Day Forty-Three

"Soo-yah! Soo-yah! Yong-soo-yah!" Evelyn, ever the energetic and plucky girl, was yelling for her partner-in-crime. Currently, she was sitting at the dining table, a laptop sitting in front of her and headphones on her head.

It was a normal thing for her to be shouting about, but the thing is, Yong-soo was sitting right beside her while drinking a cup of coffee.

"De?" Yong-soo yelled back. She looked at him squarely in the eye.

"Tonight's dinner will be sanjeok and chicken stew," she decreed. Yong-soo placed a hand on the left side of the headphones and put it over his left ear.

"Ooh, this episode! It has great tips for cooking Korean food da ze!" he said after pausing the button.

"So does that mean you're going to make it for dinner?" Evelyn practically bounced in her seat.

"You don't want to try the other dishes they made?"

"Of course I do, but I don't remember what they're called I mean I'm not Korean so I'd probably get the names wrong!" she laughed. "But that lady with the actor made something with snow crabs, right?"

"Yup! There was also that rocker dude with the oysters and seaweed. Then there's that guy obsessed with cold noodles..."

"Ahh! Can't you save that for another time?" she pouted. "I love food and all, but I prefer savoring the flavor. And besides, are there even snow crabs here?" When he was about to answer, Arthur entered the kitchen.

"Good afternoon," yawned Arthur. He made himself a cup of tea before sitting across the pair.

"Afternoon, sir," chirped Evelyn. "Did you sleep late last night?" Arthur nodded.

"Say, why didn't you just plug and play it on the telly?" he asked, eyeing the laptop.

"Well, Lovino's on his siesta, and we have no intentions on dying early!" came the response from Yong-soo. Arthur acknowledged it with a knowing nod. In that house, it was an unspoken rule that nobody interrupts Lovino's siesta.

Despite his attitude, Lovino wasn't a prejudiced, judging bastard if he wanted to. Unfortunately for the others, that just meant he didn't give a flying fuck whether he was scared of them or not - anybody who would dare interrupt his siesta would surely face his wrath.

"Have you seen Hope?" Evelyn asked.

"Still holed up in her room, I assume," Arthur shrugged. He took a sip of tea.

"I'm home!" announced Yao as he entered the kitchen, carrying a brown paper bag.

"Welcome home hyeong!" Yong-soo waved with a grin. "When's lunch going to be ready da ze?"

"So impatient, aru." Yao shook his head. "Maybe in an hour."

"What? Why so long?" Evelyn moaned in frustration.

"Aiyah, cooking is all about the effort! Understand that!" he snapped back. Evelyn and Yong-soo gave each other a look before bursting into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Arthur asked, looking at Yao for an answer, only to sigh when he shrugged.

"We may never know," he said ominously as he quickly prepared to cook.

"Hey, just so you know, we're making tonight's dinner. So we'll be taking the car to look for ingredients okay thanks bye!"

And in the blink of an eye, Evelyn and Yong-soo disappeared. Their belongings, however, stayed where they were.


"They wanted me to cook faster, but in the end, they're not eating!" Yao grumbled as he prepared the table. He glanced at the laptop, which displayed a paused video. A small notebook lay opened beside it.

On one hand, he was curious simply because it was opened. On the other hand, snooping wasn't a very nice thing to do.

Never mind - if they asked why he did it, he'd just say the book was open and he would have seen it anyway. He took the book in his hands and flipped the pages one by one towards the first.

Well, he would have done that until he saw familiar-looking characters and stopped. Are those... Chinese characters? He raised an eyebrow as he tried to read it.

'Tomorrow is supposed to be a holiday, but there is a student council meeting at school. When I become president (or vice, whichever I can get) I will definitely make things go so perfectly the others would love being council members!'

Thus was the rough translation of it. He quickly flipped to the very first page. Only Chinese characters were used, save for one line.

Evelyn... Hui Hou?


"We're home!" Evelyn danced into the living room, a plastic bag in each of her hands. Gilbert, Arthur and Lovino looked up from watching the television, acknowledging her presence, before turning to the show once again.

