Chapter Text
Today is the day Minji was finally set free from what she knows mentally as the 'torture of boredom' of taking care of her family's convenience store during such an ungodly season. Though, it wasn't all bad if she had to be honest, mostly because her friends kept coming over to hand out and of course, the sudden appearance of Hanni and Danielle made it even more enjoyable.
She could now spend her morning peacefully without any need to rush through her routine and that was exactly what she planned to do. Unfortunately, her childhood friends refused to let her have such privilege and barged into her house at 8 in the morning then proceeded to rummage through the kitchen for cereal and milk like they were racoons.
Minji couldn't do anything about it, both Hyein and Haerin knew they passcode to unlocking the front door since they've been together long enough for her parents to trust them like they were an extra addition to the Kim family, this system however, works vise versa with both Hyein and Haerin's families. Let's just say even their parents are like siblings.
That morning, all three of them had cereal for breakfast, mixing different types of cereal they thought would go well together. Minji wanted a proper self-made breakfast, nevertheless, she joined them in the process of making cereal mix when the youngest girl asked her to.
Oh, the things Minji would do for them.
Hyein placed the cereal boxes back into the kitchen cabinet while Haerin wipes the dining table (they played around too much, the cereal spilled) and Minji does the dishes after they finished eating. Everything felt so domestic, it has always been like this with them but this was also the reason they're scared.
Minji will leave for collage soon, leaving the two younger girls behind and neither of them wanted that but it was inevitable. By that logic, Haerin will also leave Hyein behind in a few more years. It's horrifying to think about the things that are going to change between them.
At that moment, they all knew what each other was thinking about, it has been a usual occurrence ever since Minji graduated. Hyein was the first to break into tears, all these emotions became overwhelming for her, she couldn't handle it anymore.
Minji walked up to Hyein and hugged her, gently caressing her back to help her calm down. Haerin could only pat the younger girl's head, wiping her tear-stained cheeks using a kitchen towel and reassuring her that everything was going to be okay and nothing would ever break their bond despite being equally scared.
They have talked about this multiple times before, Minji pinky promised to call them at least once a week. It didn't make things less sad but getting reassurance from the older girl made them feel better in a way.
Deciding not to dwell on the topic, they went on to play games on Minji's playstation.
"Let's play the Spiderman game again!" Hyein suggested, sitting excitedly on the couch, traces of tears no longer noticeable from her eyes.
"We play that every single time, isn't there anything else?" Haerin asked Minji, grabbing the controller from the tv cabinet.
Minji who was behind the couch, propped her elbows on the head of the couch, "I installed a fox game yesterday, I haven't played it yet though," she replied.
"This one?" Haerin clicked on the game with the title 'Endling: Extinction Is Forever' because there was a fox on the cover.
Minji hummed in agreement, encouraging her to hit play. There was a cutscene, a fox making it's was through a burning forest caused by humans, it was depressing to watch it limp and struggle to make through the falling trees and fire.
"This is just sad..," Hyein commented, her facial expression showing obvious discomfort.
"That's the point, I think it's to raise awareness or something," the oldest girl stated out.
They continued on with the cutscene, the fox finally managed to find a way out and a burrow to live in. Apparently, the fox was pregnant and that night it gave birth to four cubs.
The entire purpose of the game was to survive and Haerin was doing quite a good job at it, until one of the cubs got kidnapped. They played the game for about a few hours, trying to keep the cubs alive and finding the kidnapped cub. It was getting tiring (and very depressing).
A few minutes later, the bell rang.
"I'll get the door!" Hyein jumps off the couch and skips to the door.
"Who's there?" she asks, making sure it wasn't some creep.
"It's me, Hanni," she heard the girl's voice from behind the door and immediately swung the door open.
"Hyein?" Hanni sounded confused, isn't this supposed to be Minji's house? Why is Hyein at the door?
"Yes?" the younger girl answered.
"Did I get the wrong address?"
"I don't know what you're talking about but maybe?"
"Minji invited me and Dani over, is this Minji's place?" she says, pointing at Danielle who was deliberately ringing the bell over and over again, knowing the door was already opened just to embarrass Hanni.
