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Chapter 32: An Amazing Eomma – September 26, 2025

“Naru?  What are you doing?” Minha asked her husband as he rifled through their closet.

“Looking for something.  I know I put it back here,” his muffled voice barely reached her.

Finally, he unearthed what he had spent five minutes searching for.  As he shook the dress out, he asked mischievously, “Want to wear this for me tonight?”

Minha turned to gaze at a dress she had once hoped to never see again.  Horrified, she gaped at him.  Then she crossed the room to shut and lock their bedroom door.

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.  “Goodness, Naru!  Where on earth did you find that?” 

It was the dress Miss Choi had bought for her rendezvous with a playboy. 

“Find it?  I never got rid of it.  I kept it.”

“Why?”

“To remind me…”

“Of what?” she asked suspiciously.

“Of…so many things.”

“Like what?”  She narrowed her eyes at him.

His face softened into a gentle smile.  “Like what you were willing to sacrifice for the person you loved most in all the world.”

Her heart melted.

But then his gaze turned naughty.  “Wanna wear it for me tonight?”

She gasped, “Naru!”

“What?  I promised I’d never become staid, right?”  He moved stealthily across the room towards her like a leopard stalking its prey.  The light in his eyes was ravenous.  “Come on, Minha.  Wear it just this once.  Here.  In our bedroom.  Just for me.”

She giggled suddenly.  “Naru!  You are a bad boy,” she teased.

“Only with you, love.  Only with you.”

“Well,” she harrumphed.  “I should hope so.”  She snagged the dress from his fingers and headed for their closet to change. 

Given the outcome of that night so many years ago, she didn’t hate this dress anymore.  It served as a reminder of both her own fearful folly and Naru’s change of heart.  He had stood in front of his bed with her while this skimpy frock had revealed a great swath of her assets, yet he had resisted every urge to remove it from her person and join her in that bed.  He had, in fact, refused to touch her in any way that would dishonor her.  Now this dress was a pleasant reminder of his self-control.  And of the very real affection he had come to feel for her.  Not to mention the esteem in which he had held her even then.

As she slid into that slinky dress a moment later, she was shocked to discover that she still fit into it.  She glanced down at her beautiful curves and sighed with the odd exhilaration that was coursing through her veins.   She now had a license to wear this dress for her husband.  She was relishing the anticipation of seeing the look on his face when she opened the closet door…

A few hours later, Minha entered their bedroom again.  To discover another dress awaiting her.  A burgundy one.  Lying on their bed.  Next to a note.

“Please don this dress.  A limo will arrive to pick you up shortly.  Please step inside and enjoy the bubbly beverage provided…”

Her lips twitched as she picked up the dress she’d worn to dinner with him that night during which she’d drunk an entire bottle of champagne.  She had kept that dress.  But she had never worn it again.  As she gazed down at it, she realized that Naru had had it cleaned.  She smiled as she stood staring at it. 

It was still a beautiful dress.  Now that she understood his intent when he had purchased it for her, she wondered why she had never worn it since that fateful weekend. 

A few moments later, she admired her reflection in the mirror.  This dress made her appear even more beautiful than usual.  She smiled with glee as she envisioned the joy with which Naru must be anticipating seeing her clothed in it.  After all, he had bought it for her.  To protect her.  To maintain her modesty.  But also to feel lovely in the donning of it. 

Any simple dress would have protected her from gawking eyes.  But this dress was a thing of beauty.  Surely Naru had chosen it to delight her.  So she was choosing to be delighted by it tonight.  She hoped he would be too.

A few moments later, a sleek, black limo pulled up in front of their house. 

Ajin bounced into her room.  “Eomma!  There’s a long car here!  It’s reallllly long!”

Nari came running into the room behind her big sister.

“Hey, Ri Ri,” Ajin murmured as she bent to pick up her sister, “did you see the big car?”

The tiny girl bobbed her head up and down as her eyes grew as round as saucers.

Minha smiled down at her adorable daughters.  “I’m going out with Appa tonight.  You two are going to stay home and watch a movie with Harmony.  Okay?”

“And eat cookies?” Ajin ventured.

“But, of course, my little love,” her great-grandmother purred from the doorway.  Then her gaze sharpened on Minha.  “Why, don’t you look lovely, my dear.”

“Do I?” Minha glanced down at her dress.  “I’m happy to hear it.  I think tonight is meant to be a special night for me and Naru.”

“Darling, every night is special for you and Naru.  Very few men are blessed enough to have a wonderful wife like you.  And even fewer women can say they have a husband like yours.”

Didn’t she know it?

“So true.”  Minha bent to kiss her baby – who wasn’t such a baby anymore – on the cheek before bussing Ajin’s cheek too.  “Be good for Harmony, girls.  I love you both.”

Then she breezed out the door to greet the limo driver.  He smiled at her and opened the back door of the vehicle.  She slid across the seat as her eyes searched for a bottle of something bubbly.  But instead they found her husband looking dashing in black.  And a crisp, white, button-down shirt.  The contrast between that shirt and his black blazer and slacks heightened his attractiveness.  As did the cascade of midnight locks brushing his forehead.

“You’re gorgeous tonight, Naru,” she breathed.

His eyes raked her from head to foot.  “So are you, love.” 

