VISUAL [CEW] ✔️

[ 09 ]

N I N E
THIRD PERSON'S POINT OF VIEW

"NOONA! UNNIE! (Older sister.)" THE THREE kids screamed when Hyerin knocked on their door. "Annyeong!" She greeted, bringing them into a hug. After pulling apart, the two older girls stared at Eunwoo with heart eyes. "Who is he?" Seola and Sua asked, already smiling goofily because of him. Hyerin took a glance at her 'friend'. She looked back at the three kids, "Seola, Sua, he's your oppa (older brother). Sian-ah, he is your hyung (older brother)." They all nodded, but the two little girls swayed around. "Oppa is handsome." Seola giggled cheekily, Sua suppressed her upcoming smile shyly.

Hyerin and Sian exchanged a familiar look, knowing how the two sisters acted when they saw any handsome oppa or samchon (uncle). Eunwoo bent down towards them, extending out his hand. "Hello. I'm Eunwoo." He greeted softly, making the girls giggle while bowing along with their brother. During the short walk to reach the terrace, Sua tugged on Eunwoo's hand. "Oppa... do you live here?" She asked with curiosity.

He nodded, "I live on the floor above you. In room 304." Seola tugged on his other hand, "304? Did you just move in?" He nodded her again, taking a glance at Hyerin's amused face. The girl carried Sian in her arms, so she sure felt it when he pulled her collar. "Noona? What are we doing today?" She looked down at the little boy, a fake expression of her thinking washed onto her face. "Hmm... what do the Lee siblings want to do today? I was thinking of hide n seek?" She suggested, tapping his small nose. Once the group of five reached the terrace, Seola spoke up. "Can we do our dinner and draw dates?" She asked, making the two other siblings nod eagerly. "Oh? Okay! You know where the paper is. Eunwoo and I will go get the stuff from halmeoni (grandma)." They all cheered, heading towards the 'kid' area of the terrace.

Eunwoo opened the door for her, following after her. "What exactly are your 'dinner and draw dates'?" He queried. "It's basically where I normally make dinner for us. While they wait for dinner, they draw pictures. We call it the 'D.D.D'. Sometimes Hyesoo joins us if she isn't too preoccupied with her boyfriend." They knocked on room 302's door, revealing the grandma who lives there. "Dinner and draw?" She asked, letting the two people in. Hyerin nodded with a small smile. "Annyeonghaseyo, Cha Eunwoo-ibnida. (Hello, I'm Cha Eunwoo.)" He bowed in front, making the halmeoni pat his shoulders as a greeting.

"My, my.. you sure are handsome. Did you finally get a boyfriend, Hyerin-ah?" The eighteen-year-old girl pouted, grabbing the equipment with fake sadness. "Ah... halmeoni... naleul goelobhiji mala. (Don't tease me.) But no, he's... a friend." She whined with a cheeky tone, the grandma shook her head with disappointment, "Tch! That's what they all say."

"Arasso... (okay...). I think you've said enough. We'll go take care of Seolsudae." Eunwoo opened the door for her again, a smug smile making its way into his face. "So we're friends now huh?" Hyerin rolled her eyes, "Shut up." He grinned even wider, taking some of the ingredients into his hands. "What are we making?" She pressed her lips together, "Well they can't eat everything for their age and they're on beginner chopsticks... so we're gonna make some mandu." Eunwoo gaped at her, "We're making Korean dumplings? That sounds so good." He almost drooled over the thought.

"You bet. Nothing beats my dumplings. Not even my mom's cooking."

• • •

"Come to think of it... why do the siblings stay with their grandma? Where are their parents?" Hyerin started up heat for the pan, always enjoying the thought of the outside kitchen on the terrace. "Their dad is Lee Donggook. The famous football striker. He's at training often but right now he's in Osaka for training and a few games. Their mother was a runner up for Miss Korea in 1997, but now she works normally. She took their older siblings to Thailand for their own training. In total, the couple has five children. Two over there and three here." Eunwoo nodded, processing the information as if he was a foreigner with no knowledge of the Korean culture.

He grabbed a big mixing bowl, not really knowing where to start off. Hyerin rolled her eyes, placing the ground beef, onion, cabbage, tofu, and noodles into the bowl. "Mix it well." She handed him a wooden spoon. He giggled nervously, rubbing his neck before nodding. While he mixed the main filling, she put garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and pepper in a smaller and separate bowl.

"Hey, I have a question. If your real name is Lee Dongmin, why do you introduce yourself as Cha Eunwoo?" A small yet sad smile came across his face while he did his job. "I don't know... I just- when you hear Eunwoo, you kind of pair my face and voice with it. With Dongmin, all you see is Korea's third successful business man Lee Hongseok's son." Hyerin rubbed her lips together, his answer taking her by surprise. She thought he was say it was just a stage name for when he became an idol... nothing else.  "You don't seem to like it though." She commented gently, pouring seasoning mixture over the main filling.

She held his wrist for a second, taking the spoon out of his grip and putting his hands in the bowl. Gesturing for him to mix it with his hands. "Well in a way both names suck. Eunwoo for my looks and Dongmin for my wealth. No true friends except for Astro has come with those names." Hyerin took out the mandu (dumpling) wrappers, waiting for him to finish mixing. "In that case can I call you Dongmin?"

"Why would you want to do that?" He asked, looking down at her short figure. "Well I don't talk to you because of your looks. And you already know my dislike towards wealth. Your real name is the closest to the real you, I guess." Eunwoo turned around to go wash his hands in the sink, he thought over what she just said. "On two conditions. If you be friends with me and call me Dongmin-ah or Dongminie, one of those two, I'll let you call me that." He told her cheekily, Hyerin took a tablespoon of the filling and out it in the center of dumpling wrapper.

She narrowed her eyes at him while he came back to help. "You're pushing it. But okay. I mean whether I saw yes or no, you're going try anyways. And I'll go with 'Dongmin-ah' as it sounds like I'm scolding you." She dipped her finger in a small bowl of water and wet half of the wrapper. Soon folding the wrapper in half, pressing it to seal and then crimping the edges.

"Why are you so mean? Dongminie sounded so cute."

"Fu- The fact that I want to curse at you... but I can't because there are children here."