APPLE PIE (COMPLETED)

Apple Pie (13)

The man happily receives the check, grinning when he sees the amount written on it. It's his bonus for being the salesman with the most sales this quarter.

"And also," his boss continues talking, "I'm giving you the rest of the day off."

He looks at the chubby man in shock. "But it's not even lunch time yet!"

"Consider it a reward for all your hard work. You've been working here for nearly a year and you never once took a day off." The large, older man pats the young salesman shoulder. "Now go home to your wife. I'm sure she's happy to hear the news and who knows..." He winks greasily with a sneaky smirk as he elbows his employee, "... you might even get a very nice reward from her too."

The younger man laughs. "Let's hope so. Thank you again, Mr. Jones."

"You're welcome, Andrew. Go home and enjoy. And keep it up. If you can beat these numbers next quarter, I might just give you an even bigger reward."

"Yes, Sir. You can count on me, Sir."

—-

He slowly pulls up the driveway and gets out of the car, closing the door behind him as quietly as possible. There's a grin on his face as he thinks of his wife's surprised expression when she sees him come home early and bringing such a huge bonus.

Tiptoeing across the porch, he unlocks the front door and goes inside, listening to the sounds that will indicate where his wife is.

To his surprise, the house is quiet, as if no one is home.

"Tiff?" he calls out on his way to the kitchen. When he sees no one there, he goes to the basement and calls his wife's name again. "Tiff?"

There's no reply and the basement is also empty so he goes upstairs and raises his volume. "Tiff?!"

The bedroom is in the same state – empty – and so is the bathroom.

Is she out grocery shopping?

He walks down the stairs to check the garage and frowns when he sees the red car parked there.

Where could she be?

As he goes back inside the house, standing in the middle of the living room while thinking about how to find his wife, he incidentally turns his head and looks out the window, towards the house next door.

"Aha!" He snaps his fingers, flips open the notepad next to the phone where they write down people's phone numbers and picks up the receiver to dial his neighbor's number.

At first, his call goes unanswered but he tries again and again, knowing that it's unlikely for any housewife to be away from home at this time of day. He nearly decides to just go over to the house to check whether his wife is there but his call is answered on his fifth try by a woman who's short of breath – as if she just ran down the stairs.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Mrs. Kim?"

"Yes?"

"It's Andrew Choi. From next door?"

There's a split second pause before Taeyeon replies, "Oh. Hi. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Was wondering whether my wife's there."

"Yes, yes she is," says Taeyeon. "She's teaching me to cook again."

"I thought so. Can I speak to her?"

"Of course. One moment please."

He waits a couple of seconds until he hears his wife's voice.

"Hello?"