Yeom Tae smiled brightly. "This was my favorite bit."
To think that a book she had recommended just a few days ago was read so carefully and attentively by him proved his sincerity towards her.
"Why was it your favorite?" Haneul asked, smiling back.
"Because I can't relate to it." Yeom Tae chuckled. "I like winter more."
Haneul nodded. "But suppose you were disabled like the main character of the book." She said slowly, "Would you still like winter more?"
"The girl lived away from her parents because of studies." Yeom Tae started to conclude his read. "She only ever saw them during summer vacation. During her residence away from her parents, she got into an accident and became disabled for life, unable to even travel alone.
She never had the courage to tell her parents about her tragedy so she longed for the summer times where she would go back to her loved ones. Her summer now felt as cold as winter because she was not able to feel the heat." He said. "Haneul, I like winter more." He added. "And I will continue to like it and take summer for granted unless I'm taught a lesson by life."
"That's true." Haneul respected his opinion. "You can't change certain things unless you go through them."
"Exactly." Yeom Tae said. "What about you?"
"I never gave it much thought." Haneul admitted. "Seasons… They just pass."
"This was fun." Yeom Tae said. "To think that two people can take a single book so differently is trippy."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it, honestly." Haneul chuckled. "I thought I picked a boring book for your first read." She added.
Yeom Tae shook his head. Considering how he knew the story and the lines well, he must've enjoyed reading it. Haneul was happy that she was able to be a little 'less' boring.
"Yeom Tae," Haneul called him. "Now that you've done what I do, I wanna do what you do."
Haneul genuinely wanted to try the things he did as well. It sounded fun to let him do what she does and do what he does. Such a pure form of interaction it was, just like fictions. Until the party behind them interrupted them though.
"The two of you had been conversing so deeply so we didn't bring it up till now but we can't hold the dinner any longer." Jae laughed while addressing the two.
Right. They weren't on a date. This was dinner. A family dinner. The two had almost forgotten that their parents were sitting right next to them.
The butlers and maids had already set the dining table. They were forced to get up and shift to the dining table, the moment that Haneul had wished never to see. Since it was finally time to have dinner, she knew the topic of her marriage would be in the limelight.
But there was no avoiding it anymore. She knew she had to take both the good and bad along the way. The good had passed, the bad had yet to pass.
They all sat on the chairs around the dining table, finally ready for dinner. The two sat in front of each other, with Haneul's parents beside her and Yeom Tae's parents beside him.
"I had them follow your instructions." Yeom Tae whispered slowly.
Haneul narrowed her eyes, failing to understand what he meant. Then the maids walked closer and lifted up the lids of the dishes placed on the table. The spicy aroma tickled her nose right away. Yeom Tae was proudly smiling in front of her. The entire food was dark red in color. She slowly looked at her parents, looking at their demise.
"Yeom Tae." Haneul repressed a sarcastic smile. "My parents are not good with spicy food." She whispered back to him.
The constant proud smile on Yeom Tae's face slowly disappeared with realization. Suddenly, flashbacks of his exact words he had said to the cooks started flooding inside his mind.
"Our guests are able to take on huge Scovilles. Keep that in mind." Or such were the orders regarding the food in front of them.
Oh how Haneul could already imagine the scenario at the ER next morning. So chaotic yet so fresh. The beauty of these dinners was that no one was going to complain on each other's faces. All the rants and complaints were for the car, or the house. Haneul forced a smile yet again, already imagining the long hours of rants she would have to listen to.
"Now that we're on the table," Haewon uttered while casually eating the 'huge' Scovilles, all while Haneul's parents were putting up a show of enjoying the food.
"L-Let's-" Soomin tried to finish the sentence, only to cough.
"Let's talk about what we are here for-" Changmin continued instead, only to cough as well.
Haneul and Yeom Tae had both been sharing glances every time Haneul's parents would cough, enjoying the mood and pitying them at the time. Their chemistry was chaotic.
Yeom Tae's parents were very alarmed by the coughs, but since their business lied elsewhere, they tried their best to ignore it.
"I was certainly pleased to see our children getting along today." Jae said as he chuckled, "It would be so nice-"
Here came the slurp, followed by disastrous coughs. Soomin was actually not having the best of her life, visibly, clearly and indubitably. The Yeom couple let them have their coughing moments.
"Is the food too spicy?" Haewon finally asked since the coughs seemed to have no end to them.
Changmin shook his head so quickly that it was almost unbelievable, "Of course, not. It's delicious."
Haneul noticed her father hit his wife's foot gently with his own.
"Yummy!~"
Oh no. The pain in her voice wasn't even funny anymore. Haneul and Yeom Tae genuinely felt bad about her everlasting, never ending coughs. They sounded painful.
But hey, at least this little chaos was able to drag the topic of their marriage. Win-win.