Chapter 26 - Oppa, Have You Heard of a Tteokbokki Kiss?

After the peculiar gift exchange, the two of them got down to enjoying their date. Today's plan was to cook together. Minjun and Sia had often cooked for each other, but, surprisingly, they had never made a meal together. So today they had decided to try something different: making Sia's favorite, tteokbokki. She had already prepared all the ingredients, leaving only the chopping and cooking.

"I'll thaw the rice cakes. Could you cut up the green onions and fish cakes, Oppa?"

"Sure."

Magic would have made it simple, but the whole point of this cooking date was to enjoy the process together.

In particular, though she hadn't said so, Sia wanted to watch Minjun wield a knife. The sight of him chopping was sexy enough, but the prominent tendons in his wrist as he worked drove her wild every time. As she slowly thawed the rice cakes in a large pot, she kept sneaking glances at him.

'Wow. Look at those veins.'

Even his veins were sexy. Every time they stood out on his wrist, Sia swallowed hard.

"Spoken like a true tteokbokki lover. Are you that excited?"

"Mm-hmm. Very."

Minjun probably had no idea she was swallowing at the sight of his wrist, not at the thought of tteokbokki.

Anyway.

When he finished chopping, Minjun deftly mixed the sauce and added it to the vigorously boiling water. As soon as Sia saw he was done, she wrapped her arms around him from behind and showed him just how much she loved him.

"My Sia's like a cicada, clinging on like that."

"Bzz. Bzz-bzz."

Teased for clinging to him, Sia playfully imitated a cicada, then puckered her lips, asking for a kiss.

"It's not fair for a cicada to be this cute."

Minjun set down the plate that had held the sauce and kissed her.

As they kissed, they both had the same thought.

'I'm glad I suggested a cooking date.'

'I'm glad I listened to Oppa!'

They were enjoying their cozy time together as they cooked when Minjun's phone rang.

"Who is it?"

"Oh, it's Junhwi. The younger guy who went into the gate with me last time."

Minjun wondered why he was calling out of the blue, but didn't answer. He only got three hours a week alone with Sia. It probably wasn't urgent; he could call back after their date. Sia must have guessed why he wasn't picking up, and normally she would have praised him for it. But this time she said, "You can answer it."

"No, it's not urgent."

"A quick call is fine. I'll go do something for a minute while you're at it."

Promising to be back within five minutes, Sia stepped away.

She headed straight for the dressing room. After carefully setting out the special gifts Minjun had given her, she opened a wardrobe.

"I should give Oppa a present too, shouldn't I?"

That present was her clothes. She couldn't be sure Minjun would want them to make his place feel as though they lived together, the way she'd wanted his. Even so, she thought he had good reason to take them.

'If, just in case, on the off chance...'

Not that it would ever happen.

'Some other bitches come to Oppa's apartment.'

Then she'd need to leave a warning for those bitches. Even if she didn't actually live with him, those women needed to think he had a woman living there. In short, she was marking her territory. With that in mind, she began choosing clothes to hang in Minjun's apartment.

At first she wondered if she should give him old clothes, as he had given her, but those didn't seem right to hang up at his place... Clothes she'd worn only once or twice, practically new, would be better. Then again, giving him nothing but her used clothes would look odd. Perhaps she should get them matching shirts soon, too.

'Should I have given them to him later?'

Even now, her time with Minjun was slipping away. What a waste of five minutes more precious than ever. She grabbed an armful of clothes at random, put them in her pocket dimension, and hurried back to him. By the time she returned, Minjun had already ended the call and was finishing the cooking.

"Was it urgent?"

"No. I just had something to check."

She wanted to keep the gifts a secret so she could surprise him.

They went on cooking together, and before long the tteokbokki was ready.

"Mmm. That takes me back."

"It's amazing. Just the smell brings back so many memories."

They had made it using the recipe Minjun used to cook for Sia now and then when they lived together.

Their eyes met as they savored the memories.

"Enjoy."

"You too, Oppa!"

At last they began eating. The tteokbokki looked tempting, but they spent far more time looking at each other than at the food. They smiled whenever their eyes met and wiped sauce from each other's mouths. Their meal was as sweet as any couple's.

