Love Me Once Again

Six

Hae-e and Danli dropped by the next day. Hae-e brought my homework and the notes she took for me. Danli came for the tteokbokki. Hae-e also brought some banchan dishes from her family shop.

"Oh wow!" I thanked her as I took them. Then, I introduced them to Grandma. While Grandma prepared tteokbokki for them, I went upstairs to get Hae-e's geography notes which she had lent me previously.

"You are done? I'm in no hurry to have it back. You can actually keep it longer," she said.

"I'm done. Thanks for lending it to me," I said.

I went to help Grandma take their servings, but Hae-e beat me to it while Danli pulled me down to sit with her.

"I'll take it," Hae-e said and took it from Grandma's hands. Grandma smiled.

"Why, thank you, my dear!"

As they dug in, Danli kept exclaiming, "Wow, it's delicious. Best tteokbokki ever!"

Grandma heard her and laughed. "You can have another serving!"

Hae-e bought another portion to take home with her for her family.

"Your family sells the Nation's best banchan?" Grandma asked when I showed her the banchan dishes Hae-e had brought and she read off the packaging.

Hae-e nodded.

"I've tried once the dishes there and it's really nation's best!"

Hae-e blushed. "You are too generous with your compliment.. We are just.. okay," but she beamed with pride.

"I wish I could bring you your homework again tomorrow," Danli said. "But there's cram school tomorrow," she groaned.

"Are you still able to keep up with the work?" Hae-e asked. "Maybe we can share our notes from cram school."

"That would be great but you don't have to. After all, you paid a lot of money to be enrolled there. It's not very fair if I leeched off you.."

"Ah.. don't worry about it!" Danli piped. "Eventually, those notes would somehow slip out. There's always parents or students trying to earn money by selling the cram school notes!"

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow in question.

"Because they can't attend all the lessons from different cram schools at the same time, so they buy the notes from other cram schools."

Hae-e nodded. Then she said, "By the way, we need to go to cram school after school tomorrow. So we might not be able to come with your homework."

I nodded. "Don't worry about that."

"Maybe I can ask Kim Jong Woon," Hae-e suggested. "He doesn't seem to go to cram school."

"He doesn't," I confirmed it.

Both of them looked at me.

"How are you so sure?" Danli asked.

"Eh... I asked him before... the other day when he sent me home..."

"Taking about that, I'm surprised he offered to send Hyo-ri home," Hae-e said.

"He's actually not bad," Danli said. "I've known him since middle school. He's not mean like some of the boys. He's quiet but can be fun too. And he's actually quite a considerate and caring person. I remembered once I was so not feeling well in class because I was having my period, he actually walked over and asked me if I was okay!"

"Sounds like someone has a crush on him or something!" Hae-e teased.

"Oh, shut up. I did have a crush on him back then," Danli blushed. "But no more. He's not my type now. I prefer more sporty guys."