Breakfast and Black Butterflies |ONC 2021|

Ch. 13: What's In a Name

Ella forced Con's surrender about who would drive, citing his bum knee as the main reason why he shouldn't. He'd submitted with ill grace, reluctantly falling into the passenger seat of her rental.

The hotel sat a few miles from a town Con hadn't paid attention to on his way through it. The drive passed in comfortable silence, Con mostly focusing on keeping his hands relaxed in his lap. Ella didn't seem to mind.

"This town is so cute," Ella murmured, stopping in front of a diner advertising the best burgers in town.

Con forced himself to get slowly out of the car, rather than jumping out and kissing the pavement like a lunatic. "It's pretty much like any other small town. Trust me."

Locking the car, she joined him on the sidewalk. "I wouldn't know," she said with a laugh. "I'm a city kid."

"Seoul?" Con hazarded a guess.

Ella gave a sigh of mock disappointment, shaking her head in disapproval and his stomach dropped. He could have sworn he'd heard the slightest of accents from both siblings.

"You know there are more cities in Korea than Seoul." She threaded her arm through his, pulling him toward the restaurant. "We're from Daegu."

"Oh." Con opened the door, basking for a moment in the delicious, warm smell of coffee and cooking grease as he waved her inside. "Where's that?"

"Way south of Seoul." She nodded to a brisk waitress who told them to grab a seat wherever they wanted. "About an hour north of Busan, assuming you know where that is." She softened her teasing with another sweet smile as Con pulled her chair out for her.

"Only that it's the place to go in the event of a zombie outbreak."

That earned him an outright laugh, the silvery sound pulling a smile from him. Ella leaned forward, eyes bright, but whatever she had been going to say was interrupted when the same waitress from before came over.

She took their drink orders and left them with menus. Neither spoke as they perused their options. Everything sounded delicious and soon Con's stomach began demanding his brain stop screwing around and pick something.

After their orders had been placed, Ella surprised him by saying, "I told Taemin to lay off a little."

"I..." Con blinked. "What?"

"If I overstepped, I'm sorry," she said, winding a strand of hair around her finger. "It's just..." She gave a weary smile. "Tae's a being of pure confidence. So when he wants something...or someone, he goes after it full force. He can't help it anymore than the sun can help being bright. He doesn't always realize when he's pushing too hard."

"Oh." Oddly, Con found himself a bit disappointed by that answer.

"I don't make any promises, though," she said, taking a sip of soda. 

Con managed a smile, strenuously ignoring the flush building beneath his skin. "It's...well, fine's maybe not the word. But...I can handle Taemin."

The thinly veiled look Ella gave him said she doubted that, but Con didn't mind. He'd always been leanly muscled—strong but thin, leading some to believe him an easy target. Taemin wasn't the first aggressive man he'd ever dealt with, and he had the scars on his knuckles to prove it.

"He's really not that bad, all things considered," Con said quietly. "He just wants what he wants and goes after it. You gotta admire him for that."

Ella lifted an eyebrow. "That's generous of you."

Shrugging, Con perked up at the sight of their waitress weaving toward them. When she put their plates down, Con again barely had the grace to say 'thank you' before he proceeded to all but inhale the burger he'd ordered.