Every time love love love, have you eaten jare?
Jihoon didn't go home that night. He didn't let his driver drive him either, he just got into his luxury sedan and drove of but not before the quiet argument between him and his mom. He stood like a child caught in the act, lingering at the corner of the fridge, hand on his loose tie, unsure whether to apologize again or quietly puff into thin air to avoid all the advice coming. "i'll stay at the penthouse at Hannam dong...mom" he almost whispered. Him and his mom, they were like a team. They knew how to communicate just by looking at each other. He knew she was calm, didn't like to yell or be yelled at. And definitely didn't like the silent feud between him and his father.
"you know you didn't have to say like that in front of your father" she didn't look up from where she was packing rice and japchae into a stainless steel lunchbox. "I didn't plan to, he pushed" a quiet silence fell between them, not chaotic, just peaceful. "I'm not ashamed that I worked at that restaurant"
"i know, that's why i'm not upset..." she paused for a second to package the food into a tote bag. "he'll need time but he'll come around." she finished as she approached her son ,putting up her warm hand to caress his face. "eat properly. That place is too quiet, it's easy to forget meals when you're alone"
Jihoon smiled faintly. "i won't forget. you Packed too much anyways"
"you've lost weight. don't argue"
Now the sky above him was a muted grey, washed out by city lights. He groaned in frustration as he drove the car to a corner, turned it off and walked right out. His feet moved without thinking, sneakers brushing against the curb, the buzz of Seoul surrounding him like a blanket he wished he would drape himself with. He hated to fight with his father, but they never seem to agree on anything since Jihoon became much of an adult. And as an only son, he still had to take over the company so they knew that they had better find ways to communicate regardless.
He passed cafes still glowing with soft jazz, couples laughing over empty desserts plates. A part of him wondered what Amara's restaurant looked like now, if the lights were off. If she was still inside_counting receipts, maybe wiping the tables, her brows knit in that quiet focused way she did without knowing or chit chatting with her best friend. He wondered how Kim Mi na met the black girl, how they click so much. He was mesmerized.
He remembered the day he had asked for her number after they served a lot of people at her restaurant that day.
The last customer had just exited at 11;29 pm and they both sprawled on the chair, tired.
Mi na had excused herself immediately to go do anything else at all in the world than sit in the middle of two potential lovers...awkwarddddd. But you know not without a wink at Amara signifying "you better share me those details when we get home" and trust me that was right after she made Jihoon give her that autograph, oh you thought she had forgotten about it? No!
"That was crazy intense, and I remember one ahjumma whispering into my ear that we look like a couple"
Amara laughed softly "oh pleaseeee" he glanced at her, the edges of his smile lingering. "You work hard, I respect that"
She smiled "is that a way of saying I'm bossy in the kitchen?" She teased, putting one hand on her chin and looking at him.
"A little but I like bossy" they laughed.
"can I get your number?"
"My number?" Amara blinked, caught off guard.
"Yeah, incase you know...I wanna volunteer again, or maybe take you somewhere you could eat good Korean food too"
"Fine. Only if you don't send me food puns" she rolled her eyes trying to ignore the fact that Jihoon thought about taking her out on a date.
"How did you know I was gonna say "lettuce meet again?"
Her soft laughter filled the empty room, giving it a small echo.
Her name just sat there, no emoji, no nickname, just her name. And..still it felt complicated.
He heaved a heavy sigh and took out a stick of cigarette out of the pack that was sitting in his pocket to his mouth, putting his phone back.
"Almighty Seo Jihoon wants to smoke on the streets of Seoul?" A clean GS25 packed right in-front of Jihoon and Lee Jiwon stuck his head outside the glass grinning at his best friend. Jihoon and jiwon met when they were fifteen years old and Jihoon's mother instantly liked him coz his name was similar to her son's. Jiwon had just gotten a scholarship to transfer to the most prestigious high school made for 'the Rich only'. And before you know it, he was known as the 'scholarship kid' and instantly started getting bullied.
Jihoon tried to turn a blind eye whenever other students made him do things. He hated it.
One day, he walked into the class and saw Jiwon trembling. They had asked him to clean the white board with his tongue.
He walked pass, stopped, sighed and cursed under his breathe, he walked back to them stood in front of Jiwon to block him from his bullies.
"Leave him alone"
He said quietly looking at the bullies dead in the eye.
