GOURMET

八

"IT WAS NOTHING REALLY," Yongnam sighed out. "Honestly, it was just like, stupid shit."

At Ahyoung's frown he spoke softly, head falling to his hands. "She wanted to know if we would've been happy if we'd stayed together."

"Really?" Mark voices, clear disbelief present.

"Yeah, so I told her no. I explained, and I'm serious, I explained it politely that we were bad together. You guys know that. Everything between us was toxic with a capital t." He sighed. "But I did fuck up. I yelled at her about you, I, I implied she was a shitty friend to you Youngah, and I may have overstepped." He bites his bottom lip.

"What'd she say to you?"

"Hmm?"

"What'd she say to you in order for you to say that to her?"

"...she just brought up the concert." At this Mark stiffens.

"Wait, she's still on that?"

"What," Ahyoung looked between the two of them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"She doesn't know?" Mark's eyes flickered between the two of them.

"Never thought it was important enough for anyone to know about it."

"Wait," Mark flinches. "Am I the only one that knows?"

"No, Gikwang does." He glances up at him. "Someone needed to help me when she went batshit."

"When who went batshit? Kyungri?"

"It was a few years ago, when we had been dating." Yongnam blinked. "D'you remember the concert? The one here, that we went to, right before you two got engaged?"

At this Ahyoung nods. "Yeah, I do. Why?"

"Well, when we were there, we got lost, Kyungri and I. It was a big place you know, and we didn't get personal security," he grinned at Ahyoung who just rolled her eyes and motioned for him to continue. "And basically what happened was, I stopped to ask a girl for directions. She worked there, was just helping facilitate everything right? So I stop and I'm talking to her and Kyungri is behind me, just like, seething. Like I can feel her glaring at the two of us, but I don't know where we are so I just ask her to point us in the right direction. She ends up pulling out a map and telling us where to go. So we follow it and as soon as we get back to the dressing room, she goes off."

"Like she blew up on you?"

"Totally." He blinks. "Mark was there and caught the tail end of it."

She turns to him and he frowns. "It wasn't good Youngah. What I heard, god, I didn't think Kyungri could say half the things that she was saying."

Ahyoung turned towards her brother who stared at her for a moment. "She just implied a lot about me, and she, well she shit talked about mom and dad a lot. Honestly I didn't really care about that, because Kyungri's been implying for years that I'm terrible. But the thing that really went over the line, was that she just, she insinuated that, that you were going to cheat on Mark. She said we were all the same." He pursed his lips. "That two defected people are just going to produce defected children and that our entire family has problems. Which," he huffs out a frustrated laugh. "I know I'm not perfect, and you aren't either. But we're not defects. Our parents are shitty but we aren't... right?"

"No," Mark immediately cuts in. "And I'll tell you exactly what I told you that day. You are not defined by your parents and she was wrong to tell you something like that when you did nothing."

There's a shaky breath and the two turn to look at Ahyoung. "She, she said that," She laughs, disbelief clearly present.

She looks at them for a few moments before she frowns. "I'm not talking to her anymore."