Broken Deal | Choi Jiung

7

the next morning, ba ram could not find her mom anywhere in the house so she thought that she had already went to work.

however, the moment ba ram stepped out of the house, there her mom was, lying on the ground, just right in front of their car. ba ram ran next to her immediately, cupping her mom's face to feel that her face is way too hot.

"eomma, eomma, are you okay?! can you hear me?"

her mom was silent but her eyes opened a little bit to look at ba ram's pale face, too shocked at her mom's state.

"let's go to the emergency room, eomma. i will call someone to help us." ba ram left her mom's side for a while to run to their neighbor's house and knocked on their door. when their neighbor heard the story and saw ba ram's mom was still lying on the ground, they immediately went to help.

ba ram thanked her neighbors after her mom was successfully able to secure a room after a 30minutes check up with the doctor. ba ram was thankful that her neighbors were kind enough to wait with her until hearing that her mom was okay and there's nothing to worry about.

ba ram got into the room her mom was warded in and saw her mom was resting on the hospital bed.

"eomma, is this because of your work again?"

ba ram's mom let out a weak chuckle. "it's not, ba ram. i just feel weak today. maybe it's the weather."

"if it's the weather, i would be sick too, eomma. i told you not to overwork yourself. what if something bad happened to you? thank god i saw you."

"okay, okay, ba ram. i don't need to hear your lecture the second i opened my eyes. thank you, my lovely daughter."

ba ram tsked at her mom and held her mom's hand. it was warm and soft. since she was young, she loved her mom's hands the most. it's her safe place. being near her mom, being able to touch her mom made her feel safe. she could not lie, she was close to cry her eyes out the moment she saw her mom on the ground but now that her mom is okay, she felt more at ease.

"don't you have to go to school?" her mom's voice made her looked up, out of her thoughts.

"it's okay. I'm a genius, eomma. one day absence won't make me fail high school." ba ram and her mom just laughed it off and ba ram massaged her mom's hand and shoulders. "do you have anything to eat, mom?"

"i want your special kimchi jigae." her mom smiled sheepishly at her.

"what- you want me to cook it for you? so, i have to go home now?" her mom just nodded at her, her eyes also widened a bit, trying to act cute in front of ba ram. "fine, just because you are sick. maybe I'll be back in 2 hours."

"take your time, my sweetheart." ba ram got up and kissed her mom's forehead before waving bye to her.

ba ram stopped by at the nearest market to buy ingredients she needed to make her kimchi jigae. ba ram was quiet worried because it has been a long time since she stepped in the kitchen but she thought it would be fine as long as she follow the recipe.

as she neared her house, she saw a figure standing in front of her gate and when she got closer, she saw that it was ji ung.

"what are you doing here?" ji ung looked at her when he heard her voice. he then moved closer and circled her, looking up and down.

"are you okay? why are you not at school today?" ji ung asked as he grabbed all of the plastic bags ba ram was holding and followed her to the front door.

"my mom was warded. she collapsed this morning. you can come in if you want to." ba ram said as she unlocked the door and got inside.

ji ung was hesitant but got in after realizing that her mom was not there. he mumbled a quiet 'excuse me' before removing his shoes and again, followed ba ram to the kitchen and placed the plastic bags on the island.

"these are heavy. what's all of these for?" ji ung asked, walking to the chair next to the counter and seated himself.

"my mom wants kimchi jigae so I'm making it for her. do you want to help?"

ji ung shook his head, "i don't want to poison your mom, ba ram." he chuckled awkwardly. "i don't even know how to boil water."

"okay then. why are you here though?" ba ram started to move around the kitchen doing the things she needed to do for her kimchi jigae.

"i brought notes from today's classes. thought you might need it." ji ung rummaged inside of his bag and pulled out a small notebook with colorful sticky notes inside. "here."

ba ram stopped whatever she was doing and sit next to ji ung, grabbing on the notebook to read what was inside.

"woah, you wrote all of this?" earning a small nod from ji ung, ba ram continued to awe at the notebook filled with her chemistry and physics notes.

everything was written neatly. the keywords were highlighted with pink and blue highlighters, sticky notes were added for additional information or explanation of jargons. only then, she realized ji ung did all of this and did not sleep in class.

"you did this instead of sleep, today?"

"no. i did sleep a bit today but after finishing all those notes of course. i didn't know it was so hard though." ji ung pinched the side of his head as he told her the hard work he had to go through. he then added, "this can help you graduate, right?"

ba ram smiled happily, closing the notebook to look at him. "of course it will! thank you, ji ung. i appreciate this a lot." ji ung also smiled brightly after hearing ba ram's words.