Grocery Shopping

It is already ten in the morning but I still haven't seen Ma Ri go out of her room since last night. Yes, I would have known it if she had sneakily gone to the kitchen. I wonder if she even had her dinner outside before coming home. Did something happen yesterday?

Pushing my thoughts aside, I go to the kitchen and took a whole chicken out of the refrigerator. I prepare the ingredients for samgyetang, a Korean ginseng chicken soup, on the table. After washing the chicken, I stuff it with sweet rice, ginseng, garlic cloves, jujube, gingko nuts, and chest nuts, crossed the chicken legs and tie them with a cotton string, then let it boil. After it was already cooked, I put the dish on the table, looking satisfied.

Hearing light footsteps approaching in the kitchen, I stand on my side of the table with a proud face. Ma Ri appears, looking the same way she was yesterday morning. But the difference is, her hair is more disheveled and she has dark shades under her eyes. She is holding a cup of noodles as usual.

'What was she doing all this time to look like that?' I say to myself and then lower down my stare at her cup noodles, 'No, not a cup noodle again.'

She is obviously surprised to see me in the kitchen. Without a word, I point to the bowl prepared in front of mine, silently telling her that it is hers.

She is about to open her mouth to say something when her stomach grumbled. I stare at her impatiently and gesture her to take a seat. She takes her seat slowly without taking his eyes off me. Why is she acting strange today?

"Did you cook this?" she asks in a low and dry voice. Sounding not her usual self.

"Yes. We have a saying that goes, "fight heat with heat" Since spring is coming and it's getting warmer, I thought of this dish," I say proudly, ushering her to take a taste. Samgyetang is a popular stamina food in summer and spring, it can supplement one's lost energy by having this soup, and judging at her frail face, she will really need this.

"Oh, fight heat with heat," she murmurs to herself.

Excited for her to taste my dish, I tell her how I prepared it, only to see her hesitating and playing her spoon.

"Why?" I ask, frowning.

She looks at me furtively then said after a second she comes up with an absurd excuse... obviously.

"Ah, in the country where I came from, we let the one who cooked the food taste it first, cha!" she lifts the spoon towards me.

"I have my own too," I say coldly. Then I furrow my brows after realizing something.

"Wait a minute, are you suspecting that I put something on your food?"

"No! Of course not!" she replies hastily.

"Ah, you thought I'm gonna poison you," I said while folding my arms in front of me, giving her a somber look.

Evidently, she looks guilty so she immediately put the spoon on her mouth instead. I watch her while she chews, so she tried not to look like she is forcing herself. But after a while, her expression changed and she was chewing it enthusiastically.

"This is so delicious," she say surprisingly. She takes another spoon then another until she's inhaling the food ravenously.

I smirk and start to eat too. It will sound like a brag to say this but my dishes tasted like those served in restaurants. I actually planned to take culinary arts before but my father wanted one of his sons to take after his profession. I couldn't do anything but follow in my father's footsteps since my brother had set his mind against it.

I clear my throat after remembering something and asked: "By the way, who was that person you took a ride with yesterday?"

She lifts her face to me and gulps her food before answering, "He was Yoona's brother. Do you remember her? She's the daughter of one of those ahjumma that visited us yesterday morning."

I can see that her face becomes brighter now.

"I don't remember," I answer shortly.

"She was the sweetest among them. When I told her I have to go somewhere, she asked her brother to give me a ride. And his brother is a nice guy too."

I nod my head slowly, not really interested in that Yoona and especially her brother.

"Uhm, just an advice, you shouldn't trust people easily. I mean, even if they appear nice, you should always be careful around them."

She stops and looks at me intensely.

"Right, I shouldn't trust people easily," she replies mysteriously as she stares at me the way I studied and cleaned the chicken's cavity a while ago.

"Well, I'm saying this because as someone who lives with me under one roof, I guess I held responsibility if ever something happened to you," I reason out.

She nods slowly but is still staring at me curiously.

"Another thing, do you happen to be looking for a job? You can't be thinking of living unemployed, right?"

She scoffs after hearing what I've said, "Of course! I thought about that before I went here in Korea. I am a professional you know!"

"Good. I don't want the neighbors to think you are just loafing around."

She stuffs a bit of chicken on her mouth harshly and rolls her eyes.

"And, go prepare yourself. We will go to the grocery after this."

* * *

"Grocery shopping?"

I fumbles over my wallet and counted the remaining money that I have, fifty thousand won. That's around two-thousand pesos. Geez, I need to save money. I do not have the luxury to go grocery shopping. I sigh heavily.

"Why don't he shop alone?" I murmur annoyingly.

"Ma Ri!"

