chapter nine,
chuesok

    Because Kitty had a pointed Winnie to be the cook for their friends giving, she went looking throughout the aisles of the supermarket.

    "Okay, next on the list is... soy sauce." Winnie said to herself while pushing the cart and grabbing the items needed. "You have to be kidding me. There's more than one type of soy sauce."

     As Winnie struggled to pick out the right soy sauce, moving her cart along the aisle she bumped into Min-Ho.

    "Excuse yo- oh it's you." Min-Ho looked over to the girl.

    "You're always following me!" Winnie says loudly, causing a few customers to give her a look.

Min Ho rolled his eyes at the sight of the girl. "You're like my own sasaeng." he sighed.

Winnie's eyebrows furrowed, "What's a sasaeng?"

"You, my very own obsessed fan." Min Ho laughed as he shook his head with a wide grin, earning a deep sigh from Winnie.

"What are you even doing in a grocery store?" she asked, "Shouldn't you be on a yacht being rich and annoying?" she made a high pitch tone while mocking him.

"Hmm." Min Ho fake smiled. "Amy dad is doing that with wife number three, with her new fillers. I have decided to stay here as a favor to all women."

He held up his basket that had chocolates and strawberries.

Winnie looked inside the basket, "Strawberries and chocolate.. seriously?"

Min Ho ignored the comment. "I'm sure Lulu will appreciate this." he sat the strawberries back in the basket.

    "Who's Lulu?" She asked casually, not trying to sound desperate or anything.

Min Ho scoffed at her with surprise. "She's only the fastest riding pop star in the country."

Min Ho grabbed his phone and pulled up a photo of her. "We've been flirting since her trainee days. She's on break from tour for the holiday. Even K-pop stop for Chuseok."

    "Okay.." she sighed, turning back to the list. Min Ho grabs a bag of food that Winnie had placed down, hoping it was the correct one.

    "Do you even know what to do with this?" Min Ho asked, glancing back at forth between Winnie and the food.

    Winnie began to speak slowly. "No.. but I will. If not, I'll just make my beloved mash potatoes." Winnie pushed the cart forwards but was immediately stopped by Min Ho.

    "No, no, no. As a Korean national, I cannot in good conscience let you desecrate my native cuisine like this."

    Min Ho throws his basket into her cart and takes over. He pushes past her and begins to move the cart down the aisle.

    "Hey! What're you doing?" Winnie says.

    "Do you want to poison everyone or do you want my help?" Min Ho raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"Fine." Winnie gave up and followed Min Ho through the grocery store.

💐 ⋆｡˚

    "And done." Min-Ho announces dusting off his hands and Winnie stood in shock.

    "How did you do this?" She look around at all the food, amazed at the sight.

    "Also.. most of this isn't for you guys." He explained washing up some dishes.

    "What?" The girl asked him, already annoyed and not knowing the full details.

"Then who is it for?" Winnie asked dipping my finger her the sauce and tasting it.

"Lulu." He shrugged off.

By the end of the day, Winnie and Min Ho had made an almost entire feast to feed a country. They only made so much because Kitty had randomly dropped the news of their small friends giving being turned into half the school's giving.

"Well, this escalated." Winnie said to Min Ho.

"Mhm." Min Ho hummed, he stood next to Winnie with his hands on his hip.

"Wow, people are calling this 'Chin-gu-seok'" Q smiled as he, Kitty and Florian joined the pair.

    "What's that?" Kitty couldn't help but ask him. "It's a pun on chinggu which means friend, and Chuseok. You guys started a new tradition." Florian explained.

    "Awh!" Kitty beamed. Her smile soon faded as she glanced behind her and saw Alex with Professor Lee.

    "Oh, no! No, no, why is Professor Lee here?" Kitty crossed her brows at the sight of him.

    "Maybe because he's sad and alone?" Min Ho added before walking away.

     "He hates me and it's mutual." Kitty panicked.

    "Don't worry. It's not like you have to like sit with him." Winnie reassured her friend.

   Kitty shrugged her shoulders and walked off with Q. Min Ho and Winnie brought some leftover plate to the table.

    "Min Ho!" An orange haired girl called out, coming closer to them. "Hello?" she called out, waving her hand.

    Min Ho and Winnie shared a look with each other.

    "Hello, Madison." Min Ho replied unenthusiastically.

    "I wasn't expecting you to be here." Madison leaned against a chair. "Oh, my god. You cooked." she looked at the food he placed down.

    "I think that's my cue to leave." Winnie smiled as she began to walk away.