"Hyein, who is it?" Minji pokes her head out from behind the taller girl, "Oh, you're here already! Come on in"
"So, I did get the right address.." she says as she drags Danielle by the arm into the house with her.
Haerin was still playing when the walked in, too busy with the game to notice their presence. Hyein lightly nudged her shoulder, "Hyein, stop. I'm feeding the cubs," she says annoyed.
"We have visitors" Haerin paused the game, turning her head to face the door.
She quickly fixed her sitting position, putting down the console, "Hi," she awkwardly mustered out.
_______________
'I swear, they fluffing planned this' Hanni thought to herself because there is no way this whole thing wasn't a set up. She took a mental note to smack Danielle (and maybe Haerin and Hyein as well) when she gets back.
Half an hour ago, Hyein wanted to try cooking with everyone. Nobody had other ideas on what to do so they went along with it and while they were giving out tasks, Hanni got paired with Minji to buy the extra ingredients while the others had to cook something with the stuff they already have at Minji's place.
("Why can't I just go with Danielle? We're using her money to pay for the groceries after all," Hanni tried to rationalize the situation.
"Minji knows the grocery store, I've never even step a foot in there nor know where it is," Danielle counters, "Plus, you two are the oldest so you should go"
Hyein and Haerin also backed her up, nodding at every word she says while Minji easily agreed because the reasons Danielle listed out were realistic.)
That's how she ended up here, in a grocery store with Minji, it's not like they were awkward around each other or anything, in fact, being with Minji actually gives her a sense of comfort but she wouldn't want Minji to find out about how fast her heart was beating for her.
Having a big fat gay ass crush on such a hot girl like Minji can be such a problem sometimes and this is definitely one of those times.
(a/n: don't mind me, just using Hanni to simp over Minji)
A list of things to buy was made before they left to the mart, "It's surprisingly long," Minji checks the list, "How much meat should we buy?"
"A lot," Hanni says without hesitation, "I'm going to tear up meat today with my mouth"
"Don't tear up meat," Minji chuckles, finding her statement amusing, "but I wonder if it's fine to leave the cooking to them"
"Hyein is good, last time when she came over, she made something for me and Dani"
"Yeah, Hyein is good, I trust her enough not to not let Haerin and Danielle burn my house down"
"I feel like Haerin would be the type to just watch..," Hanni jokes.
"She is actually, she can only fry eggs"
"Bingo, I guess?"
___________
Back at Minji's place, the younger girls got to work.
"How should we do this?" Hyein grabs the bag of tteokbokki from the table and walks over to Danielle who was busy unwrapping plastic off a cabbage.
"I don't really know," she replied without looking away from the task at hand.
"Have you ever made tteokbokki before?"
"I haven't"
"Oh no," now Hyein really believes they're hopeless, glancing over to Haerin finding more ingredients from the fridge.
She took out the cutting board and to cut the vegetables Danielle finished washing, hyping herself up by convincing herself that she can do it. Just as she was about to cut it, a thought came to her mind, "How big should the pieces be?" she asks Haerin.
"They should be small, like this," Haerin made random gestures with her hands and cutting sound effects which doesn't sound anything like cutting but Hyein could still make do of what she meant despite not even facing her way nor seeing the hand gestures properly.
"Don't we need some for skewers?"
"Ah, then split them into two"
"Two types?"
"Yeah"
The way that they can communicate even without using actual words is honestly impressive, they've been together long enough to have such ability to read small things such as so. Hyein starts cutting up the green onions, regretting it right after because they're looking oddly chopped.
Haerin brings in more vegetables from the ones that Danielle has washed to the table and sits next to Hyein. "This is right, right?," Hyein says, laughing through the pain of her awkwardly cut vegetables and instead of saying 'it's fine' Haerin laughs along.
Finally, Danielle, joined in, chopping carrots. Haerin was sitting right in the middle of them, watching and giving encouraging words like 'You're doing so well' and 'I'm cheering you on' because there was noting for her to do at the moment.
"Haerin really is just watching..." Hyein complained.