"Finding ingredients sure can be hard, da-ze," Yong-soo said tiredly as he followed her.

"Yes, aru! For the last time, they took the car to buy ingredients!" Yao said exasperatedly. "You should be the one interrogating her, not you interrogating me into interrogating her."

"Don't blame me for taking so long! Evelyn was the one driving, da-ze," the Korean quickly defended himself. True to his word, they had been out for a while. They left before noon and returned a little while before the sun had set.

"You can drive?" Gilbert asked, laughing at Yao's comment. He was rubbing his temples at the dining table as Hope stood beside him."

"Of course I can! What makes you think I can't?" she huffed, setting the bags on the dining table. Yong-soo, who had been carrying a paper bag, placed the object on the table as well.

"You're Chinese! Why didn't I know this before?" Yao demanded out of the blue. Gilbert burst into laughter, and she blinked in confusion.

"You never asked. So I thought it was irrelevant," she shrugged casually. "Speaking of Chinese, can- ahem, may I call you Lao Wang?" Evelyn grinned, having correcting herself before being pointed out by Arthur. Hope raised a hand before sliding her PDA.

[What does that Lao Wang mean?]

"I'm glad you asked!" Evelyn beamed, her eyes practically gleaming with her Chinese pride. "Lao Wang basically translates to 'Old Wang'." She started to unpack the plastic bags she brought.

"You see, unlike in Western cultures, old age is actually a pretty cool thing! It's like acknowledging the person you're calling old is wise and has a lot of experience in life, thus deserving of respect." Evelyn and Yong-soo began preparing the ingredients. At the dining table, Yao and Hope (who has sat down at some point) observed them from afar.

"And she calls me 'Wang' for the same reason that Japanese people would call each other by their family name, but I suppose you already know this," Yao continued, despite not being asked to.

"But you're fine with us calling you Yao?" asked Arthur from in front of the TV. He cast a curious glance towards the Chinese man.

"Aiyah, no need to make a fuss about it! You Westerners are used to calling people by their given name, so why force yourself to something you're not used to?" he asked in response, waving it off.

"Hey, has anybody seen Francis?" Evelyn asked all of a sudden. The atmosphere suddenly became quiet.

"...did you pick him up from his school yet?" Yao slowly turned towards the girl beside him.

[In my defense, the one and only car in this house was used by them.]

Well, instead of describing how things went after that, let's just say all of them have had better nights.


Author's Note

Fun with Korean and Chinese! Sanjeok (pronounced san-jok, think Japanese 'san' and 'o'... uh, I don't know how to describe that sorry) is a traditional Korean cuisine made by grilling sliced beef and vegetables with seasonings or frying it with a griddle. Personally I've never had it, but I think it's pretty tasty!

The -yah is a honorific used after the given name to a person you are close friends with. I like to think Yong-soo is bffsies5ever with someone to the point of having a cool Korean nickname. If memory serves me right, I've never read a story where Yong-soo has a best friend to fanboy (fangirl?) over K-entertainment the same way a huge anime/manga/Japanophile would fangirl over all things Japanese with Kiku. Besides, Korean entertainment are just as cool!

My sister played a few episode of Korean dramas and I just watched along. The 'Soo-yah' nickname was inspired by a character calling her best friend with a -yah at the end (though that friendship was kind of one-sided heheh). Yong-soo probably won't mind because it (actually) is a Korean thing.

Quiz time! Did you expect Evelyn being Chinese? Or were there no hints at all?

Bonus: What is the show Yong-soo and Evelyn were watching? (Seriously, if you get it right, you are my best friend forever.)

As per usual, all reviews are welcomed and will be used to fuel my motivation! Be it comments, questions, critiques, complaints, whatever! (I apologise for the rush of this chapter. I have to update before tomorrow!)

B.

P.S. - Mulan was playing as I finished this chapter. You have no idea how happy I am! (Considering the last chapter, I'm not sure whether I should...)