Chapter 11: Mea Culpa – March 3, 2021
It was Wednesday. Minha still had half a week to get through before the weekend. She wasn’t sure why, but she wasn’t enjoying teaching quite as much as she used to. She wanted to be at home with her tiny daughter. And a certain man. With gorgeous eyes. And a beautiful heart.
She smiled as she remembered their dinner with Naru’s sister and her family. Minha had really enjoyed them. She had discovered an instant friend in Nari. And that was a rare treat. She didn’t often click that quickly with other women.
But Minha frowned as she considered the upcoming dinner that Naru was still trying to arrange with all of his family. Including his parents. She was not looking forward to meeting them again. They hadn’t given her so much as a second glance when he’d introduced them to her the night of their party. She was completely convinced that they wouldn’t like her. Hopefully, they would still be taken by Ajin. Who wouldn’t be?
Suddenly, her phone buzzed, interrupting her reverie. Minha was alone, sitting at her desk. Her students were at lunch. This was one of her rare break times. She glanced at her phone. A text message had come through from an unfamiliar number. She clicked on its banner to open it. But nothing had prepared her for the message she received.
“Minha. This is Naru’s eomma. Nari has shared with us the amazing impact you, your daughter, and your grandmother have had on our son. My husband and I would like to visit you at your house this evening (if possible). We would like to meet all of you and see the home Naru has come to love. Would it be possible for us to visit you at five o’clock?”
Fear spread out across the pit of her stomach as a net of tension. Like a spider web that warned a poisonous creature was close but failed to reveal its exact location. It was simply the evidence that danger lurked nearby. Waiting in the wings to bite one.
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to meet them. Not tonight. And she would be hard-pressed to beat them to her house. She typically did not walk through the door until five-thirty.
She could ignore the text. The woman would probably assume she’d typed in the wrong number. Or that the text had been lost in cyberspace. But, truthfully, Minha should begin as she expected to go on. Hiding from her prospective in-laws at the beginning of their acquaintanceship seemed like a very bad idea.
And, on second thought, if she met them this evening, the pressure of their first official meeting would evaporate instead of hanging over her head for the next two weeks or so. Nari and Yoongi hadn’t been able to commit to a firm date for their “family” dinner, so Naru had put her meeting with his parents on hold.
Perhaps Minha should call Harmony and ask her to make them all dinner tonight. Since his parents wanted to visit them in the early evening, she might as well invite them to dinner. As she was debating what to do, another text came through.
“Please don’t say anything to Naru. We thought meeting you without him might make this easier on us all.”
What she meant was that they wanted to size Minha up when he wasn’t around to protect her. Suddenly, all her courage evaporated. They were seeking a meeting with her so that they could attempt to talk her out of a relationship with their son. It was obvious. This must be the case. It was the only reason why they would ask to meet with her separately from him.
She felt like bursting into tears. She wanted Naru’s parents to love her and Ajin. She didn’t want to be the reason that Naru gave up his fellowship with them. But, apparently, they were judging a book by its cover. They couldn’t possibly think a lowly farm girl was good enough for their rich son.
What on earth should she do?
She picked up her phone and began a long text response.
“Hello, Mrs. Beom. I realize that I did little to impress you the evening that Naru introduced me to you. As very successful people, you and your husband must be quite dismayed that he’s decided to fall in love with a poor farm girl. I am uneasy that you wish to see me apart from him. This seems to indicate a hesitancy on your part to accept me.
“If I were the only one affected by this attitude, I would not hesitate to meet you and get the coming discussion over with. But I am not alone. I have a daughter whose heart I must put first. Even before my own. Or Naru’s. I do not wish her to be hurt by the rejection of the parents of a man she has come to love like an appa. So I will shield her from any such meeting.
“If you wish to tell me how unhappy you are that Naru is dating me, please feel free to text me your disapproval. I apologize if this feels disrespectful, but I have been down this road before and have received all the rejection I can handle. I completely understand if you disapprove of me. I simply have no wish to hear of it in person. Nor do I wish for Naru to go against your wishes and sever any ties with you. But he is a grown man and will likely do whatever he wishes, so it’s of little use to ask me to break up with him.”
