Blog

Chapter 14: The Pact – March 27, 2021

Towards the end of March, Naru asked Minha out on a date.  By herself.

“I want to take you to Fusion Five,” he explained.

She stared at him.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He shook his head.  “No.  That’s the place I knew you were the woman for me.”

“When I was falling down drunk?” she asked dryly.

“Precisely,” he grinned wickedly.  After a moment, he told the truth.  “No.  You are the only woman who I took there who could order in French.  Even smashingly drunk, your diction was flawless.  Clearly, we’re a match made in Heaven.”

She smiled.  “I will agree…on one condition.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“There’s no champagne in the limo.”

“What limo?” he asked with a gigantic grin.

—

At precisely six o’clock on the last Saturday evening in March, a sleek, black limo pulled up in front of Minha’s house, and the driver knocked on her door.  

“Miss Choi, I’m here to pick you up for your date with Naru.”

She lifted an eyebrow in surprise as she looked past him at the stunning vehicle in which he was planning to drive her to dinner.

“Is there any champagne in that limo?” she asked him.

She was already wearing a beautiful dress that Naru had bought for her.  It was her favorite color.  A deep, dark forest green.  It was sleeveless but had a flowing skirt that fell all the way to her ankles.  It was not tight.  At all.  It flowed from her shoulders down but was tapered enough along her torso to save her from looking like she was wearing a sack.  It was voluminous and comfortable.  Yet she still felt pretty in it.  She was also fairly sure no man would attempt to accost her in it.

“There is a bubbly beverage in the back of the limo, miss.”

“Let’s see,” she murmured as she followed him to the vehicle.  

He opened the door for her, and she sat down before sliding across the seat.  At her elbow, she found a bottle of apple cider.  The sparkling kind.  She giggled.  

“Very well.  Proceed to the restaurant, please.”

He shut her door, and she leaned back against the cushions.  And closed her eyes.

“Hello, my love,” came a deep voice from the shadows on the other side of the long car.

Surprised, she jumped as her hand flew to her heart and her eyes popped open.  “Naru!”

“Didn’t know I was here, hmm?”  He leaned forward and crossed the aisle between their seats.  He scooted down until he was seated next to her.  “I’m a tad thirsty.  How about you?”

He was smiling at her mischievously. 

She glanced at the bottle of sparkling apple cider and noticed that this time she’d been provided with two glasses.  Not just one.  She reached for the glasses.  

Naru leaned over her and grabbed the bottle.  His breath sailed across her lips as his face came right up against hers.  She stopped breathing.  How did the man still have the power to do that to her?

She turned her face towards his, and their lips bumped.  He completed that kiss.  Taking his time.  For several minutes of their long drive.  Finally, they drew apart, and he opened the bottle of juice.  He poured them each half a glass and quirked his lips as he looked at her.

“I would top you off, but I know how you get when you drink excessive amounts of sugar,” he murmured.

“Oh?” she asked.  She felt positively light-headed already.

“You can’t resist me then; you’re so euphoric.”

It was true.  Sugar did give her a high.  But not as much as Naru did.  A smile curved her lips, and she leaned forward and kissed him again.  After several blissful moments, he groaned into her mouth.

“Are you sure that you can’t marry me today?  It is, after all, a Saturday.”

She giggled against his lips.  “When will you calm down and stop trying to persuade me to marry you on Saturday?”

“When you’ve married me on a Sunday.  Do you have any idea how long I’ve gone without a woman?” he asked brusquely.  

She sobered.  “No, actually.”

“Ever since I met this single eomma with this adorable, little girl.   I must admit, my girlfriend was quite put out when I broke up with her at half-past nine in the morning on the first of January.  But, of course, I had a good reason.  I had just experienced the most amazing kiss of my life in a little boy’s bedroom at midnight on New Year’s Day.  And met the cutest little girl a few moments before I made that phone call.”

Her eyes widened.  “You broke up with your girlfriend a few hours after we kissed?  Right after you left my house?”

“Mmhmm,” he nodded.  “Sure did.”  His eyes were tracing her lips again as he wondered if they could relive that kiss here in this limo.

“You were that sure about me?  Even then?”

