Jin hadn't originally planned on joining the mother-son pair on the trip that day. He was ambling down the stairs early in the morning for some coffee. The sun had just barely risen and both Seokmin's and Byulyi's door were still closed so he didn't think much of the quiet.
With half-closed eyes, he trudged towards the kitchen, functioning on autopilot since his brain had yet to catch up from waking. He was waiting for the kettle to whistle when he heard steps coming from the stairs.
He walked towards the doorway to find Byulyi carrying Seokmin in his car seat, both clearly dressed to go out.
"Going somewhere?" Jin mumbled, leaning on the doorway as he watched her descend with slow careful steps.
"Mmm. We're low on groceries," she replied, stopping to smile politely at him at the foot of the stairs—Seokmin even rattled his teether at him—before continuing towards the entrance. Her face still contained traces of sleep from her puffy eyes, pouted lips, and slow blinking.
It seemed Seokmin was the only morning person out of the three of them as he beamed at Jin as bright as ever.
She put Seokmin down nearby the shoe rack to slip her shoes on. But the boy—even the trouble maker—shook his teether so much that it flew off his hand and into the ground.
One foot barely in, Byulyi looked at Seokmin and then at the teether. With a sigh, she took her shoe off, retrieved the toy, and walked towards the kitchen sink to clean it.
As she let the water run through the humongous blue ring, her eyes landed on the kettle on the stove.
"Coffee?" she asked.
Jin, still leaning on the doorway—and still watching her—nodded. "Want some?"
She turned the faucet on and shrugged. "We might get late."
He laughed. "For what? Are the eggs gonna run away?"
Byulyi rolled her eyes but a ghost of a smile played with her lips. "I don't want to carry bags of groceries under the hot sun," she said, as she walked back towards the entrance where Seokmin was playing by himself.
Byulyi used to hate grocery shopping for that very reason—and why he was the one that used to do it more often. Picking up things and driving them home was easy. But bringing home and hauling bags upon bags of groceries up to their apartment? Not so much.
Given that she'd have to bring Seokmin around, grocery shopping this time around was probably more difficult.
The kettle whistled in a high-pitched tone, starling Jin who jolted from the sound and Byulyi who looked up at him from tying her shoelaces laces with wide eyes.
Well, it wasn't like he had anything on his schedule that wasn't lying around and sleeping the hours off.
"Give me five minutes. I'll come with you."
«««-»»»
Byulyi wordlessly placed items here and there on the big shopping cart while Jin looked around the huge store as he pushed it. Seokmin was busy nibbling away on his blue teether but would occasionally babble nonsense to him as he sat of the baby seat.
"Do we need soy sauce?" Jin asked, holding two bottles of soy sauce of different brands.
"No," Byulyi replied with a shake of her head. She started looking around the shelves. "But we do need—aha!" Standing on her tiptoes, she grabbed a bottle of sesame oil and placed it on the cart.
"Anything else we need?" Jin asked, following Byulyi as she walked further down the aisle until they turned and went into another one. They were walking along the cereal section where rows and rows of cartoon-covered boxes were displayed when Seokmin audibly gasped.
YOU ARE READING
In Seven Days
FanfictionThe quick break-up, the sudden disappearance, the absolute silence after everything they had been through together. Kim Seok Jin had had enough. It was time to search for answers and, hopefully, find closure in what he'll find.