Minha sat in her seat for five full minutes debating whether or not she should send that text. But she did believe in honesty, so she finally hit the send button. She couldn’t possibly have misjudged his parents, could she? Naru had described his childhood home as cold. Surely, that feeling must be an extension of his parents’ attitudes towards him, mustn’t it?
She would not allow Ajin to feel the cold wind of their disapproval. Minha had a responsibility to shelter her daughter from such harsh feelings. So she sent the text and convinced herself she had done the right thing. Then she set her phone down and tried to concentrate on her lesson plan.
—
Aejeong was astounded by the text Minha sent her in response. She was quite disconcerted by it as well. The girl had completely misunderstood her intent. Minha’s response made her quite sad. Naru’s eomma was curious about the family that could effect such a great change in her careless son. She had a true desire to meet this amazing woman, her daughter, and her grandmother.
“My dear, you quite misunderstood my intent. You do not understand! My son has become a completely different person since meeting you. Nothing my husband nor I did over the past twenty-five years ever inspired him to act as selflessly or responsibly as he has during the last seven weeks since he first met you. I want to meet the amazing woman who could effect such a change in him.
“I do not want him to be present at this meeting because I want you to be able to speak freely about who you have seen my son to be. I also don’t want to embarrass him. If your grandmother praises him as highly as I suspect she will upon meeting me, I think Naru would be quite embarrassed to be in the same room with us all.”
—
Minha had to admit that last was true. Naru had seemed quite uncomfortable with her grandmother’s words the other night as she had praised him and his efforts around their property. She had told his sister all his secrets. Minha had learned even more details about the time he had spent wooing her grandmother and daughter while she worked during those early weeks of their acquaintance.
She sighed deeply. What should she do?
His eomma seemed to have been honest with her. Could she trust her heart as well as Ajin’s to this woman?
Minha picked up her phone and called her grandmother. She filled her in on the entire situation, even reading her the text messages. It was times like this that she was most thankful for her sensible grandmother’s input concerning her life.
“I will cook us all dinner, dear. Invite them over at six o’clock. You’ll have time to get settled before they get here. Together, you and I will protect Ajin from them. At the first sign of contention, I will ask them to leave.”
But before Minha could respond to his eomma’s text, Mrs. Beom sent her another one.
“If you change your mind about allowing us to come see you tonight, know that I will be the only one coming. My husband just called me to tell me that one of his meetings was rescheduled for this evening. Apparently, Naru will be with him too. I would still love to come meet you, your grandmother, and Ajin. Please let me know your thoughts.”
Minha sighed. Why did this development make her feel better?
She typed a quick response.
“I cannot meet until six o’clock. You are welcome to join us for dinner at six, if you are available then.”
“I’d be delighted, my dear. Thank you,” came his mother’s short reply. Then, “See you at six.” A moment later, a third text came through. “I am sorry, but I don’t have your address. Would you please text it to me?”
So Minha did. Then, she sighed with relief to have finished that conversation. She felt an odd peace about meeting Naru’s mother tonight on her own terms. Setting boundaries was a good thing. She felt as if she’d done her best to protect Ajin while still respecting Naru’s eomma. This evening was sure to prove interesting!
––
Minha made it home at five twenty-nine. She took a quick shower and put on a fresh change of clothes. Something comfortable. Jeans and a T-shirt. Mrs. Beom might as well see what her son was getting himself into. Tonight she would see the real Minha. Not the one Naru had dressed. But the regular woman. A mother. A granddaughter. A teacher. Not a supermodel. Not a high society woman. Just a girl. Who was madly in love with her son.
A knock sounded on the door at precisely six o’clock. Minha answered it. Nervously. But with poise. After all, she could corral twenty bouncing four-year-olds every day. And face their parents twice a day. She could handle meeting one eomma.