"I'm not just watching, I'm cheering you on, It can so be helpful," she counters.
"Then, can you separate these?" Hyein hands her over the cabbages, "You know what I mean, right?"
"Okay, okay, I get it" She gets to work, not without stealing some of the carrots Danielle chopped which lead to everyone else eating the carrots along as an energizer of some sorts.
"This is why you need to be on the cooking team, you get to snack on something"
"True, I wonder how are things going with them"
"Hanni is probably going to smack me when she gets back..."
"More like, smack us, we set them up together"
"Let's pretend we're in a show and look up saying 'I wonder what the others are doing' so the camera cuts to them!"
"Ok, 3, 2, 1.."
Everyone said at the same time, "I wonder what the others are doing," looking up to the ceiling.
Not leaving time for a moment of silence, they broke into laughter, finding this very silly.
________
Minji went straight into the mart and took a shopping cart from the entrance where the carts were located because there was way too many things on the list for them to carry around by hand throughout the entire time they were shopping or as Hyein calls it, ingredients hunting.
She hands over the list of ingredients to Hanni, "I'll push the cart, just keep an eye on the things we have to buy"
Hanni took the list, purposefully brushing her hand against Minji's for a bit longer than needed because for now, all she could do was subtly pretend to 'accidentally' or 'unconsciously' grab her hand from time to time. Oh how she wished they could just hold hands without having to freak out internally whether the other was okay with it or not.
The Vietnamese girl looked around, finding the supermarket rather colorful and lively than the one close to her apartment back at their region. She walks ahead of Minji confidently as if she knew where everything was, trying to find the meat section because she decided to check that first off their list.
As luck would have it, the first thing she saw when she walked over to a particular lane was meat, they we're already cut into parts and neatly wrapped around a plastic wrap, "Should we buy 400g of pork shoulder?" she heard Minji asked, looking through the glass fridge door.
Without looking up from the meat Hanni replied, "I think it might be better to buy two packs since we eat a lot of meat," pointing through the glass, gesturing Minji to grab them and place it into the cart and as per usual, Minji complied.
Hanni took out her pen (yes, it's her iconic plant pen) to check 'meat' off their list. They continued on with their task, clearing out more things off the list, going through it over and over again to make sure noting was left. The bottom of the cart was barely visible by the time they finally checked the last item on the list.
"Hanni, is there anything else you need?"
"I was planning on making my mom's chicken noodles, Danielle loves it"
Not wasting much time, they went to look for fish oil but failed and settled for just powered ginger instead because apparently, it can be used as a substitute.
'Ingredients hunting' has been a success.
__________
"I'll start looking up tteokbokki recipes"
"Could you give me the red pepper powder?"
The younger girls started making the tteokbokki, following a recipe from Hyein's phone closely as none of them knew what they were doing and, mixing sugar, red pepper powder, soy sauce, minced garlic and gochujang together into a bowl.
That's when they heard the front door unlocking, signaling them of the older girls arrival, "Guys, were back"
"I can hear Minji!" Hyein and Danielle collectively shouts from the kitchen. Hyein immediately got up and greeted them, jumping excitedly like a little puppy, contrasting from her size.
As soon as the groceries were put where they were supposed to be, they got back to work. Minji cleaned the meat and cooked it over the stove, never latching her eyes away from the meat as she seasoned it as she believes that timing is the key when it comes to cooking meat.
Hyein, Haerin and Danielle was already done with their part, Danielle was the first to taste it, finding it more delicious than they expected it to be, she called the rest over to taste it too. When Minji took a sip of the soup, the younger girls were waiting with anticipation for her comment on their tteokbokki.
They practically squealed after Minji said it was good, high five-ing each other identical to children after getting praised by their mom for doing a good job at something.
"Our tteokbokki will be the highlight of the meal!" All three of them said out of sync but you could still tell they were on the same vibe, a chaotic one that is.
Hanni on the other hand was peacefully draining out the blood from the chicken in the sink, making sure they're clean to make her chicken noodles. She filled the cooking pot with water and waited for it to boil then inserted the now clean chicken in with a little bit of salt.
