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Chapter 8: The Silver-tongued Devil Learns a Lesson – January 1, 2021

Miss Choi hated to waste money.  But she didn’t consider calling the Uber that night to be a waste of money.  She was fleeing from a seduction that could pull her back into the pit of hell.  And she refused to go back there.  She would not let another beautiful man with a silver tongue lure her into bed with him.  

No matter how divinely he kissed.  Or the way his words tugged at her heart.

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

Why couldn’t she get those words out of her head?  She had to burn them away.  They were the most seductive words he’d spoken all night.  Trying to lure her into his heart.  

No.

She would resist hard enough this time.  She walked until she met the Uber coming to get her.  She still had a long ride home before she could fall into her bed tonight.

—

The next morning, Naru stood nervously waiting on the porch of the old farmhouse.  The bouquet of variegated, pink roses he’d picked up were hiding behind his back.  An eternity seemed to pass before someone opened the door after he knocked.  

He was shocked when the door was answered a moment later by a pair of mesmerizing eyes.  Inside an adorable, little face.  He stared down in surprise at the tiny girl.

“Well, hello.  And who are you?” he whispered as he squatted down in front of her.  

He knew with his tall frame he would intimidate most small girls.

“Who are you?” she countered as her eyes narrowed.  Then, suddenly, they widened and she said, “I know you!  You drove here yesterday.”

“That’s right.  I brought Miss Choi home.”

She frowned.  “Who is Miss Choi?”

He furrowed his brow.  “Don’t you know?”  He glanced around.  “She told me she lives here.”

The little girl shook her head definitively.  “Nope.  There’s no Miss Choi here.  Just me, Eomma, and Grandma.”

He frowned.  Had Miss Choi led him to the wrong house because she didn’t want him to know where she lived?  

He grinned suddenly.  Clever minx. 

But he still knew where she worked.  She couldn’t effectively hide from him.

“So…who are you?” she asked again.

“I am Naru.”

She nodded.  “I am Ajin.”

“Wow.  That is a beautiful name,” he breathed a moment later, for some reason completely captivated by her tiny face.  She reminded him of someone…

She beamed up at him.  “Yep.  It means beautiful treasure.  Eomma said she named me Ajin because it has such a pretty meaning.  And because I’m her beautiful treasure.”

He smiled down at her.

But then that name niggled at the back of his mind.  It was so familiar.  Where had he heard it? 

Then, he gasped as he remembered.  When Miss Choi had awoken last night, she had whispered that name into the darkness. 

This was Ajin?  Her Ajin?  Was this little girl…?

“Ajin!” called Miss Choi’s clear voice suddenly.  “Where are you, darling?”

“Here, Eomma.  Talking to my new friend,” the little girl informed her matter-of-factly.  

“What new friend?” she called from the next room.

“Naru,” Ajin responded happily as her eomma stepped into the room.

He heard her gasp as his eyes collided with hers.  He was still squatting on the threshold of the house, her daughter standing in front of him.

He saw a deep panic ripple over Miss Choi’s features, and he felt several darts of unease pierce him.  He faced a horrible truth in that moment.  She was afraid of him.

No!

He had never before feared scaring a woman.  But to the depths of his soul, he felt stung that Miss Choi now feared him.  

Through frozen lips, she questioned him, “What are you doing here?”

She should never have gone to that party last night.  She had known it was a mistake as soon as the agreement had left her lips.  She should have just disappointed Jumi.  Naru had fished out her deep, dark secret.  No one at the school knew she had a daughter.  And no husband.  

The people who ran the school lived by a strict code of ethics.  She’d had to sign all sorts of pledges when she’d become a teacher there.  Promising to refrain from alcohol and sexual conduct.  She’d had no problem signing those pieces of paper.  She had planned to stay far away from all those vices for the rest of her life.  She knew all too intimately the trouble that could befall such a one who gave into those temptations.  She was never walking that path again.  She was older, wiser, more experienced, and still heartbroken.

He frowned and stood up.  Then he glanced down at her beautiful daughter and felt a tug on his heart.  

“It was nice to meet you, Ajin.  Beautiful treasure.”  He smiled down at the little girl.

Miss Choi gasped inwardly.  He was doing it again.  The silver-tongued devil had just called her daughter by her own pet name for her.  A constant reminder to both her and her daughter that she wasn’t trash to be thrown out, as the girl’s father had once intimated.

“Don’t toy with my daughter,” she hissed.

Alarmed, his eyes crashed into hers.  “Uh, can I speak to you on the porch?”

She nodded her head curtly.  “Baby,” she addressed her daughter, “Grandma needs some help in the kitchen.  Will you go help her make some cookies?”

Ajin’s chin nearly brushed her chest, she nodded so hard.  She looked up at Naru.  

“It was nice to meet you, Uncle Naru!”  

Then she was gone, racing off to the kitchen to help her mother’s grandma.  Leaving Naru alone with Miss Choi.

He glanced at her.  “I don’t even know your name,” he murmured.

“You already know far too much about me,” she countered.  Then she strode towards him.  “The porch, please.”