But her heart didn’t seem to know that. It was beating out a crazy tattoo. However, her face revealed only delight as she opened the door to find a tall, slender, elegantly dressed woman with too few crow’s feet adorning her face. Did she not laugh enough?
Minha instantly contrasted her with Maeum. Her grandmother’s face was well-lined from years of good humor. Minha fervently hoped she had such laugh lines by the time she was Maeum’s age. Signs of a life well-enjoyed.
“Mrs. Beom, it’s wonderful to meet you again. May I present my daughter to you.” Ajin was hiding behind her legs as she clung to them. “Ajin, say hello to Uncle Naru’s eomma.”
“Hi,” came a tiny voice.
The woman’s face quite suddenly and surprisingly broke into a wide grin. She held up a bag as she squatted down to Ajin’s level.
“Do you like ice cream? My son always did at your age. My daughter too,” she smiled fondly at the tiny child.
Ajin’s face lit up like the noonday sun as she nodded vigorously.
“I brought you some,” Mrs. Beom announced with a smile wreathing her lips. “Can you go put it in the freezer so it doesn’t melt?”
Ajin glanced up at Minha for permission.
Minha nodded. “What do you say, Ajin?”
“Thank you!”
She flung the words very prettily at Naru’s mother in a soft, high-pitched, little voice before taking the bag and running out to the kitchen.
“She is beautiful. How could any man repudiate such a treasure?” his mother breathed as her gaze followed Ajin.
Tears instantly sprang to Minha’s eyes. “I have asked myself that question every single day of her life.”
“The man was a fool,” Mrs. Beom bit the words out as her eyes traveled back to collide with Minha’s.
And a beautiful understanding was born between the two mothers. And an unshakable bond.
“I feel that way about your son too,” Minha whispered.
Surprised flitted across Mrs. Beom’s face. “You think his appa repudiates him?”
“Not necessarily. I…I don’t know much about Naru or his relationship with his appa. I meant only that I believe he is a beautiful person.”
His mother eyed her. “You’re not speaking of him physically, are you?”
She shook her head.
“And you have no interest in his money either, do you?”
“What money?” A frown creased her forehead. “My understanding is that everything belongs to you and your husband.”
“Ahhh. And he’s just living off of us. Or was until a couple days ago,” his mother amended.
“I’m not concerned about any money. If anything, I don’t want him to have too much. I’ve seen it control people.”
“Mmm. He does have money. He’s worked almost a year for his appa and put nearly all his salary into savings. Or stock options. Which have made him only richer. How do you feel about him now?”
“Uneasy,” Minha answered truthfully.
“Uneasy? Why?”
“I can’t compete with the allure of the life he comes from. We’ve no great wealth here. The only maid in this house is me. The only chef, my Harmony. The only treasure, my daughter. We live a very modest life, and I am unwilling to change that. I have seen too many people corrupted by wealth.”
“You belittle yourself needlessly. I find great treasure in this house.”
Just then, Ajin ran back into the room. “Would you like to see my dolls?”
“I would love to,” Mrs. Beom replied, reaching out to take the child’s proffered hand. But it was Minha’s eyes she was gazing into as she spoke. “Nothing is more valuable than love.”
“My dollies are playing in Uncle Naru’s room. It used to be mine, but Eomma asked me to give it to him so he could live with us. So now I get to sleep in Eomma’s big bed. It’s so fun!” chattered the tiny girl as she led the elegant woman down their well-loved hallway towards her Uncle Naru’s room.
His eomma stood in the doorway, quite shocked to see the cramped space her son was choosing to occupy now. She instantly wished he were here. She wanted to see how he looked at this woman and this tiny girl. Something was surely different here. In his relationship with them.
The Naru she knew would never give up his big bed or the women that usually occupied it. Certainly, he wouldn’t exchange those sexy girls for a boxful of dolls. Nor would he trade his king-sized bed for this twin. With the frilly, pink blanket. She felt a bubble of laughter welling up inside of her. It was such a foreign feeling that she coughed instead.
