family had read the book, she remembered him saying. Just how much of the book had they read?

"Seollal-ssi," his mother said, pushing a platter of fish to her. "Help yourself to more food. I heard you've been feeding our Decha as well. Don't neglect your health."

She dutifully held her bowl out as a slab of fish meat was placed in it.

The table was filled from end to end with dishes testament to the mix of cultures present. There was seaweed soup, a platter of sashimi, mango salad that Kazu had prepared, dumplings that his mother and sister had put together just that morning, a steaming bowl of doenjang jjigae, a broth of fermented soybeans with cut chili, tofu, clams, zucchini and radish, and a slew of other side dishes.

But in the back of her mind, she had picked up on the term of address his mother had used. Decha.

She cast him a glance. He never really spoke much of his Thai heritage. Seollal has always known him as Kazu, never Decha. Although he had shared his name with her, he had never requested for her to use it, and neither had she asked.

Decha.

She rolled his name around in her head.

"How do you find our Decha?"

"He's a good child." The words came out before she realised what she had said. "Oh! He's a good person. He's – "

He's polite and attentive.

But it sounded much like something she said about her students.

He makes me laugh.

But it sounded too generic and could be applied to the variety shows she enjoyed watching.