soulmate || jjk

12

"Happy Lunar New Year!!!" I kissed my auntie on the cheek as she opened the door wider letting us into her home.

It was February. The month I was due to be married. A whole month had passed in a whirlwind, busy days of work and prioritising time with spent with family. The occasional visits from Rita and may I add Jin, as they both had seemed to get reasonably close over the past 20 days.

"Wow the decorations are gorgeous auntie!" I exclaimed as my mother followed closely behind gushing at the garlands hanging tracing up the stairs.

I walked through to the kitchen, heaving the bags of food up onto the side before giving Thalia a hug.

"Astra" she gasped, as she looked down at my outfit.

I had gone for a woolly jumper tucked into a pair of brown loose trousers. Comfy converse on my feet and a blue jacket over the top. I had a natural look but with a light red eye shadow and eye liner for the makeup and put in a pair of golden hoop earrings. Red and gold symbolised good luck for the Lunar New Year.

"Thank you" I smiled giving her a little twirl, before she walked over to help me empty the bags.

"We got Mandu, spring rolls, fish to steam for later, seaweed snacks, bamboo shoots and a few more bits, have a look through" I passed her the bag as she started emptying the contents.

"So" she said as she started to put some of the contents in the fridge, the fridge looked pretty full up of food already "status with Jungkook?"

"Oh yeah...not so great" I grimaced, reaching for an orange from the fruit bowl and peeling the layer off "he basically said he didn't want anything to do with me, so it's been distanced"

"Oh seriously?" Her eyebrow raised before she peeled an orange also, shoving an orange segment into her mouth and chewed "he might take time to come around"

"Christmas was okay I guess, thank you for that" she smiled "but the New Years Eve and birthday party went downhill"

"Were you drunk?" I sheepishly looked away as she shook her head "and that's where the problem starts"

The sound of the doorbell chimed as Thalia looked in the direction it came from, "I'll be back, that's Mark, would you start laying out the vegetables, cutting cucumber etcetera" she called out as she disappeared down the hall.

I started washing the vegetables as Thalia returned back to the room, Mark her fiancé following behind her.

"Astra, I'm not sure whether you've met Mark" I turned around to see a tall smiling guy looking at me.

"Oh no I haven't" I smiled over at him as he reciprocated the same energy "I'm Astra" I gave him a hand shake as he muttered a small 'hi'.

"Right so, let's get started" she rubbed her hands together before grabbing a bunch of aprons and throwing them our way.

We carefully prepared the food, presentation was key...Mark laid the table, and hung a few more garlands and red honeycomb lanterns. My mum and auntie lit a few more candles and helped with the rest of the cooking. Steamed fish and chicken were prepared alongside sticky rice and many nibble snacks to sustain us all through the night. By 8pm, the house was full of family, friends and many young cousins running around, high on sugar. I pushed open the bi-folding doors as they spilled out into the garden area, running crazily onto the trampoline and tiring their energy out on there. The sound of the doorbell rang as my eyebrows furrowed, no more guests being expected.