estoria | (no subject)

Who: park "mother of three" heung soo

unathletic, park "cougar magnet" sooha

confind, go "*breathing against the window*" nam soon

unpresidential, kang "what do you mean not invited" mireu

breakin.
When: 11/26, during the day.
Where: Sooha's apartment.
What: Sooha has agreed to cook for Oona, doesn't trust himself not to make her throw up. Calls Heung Soo for backup, accidentally triggers Nam Soon into happening, and Mireu shows up to make everything better.
Rating/Warning: None.

[ Sooha doesn't trust his own tastebuds. You can only taste, adjust, taste, adjust, taste, adjust so many times before you can't taste anything anymore, and Sooha hit that roadblock far too long ago to know if this soup tastes like gym socks or if he's just been doing this for too long.

He's ashamed about the amount of effort he's putting into this pre-dinner dinner, but Oona asked him to cook for her, and he knows her tastes are picky and her stomach is sensitive. Which is why a "practice dinner" ahead of an actual dinner seemed like a great idea when he started cooking an hour or so ago.

For those above reasons he didn't choose an overly complicated recipe: a clear soup with white fish and a few vegetables thrown in to balance it out, but all the tiny adjustments of the recipe along the way has made it impossible to know if he's turned it awful or not. Is it really terrible, and he's just tasted it so many times he's used to it? Who knows, he sure doesn't.

Which is where the backup comes in.

"The backup" meaning Heung Soo, because he's Sooha's closest friend over the mental age of 5, and he trusts him to tell him if it's god awful and needs to be dumped straight down the nearest toilet.

For now it's still toilet water free and stays in the kitchen, which is where Sooha ushers in Heung Soo for a friendship crowding around of his stovetop. ]

There it is.

[ Ace Detective Park Sooha. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Mireu's got his back turned on them now, which is funny because he's far more of a voyeur than Sooha has ever been. At the same time though, he's not particularly interested in Nam Soon and Heung Soo's fight. Their problems are their business, and despite sharing a face with one of them, Mireu doesn't think of himself as being involved with any of that.

Sooha isn't either as far as Mireu's aware, and he shrugs, far too nonchalant about a problem he helped make worse.

He does actually keep his voice in a real hushed tone this time. ]

Who knows? A lovers' spat?

[ He snorts at his own joke, which is less of a joke than he probably realizes. ]

They're friends though, right? They'll work it out.

[ Meaning it's not their business, and it's not particularly interesting so let's leave them be. ]

Or not.

[ A shrug, but he figures if they can't fix whatever their problem is here their friendship must have been pretty weak to begin with. ]

[he can hear sooha and mireu's whispers—or at least, the fact that they're whispering. he can't hear the words though, and honestly? he's not terribly interested in trying.

this situation has already spiraled way out of control, even if half of the people involved don't really know what the story is, or why anything like it would even happen. even nam soon himself can't understand it in full, and he knows it's pretty stupid. but his hangups and insecurities are something that lord over him a lot when it comes to heung soo, and it wouldn't be the first time he's thrown stuff away over that, either.

but as much as he wants to just walk away and try to escape his own embarrassment over this, nam soon can't really do that. he doesn't actually pull away when heung soo tries to keep him there, even if he remains tense. it's easy for him to get ideas in his head, but hearing what heung soo has to say? somehow, it changes things a little. "as if he could ever be you."

...okay, so maybe those words make nam soon want to shudder just a little, because it out-and-out sounds like it's ripped straight from some monday night makjang that's rife with all the cliches. but there's also a sincerity to it that nam soon can't deny, and while it's embarrassing, it's also reassuring in some way. maybe not enough to let heung soo off the hook without explaining this properly later, but enough to at least make him feel like he's not going to be abandoned. the tension in his shoulders eases a bit, and he feels a little defeated. it takes a lot of energy to get this worked up, and there is also that knowing that walking away is probably just going to raise more eyebrows and draw attention to their situation that they don't want.

since that's the last thing they need, even if there's absolutely not way that this is ending without sooha getting at least a small glimpse of the truth. so with his shoulders slumping a little and defeat obvious, he follows heung soo's lead and plays along, trying to push back all of the other feelings and letting his stoic neutrality take the reins again.]

[ He knows all of this isn't over yet. It's never that easy, and there's no way to properly reassure him anyway in this kind of situation. This in itself is already embarrassing enough when there's other people - and their facetwins, on top of it - present.

But he'll take it. What else is he supposed to do, linger back here so it's even going to seem more to Sooha and Mireu that something is up with the two of them? He'll talk about this more properly with Nam Soon later. But "later" is the keyword here, and after giving the other what he hopes to be a subtle squeeze he lets go with a light click of his tongue, these final words still hushed. ]

This bastard, making me say embarrassing things..

[ After that he lets out a breath though, turning to glance at the other two whispering over there and slowly taking a few steps in their direction. ]

.. The soup's getting cold.

[ CASUALLY DOWNPLAYING THE PROBLEM.

If by "casual" you mean about as casual as showing up at a pool party in a full suit. ]

[ Casual is pretty much the opposite of what this ended up turning into thanks to drama queen Nam Soon, and the awkwardness is thick in the air.

It's all weird now, thanks face twin.

Oh well. He guesses three mouths is better than one, and he claps Mireu on the back, directing him towards the table. ]

Yeah, it won't stay warm forever. Take a seat, you can all be my test dummies. I'm cooking for a girl with a picky stomach. If you all drop dead, tell me how the taste was first.

[ He's obviously kidding... if he was going to kill any of them, he wouldn't be using poison. Keep that in mind, you horrible bastards. ]

[ This is better. Well, not necessarily better, Nam Soon still made the entire thing awkward, but it's not as awkward as it was before. And of course Mireu is thinking about this like he was here the entire time and not an unwanted party crasher. All Nam Soon's fault, not his at all.

Sort of his fault, but he doesn't really blame himself for another guy getting worked up over a teasing compliment. If his skin is so thin that's his own problem.

He'll mostly ignore the bastards for now, just giving them a skeptical look before turning his attention to Sooha, very very slowly moving towards the table as he gives him a toothy grin. ]

A girl?

[ Sooha's gotta know what he's falsely assuming, right? ]