41 — That’s Not How You Eat a Hotdog

Mia's POV:

They sat outside, by the curb. She was quiet, not in the sense that she had no energy to talk or didn't feel like talking, but rather, there wasn't really a reason to say anything. She stared at Jae-il, who was in turn, scrolling down on his phone to check what the news were reporting. Apparently, this whole ordeal was on the front page.

For a boy that'd saved two girls, defeated the culprit without even a scratch on him, and treated a man's injury like a well-learned paramedic, he looked downright nonchalant and unfazed.

It wasn't that strange. She had always seen Jae-il as this mysterious entity that defied any sort of logic she'd known about. And, while this whole situation wasn't the strangest thing about her brother, she was forced to wonder and consider it.

His expression remained calm.

He held a can of monster in one hand, sipping quietly. Was that his second one today?

The mall was a mess, with police tape everywhere, and everyone milling about with questions, talking about the event. And the one responsible for the situation sat right there beside her. His body was relaxed, one leg tucked beneath his other that laid on the floor.

"It doesn't say much about the actual situation, though." He muttered as he scrolled.

"You said we shouldn't be too surprised, right? That it'd turn out like this?"

Jae-il glanced at Mia. "Yeah. I know the general formula that is usually applied to cases like these." He replied.

"Formula?" She echoed, tilting her head.

Jae-il sipped from the can again before answering. "Stories like this always get stripped down to headlines. 'Hero saves clerk and security guard from stalker in mall incident.' That's it. No context, no nuance. The guy's history, the reasons behind his behavior—none of that matters. The public doesn't want complexity. They just want a clear villain and a clean resolution."

Mia leaned forward, studying Jae-il's profile in the afternoon sun. She reached out, brushing an errant strand of hair away from his forehead. "So, what now? What's our headline? Hero sits on sidewalk with a white monster, talks philosophy of the human condition, stares blankly at a screen?" She offered him a small smile.

He chuckled, suddenly self-conscious of the drink in his hand. With a shrug, he offered it to her. "Here. Join me in the moral quagmire."

She took it and their fingers briefly touched. Mia brought the can to her lips, savoring the taste. "Delicious moral ambiguity." She grinned and handed him back his beverage, and in turn, he just sighed, then shrugged again.

"Not quite how we planned today to go, huh?" Mia commented after another beat of silence. She leaned back, sighing, staring into the distance. "Seriously, though. I can't believe someone would do that. Stabbing an old man, trying to kill someone for... for love. It's so fucked up."

He glanced at her. "You're not wrong. Love's supposed to be all flowers and roses and gentle hugs and rainbows. And most of the time, it is. But it can turn dark fast, twist itself and twist others. Wanting someone so much that they ignore their well-being. They have their hearts and minds bent out of shape until they can't recognize who they've become. They consume themselves from the inside out. And everyone around them as well."

She shivered and crossed her legs, hugging them. Her hands felt clammy. "I hope it never comes to that." She responded, then shivered. She felt goosebumps and an eerie feeling running down her spine. She knew that Jae-il's words weren't directed towards her. They were a general statement. It didn't change the fact that his gaze made her look down at her knees. "That... someone's love would turn this rotten." She looked up. "Is it just me, or are you also starving? Come on, let's go somewhere and have some lunch. We've spent way too long here and it's getting really boring."

He didn't say anything for a moment. He took a long sip of his monster, long enough that he finished the can. Crumpling it, he stood up, dusted his pants, and offered his hand. His face softened, and that half smile appeared. "Sure, sis. Let's get you something good." His tone changed, light and breezy again.

She grinned, taking his hand and letting him pull her up with an easy swing.

His hands were so large that his palm swallowed hers. It was warm, safe. She didn't want to let it go, as she squeezed their entwined hands and smiled brighter, looking up into his eyes and feeling, not for the first time, the sheer magnetism between them.

Just this...

It felt...

...

xXx

Jae-il's POV:

The mall was out of question. I didn't want to potentially deal with attention from any of the authorities that might've still lingered around there.

Mia's stomach had let out the most violent rumble as a reminder of how long it'd been since we'd actually had breakfast. She coughed into her hand, cracking an eye open to see if I heard it.

I smirked. "It wasn't my stomach that rumbled that much."

"It was." She said with a deadpan voice.

"It wasn't."

"You were hungry, too. It wasn't me." She crossed her arms under her chest, puffing her chest out, looking at me as if daring me to contradict that.

"Uhuh, I'm not so sure."

