chasing girl wonder

bain-marie

The Parks rarely skipped their Sunday morning pastime of visiting Hanyang Country Club, located in Goyang, northwest of Seoul. Mason and Clare played golf while Alice, their eldest, and Roseanne played tennis. The family was regularly joined by the Kims and the Lees and occasionally, by their kids too—Jennie, Yeri and her sisters, and Felix and his sisters.

But that morning, Roseanne suspected her family planned something else for her birthday aside from the private dinner that Alice arranged at Oh Jun Tak Chef's Table, and the private birthday bash at L.I.L. after. It was sketchy that it just so happened—a funny coincidence—that all her family members had to be somewhere else suddenly.

Clare was called to an emergency meeting by the board, so she left without finishing her coffee. That never happened before. Both the emergency meeting on a Sunday and her mom not finishing her coffee, or at least taking it with her, on an early, seemingly rushed Sunday. Nobody ever left their breakfast table when everybody had not yet finished breakfast. So, those walking out of the dining table, leaving the house before breakfast was finished? That only happened on TV. Not in the Parks' home.

It was not how their Sundays went about. Mason made it a rule that nobody would go to work or do anything work-related during that family day, so the only compromise he allowed for Roseanne—who was persistent on opening the café on weekends—was for her not to go to the café on Sundays and close it earlier than usual so her crew could spend more time with their loved ones too.

Mason and Alice, who were seated next to each other, were talking unusually loud about some embezzlement case of a high-profile chaebol who was keeping a mistress in the same village they lived in. The above-board exchange ended with Alice prodding Mason to drive around the house where the mistress was kept, so she could spy on her. Mason was not bought into the idea.

"Uh, are you for real?" With knitted eyebrows, Roseanne scooped a spoonful of chia seed pudding topped with blueberries from a lidded glass jar and brought it to her mouth.

Alice raised her chin and steepled her hands. "I'm pumped to crack this case and I should release this properly or else, I'll find another target which, given our history, will most likely be you."

"Please. On a Sunday? On my birthday, you're going to play some Nancy Drew instead of spending time with me?" Roseanne pouted.

Alice faked a smile. "I'd love to, but I still haven't completely wrapped my head around what happened last night when you brought your ex—"

"Not ex anymore," Roseanne cut in.

"—to our family movie night." When Alice caught Roseanne frowning, she felt guilty and maneuvered seamlessly. "Just pissed at the part where you forgot to mention it to me before actually deciding to take her back."

"Maybe because I already know what you were going to say," Roseanne mumbled as if she did not want to hear herself say it. It was as if she was acknowledging the fact that Alice would not have been in favor of that—of taking Suzy back not only to her life but to her family's lives too.

Alice let out a harsh breath. "Exactly. But I only want what's good for my little sister, you know that right?"

"Thank you, but I'm a big girl now to know what's good for me," Roseanne said, feeling defensive against Alice's obvious disapproval of her relationship.

Alice did not comment on that and let out a brief, mirthless laugh. "Then you were very smart to tell us you're back together the night before your birthday, so... I can't get mad, can I?"

Roseanne felt so bummed about it, she pinched her mouth. Alice was her ride-or-die. Her sister and best friend through the mud and rocky roads. Yet, out of the million things they agreed on, she found it very oddly unfair—or maybe she was just unlucky—that her relationship would be the one thing that they failed to agree on. Not at the start of it, but in the latter part when things became toxic already.