"Mwo?" One of them looked right back at Jihoon and laughed. "Aisshhhh shibal, you think coz your dad sponsors the school, you can give orders?"
"leave him alone or you'll have to deal with me"
He ended up beating every single bully and only got detention. From then on, they became inseparable, they built paper robots together, traded lunchboxes coz on most days Jiwon was curious to know what the rich people ate and snuck into PC bangs after school, always covering for each other when someone got caught. Jiwon made Jihoon laugh when his parents fought at home and Jihoon got two notebooks on days when Jiwon couldn't afford his.
After college, Jihoon got Jiwon a job at his father's company, as directing manger and PA to him.
"I missed one meeting and you rattle me to my dad?" Jihoon said lighting the cigarette and sending Jiwon a glare.
"Aishhh I wish I did coz when he found out himself, he got mad at me and called me an incompetent PA to you" he laughed. Jiwon had become a part of their family, you're damn right Chairman Seo will scold him as much as he scolds Jihoon.
Jiwon unlocked his car and stepped out, standing beside Jihoon, clearly sensing he wasn't okay.
"Was it coz you were serving food at that rundown restaurant that the black girl owns?" He breathed out, lighting his own cigarette and letting out a chuckle.
Jihoon didn't laugh. Nothing was funny.
"Rundown?"
"My bad my bad. Was it coz you were serving food at..."
"It's not a rundown restaurant, the food's good and she works hard" he shut his eyes so hard and threw the cigarette to the ground "shit why do I keep defending her?" He breathed out in frustration.
Jiwon blinked, then raised his brows "ohhhh so that's what this is?" He laughed, blowing out the smoke to the cold. A tiny silence.
"You didn't do anything bad, and we shouldn't be surprised your father is mad. He hates things like that" Jiwon blows the last smoke and drops the cigarette butt into the trash can nearby. "He doesn't get it."
A pregnant silence fell between them and all that could be heard were cars passing by. Jihoon had always maintained a pristine image, untouched by gossip, untainted by scandal. Celebrities, models even entrepreneurs had all tried to have any type of scandal at all with Jihoon but never worked. His name was never whispered in the same breathe as late-night rendezvous or fleeting romance.
But ever since he met Amara, something about the warmth in her laughter that lingered in his chest longer than it should have. The softness of her voice and the almost nonchalant way she talks. He loved it. He wondered if anyone else had noticed it, how she smiled almost every time she said something, or how she's so friendly with everyone at the restaurant.
"Well damn...I would love to taste this food that got my friend on chokehold" Jiwon laughed hitting Jihoon by the shoulders. He smiled.
"It's not what you think"
"Did you walk here?" Jiwon asked, looking around. "No driver, no security?..." he rubs his hands together then put them into his pockets "oh that's another thing for Chairman Seo to get pissed out. And yes may I chip in, that you have a meeting tomorrow with the American investors by 8am"
"8am? Why are you telling me now? You should be sacked"
"As if you can" Jihoon glared at him and walked away, not wanting to hear another word from the most incompetent PA in the history of PAs.
"See you tomorrow man" Jiwon waved his hand high and laughed, before walking to this car and driving off.
*
"Mi nayaaaa...let's go get ramen please" Amara whined as she walked out of her room and headed to Mi na's room.
"I'm tryna do a TikTok, stop banging!" Mi na yelled back. Amara opened the door to Mi na's room and boy I told you it's a show in there.
Posters of all the Korean male celebrities you could think of were plastered on her wall and her bedsheet had a very big picture of Lee min ho.
Mi na stood in front of her Ringlight, doing her skincare.
"Let's do my skincare together while I..."
"How about we go get ramen my best friend?"
Amara ran into the well-lit room interrupted her video and quickly ran back to the door coz Mi na was ready to go full crazy on her for interrupting her vlog. "I have gist for you, don't you want to hear it?" She stood at Mi na's door grinning.
"Fine, let's go get ramen".
The neon lights of the city glow softly against the pavement, as Amara and Kim Mi na walked side by side, arms linked. The breeze is cool but Amara's face is practically glowing in anticipation. When she was in Nigeria, she ate the Indomie noodles almost everyday, and looked forward to the day she would taste the Korean ramen that she saw in kdramas all the time.
She loved noodles so much that one time while she was in high school she won two cartons of Indomie noodles for playing a game multiple times. Now mind you, she didn't win that game once but these people had seen her name on the playing list a lot of times that they just had to contact her and gift her for her efforts.