As she turned towards Minha, her eyes surveyed her. In jeans and a T-shirt. The Naru of old would never have given up the scantily-clad girls who wore too much makeup and too-short skirts. And hung on his every word. If her earlier text message was anything by which to judge her, this woman seemed like she would challenge every single judgment he made. Perhaps that’s what he found so attractive. The question was: would the attraction last? Or would their natural friction drive them apart?
“Ajin, can you help Harmony set the table?”
The little girl bounced to do her mother’s bidding.
“She’s a good girl,” Mrs. Beom murmured. Then she looked Minha square in the eye. “What are you hoping to get out of my son?”
Minha stared at her. “You mean, what will I do when he tires of me?”
His eomma’s face looked shocked for a moment.
“I am well aware that I am not the type of woman he usually goes out with. And that he is likely to get bored sooner or later. That’s why I told him he had to take us on five dates before I would consider any kind of serious relationship with him.”
“Five dates? Us?”
“Me and Ajin. I want Naru to know exactly what he’s signing up for if he decides to marry me. Raising a child is not easy street. And I have to put her first. Far ahead of myself. Or even him.”
“If he decides to marry you?” his eomma echoed.
Minha believed in getting right to the point. “Naru has asked me to marry him. I gave him a ‘yes,’ but it’s contingent on some things. He wanted to marry me on Saturday, but I told him that was far too soon. We barely know each other.
“And, yes, I am afraid that my allure will fade, and he will want to return to the variety he’s become accustomed to. But, mostly, I’m afraid that Ajin will be hurt should he ever leave us. The sneaky man snuck into my daughter’s heart before I was aware of what he was doing. The damage had already been done by the time I discovered he’d been haunting my house while I was at work.
“Oh! And, of course, the charming man has wrapped my grandmother around his little finger! So, you see, Mrs. Beom, I’m outnumbered. No matter how I protested in the beginning.”
“You protested? How?” Why?
She was intrigued to see the younger woman blush to her roots.
“I would rather not answer that. Suffice it to say that I offered Naru what I believed he really wanted if he would leave my daughter alone.”
Mrs. Beom’s eyebrows flew up. “You offered to sleep with him?”
“To get myself out of his system. He seemed too intrigued with me. I figured it was the thrill of the chase, you know?”
Minha was staring at the floor now. “In the meantime, he was threatening my daughter’s heart. I had to find some way to protect her. My grandmother was oblivious to the danger. And I was gone all day long. He came over whenever he felt like it. Which, apparently, was every day. All day long.”
She glanced up into Mrs. Beom’s eyes. “I swear, I’m not a slut. Though, it must seem like that to you. I got pregnant out of wedlock with my only other boyfriend.”
“You’ve slept with my son, then?”
But, if so, why two beds? Just to fool the grandmother?
“No. The night I went with him – when I thought he was going to take me to his bed – he did not. He took me to dinner instead.”
Mrs. Beom almost couldn’t believe this. “You’re saying that Naru turned down jumping into a bed with you?”
“I am. We have not had sex. And he said we won’t until we’re married.”
Stupefied, the woman simply stared at her. “Quite extraordinary,” she murmured after a few moments. “Is it true that he fixed many broken things here with his own two hands?”
“That’s what I’ve been told by my grandmother and my daughter. Certainly, they were things none of us could fix.”
“Just so you know, Miss Choi, I quite like you. You seem to be a woman of sense. A great deal of it, I think. You are an excellent eomma. Nari swears you’re the best teacher on the planet, and Jungju concurs. And, apparently, you’ve turned my profligate son from his old and very tried ways. No small feat, my dear.”
“Ah,” Minha replied, “but the question is…will this last? Or am I simply someone for him to while the hours away with? Will my luster grow dim as he gets to truly know me?”
Mrs. Beom read the sorrow in her countenance. Startled, she gasped, “You’re in love with him?”
Minha lifted sad eyes to hers. “Yes. Very much so. Despite all I did to protect my heart from any man. Let alone another playboy.”
