I'll win you, over my crab curry dinner

Chapter 5

Lisa knew Sunmi would eventually catch up to ask about the mysterious crab boxes, so when she found herself being dragged inside into an old restaurant in Hongdae on a cold Tuesday night, she anticipated for the worst.

The small, but brightly lit restaurant was filled to the brim, with patrons hunched over round tables, leaving the walkways with very little space to move around. The smell of grease mixed with all sorts of everything that can be deep-fried permeated throughout the whole dining area, and Lisa groaned at the thought of how her favourite new jacket would now smell the next morning, but she no longer cared, as she was going to get free dinner. And if it were not for the questioning that's bound to happen anytime soon, she would have thought she hit the jackpot - the quintessential birthplace of one of Hongdae's street food pride, Korean Fried Chicken.

Sunmi settled on a corner table situated at the far end of the dining area, where Lisa thinks it's far and quiet enough to hold a conversation. A staff followed them and crouched beside Sunmi, who whispered and nodded at the waitress and promptly left. Lisa looked around, her consciousness bringing her back to the reality of how Auntie Sunmi looked so calm yet she felt her Auntie's eyes boring into her. She tried to break the tension as she leaned on the rickety wooden chair, and asked a rather simple question just to see what's on Sunmi's mind. "Aunt Sunmi? What brings us here? If we wanted fried chicken, we could've just---",

But Sunmi was not in a rush; She fancied the look on Lisa's face - a bit confused but with just a hint of excitement that was probably caused by the realisation that Sunmi was paying for dinner. To make everything worthwhile, she took her time and decided to hear the tragic crab story for herself. "So, what happened last Sunday? Chef says you got a little bit too trippy with the oyster sauce and ruined your crab dish."

Lisa was taken aback by the sudden turn of the topic - but she went along with it, hoping it would give her time to be in the right headspace before Sunmi would pounce her over with the dreaded question. "I just went in and followed how Chef did it." She lets out a defeated sigh. "I wanted to try it again, but I'm not too sure if Jennie would give me another chance."

"Of course you will. But if you want to get another attempt for crab curry, you should remember that the difference between you and Chef is that he can pretty much do all his dishes by instinct, and it will still come out consistent and tasty, right?"

Lisa's brows furrowed as she wondered on the direction their conversation was heading into. "Yes, I'm aware of that, but Jennie was fine with it and we got food delivered instead." She leaned on the table, and flashed a questioning smirk, trying to make sense of Sunmi's intention. "Surely, we did not come all the way here just for you to remind me that I suck in the kitchen and almost ruined my date, don't we?"

Lisa was indeed smart, she will get the hint that her aunt won't pay for dinner over some sad, almost-failed date that Sunmi herself can hear from her kitchen staff. "Of course! I brought you here because I wanted you to try a different style of Korean Fried Chicken."

"Are you sure that's all? Because I think I knew you enough to say that is not the only reason why." Lisa decided to drive the conversation home as she sensed that her Auntie was waiting for her to open up.

And Lisa couldn't wait for the question herself. "And if this is about the boxes Auntie, I asked her about that too."

Sunmi's calm mood slowly brightened up with the admission, now that she is now able to get Lisa within her level of understanding, and finally her signal to tirade her the questions that had been swirling above her head these past few days. It's not a big deal, Sunmi thinks, she just wanted to clear this up, and since Lisa was able to score a simple dinner date, then she might have the chance to ask about the crab boxes. But before she could speak, a staff crew joined them and quickly placed their ordered dish on the table, along with 2 chilled mugs of beer.