[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Macaron Fails

Xiaojun waited until Johnny was done dealing with a customer to interrupt him while working. Johnny noticed this and turned around once the customer left with their coffee, leaning against the counter.

"What's up?"

"Your Mom's being weird again."

Johnny smirked, "She's your Mom too."

"Ehhhh... yeah, but I'm adopted."

"What'd she do now?"

Xiaojun sighed, "She's having a French macaron making competition with Jaehyun. I think they're trying to sift almonds into a bowl or something. I don't know, it was crazy up there."

Johnny scrunched his eyebrows. He remembered the last time they had tried making macarons. When she tried putting the batter into a piping bag it was spilling out of both ends even when she was holding them both up. After that she swore they were her enemy and never touched them again.

"Are they for the café?"

Xiaojun laughed a bit. "Oh no, Jisung asked what macarons were, so now they're both competing to see who can make them the best for him."

"Is anything on fire or is there a giant mess?" Xiaojun hesitated before shaking his head. "I'll check it out later then. You want to help me down here?"

Xiaojun shrugged and grabbed an apron, having to use Johnny to help him tie it in the back. Johnny didn't really need the help since it was a slow day, he just wanted the company.

Mrs. Suh and Jaehyun had calmed down off of their competitive high shortly after Xiaojun walked in on them aggressively sifting confectionary sugar and ground almonds into a bowl. They had both started off pretty strong, but once they realized the almonds weren't grinding up as fine as they needed to be, they started working together instead of separately.

So now they were chill. Sort of. Those dang almonds were against them.

"Your Mom called yesterday." She was trying to be casual about it, but Jaehyun had already shut down.

"You mean your sister called."

"Same thing."

Jaehyun's Mom and Mrs. Suh's sister calling were in fact, two different things. While they were the same person, they weren't. If Jaehyun's Mom had called, she would've asked for him. Because she didn't and just wanted to hear from her sister how her own son was doing, it was Mrs. Suh's sister calling.

"She asked how you were doing and what you were doing for college. I told her you were doing great and that you weren't going to college. That freaked her out until she shut up long enough for me to say you were working here. Stupid college expectations, am I right?"

Jaehyun shrugged, putting the whisk attachment onto the mixer to beat the eggs.

Mrs. Suh sighed and set down the sifter, picking it up immediately once she remembered there was no time to waste when the stupid almonds wouldn't sift.

"Listen, you can be mad at her, but don't ignore me."

"I don't know what you want me to say. She calls twice a year, doesn't ask for me, and then apparently criticizes my life choices when she can't even decide if she's getting a divorce with Dad because they don't know what's going to keep me away from them longer."

"Watch it, that's my sister you're talking about." She meant it as a joke, but she didn't think Jaehyun quite got that.

"She's always had weird ways of communicating and expressing feelings. That's what happens when you're the middle child. I think we forgot about her too much. But at least she's trying. You've got to give her that."

"She shipped me to Korea alone when I was ten."

"Would you like me to ship you back? Is that your problem?"

"Heck no. I can't leave the cult."

"Exactly. She did what was best for you. Trust me, she would've kept you in Connecticut if she thought listening to them fight was a good idea. So yeah, maybe you weren't supposed to be here six years, but she knows you're better off here."

Jaehyun just looked at her with a deadpanned look.

"You're just saying that so I will stop being mad at her and I'll stop criticizing her because you hate when people say stuff about your sisters, but you can't fight me."

"I never said I couldn't fight you. I'd take you on, right here right now if I really wanted to."

Jaehyun scoffed, a minor victory towards making him smile again. An actual victory would be getting those almonds to cooperate.

"Did it work though? You still mad at her?"

"Of course I'm still mad at her. That doesn't mean I don't understand her."

Like she said, minor victories.

"I'm not going to make you call her, but try to cut her some slack. Okay?"

"Says the one who calls Mark's Mom twice a day to tell her she sucks."

"Three times on the days she has him." Mrs. Suh corrected, making Jaehyun crack a smile.

The rest of the macaron adventures were just as disastrous as the first time Mrs. Suh tried making them. They once again defied gravity when they were putting it into the piping bag, and they ended up morphing together on the tray. They had to add flour to the batter just for the second tray to stay nice and the recipe didn't call for flour. The recipe also said it only made sixteen, so they had a lot wrong going on there.

Not wanting to tell Jisung that these were French macarons, Jaehyun ran to the store while they were baking, buying a package and arranging them on a plate. The failed attempts that were in the oven were binge-ate by Mrs. Suh and Jaehyun, not even bothering to make a filling for them.

At least they tasted good.