Her first night in Korea, she ran to the convenience store and the minute she sighted all those ramen, in all their glory, different packs and some in cups, arranged neatly on the shelf, she actually shed a tear.
She couldn't believe she was there.
If there's one thing she would risk her diet, dignity and possibly her life for, it's Korean ramen. And kimchi with tteokbokki. Urghhhh. Spicy, sour and perfectly fermented kimchi made by an ahjumma in her fifties.
Mi na laughed at Amara's excitement as they walked to the convenience store, she squealed like a baby who was just bought ice cream.
"You're acting like you haven't eaten in three days"
Amara grinned "spiritually I haven't".
"Well we aren't going to the convenience store today, there's a good ramyeon place I just discovered, you'll be blown away"
"Ahhhhhh" Amara squealed, jumping from side to side while Mi na laughed so hard. "This girl is crazy for ramen".
They settle down on the seat and were served bowls of hot ramen soaked in broth, steam rising into the night air with beef ribs, kimchi and tteokbokki as sides. Amara's eyes shone with pure joy and she picked up her chopsticks. Mi na explained that the noodle place do no make their noodle with already made noodles, their noodles were made right there before preparing it for customers.
"If I die right now, bury me in a bowl of this, this is so pretty" she said right before her first slurps. "Oh my God oh my God, what is this masterpiece?"
"I told you"
"Ahjumma, jal meokgesseumnida (thank you for the food )" Amara yelled from her table to the woman who was not even in sight and Mi na burst out laughing again. That was her way of thanking the owner of the place for knowing how to prepare ramyeon so well.
Mi na laughed so hard in between slurps coz who wouldn't want to after seeing how ramen makes a grown woman so happy.
Steam curl around their faces as they lean over for each slurps paired with kimchi or omelet "I'm scared about the exam" Mi na blurted out calmly, poking the noodles with the chopsticks. "I'm scared I didn't do so well"
"Oh Mi na. It's okay to be scared. But it's youuuuuu, top graduating student in all of SNU". She remembered that day, while they called out Mi na as the best graduating student. Amara yelled with the big flower bouquet in her hands as she waved to Mi na. "that's my best friend, that's my best friend y'all" Heads turned, eyes were lifted. Trended for the whole day, a black girl yelling in the middle of a Korean graduation. Mi na just stood there laughing so hard, waving back at her best friend, she was so happy someone showed up for her, she was worried she would have to graduate having no one in the crowd looking at her. Mi na couldn't even explain how grateful she was that Amara did what she did that day, she was elated.
Amara rubbed Mi na's hair bringing her back from her world of thoughts. They loved to sit side by side while eating rather than sit opposite each other. At home, they have a four corner dining table with four chairs but they never sat opposite each other.
"My mom told me one time;
'it's okay to be scared but no let fear catch you"
Mi na let out a loud laugh almost choking, "what does that even mean?" Amara laughed too. "If you stay with Nigerian mothers you'll laugh eh" she picked up a kimchi and put into her mouth.
"It just means you can be scared but don't let it cloud your thinking. Mi na, you can do it while being scared, you'll still do well and if it doesn't work out...coz i'm Nigerian, I always think of both sides." She held Mi na's shoulder. "You can always do it again next year, why? Coz we don't just give up on our dreams because of one failure" Mi na looked up at Amara from the bowl of ramen she was poking for a minute then hugged her, sitting her head comfortably into Amara's shoulders.
"Thank you so much Amara" her voice was soft and almost shy. Her chest felt light yet her eyes burned with the quiet sting of the tears she was pushing back. She had spent years learning how not to expect kindness, telling herself that people come and go, that warmth is fleeting. But here was Amara, still here, still smiling, still believing in her when she didn't believe in herself.
She didn't have a family, she didn't have a history that anyone wanted to hold on to. But in this small moment, she realized she did have something, someone who saw her, didn't want to leave her, and called her her sister.
"Yeah and I wanted to tell you" Mi na said picking up her chopsticks again, her voice clearer, looking at Amara smiling. "I've found a hairstylist for you"
"For real??!" Mi na knew how much she was looking for someone to braid her hair, finally. She complained one night about how she was tired of the frontals, and Mi na's laugh could be heard from the kitchen where she was making tacos.
"Since we moved in together eh, all I do is laugh." She shook her head.