Kiss and Run | 박종성

prologue

KISS AND RUN
a park jongseong holiday special
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            PARK MINSEO groaned at the sound of her phone ringing. While covering her ears at the repetitive noise she reluctantly picked up her phone and answered her mother's call, placing it on speaker and throwing the phone onto her bed so she could continue to create new recipes.

            "Hello?" Her mother spoke from the other line and Minseo's lips were drawn into a thin line before she answered.

            "Hey, mom." The girl breathed back, already knowing where this conversation was going to go.

            "Minseo! Are you coming home for Christmas this year? You've been absent for the last 3 years, come home." Her mother begged for the third time that week. Straight to the point, Minseo thought before sighing and putting her pencil down.

            "This time of the year is when I work the most Mom, due to the parties and all," Minseo muttered, crumbling up the recipe she was working on and throwing the paper into the trash.

            "But it's Christmas! They won't let you have time off?"

            "I'm a private chef for a family, it's not like I have employees who can take over for me," Minseo explained for what felt like the thousandth time. Her mother had a knack for disregarding her words and somehow her mother always got her way.

            "Dear, they're rich. They can hire a temporary replacement until you come back! You haven't visited in forever since you left." Her mother urged, trying to lure the girl back home after 3 years by guilt-tripping her.

            "Mom—" Before Minseo could continue speaking her mother cut her off, making her want to bite her hand to stop herself from yelling in annoyance.

            "Please, dear! We all want you to come back, maybe even enjoy the gourmet meals you're so good at making." Minseo's mother kept begging and Minseo knew her mother wouldn't stop until she gave in. "Plus, what's the difference? Rich party there, rich party here. Either way, you'll be cooking in a rich atmosphere."

            Minseo stared out the window as she listened to her mother's rambling. She tilted back and squeezed her eyes shut before shaking her head. "Fine, I'll see what I can do."

            She could practically hear her mother's smile through the phone. "Perfect! I already sent you the money for the gas, hurry up and get here, okay?"

            To those words, the girl scoffed and her mother ended the call. Minseo slumped in her seat and ran her hands down her face, groaning silently before looking around her room and seeing her suitcase in the corner of her room. She looked back at the now black screen as she dreaded going home for the holidays.

            It's not that she hated her family, she just hated how dramatic they made Christmas, and the overbearing feelings they brought upon her. Every year since she grew up it has been one pile of gifts after another, Christmas trees in every room of the house as well as Christmas songs being played throughout the entire house. To everyone else, it sounded like a dream, but Minseo didn't tell them about her mother's tendencies to downgrade the career path she chose. Her mother just learned to live with it.

            Once Minseo turned 18 she moved out of the small town she grew up in and into the city without telling anyone except her twin brother until she was settled in. A 5-hour drive away, she got a job as a private chef, working for the well-known Choi family. Luckily she got a free pass to live in their house.

            The one thing that was different about the family she worked for and her own, was that the Choi's didn't take Christmas as seriously as hers did. Instead, they were crazy about New Year's. She could never escape the rich life she came from, frankly she wondered why she wanted to escape it so badly.

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            After painfully driving for over 5 hours, Minseo struggled to see ahead of her. She knew she was in her hometown and yet she had no idea what road she was on. The heavy snowstorm hit the morning she was driving back home, making her drive much harder than it already was.

            As the white snow covered everything in sight, she continued to drive slowly and groaned in annoyance when her phone failed to pick up a signal. All she saw was snow. Glistening, beautiful, white snow that camouflaged everything in her path.

            When Minseo finally realized where she was, she breathed a sigh of relief and was about to speed up but she slammed on the brakes when a figure suddenly appeared in front of her. She froze as the car came to a stop, and the figure fell to the ground.

            Her first time visiting her family since she left and she had just hit someone with her car.

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AUTHORS LETTER,
Dear readers,
Welcome to Kiss and Run,
coming December 1st.
Love,
Nuera.

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© nuerra 2024