Getting rid of the scum that appears on the surface with a spoon for whatever reasons which even she herself can't explain but she just does it anyways because there has be a reason for it, probably.
After getting rid of all the scum, she placed a whole onion into the broth, then took out the chicken. The other girls randomly checked up on her but in a way that it wasn't disturbing, just as a way to encourage her or something.
She sprinkled a lot of her mom's 'special salt' into the broth to make it tasty and some ginger powder to complete the taste. Shredding the chicken as she waits for the broth to cook.
Danielle walked over and Hanni could instantly tell what she wanted so she took a piece she already shredded and hand-fed it into her mouth, earning a 'oh my gosh' from the younger girl because it tasted really good despite it only being chicken boiled with a little bit of salt.
The next person she fed was a curious Haerin and hungry Hyein appeared afterwards. Hyein takes some of it to share the food with Minji who was still cooking the meat, her brows quickly furrowed, she always does this when the food is good.
As for making the noodles, Hanni asked Danielle to cook it because she was too preoccupied with the broth. In accordance to her request, Danielle took out the noodles from the packaging the boiled them and draining the noodles up to place in five separate bowls individually.
The recipe Hanni was working on no longer felt like her mom's recipe as she had made more changes to it to be considered 'following a recipe' anymore. She added in the vegetable and the rest of the ingredients and the noodles were finally done and ready to be served.
Haerin set up the table with Hyein and they all sat down, proud of what they made. Hanni's noodles was the main course, they all loved it. Eating feels much more rewarding when they make it themselves.
_________
Hyein landed on the couch right after they all finished cleaning up the kitchen and dining table, feeling too full to move anymore. Her height causing her feet to dangle a little on the edge as she lays on her back with her hands over her stomach.
Danielle lay next to her, wrapping her arms around the younger girl's waist and nuzzling closer. Needless to say, the couch was fully occupied so they had to squeeze in to avoid falling off.
Despite only knowing each other for a month, Hyein felt like a younger sister to Danielle. Since the only sibling Danielle had was an older sister, she had always been curious on how it would be like to have a younger sibling. Meeting Hyein was the closest she has ever gotten to having a little sister and she really liked it, smiling into the hug when she feels another pair of arms wrap around her too.
Meanwhile, a pair of dark brown orbs had been observing them from the table, jealousy building up within them, wishing she was in Hyein's position, it was Haerin. She slumped down on the dining table, pretending not to care while still monitoring them.
She knows Danielle only sees Hyein as a younger sister and Hyein would never take Danielle away like that, not to mention their age gap felt illegal because Hyein was only 15 and Danielle was already 18 but she still couldn't help but envy her.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up only to find Hanni's smug grin, "You seriously need to learn how to be subtle man," her voice was barely above a whisper to avoid anyone else hearing what she said as she lightly pat Haerin's shoulder who's eyes widened in shock, she didn't expect anyone to catch on, other than Hyein and Minji of course.
"Don't worry, I wont tell her," she smiled softly at her, fighting the urge to tell her that her best friend actually has a huge crush on her too and that they should just make out or something along the lines of that. Now she understands how Danielle feels when she looks at her and Minji.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it," was all Haerin could think of saying.
"No problem, wanna watch Harry Potter in Minji's room with me?" the Vietnamese girl invited, pointkng towards Minji who was at the bottom of the staircase, waiting for Hanni.
Haerin took the opportunity to tease the older girl, "Nah, you two lovebirds have fun" Hanni could hear the complacent tone in the younger girl's voice.
"...right, obviously you knew," Hanni sighed, "You won't tell either, right?"
"I wont. Now go, you don't want to keep your future girlfriend waiting, I'm rooting for you"
"Ditto"
She made her way to Minji, joining her upstairs, glad that she can have someone to consult about Minji after this.
"Don't start exploring her chamber of secrets!" Haerin jokes, loud enough for of them to hear as they walked up.
Hanni wanted to take back what she said and smack Haerin so badly while Minji flushed red, awkwardly laughing at her friend's joke, also about to strangle the younger girl but they both decided to past it and ignored the absurd comment.