Catch The Stars

Chapter 8

Which is how the four of them end up sitting in the garden, wearing colorful kitchen gloves, surrounded by radish and various containers her grandmother intends to ferment her vegetables in.

Kuma is chasing butterflies around, not a care in the world.

"I can't believe this is what my life has come to," Taehyung mutters, rubbing salt in between the cabbage leaves.

Seokmin agrees. "I came here to have fun and this is what I get. I'm literally spending my summer break making Kimchi."

"I dunno, I think it's kinda fun." Nayeon pipes up, dodging the cabbage leaf Seokmin throws at her.

Jennie sighs and falls back to sit on her bum instead of on her heels, her back complaining about her crouched position. "Grandma, look, not that I don't want to help but what on earth is all this? There's no way you're going to eat this much Kimchi on your own!"

Her grandmother shrugs and puts down two huge basins in front of them. "I don't make all of that for myself, silly. I give a lot of it away to others in the village, and some of it I sell at the fall market down in Cheumsan."

"Wait-" Seokmin freezes and looks up at here. "Is my grandmother's Kimchi hers or yours?"

Jennie's grandmother gives him a bashful smile. "Oh, but that doesn't mean her Kimchi isn't good-"

"I feel so fucking betrayed."

"Don't fucking swear around my grandma." Jennie snaps, ducking her head when her grandmother pinches the skin on her nape.

"I'm going to go finish the sauce. Make sure to wash the leaves properly, okay? I don't want any dirt left in them." She sighs and walks back upstairs.

Seokmin grumbles under his breath and continues spraying the leaves with the garden hose.

"Hey, can I ask you guys something?" Jennie finds herself saying after a while.

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's about Y/n." She glances at Taehyung who just blinks at her curiously with his big eyes.

"Of course it is." Seokmin smirks and Jennie frowns at him in confusion before deciding to shrug it off.

"Is your dad- I mean, Taehyung, yesterday you said he left but did you mean that in a literal sense or...?"

Nayeon and Seokmin get conflicted looks on their faces, seemingly very uncomfortable with the question.

Taehyung breaks the awkward silence by shrugging her shoulders. "Oh, he's not dead, if that's what you're asking."

Jennie clears her throat. She didn't want to say it out loud but Taehyung doesn't seem to be too sensitive so maybe she's just worrying too much. "So, where is he, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't know." Taehyung juts her lower lip out, playing with the water from the garden house. "He was just gone one morning and he never came back."

"He basically left their mom years ago," Seokmin further explains. "He was a fucking coward. The only thing he left behind for them was debts. Y/n has to work off now."

Taehyung shoulders sag a little and she fails to keep up her cheery attitude. Nayeon looks a little helpless next to him and splashes him with water to distract him. It works, because he starts grinning and directs the hose at Nayeon face, who falls on her back and starts crying at her to stop.

Jennie sighs and lowers her head. She's such an idiot. Why the hell did She have to ask Y/n those things earlier today?

"Don't tell Y/n we told you," Seokmin says, strangely serious. "She doesn't like talking about it. She'd probably kick our asses if She knew we told you."