Three of kind

Part 4

"Mimin! Look!" exclaims the girl the moment she catches sight of the woman opening the apartment door, showing Minjeong the drawing in her hands.

"Hey, greet Mimin properly," Karina warns her daughter who politely bows and greets the blonde before jumping in place, impatiently showing her the drawing.

Minjeong only chuckles and starts praising the colorful scribbles, discussing it eagerly as she ushers the girl inside her apartment.

"That's me?" she asks while pointing at a yellow-haired person with purple legs.

"Yes!"

"And who's this?" she points at the other person next to her whose hand looks to be touching hers.

"That's Mommy. See? Pink dress!" the girl cheerfully explains. "And that's me," she points at the third, smaller figure holding an abstract square object. "With chocolate," she says, explaining the round brown shapes inside the square.

"Ah... the supermarket," mumbles Minjeong, recognizing the scene. She smiles and steals a glance at Karina who's gone to the kitchen, pretending not to hear the ongoing conversation.

Minjeong has invited Karina and Erica over for dinner at her place, to celebrate passing her certification exam.

"Hey, I want to show you something," Minjeong suddenly tells the girl after sticking the drawing on her fridge. "Wait here, okay?"

She then rushes to the bedroom but being the curious little girl she is, Erica quickly runs after Minjeong, eager to see what her friend has in store for her.

"Yah! Why did you follow me?"

Karina hears Minjeong's voice followed by her daughter's laugh, and smiles to herself.

She decides to make herself a cup of coffee and that's when she sees the paper lying on the kitchen counter, near the electric kettle that's filled with hot water.

I guess she was reading this when we arrived.

To make sure the paper doesn't get wet, she picks it up to move it and that's when she sees the letter head. Apparently it's a letter from the pediatrics association and despite knowing that she shouldn't, she skims through it and sighs after reading the content.

"Tonight. I'll read one to you tonight."

Minjeong's voice snaps Karina out of it and she quickly folds and sets the paper aside, taking out a mug to make her coffee.

"Mommy! Mimin got me new books!" reports the girl who comes running towards Karina. In her hands is an illustrated children books.

"Really? Wow. That's awesome. Have you thanked her?"

Erica nods.

"Really?" Karina looks at Minjeong who nods.

"I even got a kiss and a hug," says the blonde.

"Good." Karina pats the girl's head and tells her to go watch TV or read her new book in the living room while waiting for dinner to be served.

The two women go about warming the food and that's when Minjeong notices that the letter she was reading and has forgotten about is now lying neatly to the far side, folded. She knows it must be Karina's doing and wonders whether the woman has read it.

When Karina sees Minjeong holding the folded paper, she realizes her mistake and inches closer to the other woman to apologize.

"I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't but it was right next to the kettle and I was making coffee... I didn't want to get it wet but then I saw the letter head and..." Karina blushes, unable to meet Minjeong's eyes. "I'm sorry."