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He gave the girl a sideways glance, and all she did was leaning on the comfortable looking headrest and having her eyes closed the entire of time of the ride. The man did dread this moment that they had to be closer in a more confined space and endure the terrible, horrible awkward silence. Well, he could turn on the radio, but that could also them handling any weird songs with out-of-this-world lyrics for him. Miraculously, it wasn't too tense. It was a Zen type of silence.
As he waited for the light to go green, the fact mused him. For once, he liked the silence. The quietness of the moment. A stillness that seemed to never go away.
For once, he found silence peaceful.
"Oppa, do you like it sweet or salty?"
"Salty."
Minseok strolled the cart behind obediently while she was taking her time to analyze all of the things she was going to buy. In some way, he found this to be relaxing. Of course, it was a bit of a drag when she stayed in one section for too long, but he decided to check out whatever caught his eyes, keeping himself busy.
When she finally moved on to another section, he got stuck with another person's cart and had to wait for them to get out of the way. It was then someone else caught him.
"Omo! Minseok-shi!" A familiar friendly voice called out to him.
How could he forget that he could run into people in the supermarket?
"Oh, Sehun-shi!" He bowed deeply despite the taller man was younger.
"I didn't know you go grocery shopping."
Minseok mentally agreed with his colleague. "Ah, well, you see me now." A nervous laugh left his lips when it got to him that he might lose Jayoung. The supermarket was a big place, and like Sehun implied, he hadn't been in this place for so long, it was frightening. His youthful look and the stylist 'casual' clothing really put the older to shame. "You're stocking up for the month, huh? Hmm, you're with someone?"
Sweats were forming bricks on his forehead. The marriage was for close relatives only. Besides, it was sort of not an official one yet, for the girl was a few months short of turning 18; therefore, they married in tradition but hadn't signed any legal papers yet. Their parents didn't say anything about revealing it to anyone; that could mean he could just say it.
"I- Uh-"
A loud ringing interrupted their small chat. "Hello. Yeah, sure. Be right there." Sehun brought his phone to his chest and muttered "Sorry, gotta go. See you tomorrow."
The stress on his shoulders was immediately alleviated, and the man breathed out a deep sigh. He wasn't ready to say anything just yet. The girl probably didn't want to say anything at all, he sensed.
When he finally spotted the girl in a huge Saturday crowd, she was with another boy. Ah, the joys of meeting people in the supermarket. He slowed down and decided to watch from afar while pretending to be interested in a piece of beef loin.
They were enjoying their conversation and seemed to be bouncing off jokes. Teenager jokes, he was anxious about. That smile.
The girl locked eyes with him and that shook him out of a trance as she was trudging back to him after bidding farewell to the boy.
"Sorry, that was my old friend who moved back to town." She carried with her packages and bags of vegetables and stacked them on top of the many things threatening to fall off the cart if not careful.
The ride back home was more or less the same. This time around, though, she was tapping on her phone excitedly. Probably that out of town boy was texting her. Swallowing a yawn back in his throat, he thought how they were once in a close relationship. And if his aunt had taught him anything about romance was childhood friend was a plus in falling in love. They looked so much better together. Here he was, robbing their happiness.
"Oppa, you passed the driveway. Look, a car's in there." He stopped the car on the side of the hill instead of reversing it and walked out to see who was there.
A full head of blonde hair, eerily having similar a shade like his, was waiting in front of his door.
"Hello, you're back home, Minseok-sunbae."
Minseok responded with a silent stare.
"I heard the news I'm extremely sorry for your loss." She looked so normal with her big sweater and miniskirt and reserved; it was uncanny for him to take in.
He again stared blankly at her.
"I'm just here to-"
"You're here for anything, but that. Leave."
She looked surprised and wavered a little before regained her composure. "She was a very good person. She-"
"You don't get to say anything about her. Leave or I'll make you."
In five minutes, his car was in his own driveway again. Helping Jayoung with the grocery, he heard a stifled voice behind his back. All movements he made felt stiff all of a sudden.
"What is it?"
"Can I ask who that was?"
He held himself for a moment, clutching the bags extra tightly in his hands. "A stranger."
The rest of the day was spent cooking and cleaning the whole house. She was, of course, occupied with the ingredients and food, so he did the spring cleaning all by himself. It was when he stepped into his study that he realized something.
The delicious food was waiting for him once dinner time arrived. He watched in amusement at the girl who marveled at her own craft and ate happily on the other of the table as if he didn't exist.
That night he dreamt of himself becoming overweight once more after eating the girl's meals.
