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She stared at the clock and tilted her head questioningly. It was 7 o'clock in the morning and the man was still in his room. An odd thing to occur especially since he was known to wake up very early and would get ready by this hour.
His room was upstairs; the gray door looked intimidating, but the man never once was.
Then again, it'd only been 12 days.
Not a lot was revealed by anyone. It'd been very quiet in the house. She was always out at school while he was always out at the company. They did meet frequently at night due to his late arrivals. Their conversation at the dining table had been uneventful; it mostly included awkward silences with the occasional loud crunching.
"Oppa?" Firm knocks on the door.
"Ne?" A weak but deep voice on the other side answered her call.
"Oh, I'm just checking if you're still here." Honestly, she didn't expect his answer at all, but it made sense; he was an early bird. "Umm, do you have work today?"
"Not for me, no."
"Okay, I got kimchi soup downstairs."
It was a Saturday. Clearly a holiday for her, and since there were no group projects at the moment, all she had to do was stay home all day, read, and cook something.
She was reading one of the many fantasy novels she had bought with her own money months ago when she heard footsteps approaching. The man was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and some loose short. A holiday, perhaps? She had no idea how his job worked exactly, but being a consultant sounded quite complicated for her. Having to give personal lectures to strangers with lots of money could be very daunting; plus, the man seemed like he worked every single day – at least to the clients' calls.
"I see the fridge is almost empty." The space around them echoed every word loud enough for them to hear.
He had looked in the fridge for his cold water and noticed the emptiness of it. She turned to him with his back facing her. There was no irritation in his voice, so that could be a good thing.
"You cook a lot."
"I like cooking."
She decided that maybe it was time for them to talk like normal adults even though she wasn't one. After all, neither could go on living in the house without talking to each other. That would be draining and straining for one another, she concluded. One of them could end up feeling guilty and that wasn't her intention; this was no one's intention – not the two of them at least.
"This is delicious. Thank you for the meal." The older smiled genuinely; she could tell. It was kind of nice. "Maybe, you can pick what to fill in the fridge."
"Oh? I can do the grocery shopping?" She didn't think her voice would be a bit higher than normal, but she knew as soon as she paused. "I mean it's your fridge."
"It's fine. I have no idea what to do with it, and I don't really cook that much." It sounded like a mocking laughter when it came out of his mouth. The man looked down at his empty plate. "Mom and dad usually come to restock it, and I don't do anything with the stuff in there – wasted a lot of food."
Her lips parted slightly at the confession. She knew that without him telling her, but for him to her personally like that was something she didn't expect.
"But can I ask you something?" His eyes were a lot livelier than the other days. It was good to know he got some much-needed sleep.
"Ne?"
"What do you want to do as a career?"
Of course, her father had noted that this man would be responsible for her college tuition and other expenses. Hesitation was prominent and clearly, he could see it in her gestures as well.
"I want to run a restaurant." Looking straight forward at the gray wall, she was afraid she would be judged again. Or maybe even worse he wouldn't support her for that.
There were a few seconds of silence and the man leaned down to rest his chin on his hand.
"I don't..." he leaned back once more, staring at her. "Okay, you want to enter a cooking school? Or study in college then run a business..."
"I want to take liberal arts and run a restaurant."
"Hmm, I don't know much about that, but I'll ask my friend for some good cooking school." He was tapping on his phone and looked up at her again. "And what subject you want to learn?"
"Korean literature. Maybe I can teach and build up some network that way."
He nodded slowly and gave her side smile. "That's good."
The girl watched walked off with his plates and came back with another glass of water. This couldn't be it. He didn't ask anything else besides that? Looking at him staring at her with such innocent eyes got thinking. What was going on in his head when he just asked her that?
"What is it?"
"Um, you don't mind that I want to do that?"
Suddenly, the soft glance was gone and he just sat there with a strange an intense look. "No. Not at all."
Sighing a relief, she gazed at him with a soft and dreamy smile on her face. "You know, you're the first person that eat my food."
His eyebrows slightly raised at the revelation.
"I mean you're not the first one I cook for, but my parents didn't want me to cook." She then let out an unintentionally loud giggle. "And you ate everything up. I feel flattered."
At once, he choked on water and tried to recover gracefully. "Uh- It's- well, you cook delicious food."
"So, should we go to the grocery store?"
"Oh?"
"Maybe you can tell me your favorite food and I can cook that for you. Oh! Can I use the kitchen for learning as well? That would mean we have to buy other stuff."
"Of course, you can use the kitchen, so today we go, I suppose?" His voice was a little pitchy, but that was probably him just drinking water.
"Ne!" She was excited to pick up some more ingredient for her cooking and noticed his unfocused gaze on her. "Is there something wrong?"
It was curious to see the man shaking his head so violently, but she didn't care. She didn't know if that was just the nature of his profession, being a consultant and good with words – giving advice. One thing she was sure of him that he was someone different.
