Jeong-Hui just nodded. Song-Hoon, ever the diplomat, took over the conversation and asked Seulgi about the restaurant, how she came to find out about it, and if he was actually a local celebrity since many people had known her and greeted her from different tables.

  The conversation flowed. After answering all of His questions, she asked him a few in return. He answered some, She answered others, and it was a very pleasant time spent until the dinner was delivered. The Parents had not been to a pce like this in a long, long time. Not since their undergraduate days, anyway. They forgot how good the meals at pces like this could be.

  A much more chaste and chastised Soo-Young came back by dent of delivering both their dinner and herself, and then sat with them, like before. The first thing that she did was give a brief but sincere bow of apology and said “I apologize if I was disrespectful to you.”

  The Parent’s notion of this woman went up quite a bit. She said, “It’s alright dear. You didn’t know us yet. Again, we are Shon, Jeong-Hui, and Song-Hoon. Pleased to meet you.” Song-Hoon just simply nodded.

  Seulgi interjected with, “How much time do you have? Can you take a small break and come back?”

  “Yes, of course.” She went to tell the manager she was going to take a ten-minute break, he nodded expecting this with Seulgi here.

  “Ok, Seulgi, what’s going on?”

  So, Seulgi started by getting the call about Wendy falling off the bridge. Then followed it with it not being an accident. She gave a very abbreviated list of the wounds. Then she ended with the things that happened in the hospital.

  The looks crossed her face; the shock, the horror, the desperation for someone that she hardly knew, the unabashed tears that cascaded down her lovely face, and finally the incandescent fury at the person who did this to her nascent friend, endeared her to the Parents.

  Taking her hand, Seulgi turned to the parents and said, “You know how much Wendy loves to sing, right?” They nodded. “Soo-Young here has sung with us.”

  And that was the final thing said to destroy the barrier that they all started with.

  “You still have my number, right?” Nods. “Call me when you are off shift and we can talk further. Now, get back to work before the manager comes and gets you.” Seulgi gave her a quick scrub across her face with a napkin to hide the tear tracks and then gave her a pyful swat on the butt to get her moving.

  Soo-Young gave a wet, weak smile and got back to work. “I’m here until eight pm. I’ll call you about 8:30. Is that OK?” She asked this with the skill that all good wait staff seem to have. Soo-Young managed to ask this just after Seulgi had just taken a bite and her mouth was full. Seulgi was pretty sure that she did this on purpose. She chewed and gulped while swallowing and gave a nearly choked “Yes.” Soo-young smiled impishly and sauntered off while getting back to work.

  Soo-Young thought to herself: Yep, I still got it.

  Seulgi thought to herself: Maybe Nayeon was right. She needs a good beating.Jeong-Hui thought to herself: This girl is chaos. But fun to watch. Song-Hoon thought to himself: This meal is better than I had thought it would be.

  The Parents continued watching the antics of Soo-Young and her fans/customers. They quickly understood why Seulgi had so sternly warned her to behave. The more they watched her shenanigans, the more that they appreciated it. They were all for unfettered joy while working, but they were also still old school enough to want some decorum. They were also old enough to expect some respect. So far, the only two that were given any sort of respect were these two. Even Seulgi still got some sass thrown her way, but it seemed that she expected it. Nor did she seem to mind it too terribly. Though, they did hear her muttering ‘Just you wait until Nayeon and I get our hands on you…’

  They were not sure what sort of malediction that she was ying, but they were just as content leaving these games to the young.

  They wrapped up dinner. This time, Song-Hoon was quicker to pick up the tab than Seulgi was. She said, “If I had known you’d pick up the bill, I’d have gotten the full dinner!” All three ughed.

  She continued, “It’s still a bit early, would you mind if I go to the store and pick up some things?”

  With no issues found or contested, they wrapped back up, trooped back to the car after scoping out the parking lot, and got back into the now cooled car. There were bck, red, grey, blue, and multicolored cars present. But nothing and no one stuck out. So, they got into the car and went to the local market to pick up some stuff.

  Since the Parents had a key to the pce, they were content with taking taxis or Uber to the hospital. They did not want to impinge on Seulgi more than they had to.

  They broke up into groups and went their separate ways to get the things that they needed. Seulgi got cat food, litter, and things for making the week's work lunches. She also got a few things to make for dinner as well. As she got up to the cash register, the Parents showed up behind her.

  Seulgi’s jaw nearly dropped with the amount of things that they were buying. ‘Things’ because not everything was food. Screwdrivers, wood glue, screws, masking tape, a tape measure, and other things that she had no clue about in the basket of the cart. She grew up in a small-ish town, so was not a stranger to DIY, but why is he getting all of this stuff?!

  Well, she mentally shrugged, she would find out sooner or ter. The real mystification was what he was pnning on doing with it all after they left. None of it was especially important or uncommon, so he very likely had it at home, too. They were rich enough that they could hire people who had all this stuff, they didn’t need it, So….why?

  Whatever. She would find out soon enough.