He opened the door and let her precede him out onto the porch.  He closed the door behind them and turned to face her.  She still didn’t know that he had flowers in his hand.  

She whipped around to face him.  “Why are you here?” she whispered, clearly stricken to see him again.  “Surely, surely, now that you know I have a child, you can want nothing to do with me!”

He could hear a sob in her voice.   What he wanted was to pull her into his arms and comfort her.

“I must admit it was a little bit of a shock to discover that you have a child, but, considering last night, not wholly unexpected, I think.  My main question is…was there a husband to go with that child at one point?  You go by the name Miss Choi.”  He was mostly reasoning aloud now.

“No,” she responded through frigid lips, “there was never a husband.  Are you happy now?  Shall I tell you the whole sad story, or have I satisfied your curiosity?”

When he remained silent, she continued, “Shall I tell you of a boy who liked to toy with the affections of young girls?  Luring them into his bed one at a time?  And when he had truly secured their hearts, then he would break them by sleeping with the next girl in a long line of beautiful women?  That way he didn’t actually have to break up with them.  They would do the breaking up, leaving him, to nurse their broken hearts in private.  Only…he got one of those girls pregnant, and that lucky individual just happened to be me.  My sophomore year in college.”  Tears were coursing down her cheeks now.  

“Shall I tell you how I went to college pregnant?  Delivered her during the summer?  Worked as many jobs as I could get while finishing two more years at the university and raising a newborn?  All with the help of only my appa and my grandma?  And of how I got a job at a prestigious school only because they don’t know I have a child?”

He stared at her in shock.  Mostly, because for the first time in his life, he was being faced with what he had done to countless women.  For he had been the guy she was describing.  He was, in fact, still that guy.  He had kissed this woman last night.  This vulnerable, brave, beautiful woman.  This eomma.  And he would have done more with her too had she been agreeable.  However, he hadn’t yet even bothered to break up with the boring girl he’d been sleeping with for the last month.

He was suddenly horrified at himself as he stared at her lovely face drenched in her pain.  

“Please, please tell me that at least my secret is safe with you.  If you tell the school, I’ll lose my job.  And how will I take care of Ajin then?”

“I won’t breathe a word to anyone,” he murmured instantly.  “I don’t want to hurt you, Miss Choi.”  He felt ridiculous calling her that.  “What is your name?”

She stared at him.  “Does it matter?  We both know I’m just another in a long line of girls you’d lead to your bed if you could.”

Ouch.  

Those words cut deep.  Because they were true.  At least, they had been true.  Up until five minutes ago.  

But she wasn’t just a girl.  She was an eomma.  And a good one, at that.  She was a woman with a strong heart.  She had overcome heartbreak, and loss, and loneliness to raise her lovely, little daughter without the help of her appa.

Appa.  

She’d said something about her appa and her grandma helping her.  But Ajin had said that only her eomma and grandma lived here.

“Where is your appa?” he asked suddenly, but even before she answered, he was already being overcome by the grief of the truth he had sensed.

“He died a year ago.  Heart attack.”  She turned from him then to stare off into the distance.  “Things were hard enough when he was alive, but we’re barely scraping by now.  Grandma used to own all this farmland as far as the eye can see.  But when Appa died, she had to start selling off parcels just to pay the bills.  She doesn’t have anyone to farm it anymore.  And she’s far too old to do it alone.  I imagine in another year or two, it will all be gone.”

He could hear a deep sorrow in her voice.  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She swung around to face him again.  “What are you sorry for?  That you wanted to seduce a single mother?  That Ajin’s own appa repudiated her even before she was born?  That he scorned her when he discovered she was a girl?  That I’ve raised her alone?  That my appa passed?”

She was sobbing now and hating herself for showing such weakness in front of him.  Suddenly, she bolted for the door.  She entered the house and grabbed several Kleenex.  She blew her nose and scrubbed furiously at her cheeks.

“What do you want?” she asked him as he followed her back inside.

He stared at her.  “To comfort you.”

She gaped at him with contempt in her eyes.  “Thank you, but, no!  I’ve had all the comfort I can handle from a man!”  

She spun on her heel then and headed for the relative safety of the kitchen.

Naru stood awkwardly in the living room.  He pulled the roses out from behind his back.  He now felt embarrassed that he had bought them for her.  He had come here hoping to lure her into his bed eventually.   He’d had no idea he was preying on a little girl’s eomma.

Suddenly, he remembered that tiny girl.  She’d been absolutely charming.  So beautiful.  A beautiful treasure, indeed.  Truthfully, he’d been instantly smitten with her.

Hmm.  

He was going to have to think about this problem long and hard.  There had to be a solution.  He turned to leave.  Taking the roses with him.

—

“Namjoon?”

“Hmm?”

“What is Naru up to?” Eunji queried suspiciously.

“What?” Namjoon was completely confused.

“He offered to drop Jungju at school every day this week and to pick him up too,” Eunji explained.

“Uhh…he’s trying to be helpful?” he guessed.

“When has Naru ever tried to be helpful?”

Namjoon frowned.  He couldn’t answer that.