“Ajin’s appa…he was a playboy?”
“The worst. He made me believe he dreamed of marrying me. I thought I was his only girlfriend. I thought…What does it matter what I thought?”
Her eyes met Mrs. Beom’s. “I was being played. And I didn’t know it until it was too late. I was already carrying Ajin.” Her lips twisted into a smile. “But she’s the best gift I’ve ever been given, so I suppose I have something to thank him for, after all. She’s the light of my life. I would do anything for that little girl.”
“Including marrying my son to give her an appa?”
Mrs. Beom was just as straightforward as Minha was.
“No. If I ever have any indication that he has no love for me, the engagement will be history.”
“Even though you’re madly in love with him?”
“I’ve no desire to be connected with another man who has no fondness for me.” Minha shuddered.
Mrs. Beom was trying to completely assess the situation. While she paused, Minha spoke again.
“Just so you know, I told him I will never set foot in your home again. It’s nothing against you. It’s just…I have no wish to…”
“Be reminded that you were nearly raped in my room by one of my appa’s guests,” came a smooth, deep voice from the doorway. “Eomma, what are you doing here?”
“Who was the man who almost raped you?” Mrs. Beom was ignoring her son.
“Wang Eunho.”
Mrs. Beom gasped. “No! Not Eunho. His eomma is one of my good friends.”
Minha felt a chill wind blowing through Ajin’s room. “Of course, she is,” she smiled. But her eyes grimaced.
Yet again, the poor farm girl would lose out to the rich playboy. These boys could do no wrong in the sight of their mothers and their eommas’ friends.
Minha backed up. She’d just lost a new ally. Her heart sank. Why had she had hoped that she and Naru’s eomma could get along?
“Eomma. Why. Are. You. Here?”
Naru took his time asking the routine question. But Minha didn’t miss the steel in his voice. She glanced sharply up at him.
“Minha invited me for dinner.”
Naru furrowed his brow. He glanced at Minha for confirmation.
“After your eomma texted me today and asked to meet us.”
His eyes swiveled towards his mother’s. “And just how did you get Minha’s phone number?”
“From the school. Miss Choi is Jungju’s teacher.”
He glanced at Minha. He’d seen the shadow pass over her face a moment ago. He was enraged now. But he resisted the urge to thunder at his mother. Ignoring her instead, he turned towards Minha.
“Hello, my love,” he murmured, pouring it on thick. “How was your day?”
Then he reached for her and pulled her into his arms. His head descended, and he kissed her passionately. Right in front of his eomma. But after a moment, Minha resisted him. She shoved against his chest, and the look on her face told him he’d just erred.
“I will not be a point of contention between the two of you!” she responded crossly. “Naru, you’re not a boy of sixteen to so use a woman as a weapon against your eomma!”
She turned towards Mrs. Beom. “And I am well aware that none of your friends’ children have any flaws. Neither does your son.”
With those chilling words, she turned and headed for her room. She had just let her temper get the better of her, and she was horrified. But mostly, she was disappointed that another man had used her to his own advantage. She had hoped for better things from Naru. But, in the end, he’d used her to get his mother’s goat.
Is that what this was? Was she just his newfound way of rebelling against their authority? He knew they’d hate him dating a poor girl, so he pursued her to flaunt his power in their faces.
She shut her door quietly before falling onto her bed and sobbing into her sheets. She’d thought she’d finally found a man who really loved her…for her. But it wasn’t so. She’d been fooled again. She must be an absolute idiot when it came to men.
Was she just too lonely? Was that what had made her susceptible to him? She’d given up her better judgment to accept a few tender kisses?
They had been so tender too.
But not the one he’d given her in front of his mother. She had known he was punishing his eomma as his tongue slid into her mouth. She’d felt like the cheapest piece of trash in that moment. He’d made her feel as low as Beopdung had the night he’d rejected their child. Were all men so broken?
—
“That was a mean thing to do to a woman you claim to love, son,” his eomma rebuked him as her eyes followed the fleeing back of a woman she had begun to respect.