He nodded.  “About you both.  Why do you think I went from courting supermodels to wooing an old woman and a tiny slip of a girl?”

She shrugged.  “Well, Ajin’s smile is pretty cute, and no one bakes like Harmony.”

He chuckled.  “That’s true.  But the real reason was that no one kisses like you.”  

He set his glass down and removed hers from her fingers to set it down too.  Then he pulled her into his arms and bent his head so she could prove him right.

A few blissful minutes later, they arrived at the restaurant.  Naru pulled a blindfold from his pocket.  She eyed it suspiciously.  

“Naru?” she asked questioningly.

“Just wear it until we get to our table.  Okay?”

She nodded.  She trusted him now.  

The events of the last few months flowed through her mind as she allowed him to lead her by the hand into the restaurant and across it to their little corner table in the back of Fusion Five.  As the scenes played out across the canvas of her mind, she remembered the wicked grin on his face the first time she’d looked up to see him in her classroom.  She also recalled her heart’s traitorous reaction.  For a moment, she was seated in his car again on that silent drive as he returned her to her home.  Her heart had been racing throughout that half hour.  She’d trained her gaze on her window to avoid being captured by his captivating eyes.

She remembered New Year’s Eve.  Awakening in the semidarkness of Jungju’s bedroom to find this gorgeous man hiding in the shadows.  Then he had blocked her only escape route and called her “infinitely lovely” as his eyes devoured her.  He had reached up to pull a strand of her hair behind her ear.  She’d been absolutely terrified by his tenderness.  But it was his words of a few moments later that had stopped her heart.

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

She should have known then that he was made of different stuff than Beopdung had been.  Perhaps she had known, for she had been able to resist neither the appeal in his voice when he’d asked her to stay nor the gentleness in his kiss when his lips had claimed hers at midnight.  She had, in truth, been engulfed by a terrifying passion at the simplest brush of his lips across hers.  That was why she had fled.  Not even Beopdung had ever moved her as much as Naru had that night.  With one kiss.

Next, she recalled their failed first date – their aborted liaison.  She imagined him carrying her limp body across the street to the emergency room.  And sitting up with her all night long.  Just to make sure she didn’t die.  Then his feeding her chicken noodle soup after he’d held her in his arms all day in his bed.  And tried absolutely nothing with her.  He’d wooed her with words instead of touches.  

But then he’d begun to flirt with her.  And he’d kissed her cheek.  Sweetly.  He’d dressed her in his own clothes and given her a toothbrush so she could cleanse her teeth.  She’d eaten that soup.  And then he had stolen a kiss from her.

Then the sweet request he’d made bubbled up again.  Five dates with her and her daughter.  She remembered drawing him close during that phenomenal kiss on his bed.  And the self-restraint that pulled him away from her a few blissful moments later.  He’d kept her safe that night.  From himself.  And from her own foolish impulses.

She saw Ajin’s precious face covered in chocolate frosting and sprinkles as she enjoyed one of his Valentine’s Day gifts.  And the delight on Harmony’s face when he’d handed her a dozen white roses.  To remind an old woman that she was still precious too.

She pictured him mending fences, fixing floorboards, and tightening the leaky faucet of her grandmother’s house.  She recalled the lease papers that he’d arranged for, the ones that had ensured the security of Harmony’s future.  She watched as he loaded her daughter on his shoulders and carried her around the dining room as she dripped bright yellow paint in his hair.  But he hadn’t cared.

She recalled Naru holding Ajin on his lap as he patiently taught her how to read, sounding out words with her when she stumbled.  She saw him bent over her sick daughter while she slept, concern clearly etched in his features.  She observed him lying snuggled in next to her daughter as they all piled into that tiny twin bed together.  Just to make Ajin feel better.  But he had made Minha feel better too.

Then that fateful day when she’d nearly been raped in his own bedroom floated before her eyes.  She didn’t want to remember most of it.  But the rage she’d seen in his eyes as he’d hauled Eunho off of her, and the glorious way Naru had defended her honor would be forever burned into her memory.  Even now she had to stifle a tear.  To be so cherished.  So protected.  He had wooed her heart for sure in that moment.  And then he’d lovingly dressed her and carried her to his car.  And rescued her from that horrid, cold house.

