In Seven Days

Tuesday; 7:12 AM

"Our highschool reunion was last week." Byulyi stifled a yawn with one hand, distorting the ends of her words to become groans, while her other hand stretched over head.

Jin turned his head around to look at his girlfriend for a second, unkempt disheveled hair sting on top of a still-sleepy face, before focusing again on the kimchi fried rice he was cooking. "Did you go?"

She shook her head, slumping further on the seat until her chin was resting on the table and her arms laid flat on the table, eyes still focused on her phone she held in her hands in front of her.

"Manager unnie didn't let me," she mumbled with pout.

Jin hummed as he mixed the contents of the pan, the soft sizzling of his cooking permeating the air song with its heavenly aroma.

"They posted it on SNS. See?" She rotated her phone to show Jin who accepted it, holding the device on one hand, the spatula in the other. Byulyi leaned over the table, pointing to a reasonably dressed man that stood in the center. "This guy was our valedictorian. He works at a fancy business company now. And my classmate that's always loud has a business now. And this one got scammed last year. And this one used to be an addict. And these were highschool hearts with 3 kids. They got divorced last year," she said, pointing to different people in the pictures as she talked.

"Damn," Jin muttered. He returned the phone to Byulyi who retreated to her seat, eyes locked on the device in her hand as she went back to her earlier position.

"I know," she mumbled, still staring at her phone, "Life's unexpected and shit. Most of them are like that now, you know."

"Divorced with kids?"

"No. Well yes—but that's not the point." Byulyi straightened in her seat and placed her phone down to look at Jin. "I mean they have families now."

Jin's eyes flitted fleetingly to Byulyi before returning to the pan. He scooped the orange rice into a wide plate and placed it aside, eyeing his girlfriend who was visibly sulking in her seat. She sank further in her seat and Jin listened silently to her ramblings as he cooked their breakfast.

"It's just you know" she continued with a sigh and a heavy voice, "It's weird that they're in that stage of life but I'm still...here."

"In our apartment?"

The joke didn't land as well as Jin would have liked. Byulyi's frown was still ever present, a gloomy look dulling her eyes. Her finger drew slow circles on the smooth surface of their dark brown wooden table while she propped the other up to support her chin.

"Jin, we're old," she mumbled with a pout, her finger still going round and round and round, "Aren't you just a little bit worried?"

The plates of kimchi fried rice and eggs clattered loudly as Jin placed it on the table with more force than necessary.

"What does it matter if we're old?" Jin said a little too heatedly, heat instantly creeping up to his ears. He panted his palms on the surface of the table to stare at Byulyi who was staring back at him, a bit of surprise mixing with the lovely brown in her eyes. "I'll marry you even if we're 40 or 70 or 90. I'll marry you even if we're both old wrinkled prunes."

Byulyi's lips cracked into a smile.

Mission accomplished.

Jin walked around the table to stand in front of Byulyi whose fond eyes followed him throughout the short journey. He peeled her arms from the table to encircle it around his waist before cupping and squishing her cheeks with his palms until her lips pursed themselves.