Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 25

Sanghyuk

I rolled my eyes at the person who has been trying to curry favour with my family, something that I don't want to witness at this family dinner but unfortunately, I had to due to lack of choice. It is not like I can skip this dinner, JooEun is here with us and I can't chase Yang DongMi away when she is here. "Halmeoni, your cooking is really awesome! I wished that I lived here so that I can stay here and have your cooking every single day."

"You are welcomed to come here often, DongMi ssi. This house is always open for people who would appreciate my cooking." My grandmother laughed heartily.

"Well, I don't approve of that. I don't want an annoying chatterbox to be at the dinner table, it ruins my appetite." JooEun immediately nudged me and I stared at her. "Well, I'm sorry about that but I didn't ask you to come along."

"You did! You agreed and so I am here!" She stood up. "To help you."

Why is she telling everyone about that? And especially when JiEun is right here... "Help me with what? There is nothing for you to help me with." I cleared my throat. "Ever since did I even ask you to do that?"

"Han SangHyuk!" She yelled and then realized that there were 3 females staring back with an astonished look on their faces, they have never known that both of us would bicker like that. Me neither, we hit off on the first meeting and we were friendly with each other but now we are at each other's throats, I can't wait to rip off her neck so that she can stop talking nonsense for once.

My older sister glared at her and then to the rest of us at the table. "Let's continue our dinner without all the bickering please, I want it to be a peaceful dinner."

"As if you never fought with your younger brother like that before." My grandmother brought back the memories of me and my older sister fighting over the last chicken drumstick once, it was a piece of memory that I never want to remember ever again. "I have never seen a pair of siblings fight so much for a chicken drumstick before, it is not like they have not eaten anything, to begin with."

My older sister sighed in disbelief. "Halmeoni! Can't you remind me of that again? It is not a good thing to remember and I have been trying my hardest to forget that."

"So what happened to the last chicken drumstick?" The two of us stared hard at her. "What? I'm curious about it."

"They fought long and hard for it, never letting it go. None of them wanted to give it up even though they both had enough chicken drumsticks for the rest of the night but somehow they still want to get their hands on that. In the end, DaIn dropped it on the floor and that was the end of their chicken drumstick fight, they never fought with each other over food ever again."
I dropped my head in shame and disappointment as I remembered how that scene actually unfolds in front of my eyes, it was over 5 minutes of me just staring back and forth between the chicken and my sister to make sure that she doesn't steal away the plate with the one chicken drumstick on it. 

But she did, breaking the rules of our agreement. She promised that she wouldn't touch it and I wouldn't touch it either but she broke the rules just like that. She betrayed our relationship over chicken drumstick and I chased her around the house just to get it back, she was a fast runner and I almost couldn't catch up to her on time. Luckily I had long legs that could run so fast but she just has to have even longer legs than I have and her long legs betrayed her, she tripped over the couch and she let go of the plate, it smashed on the floor and the chicken drumstick? It was on the floor with all the glass pieces, I remembered crying about it for weeks.

I heard a slight laughing sound at my left and I had thought that it would be Yang DongMi laughing at me when I remembered that she was sitting at the right side and Choi JooEun was actually at the left, JooEun is laughing so heartily at my joke for the first time ever. No, it is actually the first one that I actually heard something from her. So that is how she sounds when she laughs?

"JooEun ssi, you think that it is funny as well?" My older sister laughed, surprised at JooEun laughing. She has never laughed like that before, she would only smile and giggle but never did she laugh like that before and it was uncontrollable.

She was coughing as well and I grabbed a glass of water for her immediately. "There's some water," I told her and she drank it really fast, her face had turned completely red and she was tearing as well.

She quickly did some hand gestures which Yang DongMi helped her translate her message in real-time. "Sorry for laughing like that, it was just too funny not to laugh." I wished that I could understand JooEun like that as well...

"JooEun ssi, you should laugh like that often." My grandmother told her. "You look even prettier and like a human, if you do that, I had always thought that you were more like a living doll before that."

Yes, she is a living doll... A beautiful doll who never lived a happy life... "I know right, she looks slightly more approachable if she laughs more often." Yang DongMi told her that and she did her sign language again. "You will do that? That's awesome!"

We finished dinner and JooEun was in my room playing with Chloe while holding onto a book, it is a new book and I have never seen it before. Yang DongMi had long returned home because her mother called her to come back home. And it is now the two of us alone in this room. I sat down on the bed, pretending to look normal and act normal when she turned around and looked at me. It took a few seconds before she handed me the book, I looked at the book wondering why she gave it to me for.

She passed me a note. 'Read it and answer my question after you have finished reading it. It is on the last page of the book.' I flipped to the last page when she stopped me. 'Read the book first.' She pointed to the front of the book and I nodded, opening the book and she quickly left the room after saying goodbye to me.

How not to fall in love? Is it a romance book? But what for? I looked at the title and shrugged my shoulders, still not quite understanding her intention for me to read this book. Is she telling me to study harder or not I am going to be really dumb?