"No, dummy, your ears must not work properly." She retorted. "There. Now my tummy isn't hungry at all, and that noise is gone, so it obviously wasn't coming from there." Her tone turned petulantly childish, like a kid that wanted to show her sibling how she was much better, despite not making a whole lot of sense.

I stared at her. "Wow." Then I cracked the tiniest, barely even noticeable grin. "Do I need to get you a hearing aid too?"

She punched my shoulder.

Mia narrowed her eyes. "Don't make fun of a lady, dummy."

"A lady, I don't see a lady—ow, ow! Okay, okay, let me correct that: a lady with no shame." That comment got me another, but this time softer, hit.

She was laughing as she was doing this. There was a certain kind of charm in seeing her act so... juvenile? No, she was just a bit too impish for that word to suit her right now.

We continued walking in the general direction of the food stalls and booths, where she finally settled on buying a simple, street vendor hot dog.

The smell wafting through the air made her almost salivate at the first sniff. On the other hand, I got myself something healthier, a simple sandwich with turkey ham and lettuce. I had to make do, and we weren't at the fanciest part of town. She didn't seem to mind though.

The hot dogs themselves were large, girthy. The kind that could fill one person with a meal in just a few bites.

"Thank you~" Mia sang after I paid for both of us.

We took a seat somewhere secluded, just out of the main flow of people. The little bench was half in the shade, half in the sun, and the smell of fried onions and grilled meat hung thick in the air.

I unwrapped my sandwich and took a slow bite.

Mia, on the other hand, cradled her hot dog like it was something sacred. The thing was oversized, messy, dripping with toppings. She shot me a look that made the corner of her mouth twitch.

"Wow." She said, almost singing it. "That looks so… plain. Turkey and lettuce? Really?"

I raised a brow. "It's called balance. You might try it sometime."

Her smirk sharpened. "Balance is overrated." She leaned closer, eyes flicking to the absurd length of her food. "Besides… this is way more fun."

"......"

I was about to focus on my food, when—

Mia lifted the hot dog, opening her mouth wider than I expected and bit into the tip with deliberate slowness. The soft bread and sausage sank between her lips, mustard and ketchup staining the corner of her mouth.

She must've caught me looking, because her eyes gleamed. "Hmm, lil' bro. It's so good, honestly." Without a word, she opened her mouth wide and shoved half the damn thing in at once—bread, sausage, toppings, everything. Her lips stretched around it, cheeks hollowing, and not a single gag.

I blinked.

Hard.

She pulled back slowly, ketchup smeared at the corner of her mouth, a string of melted cheese clinging until she licked it away with an obscene little swipe of her tongue. It stuck out like a lonely, pink tendril, scooping up everything that hadn't made it into her cute, little mouth. "Mmm…" She hummed, no, more like moaned, as if she'd just devoured something sinful. "Want a taste?"

"No." I replied. "I don't."

Mia didn't drop her smirk.

She was giving it way more flair and sensuality than it had any right to receive.

But if she wanted me to lose my appetite, well, she wasn't gonna succeed. I wasn't gonna give her the satisfaction.

Instead of watching her eat, I just stared right into her eyes, unflinchingly and with the utmost calmness.

And so she resumed eating.

She chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed, wiping her lips delicately. "So..." Her voice was low and suggestive as she tilted her head. "Was I too distracting to let you eat, hm, Jae-il?"

"Why, was that your plan, Noona?" I asked, taking another bite. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

She snickered, shaking her head, then shrugged, licking the remains off the hot dog and looking up at me through long, curled lashes.

Something inside me jolted. My chest tightened, my pulse stumbling, enough to tell me that my worst fears were slowly turning out to be real. A tangible sensation that I couldn't push down or explain away, like a tight, twisting knot that formed at the pit of my stomach.

A flutter, an instinct, an undeniable sense. An annoying reminder. A warning, something to tell me that whatever it was, it had to be stopped. It had to stop.

Mia's tongue poked out of the gap between those luscious, plump lips, her eyes meeting mine every time she took a sensual bite.

I gritted my teeth as Mia's tongue swept all over her lips to clean all the condiments, the cheese, and mustard off. I stood up sharply, enough to nearly rattle the table, and forcefully grabbed her cheeks, making the soft flesh squish and comically deform against my fingers. "Noona, please, eat properly." With a napkin, I proceeded to wipe everything that distracted me off.

Yes, that's it. A clean Mia is an innocent Mia, and one that's easier to ignore and not take seriously.

"...Ah." She seemed stunned, not moving a single facial muscle, just looking at me as she did when I roughly grabbed her cheeks, but... there was a furious blush spreading all over her face, almost down to the base of her neck.