But what she remembered most from that night was the time she’d spent with him in her bed.  When he had slowly and tenderly kissed away the trauma she had just endured.  Inch by inch, he had stolen the terror from her soul by the gentle assault of his lips upon her skin.  

Yet, he had still refused to take advantage of her.  He had ended the evening by wrapping her up tightly in his arms and holding her while she fell asleep.  Secure in his embrace.  

She’d been pretty secure in his embrace ever since.  Which was why she was allowing the fingers that were interlaced with her own right now to lead her somewhere.  Blindfolded.

A moment later, he stopped, so she did too.  He pulled her chair out and guided her into it.  Then he bent to whisper into her ear.  

“Keep your eyes closed a moment.”

He removed the blindfold.  A few seconds later, he spoke gently from across the table, “Open your eyes.”

Her eyes opened to a familiar scene.  A round table cloaked in a white tablecloth.  Burning candles.  A vase full of crimson roses. The table set for two.  But there was something different this time.  Her eyes noticed it immediately.

A burgundy velvet box was sitting on the tablecloth between her chopsticks and her fork.  She glanced up at Naru.  He smiled at her.  But…were those tears shining in his eyes?

He stood up slowly and came to kneel down on the floor next to her chair.  He reached for the box.  He turned it towards her and opened the lid.  A stunning, half-carat diamond, far more ostentatious than she had ever dreamed of wearing, hovered over a silver band.  But it was the cut of the diamond that caught her eye.  It was a heart.

“I know it’s going to sound cheesy, Minha.  But you really are my heart.  You and Ajin both.  Would you two adopt me?  Will you marry me and make me part of your beautiful family?”

A tear slid down her cheek as she nodded.  In the next instant, a matching trail was birthed along his own cheek.  He pulled the ring from the box and slid it on her finger.

“How’s it fit?”

“It’s a tad loose,” she admitted.

He smiled.  “Kinda like me before I met you.”

“Maybe,” she giggled, “but now you’re a perfect fit for our family.  I love you, Naru.”  

She bent her head and kissed him sweetly.

“I know, Minha.  It’s more than I deserve, but I’m so thankful for it.  For you.  For Ajin.  And Harmony.  Thank you for giving me a family, for making me belong somewhere.  And thank you for helping me to heal the divide within my birth family too.”

“Naru, you have made our family complete.  I thought I’d be alone forever.  That Ajin would never have an appa.  That I would never have any more children.  It all broke my heart.  Until the day you came along and pushed your way into my life.  To mend my broken heart.  And give my baby an appa.”

“I hope to give all your babies an appa,” he chuckled.

“Me too,” she whispered before their lips met again.

A moment later, he was seated across from her once more.

“We’ve finally achieved it,” she whispered.

“What?”

“A real first date.”

“This is our seventh date,” he murmured.

“Ah, but our first one without Ajin and with me sober.”

He laughed.  “Indeed.  To tonight then.  May it be the beginning of a beautiful love story.”

“Naru.”

“Hmm?”

“It already is a beautiful love story.”

—

Naru, Minha, and Ajin were packed together in Minha’s larger bed tonight.  Ajin was sound asleep.  Naru’s deep voice suddenly sounded softly in the darkness.

“Let’s make a pact together, Minha,” he proposed.

“What?  What pact?”  

“That we both forget the past.  You forget yours, and I’ll forget mine.  Beopdung is your past.  I’m your future.  All those girls – half of whose names I can’t even remember – they’re my past.  But you – you and Ajin – you’re my future.” 

“It’s a deal, Naru.  I have just one question.”

“Hmm?”

“What girls?”

He heard the smile in her voice.  

Then she continued, “As far as I’m concerned, you are the only appa Ajin has ever had.  And in case you can’t tell, she just adores you.”

“As I do her.”

“I know.  I think you actually fell in love with her first.”

“Shhh.  You’re not supposed to know that,” he teased her.

“It’s okay.  I fell in love with her before I fell for you too.”

“She’s asleep.  Can we go cuddle on the couch now?”

“You still find my lips tempting, hmm?” she murmured.

“You have no idea, Minha.  You are the most alluring woman on the planet.  Apparently – for me, at least – there is nothing sexier than being an amazing eomma.”