    "Don't leave!" Min Ho shrieked. "Sorry.." Winnie glanced back at him with a wide grin and walked away.

Only a few minutes passed and everyone was making their way to the table, getting ready to eat.

"Winnie!" Lia called out as she entered the building, "Hi!"

"Lia! Hi, are you joining us?" Winnie asked as Lia reached the girl.

Lia nodded her head, "Of course! Everyone is talking about it. You guys did such a great job."

Winnie looked over at Kitty on one side and Min Ho on a different before turning back to Lia. "We did." She smiled.

Everyone had officially been seated and it was now time to eat. But, first Kitty had to make a speech.

    "Thank you so much for coming, everybody. This is my first Chuseok, as well as Winnie's." Kitty gestures to the girl.

"And from what I gather, you are not supposed to do it alone. Maybe your family is thousands
of miles away, like mine and Winnie's or maybe you don't really have family, or maybe you just really like school."

"No judgment." Kitty says which makes everyone at the table snicker a little.

"Whatever the reason, I'm grateful we all have somewhere to be today and for this chance to honor all our ancestors."

    "So, here's a toast." Kitty holds up her glass, so does everyone else, "To all of those who came before us. Thanks, Mom, wherever you are. Without you I wouldn't be here, literally on this Earth, or here at KISS. Winnie, you are the bestest friend anyone in the entire universe could ever have."

Winnie smiled as Kitty and her heartfelt words. Winnie blows a kiss to the girl who takes it and holds it to her heart.

"There is nowhere else I would rather be in this moment. Cheers."

The sound of glasses clicking together is all around the room. Winnie clicked her glass with Lia beside her.

💐 ⋆｡˚

    While Winnie and everybody else are their dinner, her phone was blowing up in her pocket. She tried her best to ignore it, not wanting to be rude and check it.

    But, Lia had noticed the buzzing sound. "Are you answer that?" She asked referring to message notification alerts.

    "Yeah." Winnie replied, pulling out her phone and opening the messages app.

     As she read the text messages, it was Min Ho who was the person who was interrupting their dinner.

    She glanced at the end of the table to most likely give him a weird look but he wasn't where he's as sitting.

    Winnie looked around the place, trying to find him but yet again wasn't anywhere to be seen. She looked back down at her phone and finally read the messages.

    WINNIE!!! SOS!!!! THIS IS YOUR FAULT. HELP ME. NOW.

    Winnie placed her phone in her pocket and alerted Lia that she had to leave early. She had noticed clue where Min Ho was but she guessed that he might've been waiting outside for his date.

    The girl rushed down the flight of stairs outside, keeping a look out for Min Ho.

"Min Ho!" Winnie called out loud, "Min Ho, where are you?"

"What the hell did you put in those potatoes!" he jumped out from the bushes scaring her.

"A lot of lactose. Milk, cheese." she tried to explain but clearly wasn't helping the situation.

It took her second to realize what had happened, "Poopy baby, is that you?" She couldn't help but laugh at the realization.

    "Shut up." Min Ho ordered.

    As the two went back and forth, Winnie making fun of him and Min Ho getting annoyed with her, A car pulled up near the two and Min Ho immediately started to panic.

    "That's Lulu! You have to get rid of her! She can't see me like this!"

"Do something now!" he shooed the girl away. "You owe me, Morris!"

   "Fine!" Winnie gave in and went over to the car and began talking to the girl even though she had no plan on how to fix this.

Winnie shook her head as so many thoughts ran through her mind. "Minny. I'm here!" She heard presumably Lulu's voice call.

    "Hey, Min Ho's actually running behind. Classic Min Ho." Winnie played it off.

    "Who are you?" The girl asked with curiosity.

    Winnie glanced to the side trying to think of the best excuse without dragging herself into this mess. "I'm Min Ho's 6:00."

    "That jerk double-booked me?"

     "You didn't think you'd keep him all to yourself, did you? He's the hottest guy in school!"As the words left Winnie's mouth, they sounded much harsher than intended.

    Lulu looked around, her lips pouted. "Well, I refuse to be anyone's sloppy seconds! You tell Min Ho I'll be back at 6:00 tomorrow night. He better clear the rest of his schedule."

    A smile appeared on Lulu's face, "When he has a night with me, he won't be seeing anyone else after."

    "Oh." Winnie let out, taken aback by the words. "Okay."

    Winnie spun around and walked back to Min Ho. "You're a genius!" He beamed, "I could hug you right now."

    "Oh, please don't do that." Winnie took a step back, just in case he actually did give her hug.

— alisha's notes !

only a few more chapters left! let me know your thoughts on this book so far (: