Lines Crossed - Volume 1 Chapter 54 Chicken And Beer
“Hello? Jaemin.”
“Mark?” I called out.
But the house seemed to be empty.
“Come inside Woohee. If Mark isn’t back right now he will be soon, this is the time when he comes home every day.”
“Miran, noona, Miran!”
I laughed as Changwook’s voice echoed down the hallway and he half walked, half slid out of the hallway and into the kitchen, living area, smiling.
“What did you bring me?” He asked sweetly his little honey brown moon eyes beaming down at me.
“Nothing I can’t keep feeding me, you have already grown taller than me,” I said flatly hiding what I had behind my back.
He pouted his sweet little face pulling into the cutest little puppy dog frown.
“Fine, I brought chicken and beer.” My heart twinged at him and I sucked in a chuckle.
“Yes, okay, perfect.” He snapped his fingers and spun with delight doing a very dorky happy dance.
He stopped and his mouth dropped.
I sucked back my laughter, knowing exactly what happened.
His strangled sob of surprise was enough to tell me without me having to turn back around. I set everything down on the counter took my jacket off and tied back my hair with a clip, before pulling things out of the bag.
Changwook walked up beside me, I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of my face.
“Noona, how could you do this to me… How could you betray me like this?” Changwook hissed under his breath, his entire tone melancholy and mopey.
“Don’t get mad at Miran, I told her not to tell you. There was an off chance you would not be home and I didn’t want you to run back here when you found out I was coming.”
“But, noona.” Woohee turned and glared at him, I felt her icy glare and the corresponding whipped silence.
“I didn’t come to play with you, Changwook. I came to get work done. If you are going to get in the way, then I suggest you take your meal to your room.”
I looked over at Changwook whose eyes were welling up with little tears from the flat out rejection.
But he silently turned around, grabbed a little container of drumsticks and two cans of beer and slowly shuffled towards his room. He was about halfway down the hall when he turned back and gave me a look of utter deprived sadness.
I stifled a laugh and just shrugged at him.
“She is right, we have really important work. And can’t play.”
The front door opened and I turned my head and smiled when I saw Mark walk into the house, spinning his keys around his index finger. He wore a short-sleeved dark navy shirt with a sort of creamy beige palm leaf pattern all over the shirt., half of it tucked into the top of his skinny jeans as he always liked to do. The little logo of Kim enterprises on his belt buckle, a limited edition gift Seungwoo had gifted him almost three years ago.
Miran hadn’t said anything but actually, she really liked that style.
And it wasn’t because Seungwoo had designed it himself.
“Well, nice to see you, sis. He turned. And Miss Woohee.”
“Did I forget some meetings we had planned?”
“No, not at all.”
“I came here because Woohee and I went out for lunch earlier today and she has a proposition she would like to run by you. It has to do with the late summer charity concert and gala she will be attending. And the accompanying performance, she will do that evening.”
“She says it will help us with our little problem and give us one up on Seungwoo and Uncle Hyun Bin.”
Mark sat down on the Barstool and cracked a beer. He sucked at the rim cleaning it before putting it down and crossing his legs. He spun the can around slowly.
“Hmmm,” I watched him carefully, aware he was watching me intently.
He clicked his tongue and c.o.c.ked his head to the side.
“Are you sure this is something you want to do?”
I nodded, knowing exactly why he was asking me it.
That was Seungwoo’s hang out grounds. He loved all things art, architecture, mixing the two. Or the sound of a symphony house of music and the art museum was attached to each other a part of the same large building.
“I suppose it will be alright, you won’t get distracted.”
“Seungwoo is gone, he went to Thailand the other day, he will be gone for a few weeks, maybe two or three.”
“He went down to help that exchange architecture student from a few years back. Guess he asked Seungwoo for a favor since Seungwoo took two weeks off for a personal time.”
Mark stood up and grabbed the can and tapped one finger on the side of it, before picking up a tiny box of chicken and nodding his head.
“Okay, thanks for the supper girls.” He said cheerily, then walked off down the hall towards his bedroom.
I turned and blinked at Woohee stupidly.
Normally Mark didn’t like me going near Seungwoo unless it was absolutely, necessary for work, like the once a month meetings.
So it had been kinda shocking when he just said yes. But then it made sense once he said Seungwoo was out of the country.
‘Seungwoo went to Thailand without saying a word to me… He hadn’t informed anyone in the office, otherwise, there would be a memo, and I would have known about it.’
“He went to Thailand for a work thing and didn’t say a word, not even a single message of goodbye.”
I blinked down at Woohee in annoyance.
She smirked.
“Oh, sit down and eat your chicken. Let’s be honest, if anyone had told you beforehand you would have found some reason to head down there too. And just how desperate do you want to look in front of a guy who has rejected you so many times even you have lost count.”
“Any you have perfect recall.”
I pouted, but fell to the floor obediently.
“Eat, eat seriously drowning your sorrows into some crispy chicken skin and tearing it apart with your teeth. There is nothing more satisfying when you are feeling annoyed.”
“Well, the only thing better than that is soju.” She winked.
I frowned, annoyed.
“Oh, stop making that face, you are going to give yourself wrinkles.”
“I can’t!” I snapped.
“Yes, you can, it’s as simple as taking this corner and pushing it up and then copy and pasting it onto the other side of your face.” Woohee’s said poking my cheeks with her gloved hand.
I slapped it away.
“I can’t cause those brats took all the chicken.” I snapped.
Woohee, laughed. “Alright, alright, I will call and order some more. Maybe they can give some Baan for free too.”
She got up and wiggled happily took off her gloves and picked up her phone before calling the number on the redial.
“Hello.” Woohee said sweetly into the phone. When she was good and distracted, I reached over and stole a piece of her chicken, sinking my teeth through the crunch as it abated the annoyance and aggravation in my soul.
“Just a little.”