Last Night at the Café

12 | Seollongtang

"EARTH TO SEOLLAL," a voice buzzed in her ear. "Earth to Seollal. Seollal ah! Eodiya?"

(Where are you?)

She looked up from her bowl of beef bone soup, the milky depths mirroring her clouded thoughts. She had asked Yu Ah out for dinner and after a bout of browsing through cosmetics and facial products in Myeongdong, they had stumbled into a diner with booth seats and glass panels that accorded them privacy.

"Am I a fool?" she muttered with a sigh as she planted her chin in a hand.

"Yes," Yu Ah blurted immediately.

She narrowed her gaze at her friend before returning to stir morosely at her seolleongtang. She had believed a day of endless walking would relieve the pent up energy and tension 

"I flared up at him," she admitted, her gaze on her soup.

She seemed to have some knack in making things worse between them. Hadn't she wanted to make things normal between them again?  

"Who?" Then with a gasp, she raised a finger in the air. "Your Kazu?"

"He's not mine!" she grumbled.

Why had she said what she did earlier? Why had she run away again? She knew she had been more than rude. We aren't that close? Who says that sort of thing?

Her friend raised a brow as she mirrored her posture, supporting her chin in the palm of her hand.

"What do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know." She gave her bowl a stab. "I should apologise, shouldn't I? But what do I say? He's seeing someone else. If I tell him – "

If I tell him I like him, what is he going to think? And why am I so angry anyway?

"You're jealous," she pointed out as she jabbed her chopsticks in the air.

"I'm not jealous!" she exclaimed.

Soup dripped from the end of her friend's utensils. Seollal pushed her hand aside with a mock grimace.

"Yes, you are. Why else would you still be moping?"

She let out a long sigh, casting her gaze aside.

"There's nothing to be jealous about. Maybe I just gave it too much thought."

~

"HYUNG, YOU KNOW the girl who was here the other day?"

He raised his head, casting the man a spare glance. Dong Woon had an elbow propped on the counter as he leaned over, the thick locks of his fringe falling over his forehead.

He had seated himself at Seollal's table the other day and Kazu was sure he had meant her. Then again, all sorts of girls came into Home. But if he thought he could delude himself into thinking that Dong Woon had meant someone else, then he thought wrong.

"What about it?" he muttered distractedly.

He pressed the tamp into the well of ground coffee, his mouth pursed. There weren't many customers at this hour; there was a couple at the windowseat taking pictures and a group of highschool students at the living room setting.

"The one sitting alone at the table there?"

Dong Woon jerked his chin to Seollal's table. It was empty now, as it usually was on a weekday afternoon. In fact, this wasn't Dong Woon's usual hour either. He was a regular at Home, and like Seollal, was one of the few who conversed easily with the staff like friends did. He had dropped by, as he claimed, for a mid-day 'perk me up' - that included some persistent questioning.