There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Fifty-Eight

There was something reassuringly familiar to Rose in the way the restaurant had been arranged. The tables were low and they sat upon thin, flat square pillows along either side of them. To accommodate their large group, the owners had generously agreed to line up as many as they could fit into the space. The diners sat uncomfortably close to one another – their elbows bumping and knees brushing – and Rose found herself sandwiched between Yuta and Si-woo. Tae-won had tried to beat the photographer to his spot, but Yuta had stepped in to prevent him, no doubt assuming he and Rose weren't on the best of terms and wishing to spare her his company. Instead, he'd taken up residence on the opposite side of the table and Jin-hee had settled gracefully to his left where she leaned against his arm and batted her lashes whenever he looked at her like she was a horse plagued by flies and was trying to bat them away with her eyes.

Large square grills fuelled by smouldering charcoal lined the middle of the table and all around them were white ceramic plates of raw meat, scissors with which they were to cut them into smaller pieces, tongs, and dishes filled with vegetables to accompany the meal. The side dishes were so numerous that they didn't all fit, and some were set down onto the polished floor or onto smaller tables dotted around them until Rose felt utterly surrounded by this impossible labyrinth of food and people. They each had their own silver chopsticks and were expected to simply lift food from the shared dishes and eat it without arguing over portion sizes or whether one person was hogging all the best meat. Rose had dined in such a way in smaller groups before – say five or six of the girls from school if they were out of an evening – but never in such numbers. It was organised chaos, with the seniors taking responsibility for the cooking while the female members of the team poured beer from enormous brown bottles into modestly sized glasses which were soon clinking together in celebration of a successful day. One might think such things would wait until the entire campaign was finished, but they'd been so plagued by disaster from the outset that any day without fainting, arguments, proclamations of love and uninvited kisses was considered a resounding success.

Hitomi wasn't shy about her regard for Jung-wook, calling him oppa and feeding him with her chopsticks. Whenever the girls did catch each other's eyes, Hitomi would smirk as if silently reminding her friend that she knew her secret, and that she was hoping to see Rose and Tae-won reveal it somehow during the meal if only for the entertainment value. While they were at a distance and unable to feed one another in such a way, Rose doubted anyone would suspect them of anything. After all, Si-woo was dominating Rose's attention so doggedly that she barely had a chance to talk to Yuta, let alone anyone else.

'Oy,' Tae-won said in a frustrated tone as he turned meat over with the metal tongs atop the grill, 'are you eating any of this?'

'What?' Rose asked, too busy listening to Si-woo's plans to return to landscape photography to notice that the meat was cooked. 'Sorry, I didn't notice.'

'Aish. Why didn't you two get a private table?'

'I could ask you and Jin-hee the same,' Si-woo replied, observing the woman place her hand on Tae-won's knee possessively. 'If you're tired of cooking the meat, I can take over. You should just take care of your own company.'

Tae-won glared. 'Yah! Who says I'm tired of cooking?'

Rose reached out with her chopsticks to take a piece of the beef if only to keep them from squabbling about their respective duties. Before the tips of her utensils could so much as enter the steam rising from the sizzling chunks, Tae-won snapped the tongs at her hand furiously, scaring her away. 'What was that for?' Rose cried indignantly. 'You just said –'

'Why are you taking the meat I cooked when Si-woo said he'll cook yours?'

'Did you pay for this meat?' Rose argued. 'Did you prepare the meal? Who says I can't eat this even if you did cook it? You think it's difficult to use a grill and that you should get to eat all of it?'

'Enough!' Yuta snapped at them. 'Are you children? This food is for everyone. Tae-won, if you don't like it, you can buy your own.'

Si-woo took advantage of the distraction Yuta provided and snatched up a large piece of beef from the grill. It dangled in an enticing manner from the chopsticks and he held it out towards Rose. 'Here,' he said, his hand cupped beneath the meat to keep it from dripping fat onto the table. 'Open up.'

The temptation was too much for Rose to bear. Although she told herself she was only doing her part to hide her relationship with Tae-won, the truth was that she wanted to make him envious. Their dislike of one another was more believable when he was annoyed, and he did have Jin-hee's hand on his leg and had done nothing to move it. In Rose's mind, this was an apt form of revenge.

The beef had barely passed her lips when Tae-won slammed his hand down onto the table. 'Yah! This isn't a date!'

'Anyone would think you were jealous, Tae-won,' Si-woo tormented him, knowing that every kindness he paid to Rose was needling away at the idol. 'Did I miss something? Is she your girlfriend?'

Only the three of them knew she was – four, now that Hitomi had figured it out – and none of them wanted to verbalise it because it would cause an uproar. Yuta was watching them all carefully, measuring the tension between them before he decided on a course of action. Jin-hee acted before anyone else and moved her hand up onto Tae-won's shoulder. 'Oppa,' she said in a sickly sweet voice, 'ignore them.'

'Yeah, Tae-won,' Rose agreed, noting how handsy Jin-hee was getting, apparently reassured that they hated each other because of their behaviour, 'ignore us. It looks like you're having a date of your own right now.'

'Here,' Jin-hee said brightly. She snatched up a piece of beef with her chopsticks and held it out to Tae-won. 'Open wide.'

Tae-won raised a brow. 'I can feed myself.'

She pouted. 'This is what sweethearts do.' Tae-won's sigh was so loud it carried all the way down the table. Her lip trembling and her cheeks flushing red, Jin-hee ate the food herself and lowered her gaze. Even if Rose wasn't fawning over him, it was clear that didn't mean Tae-won was about to turn his affections to her instead. The woman wasn't downcast for long. Noticing Tae-won's glass was empty, she grabbed a bottle of beer and held it up for him. 'Can I pour it?'

'Fine,' he relented, holding out his glass. Tae-won looked Rose in the eyes and added, 'I ran out of beer at home. Maybe I should drink more tonight to make up for it.'

'We still have work tomorrow,' Rose retorted. 'You wouldn't want to drink so much that you pass out and fall in another lake, would you? I might not jump in to save you next time.'

'You think you saved me?' he scoffed. 'Aish, this girl.'

'Ah,' Eun-young interrupted, unable to stand the arguing any longer, 'we should all go to karaoke after this, right? We can see who the best singer is.'

Jin-hee set down the empty beer bottle just so she had her hands free to flip her hair back over her shoulders confidently. 'Yah, who thinks they can sing better than me? Do you know how popular my last song was?'

'You sing?' Hitomi asked cattily. 'With your voice? Really?'

Rose snorted softly with laughter into her beer. Trust Hitomi to make it her personal mission to bring Jin-hee down a peg or two before they left Korea. Jin-hee narrowed her eyes and glared daggers into Hitomi. 'And what can you do?'

'Be amazing, obviously,' Hitomi retorted. 'You need your eyes checked if you can't see that for yourself.'

'It'll be a contest,' Jin-hee decided. She grasped Tae-won's arm and hugged it against her chest and Rose tried not to think too hard about her boobs pressing against it. 'Me and oppa can be a team.'

'I'm game,' Si-woo said. 'I'll sing with Rose.'

'Wait –' Rose began.

'Yah, I'm not –' Tae-won started to protest.

'Afraid you'll look bad in front of everyone?' Si-woo challenged him. 'Or that you'll look bad in front of Rose?'

'Si-woo,' Rose whispered, 'I'm not really confident that I can –'

'I'm not afraid of anything,' Tae-won argued. 'You'll regret this!'

Rose didn't doubt they would; she was regretting it already.