Last Night at the Café

26 | Chanko Nabe

A / N

Another cute chapter brought to you by Seollal and Kazu.

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SHE HAD BEEN thinking about it more and more. What did he want from them?

In Korean years, the system that numbered them a year old the moment they were born, he was thirty and she twenty-six. She didn't know much about men in their thirties, not least about what they wanted from a relationship.

Did he want a family? Or, her heart tugged painfully, were they just a fling?

Was it too early to build daydreams for the future?

She felt like she had known him for ever. They had only been together for close to two months, and yet, they were so comfortable with each other, discussing their favourite books and movies, trading jokes and anecdotes from their day, cooking together in her tiny kitchen.

She chewed silently on the gimbap she had purchased from a convenience store - it did well enough as a snack when she craved something to munch on while packing for her trip home - glaring at the pile of shirts sitting beside her opened luggage. She thought he had dropped hints, here and there, that he saw a future for them. But she couldn't be entirely sure. The last time she dated, it had been a fling on her partner's side and nothing more.

She didn't quite know how to ask either.

Send him a couple quiz? Yu Ah would probably suggest that.

Ask him directly? Jieun would do that.

Tell him what I want? Anna would say that.

"You should pack some thick clothing too," Kazu said. He had stopped by her side, sipping at his mug of tea. "The temperature will drop drastically over the three months that you're home."

She pursed her mouth as her gaze narrowed on the remaining space in her luggage. Her clothes had been tucked in neat rolls, while a bag of toiletries lay to one side, together with her thicker sweaters. The trouble with returning home for three months over Winter was that she did not have enough luggage space for all her things.

"Or I can bring them for you," he suggested. "If you bring too many things, your luggage may be too heavy for you to handle."

She pursed her mouth as she tapped a finger to her chin.

"I think I might have some Winter clothes back at home," she muttered.

She hadn't thought a three month stay with her parents would require much to do in terms of packing, but here she was, sitting cross-legged on the floor, an opened luggage and a duffel bag beside her. And to think she would be leaving tomorrow!

"I have something for you," she said as she pulled a paper bag toward herself and removed a box from within it.

His eyes grew wide as he took in the heavy box composed of red and gold with a bow tied around it.

"Isn't this expensive?" he exclaimed. "You should be giving this to your parents!"

"I've already bought something for them. Open it!"

She watched with unbridled excitement as he undid the packaging, then removed the lid to reveal ten pieces of the supplement wrapped in gold foil. He stopped short, his jaw falling slack at the two neat rows of the supplement rolled into balls. He tentatively unwrapped one, before popping the ball of rolled herbs into his mouth to chew, his features crinkled in hesitancy.