“Apparently, I’m just living down to your expectations,” he responded bitterly. He was so angry with her right now. For invading his happy space here and introducing contention into a home that had been filled with peace this morning. “Isn’t that what you always expect of me? That I’ll treat a woman with less respect than I should?”
“She is not just a woman, Naru! She is a mother!” she hissed at him.
Her unexpected defense of Minha caught him off guard. “I thought you came here to reject her,” he admitted, astonished.
“No. I came here to see for myself the miracle that turned you from your wayward path. But it seems that between the two of us we just managed to break the heart of a good woman.”
“But you were just defending your precious Eunho,” he accused.
“I was just surprised. I’ve known him since he was in the cradle. But she had a point when she mentioned you. You have certainly done some things that disappointed me.”
“I certainly hope rape wasn’t one of them,” he murmured dryly.
“Was it?” his eomma looked at him sharply.
Uneasily, he thought of Minsu. “No. Thankfully, I was saved from any such course. But I can assure you that Eunho used Minha quite terribly. Had I not entered my room when I did, he would have raped her. As it was, I was too late. He backhanded her across her cheekbone when I opened my door. And then he ripped open the front of her dress.”
Horrified, she stared at him. “I thought surely Yoongi exaggerated.”
“I assure you: he did not.”
“So that bruise on her cheek…”
“Was a gift from your friend’s precious son,” he murmured bitterly.
“I owe Minha an apology.” She eyeballed him. “So do you. For kissing her like that in front of me.”
He grimaced. “I know. I embarrassed her.”
“It’s worse than that. You broke her heart. Did you not see the look on her face? Naru, this woman is not like the girls you usually date. You’re going to have to have a care with this one. In some ways, she’s made of sterner stuff than the women of your acquaintance. But in others – she’s very tender.”
Just then, Maeum appeared in the hallway. “Naru, dinner is ready.” She glanced around. “Where is Minha?”
“Harmony, this is my eomma, Mrs. Beom.”
Maeum peered around the doorway. “Oh! Forgive me! I didn’t realize you were in here.” She strode forward. “Hello, Mrs. Beom. It’s wonderful to meet you. You have the most delightful son. He is such a good man.” She stared proudly up at him.
Mrs. Beom glanced at her “good” son. He had the good grace to appear ashamed of himself.
“I am not always as wonderful as you make me out to be, Harmony. I just did something to Minha that hurt her very badly.”
She stared up at him with her eagle eyes. “Why are you still in here? Go apologize. Make it right.”
His eyes widened. “What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
A twinkle entered the old woman’s eye. “Then you didn’t apologize correctly.”
He chuckled and bent swiftly to kiss her on the cheek. Much to his eomma’s wide-eyed astonishment. In the next instant, he was gone. Striding off towards Minha’s bedroom.
—
A rap of knuckles sounded on her door. “Go away!” she shouted through her pillow. The sound came out like a muffled squawk.
Suddenly, the door opened a crack. “Minha, may I come in?”
“No,” she responded petulantly. “You may take yourself back to your horrid house where I’m sure you’ll find many women to kiss you just to spite your eomma!”
He opened the door all the way before slipping into her room. Then he shut – and locked – the door. Her eyes widened as she heard the door lock. Her heart started to thud.
“Naru, what are you doing? Why did you lock my door?”
He could hear the fear in her voice, and it hurt his heart. “Just ensuring that no one interrupts us. I don’t want some busybody woman interrupting my apology to you. Or some adorable, little darling either.”
“Who’s the busybody?” she couldn’t help herself. “Your eomma or my grandma?”
“Take your pick.” His voice was laced with amusement.
She crawled out from underneath her pillow and stared at him. She was still lying on her back. Enticing him, had she but known it. He crossed the room in a flash. He lay down on that bed next to her and turned over onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow as he looked down at her.
“Minha,” his voice was a breath that tickled her ears and made her heart crave things she knew better than to desire.