"Oppa, why did that guy call earlier?" Sia asked.

If the caller had been a woman, she wouldn't have let Minjun answer in the first place. But he was a man, so she wasn't particularly wary of him. They'd probably just caught up.

"He wanted to thank me for last time and asked when I'd be free so he could buy me a meal."

"Oh, really? Go enjoy yourself. Tell him to treat you to something good. You saved his life, after all."

So far, it was nothing that bothered her. What came next was the problem.

"But... Junhwi isn't the one buying the meal."

"Then who is?"

"His older sister."

"...?"

"She wants to thank me for saving her brother. She suggested the three of us meet for a meal sometime."

A woman. The older sister of a man Minjun had saved. Sia's mind raced. Surely the woman already felt warmly toward Minjun for saving her brother's life. But it was only a matter of time before gratitude toward a benefactor turned into attraction to a man.

"... So what did you say, Oppa?" she asked seriously, slowly setting down her spoon.

As if he'd anticipated her reaction, Minjun answered calmly. "I said I appreciated the offer, but my girlfriend might get the wrong idea, so I didn't think I could."

"And what did she say?"

"She said it was a shame because she'd really wanted to meet me. She wanted to send me a gift instead."

The word shame lodged in Sia's chest like a thorn.

'Why is it a shame?'

Just because she couldn't meet the man who had saved her brother? Was that all? "A shame" could mean any number of things, which only made Sia more anxious. Whoever that woman was, Sia didn't even want to imagine Minjun sitting down with another woman for an intimate chat.

'But...'

Looking at it from Minjun's perspective... The other party was offering him an expensive meal to thank him for saving a life. Wouldn't he want to enjoy being treated well over a good meal? Sia didn't want to be selfish toward the man she loved over one woman. At the same time, she couldn't stop worrying about her. So she came to a decision.

"Oppa, could I come too?"

"...?"

"I'd like to meet Junhwi in person as well. Would that be okay?"

Minjun could meet the woman and have a meal with her, while Sia stayed by his side to make sure the woman didn't try anything. That way, everyone would be happy.

Minjun hadn't expected Sia to want to come along, but if Junhwi and his sister agreed, he saw no reason to object.

"Hmm. I'll ask Junhwi when I get home."

"Okay! Thank you!"

With the matter of Junhwi settled for now, they went back to eating their tteokbokki.

"Oppa, there's something I've wanted to try while eating tteokbokki."

"What's that?"

"A tteokbokki kiss."

The last time they'd eaten tteokbokki together on a date, Sia had thought they could play the same game couples played with chocolate biscuit sticks, only with rice cakes. At his apartment, perhaps, but there were too many people watching to get that intimate in public. Now, though, they were alone in the lair.

"Want to try?"

"The rice cakes are a bit short for that..."

"Even better."

If that was what his girlfriend dreamed of trying, what was so hard about it? Minjun picked up a rice cake of a suitable size, held it between his lips, and beckoned to Sia with his eyes. She closed the distance between them without hesitation.

Normally, the fun of the biscuit-stick game came from watching two people who weren't close struggle to leave as little of the stick as possible without letting their lips touch. But that didn't apply to these lovebirds. Without hesitation, Sia pressed her lips to Minjun's and bit into the rice cake he was holding. They felt the soft rice cake and the softness of each other's lips.

"My turn."

They switched roles, and Sia held a rice cake between her lips. As soon as she did, Minjun kissed her and took a bite. After biting off the rice cake, they turned their attention from it to each other's lips. However soft the rice cake was, could it compare to the softness and sweetness of a lover's lips?

After that first tteokbokki kiss, Sia took another rice cake between her lips, and Minjun moved to kiss her the instant she did. When their second tteokbokki kiss ended, he noticed sauce on her lips. Suddenly reminded of the foam kiss from a famous old TV drama, he kissed the sauce from her lips, and Sia's face flushed with shyness.

Not a word passed between them, but their expressions said enough. The primal desire lovers felt for each other had begun to simmer between them.

"Oppa..."

"Sia."

Their gazes met and held. No more words were needed.