It didn't take her long to realize that Ijin was missing a few life skills.
Ok.
It was more than a few.
He was missing some life skills that were so important, they were leaning towards the verge of being common sense. But at the same time, he seemed to know other skills that were slightly questionable, but were very helpful.
Sometimes it annoyed her because there were times she had a few male friends that liked to pretend to lack the knowledge to fulfill a task when in reality, they knew how to do it. They were just pretending so somebody else would do it for them. Sometimes she caught herself thinking that Ijin was being a fool on purpose.
Then she remembered that Ijin didn't grow up in a normal place. That he grew up in a jungle, living out in camps and tents in between jobs in which he would guide people.
When she remembered that, it was obvious that he wouldn't know how to do certain household tasks or certain tasks that were unique to Korea.
She slammed the lid onto the pan, extinguishing the oil fire that Ijin was frantically trying to put out.
Sometimes she worried about him.
"Thank you Dayeon," Ijin said with a sigh, still thoroughly flustered by the oil fire that he had accidentally caused while cooking," I wasn't quite sure what to do."
She smiled, good thing she was there before something bad happened, before she flicked off the heat," Its ok. You didn't get burned or anything right?"
They looked down at his hands, his cuffs were rolled up, a scar on his forearm was peaking out just the tiniest bit from under his cuff. He flexed his fingers, turning his hands over to make sure that he didn't get burned," I didn't get hurt. Did you?"
She waved off his concern. She had used an oven mitt to slam the lid onto the pan, and the long sleeves of her house shirt had protected her arms from the flames," I'm fine. Just put a lid on it next time," the way he was nodding let her know that it was new information for him," If it gets too dangerous to put a lid on it. There's a fire extinguisher under the sink to use. You…do know how to use it right?"
She was a little bit more than relieved when he said that he did know how to use it.
"Here," She blinked in surprise when Ijin gave her a small box," I got this for you. carry it with you when you go out."
"Uh-ok. Thank you," she thanked as she opened the box.
She promptly choked on her spit.
"I know it seems a little bit overboard," Ijin said as he picked up the small pocketknife," But I know how terrible people can be at times," She almost flinched when Ijin flicked it open, the blade popping open with a click.
It was a small blade with the very tip being serrated for about two centimeters until the rest of the blade smoothed out. It looked to be small.
He motioned for her hand, and with some hesitance, she held it out to him," the Major told me about the pocketknife laws here in Korea," he pressed the blade against her palm, showing the way the blade was shorter than the width of her palm," You won't get in trouble for carrying it as long as its smaller than your palm...Hm."
Hm?
Was something wrong?
"Your hands are really small." She scrunched up her nose in annoyance.
"Hey," she said sternly with a faint teasing tone in her voice," its not my fault you have giant hands!"
He chuckled and let her compare their hand sizes.
She pouted even harder when she saw that her fingertips barely reached the first joint of his fingers.
His hands were unfairly big.
"You're a foot taller than me!" she quickly added on, which made Ijin laugh again," you just have gorilla hands!"
That made Ijin throw his head back in laughter, weakly defending himself as she started to lightly punch his arm. Partly out of frustration and partly out of playfulness.
"And you just have baby hands!" Ijin snarked back, laughing the loudest she had ever heard him laugh as she started to put a little bit more force into her hits.
That just made him laugh even harder.
They exchanged looks when they heard a quiet yelp, and then a loud thud coming from the bathroom.
She got up first and knocked on the bathroom door," Ijin?" the quiet muttering stopped," Is everything alright?"
"...Yeah," She took note of the bashful tone that was in his voice," My towel fell."
She rose her eyebrow.
That sounded a lot heavier than a towel.
"it sounded really heavy though?"
There was silence, and then the quietest,"…I was in my towel…"
And by god .
That had been the hardest she laughed in a long time.
By the time Ijin came out fully dressed, she was practically wheezing as she leaned against the wall. Grandfather had his hand clamped over his mouth, as he tried to contain his laughter long enough to swallow the mouthful of food that he had. They were both a bright red.
Ijin had his head ducked, thoroughly embarrassed as they continued to laugh.
After about 30 seconds of watching her laugh, Ijin decided that it was enough before he gently shoved her, letting her fall to the floor where she continued to laugh.
She didn't know if it was because he was fresh out of the shower or if it was because he was really embarrassed.
But that had to be the reddest she had ever seen him.
It was moments like these.
Where she had to remind herself that Ijin did not grow up in a normal household.
She held up the dress shirt. Asking herself how her brother, the brother that seemed to know a little bit of everything.
Managed to do this.
She looked through the iron-shaped hole in Ijins shirt, looking at Ijin who was tilting his head in that particular way of his as he looked at her through the hole.
Note to self.
Ijin is no longer allowed to iron clothes without supervision.
Or further lessons.
In hindsight, she should have known or at least inferred that he wouldn't have to iron clothes out in the jungle.
But they had bigger problems.
The problem being that since it was Friday night and Ijin had practically destroyed his last dress shirt, he didn't have a shirt to wear for school the next day. It was already too late for them to go to the store to get him a new shirt since the department stores that sold the shirts he needs are already closed.
Ijin must have noticed the look on her face because he took the burned shirt out of her hands slowly and draped it over his arm," I'll…I'll just handwash one of my shirts."
She just hummed in agreement as she sighed heavily.
That boy was going to be the end of her.
She just stared at him as he pushed the door open.
He noticed her stare and tilted his head to the side, silently asking what was wrong.
She took a deep breath, before slowly saying," You know how to pick a lock. But you don't know how to iron a shirt?"
His eyes were darting around as if he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. After a few seconds of the two of them staring at each other awkwardly, Dayeon looking down on her brother as he was still crouched down after picking the lock. He looked very unsure of himself as he brought his shoulders to his ears and answered," Yes?"
She wanted to scream.
"Ijin must be a good brother no?"
She stared at the girls, yet another pair of females that wanted to get close to her brother through her for romantic purposes.
She thought about all of the stuff he knew, and all the stuff he didn't know.
She stared at them, simply saying," Yes," with a smile on her face.
They stared at her back, slightly confused by her answer," Is that a yes or a no?"
She just smiled.
"Yes."