UNDERGROUND | JJK (Being Rewritten)

C H A P T E R 9

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Mirae's escape lost it's grandeur the moment she wore the apron in Grandma Min's shop. After Leeyeon left with much complaints yet sending well wishes her way, Mirae stood awkwardly in front of the shop until Grandma Min brought out a dusty apron and wordlessly went back inside.

Mirae dusted the apron, sneezing in the midst and finally tying it around her body. The knot was another conquest but she managed after multiple failed tries, face growing hot as people started staring at her. With the apron tied behind her back in a messy knot, she stared at the fruits shining before her on the large table.

"The tangerines are fresh, right?"

Mirae's heart jumped out of her throat at the abrupt words from right beside her. She looked around for a second to understand whom the woman in front of her was talking to.

"Are you deaf? Mute?"

"N-no," understanding she was talking to her, Mirae quickly tried to answer her question, "they are fresh. Very fresh. Completely edible."

The woman stared at her as if she had grown two heads and Mirae knew that even that would be better than facing her embarassment. Completely edible, really?

"Right. Pack me some then. Wait, I'll pick out the fresher ones."

"If you think that you would just sneak into your bag some of my tangerines, I'll have my grandson chase you down, Minhee."

Mirae wanted to sigh out loud when she heard Grandma Min's broken voice call out with a scary threatening tone. The woman beside her stiffened, however, forcing out a laugh.

"No, Grandma. You know I would never. That one time was just an accident."

When the woman left with the tangerines after forcing out another laugh, Mirae nervously looked at Grandma Min. She did not know what to do, heck, in her life she had never even cut a fruit. Grandma Min, on the other hand, paid her no attention as she quickly started rolling back the table gently so the fruits don't tumble until it was below the shed. Only then she looked at Mirae.

"Get in here. We need to talk. I'll close early."

The room was very cosy to say the least. It looked lived in, as if the walls had seen a lot and heard a lot and unlike her mansion, the memories that lived in there were probably filled with goodness more than bad.

"Have a tangerine, Mirae."

Mirae nodded and took a tangerine from the basket filled with fruits in front of her when Grandma Min nodded towards it while dusting around the small paintings placed on a table. It took her a moment to be terrified at the realisation that she had called her Mirae instead of Ara. But before she could say anything, Grandma Min looked at her with a small smile that scare Mirae out of her wits.

"Don't worry. I only know you because Hana told me," settling on the rocking chair beside the couch with a tangerine of her own, Grandma Min croaked out a laugh at Mirae's confused face, "Hana is the woman you met at Manho's Butchery. She didn't tell you her name?"

"She had no time to. There were people knocking at the door and she wanted me to leave quickly."

At that Grandma Min's smile dimmed down a little but the wrinkles around her eyes had turned into a gentle, kind curve and that gave Mirae a strange homely feeling — a felling that felt so nostalgic and unfamiliar. She did not want to return home at all but every time that mansion flashed in her head, Mr. Lee's face covered in blood destroyed that vision.