She closed her eyes and a tear slid down her cheek. As she tried with all her might to resist the appeal in his tone.
“I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I fell into an old and worn pattern with my eomma without realizing it. I was so angry that you felt she’d belittled you. I just wanted to punish her. I was trying to embarrass her. Not you.”
“You treated me like a cheap skirt, Naru. Here I was trying to convince your eomma that I’m not cut of the same fabric as all your other girlfriends, and you came in the door and belied my words with your actions. Now she’s sure to think we did sleep together.”
“She thinks no such thing! She was quite cross with me for treating you so in front of her. But I must correct you.”
She furrowed her brow at him.
He leaned forward and whispered, “We did sleep together.” His eyes caressed hers.
“Ugh! You are the most infuriating man sometimes!”
“Please tell me that means you want to kiss me now?” he whispered huskily as his eyes traced her mouth.
She grew angrier as she felt herself melting towards him. She felt powerless every time he looked at her like that. She rolled away from him, presenting him with her back.
“Go away,” she murmured, like a petulant child.
“Come now, Minha,” his voice was a honeyed caress, “I recognized my mistake and owned up to it. Can’t you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
He inched across the bed towards her. His arm slid around her, and he pulled her snug up against him. He bent his head to kiss her neck. But as he did so, her words stilled him.
“You terrify me, Naru.”
Aghast, he burst out, “What?” His heart was suddenly pounding.
“Will you decide you no longer desire me one of these days? Will you realize how boring I am? Will you leave me and Ajin for some easier entertainment?” Her voice cracked like an old rocking chair that someone had sat in one time too many.
“Min Ha,” he whispered, accentuating each syllable, like they were both precious to him. “Darling girl, don’t you yet know that you are the standard against which I now judge all those other girls? That next to your riveting personality, all my old girlfriends appear the most bland, white walls? Tasteless. Colorless. Excessively boring. That your daughter’s most delightful personality reveals all the flaws in theirs? And that the deep things you’ve hidden in your heart are far more enticing to me than any bit of leg or breast those girls would let me touch?”
She was sobbing now. At his beautiful words. If only he meant them. If only they weren’t simply words but were also truth.
“Stop. Stop. I can’t take it. Your words are killing me. Please. I begged you not to toy with me. I can’t take it.”
“What did he do to you?” he murmured suddenly. Quite aghast.
She stilled. “What?”
“The way you see yourself. The way you belittle yourself, Minha. Is this what Beopdung did to you?”
“Not just him. Beopdung. Eunho. All their friends. Most of the men in my life. I am nothing. They made it quite clear.
“The only thing I’ve ever truly been is Ajin’s eomma. I got that one thing right. But even then, she doesn’t see the real me. If she knew all the things I’ve done, all the places I’ve missed it, she wouldn’t love me so.”
“That is just not true.” He hugged her tightly against him and buried his face in her peach-scented hair. “Minha. You do yourself a disservice. You are a wonderful mother. But more than that, you’re a beautiful person. And I, for one, want to see more of your beautiful heart. I am so sorry I damaged it today.”
He sighed. “Minha, I am far from perfect. I have used women my whole life. I have dishonored my eomma. And my appa. I have abhorred and envied my sister. I’m a lousy person. I don’t know why you ever even looked my way. But I thank God every day that you did. Because I don’t know how to live without you now.”
She turned towards him. “What?”
He loosened his hold on her so she could fully revolve in his arms. A moment later, she was staring up at him. Her tear-stained face was more than he could take. He bent his head and began to kiss away the tracks of her sorrow. She began to melt under the onslaught of those lips. For he was wooing her heart again.
“I can’t live without you, Minha. Oh, I could exist. But I would just be an empty shell of a man. As I was before I met you. I may not be worthy of you. But every day you make me a better person. You make me desire to be a better person. You make me care about my life and the future.
“Before I met you, I never cared about anything except getting the next girl into my bed. But with you, I want to build something beautiful. I want to make a baby with you. And raise Ajin. And take you on marvelous vacations. And do a good job at work so you’ll be proud of me.”