He crossed the distance between them in a second and pulled her roughly into his arms as he began to ravish her lips with his own.  And Minha sighed internally as she gave herself to him happily.  After a few blissful moments, he drew back and asked her a question.

“Would you like some champagne?”

She studied him with a look of disgust curling her lip.  “Naru, you must be joking!”

“I am.  It’s apple cider again.”

She sighed with relief.  “Then fill me up,” she responded as she reached for a glass.  “I find myself very thirsty tonight.”

“Well, that’s interesting because I find my own self very hungry tonight.”  His eyes devoured her.

She giggled.  “Naru!  You are behaving very naughtily today.  What’s going on?  We already spent half the afternoon in our bed.  Are you hoping to join me there again this evening?”

“But, of course, my dear,” he purred as he handed her a glass of bubbly juice.

She took a sip.  “What’s the occasion?  Have I forgotten some sort of anniversary?”

“No, but I feel like I forgot ours.  August came and went, and we didn’t do anything very special.”

“That’s because the girls were sick that week, remember?”

He shrugged.  “Still.  I don’t want to let even one year go by without celebrating the miracle that befell me four years ago.”

Her heart melted.  “Naru…”

“When I became Ajin’s appa.”

She snickered.  She knew he was teasing her.  But his words were so sweet that she didn’t feel even one iota of jealousy.  “You are such a darling.”

She leaned forward and kissed him again.  But he pulled away to remove her glass from her hand.  “I wouldn’t want you to stain your pretty dress, my love.”

She glanced down at it.  “Naru.  Why did you buy me this dress that night?  Was it just to protect my modesty?”

He shook his head.  “I told you.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was yours.  It practically screamed your name at me.  I knew you would love it.  And you would look even more beautiful in it than you normally do.”  His eyes slid over her with tenderness.  “And I was right.  You do.  You are quite lovely tonight, my dear.  But I’m thinking I chose the wrong dress for tonight.”

“What?  Why?”

“I think this one may prove more difficult to remove than the one you were wearing earlier today…”

“Naru!” she rebuked him once more as she stifled another giggle.

“Drink your juice,” he commanded as he handed her the glass again.  “You’re going to need the energy.”

This time she let loose of her laughter.

A while later, the sleek vehicle pulled up in front of Fusion Five.  Naru opened the door and preceded Minha out of the car.  He turned back to accept her hand before leading her inside the popular restaurant.

“Naru?  How do you always manage to get us a table here?” she murmured as they followed their waiter to a table.

“Didn’t I ever tell you?” he asked as he stopped abruptly to look at her.

She shook her head.  “No.”

“I own this restaurant.”

“What?” she gaped at him.

He grinned at her suddenly.  “I bought it the day I asked you to, um, go out with me.”

“You mean, the night I drank a whole bottle of champagne?”

He nodded.  “Yes.”

As they wandered towards their table, her eyes roamed the massive room.  “You bought this entire restaurant just to take me to dinner?”

His eyes met hers.  “Yes.  More to the point, I convinced by appa to buy it.  I wasn’t quite rich enough yet to purchase it myself.  It didn’t become mine until last year.”

She simply stared at him.  “We own the most popular restaurant in Busan?”

“Well…that is a matter of opinion, but…yes, I think so.”

“Did it cost you a fortune?”

“Not really.  The chef owned it before, and he had found himself in a bit of financial trouble when I came along offering to buy it but not demanding that he change anything about it.  He was quite relieved to sell it to us while still continuing to cook as he likes.  The man has astounding taste.  Doesn’t he?”

“Indeed.”  She was still looking at him like he’d just landed a spaceship in the parking lot.  “Naru…just exactly how rich are you?”

“The question, my dear, isn’t how rich I am.  It’s how rich are we?”  He beamed at her.  Then he bent his head towards hers.  “We’ll save that discussion for later.” 

Then he brushed a quick kiss across her lips before pulling her chair out and assisting her in seating herself.  After he’d pushed her chair up close to the table, he found his own.  They perused their menus for a while. 

She was distracted by Naru snickering.

“What’s so funny?”

“That I bought this restaurant for you, and you were the only girl who could order in French.”

She grinned at him.  “I guess your instincts were right.”

“Boy!  Were they ever!” he spoke the words with such force that she felt a tear invading her eye.

Then his lips stretched into a wide smile.  “Pursuing you was the absolute best decision of my entire life,” he uttered with feeling.  Then he glanced at her dress.  “And buying that dress for you was the second best decision.”

She blushed, though she couldn’t have explained why.

“Have you looked in your purse tonight, Minha?” Naru asked mildly a while later.  Too mildly.

She gazed up at him suspiciously.  “Nooo.”  But she chose to have a peek then.

She unzipped her purse and glanced inside.  And gasped.  Then she quickly zipped her purse shut and leaned towards him to whisper fiercely, “A box of condoms?  Why do we need those?”

“Well,” he responded blithely, “I figured you wouldn’t want to make a baby with another selfish man.”

She glanced around.  Finally, her gaze came to rest on him as she replied, “The coast is clear.  I don’t see any selfish men in the vicinity.”

Suddenly, he beamed at her.  “Does that mean you’d like to work on making a baby with me tonight?”

“Hmm…a son, perhaps?” she pondered.

He smiled.  “Perhaps.  I can assure you that if we ever made another baby together, I would want to keep her.”

“Or him?”

“Absolutely.  I think you’d make an amazing eomma.”