I jump back, did he hear me?

"Yes?" I shout back, he must be near the door.

"I'll take the shower first, ok?"

"Yes!" I reply, sounding obedient but frowns after.

"Tch! Just because he fed me, he acts superior now."

I glare in the direction of the shower.

Once we are both done, we went out of the house together. There is a car in front.

"Oh! who parked this car in front of my house?" I complain.

But then he walks near the driver's door and opens it without saying a word. I did not see any car since the first day, is it his?

"Whose car is this?" I inquire, still standing in front of the gate.

"I borrowed it," he replies and then tells me to get inside.

I get on the passenger's side and put on my seat belt.

"You borrowed it just for today?"

"I borrowed it for a month. That's how long I will stay here."

"Oh! So that's why you said we will settle everything after a month."

But why is he staying just for a month? What does he have to accomplish here in one month? If he would be staying just for a month then I will have no problems with the house, right? I guess, I just need to be nice to him so he would be kind enough to give me the house. That is if I'm still alive at that time. Oof!

I glance at him sideways and press my lips tightly. I want to trust him completely, I trust his cooking that's it, but there's something about him that is so mysterious that I couldn't help but doubt him.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Huh?" I ask surprisingly.

"I know my side profile looks great, but I think my front face is better," he says smugly while gesturing on his whole face using his free hand.

"Tch!"

He chuckles. Showing his big dimples. He looks too good to be a serial killer. Honestly.

Arriving at the grocery store, I am about to take a basket when he takes a cart. A cart!

Wait, is he planning to buy many things. I swear I can only use the baby seat part of the cart for the items I decided to buy. Compelled to buy, just to say I bought something. He moves the cart to the dairy section, ignoring the canned goods section, and puts BIG cartons of milk, coffee, and sugar in the cart. I think those are good for a month!

"Chocolate?" he asks in a moderate voice.

"Huh?" Why is he asking me? Isn't he buying for himself only? I simply say that I'm alright with coffee.

He pushes the cart to the dry goods section, and he shoves a lot of ramen noodles on the cart.

"Cooking ramen is much better than hot-water cup noodles," he lectures. I nod like a good student. It is because I couldn't think of anything to say.

He takes a lot of other items. Even two dozens of tissues, boxes of soaps, and big bottles of shampoo and conditioner. I felt embarrassed remembering my sachet of conditioners and budget soap at home. I take one toothpaste as it is on my list but he takes it away from my hand and shows me the jumbo toothpaste that he got.

"We only have one bathroom, why buy separately?" he says.

So, I guess he is buying for both of us? BUT WAIT, so we will divide the expenses in two? Oh my goodness! Can he please stop putting items on the cart now!

I am mentally calculating the total cost of our items while he keeps on adding other things to the cart.

Oh my! Is he planning to make me go bankrupt in my first two days here?

He also takes some vegetables which he says for dinner later and tells me that I can also buy vegetables in the vegetable stall outside the house. I thought we are already done when he suddenly, turns the cart left leading us on the meat section.

"Pork? Chicken? Or, Beef?" he glances at me and I do not really know what to answer so I just shrugged.

"Let's take them all, so we can have all options," and he takes a lot of packs of beef samgyupsal, kilos of chicken wings and breasts, and cut pork. This man is a monster in the kitchen.

"Do you have other things to buy?"

"Huh?" I think I have muttered that same word a lot of times today. I am overwhelmed with the items we already have on the cart that I forgot about the things I listed to buy.

"Huh?" he echoes.

"Huh- Ha.ha.Hahaha!" I can only laugh while stepping back to go to the personal care section. He gazes at me curiously as I gesture him to stay where he is.

Without wasting any time, I look for the shelf containing sanitary pads and panty liners. I take one pack for each only since I can buy them in stores. Satisfied, I turn to my left to go when I see Tae Yoon a step in front of me. Shoving a lot of sanitary pads in the cart.

"Hey! Wait!" I rush beside him and pick the pads to bring them back to the rack, which he only returns to the cart. He also moves the cart to the shelf at my right by moving around my back. Making me turn around as well. He takes more panty liners.

"Look, wait!" I say in a panic, "One pack is good for one month already, you're taking a stock for six months!"

Hearing that, he returns three packs back on the rack. Leaving me a three-month stock of sanitary napkins and panty liners. I sigh in disbelief.

"-and, why are we buying a lot of things?" I manage to complain. I know it is already too late to ask him that.

"I will be very busy going grocery shopping again so we have to stock," he replies nonchalantly.

"I can go whenever we are out of stock," I say.

"No," he replies, his black brows drawn together.

"-I couldn't let a woman do grocery shopping alone."

Sweet.