Valentine’s Day

“Gooood mooorrnnning Mackenzziiieeee!!”

“Gooooddd moorrrrnninnngggg Min-Min!!!”, I replied to Minseok’s lively greeting as I entered the kitchen one cool Saturday morning. I slept well the previous night, the kind of dead sleep I love.

“You slept well last night, didn’t you babe?”

“Yesssss, I was dead to the world…”

“I know, I tried to wake you up because a huge cicada entered the room. I was terrified!”

“I didn’t hear a thing. Were you screaming as usual?”

“Yup”, he laughed.

“Then how did you manage to take care of it?”

“Whiskey killed it…”

“Did he eat it?!”

“No no, he just chewed it and spat it out. I took care of the bug’s body and washed out Whiskey’s mouth”

“Oooohhhhhhhh”

“Come here…”, Min said and pulled me into a hug.

“Whattt, personal space dude, personal space”, I said as I wrapped my hands around him.

“Oh, phu-lease”, he said and hugged me tighter.

“Okay, okay, you are an exception”

“Exactly, muahhh”, he kissed my forehead and let go of me.

“So, what’s cooking?”, I asked and back-hugged him as he was busy sauteing something in a pan at the stove.

“Something…”, and he turned to face me. He then lifted me up and set me on the counter next to the stove.

“Here, clean this garlic for me”, he said and handed me a knife, bowl and a pod of garlic to clean.

“Araso, araso”, I said and started peeling the garlic.

“Good girl”, he said and gave me a peck on the lips.

“Good boy, give me one more…”, I smiled and blushed at him.

“Sure, you can’t get enough of me…”, he smirked and came in for another kiss.

This time I set down the garlic I was cleaning and looped my arms at the back of his neck.

I kissed him hard, making him set the spatula and pan down on the stove and wrap his arms around me, pulling me closer.

After a few minutes I broke away from the kiss.

“Is something burning?”

“Yes, me”, said Minseok and tried to kiss me again.

“Min-Min, I’m serious, I think something is burning”, I said against his lips.

“OH NO!”, Min broke away suddenly and turned off the stove.

I looked at the pan and saw that the chopped onion and tomatoes had turned brown, but not burnt all the way through.

“I’ll have to start again, it’s ok, Kenzie, where were we…”, he said as he set aside the pan and tried to get back to our make-out session.

“Wait, wait, we can save the food”, I said and dodged his kiss as I hopped off the counter.

“You were going to add in eggs, right baby?”

“Yup”, he said and got out four eggs from the fridge.

He back-hugged me as I broke the eggs into the pan and scrambled them up with the onions and tomatoes. I added a few spice powders for a hit of flavour. He continued to hug me and placed his chin in the nape of my neck while we waited for the eggs to cook all the way through.

“There, all done”, I said as I switched off the stove and turned to face him as he hugged me.

He moved us a bit to the right of the stove and kissed me.

“Happy Valentine’s Day Mackenzie”, he said as he took out a small purple box from the kitchen drawer.

He opened it and set inside on a white cushion was a beautiful rose-gold bracelet. He removed it from the box and gently placed it on my wrist.

“It’s beautiful”, I said, as I raised my wrist against the sunlight flowing through the kitchen window.

“Wait here”, I said and ran up to the bedroom. I had knitted a gift for Minseok too, it was in my closet.

“This is for you”, I said as I came down the steps and stood in front of him with a small black box.

As he opened it, his eyes lit up.

“It’s not much, I still haven’t bought anything online here. I promise I will buy you something more valuable”, I said. I felt a bit sad because I had knitted a cream bracelet for him while he gave me such an expensive gift.

If I was back home, I would’ve showered him with expensive presents. But I still needed to start shopping online here in South Korea.

“Kenzie, your gift is priceless, stop talking nonsense”, he said and immediately slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. He was smiling from ear to ear.

“Really, you like it?”, I asked as I looked down at the floor, still feeling sad about not being able to give him a better gift.

“I’m never taking it off!”, he said and hugged me.

I giggled, “Happy Valentine’s Day”

After a few kisses, we served breakfast and coffee and stepped out with our puppies to our favourite spot on the lawn – the picnic table.