He punctuated each sentence with a kiss on one of her cheeks. Or her forehead. Finally, his words ran out. And so did his kisses. He lay staring down at her. As she gazed back at him. Their hearts were thundering. Each insecure in the midst of their first big argument since they’d fallen in love with each other.
“I’m scared to be without you,” he breathed.
“Me too,” she finally admitted.
His gaze fell to brush her lips, then his eyes found hers again before he bent his head and kissed her beautiful mouth. She surrendered to him. And wrapped her arms around his neck as he gave her the most blissful kiss that still respected her boundaries. And made her feel treasured.
—
“I don’t want to go out there,” she admitted a moment later, her lips brushing his as she spoke.
“What? Why not?”
“I don’t want to face your eomma.”
“Why? You’ve nothing to be ashamed of. She’s the one that needs to apologize to you.”
“Like that would ever happen,” she muttered as she rolled away from him.
“Minha.” There was a weightiness to his tone that fell down onto her shoulders like a heavy mantle. It wrapped around her with something…indefinable.
“You are a queen. And you deserve to be treated with respect. My eomma and I both recognize it even though we trespassed upon your heart today. She was sorry that she seemed to side with your attacker. I told her what he did, and that I witnessed it. She was just surprised that he was someone she’s known since he was an infant.”
Minha grimaced. “I suppose I would feel the same way if one of my students was reported to me twenty years from now for attacking a girl.”
She turned back towards him and sighed as she leaned her forehead against his chest. “This right here is exactly why I didn’t want to meet your parents. I don’t fit into their world, Naru.”
“That may be. But you are the only one who fits into mine.” His breath flowed over her forehead as she glanced up at him.
And her heart flipped over. “I love you, you beautiful man!” she suddenly exclaimed.
“Not half as much as I love you,” he murmured and kissed that forehead.
“Well, that’s probably true,” she giggled.
He chuckled. “Come on.” He reached down to grab her hand. “Let’s go face the firing squad together.”
They climbed off her bed and were halfway to her door when he turned towards her suddenly. “I have some good news.”
“What?”
“My appa isn’t even half as daunting as my eomma.”
“Oh, really?” Her eyebrows flew up. “Actually, that is very encouraging!”
—
An hour later, Naru closed the front door behind his eomma.
“Whew! We survived!” He sagged against that door.
Minha laughed. Then she frowned. “Weren’t you supposed to be in a meeting with your appa tonight?”
“Mmhmm,” he mumbled as his eyes sparred with hers.
“So why’d you come home early?”
“Appa let the cat out of the bag.”
“Are you saying you rushed home to protect me from your eomma?”
“You better believe I did.”
Her face softened as she stared up at him. “Naru…”
He smiled at her. “You didn’t need me, though. You were holding your own quite fine without me.”
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s obvious that my eomma adores you. And Ajin. And Harmony. Just as I knew she must.”
“It is?” she asked in surprise.
He nodded. “Definitely. Now…we have something much more important to discuss…”
He reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist before tugging her close to him.
“What?”
“Are you going to marry me on Saturday now that you know my eomma approves?”
“Naru! No!” she exclaimed, laughing.
“Why not?” he pouted.
She sobered. “Because I think we need to survive at least five arguments before we get married.”
“What?!” His eyebrows ascended into the heavens. “I have to start four more arguments with you and figure out how to disentangle myself from them before you’ll marry me? That hardly seems fair. Although, if I make a point of arguing with you on each of our dates, it won’t take us any longer to be ready to marry each other,” he reasoned.
“Naru!” She slapped him on his chest as she giggled. “You are impossible!”
“Me!” Those eyebrows went flying again. “I can assure you, my dear, that I am not the impossible one. You’re the one making up all these rules about when we can and can’t get married.”
She just laughed at him.
“So…if you won’t marry me on Saturday, then that means we have the whole day free for our second date. So where are you and Ajin taking me?” he murmured with a twinkle in his eye.
