What was wrong with this girl? He’d just tried to do something nice for her. Yet she seemed to suspect him of ulterior motives. Couldn’t he catch a break?
Maybe she wasn’t worth his time. If she was that insecure, she’d probably be a lot to handle. And Yoongi despised drama.
He sighed. “I’ll have the waiter box them up, and then I’ll take you home.”
He was so deflated. He’d set a lot of his hopes on this date. Now it was back to the marriage market…
—
A week had passed. He had not set foot one more time in the diner. But she ran into him one night in the elevator of their building. How was it that she had never met him before, but now she couldn’t seem to avoid him?
She stumbled into the elevator in the early evening one night after she’d worked a double shift the day before and a single one today. She was exhausted. And her feet hurt so badly. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to wear the shoes he’d bought her.
As she crossed the threshold of the elevator and brought her head up, she gasped. She couldn’t help it. He had his arms around a girl and was smiling down into her eyes. A shard of her broken heart pierced her with a pain so deep, Nari grunted. And swung around so that she didn’t have to face him.
Yoongi glanced up. This girl was so boring. She’d just tripped into him. He’d reached out to steady her when Nari had stepped into the elevator. He saw the devastated expression on her face as she spun away from him.
She was upset that he had his arms around another girl?
This was interesting. After their first date, he’d been sure she didn’t like him.
His eyes slid down her frame to her feet. She had moved suddenly and pulled her foot up. She was rubbing it through her shoe. Her old shoe.
He felt a spurt of anger erupt from his soul. He had bought her a brand new pair of shoes. An expensive pair of shoes. A really good pair of shoes. So that she wouldn’t be in pain.
It had been the one thought that had solaced him all week. He’d made a small difference in her life. At least, she was wearing his shoes.
Now he was discovering that she wasn’t! She was back to being tortured by her flat tennis shoes. He watched her whole body sag. Even from behind her, he could tell she was exhausted.
He was suddenly quite irritated. She wasn’t taking care of herself. Again. He bet she was working too many hours. Walking around in those pathetic shoes. Not sleeping enough. Not eating enough. He glanced at her. She did look thinner…
She hadn’t been able to eat much since he’d escorted her home that night. Those lovely desserts were still in her refrigerator. She couldn’t bring herself to slide them past her lips. She thought of him every time she opened the fridge and saw them. She should just throw them away. But she couldn’t bring herself to…
Because then she’d have to admit that once again her judgment had proven false. She’d fallen for the wrong guy. Fallen for him? She’d known him for forty-eight hours. It was absurd to believe she’d come to love him in such a short time.
But no one had ever bought her a pair of shoes simply because her feet hurt. Nobody had ever said her aching feet hurt him. Not until Yoongi had stepped into her life. No one had ever protected her from a guy’s slimy hands. Not until Yoongi had stepped between her and that Neanderthal. No one had ever bought her three desserts at the same time. Not until Yoongi had stepped up and asked her out.
Suddenly, it was all too much. She burst into tears. Standing in a crowded elevator surrounded by strangers. At least, Yoongi and his date had gotten off at the last floor. So he couldn’t see the tears sliding down her face…
—
“Nari, your appa wants you to come to dinner on Friday night.” Her eomma’s tired voice flowed over the phone line.
Nari knew her mother didn’t like doing this to her.
“He’s expecting me to meet a prospective groom, isn’t he?”
“Would that really be so bad, honey?”
“Yes,” she groaned as she lifted her hand to her face. “Eomma. I just want to stay single. Is that so bad?”
A pregnant pause. “You don’t want children?”
“Not today,” she responded.
Her mother chuckled. “Well, of course, not today! But someday?”
Nari shrugged. “I just…I’ve never met a man I could trust.”
“Will you just give one more a chance? If you don’t like him, I’ll tell your appa to leave you alone for six months. Okay?”
What did she have to lose? There was no way she’d like today’s candidate. And she’d have six months of peace to look forward to…
“All right, Eomma. But I’ll hold you to it.”
—
The last girl had been a total dud. His father had insisted he needed to get right back out onto the dance floor. Just because his appa’s choice of bride had flown to someone else didn’t mean that Yoongi shouldn’t try again. Which was why he’d endured a date with that boring girl the night he’d run into Nari in the elevator.
But he was done. Honestly.
“Yoongi, your eomma is throwing a little dinner party on Friday. We expect you to make an appearance…”
He was so done. Beyond done. He’d make an appearance, all right.
—
He arrived halfway through dinner. On purpose. If they were going to force him to make a good impression, he would make a bad one just to spite them.
“Yoongi!” His appa’s eyes dueled with his as he entered the dining room an hour late. “You’re late!”
Feigning innocence, Yoongi responded, “Eomma said eight o’clock.”
“No, I didn’t. Seven o’clock, darling.”
“I beg your pardon,” Yoongi replied to his eomma as he bowed to her.
His eyes flicked over the gentleman to her left. Yoongi didn’t recognize him. That didn’t matter at all. As Yoongi bowed, he stumbled. He’d had a bit to drink tonight. And he’d shown up quite disheveled. He’d slept in these clothes last night. He had no intention of impressing anyone tonight. He would drive this new girl and her parents as far away from him as possible. Maybe then his parents would leave him alone.
He grabbed the chair in front of him. Its occupant turned then to spear him with her sparkling, obsidian eyes. He watched them widen in disbelief.
—
She hadn’t even seen him yet, but she was already unimpressed. She’d recognized the disrespectful tone of his voice as he had addressed his parents from behind her. She was steeling herself for their first glance when she suddenly felt him fall against the back of her chair. His hand skimmed her back as he grabbed the top of her chair back. She turned her head to look back at him.
And she did a double take. Her mouth fell open. But then, she had the satisfaction of seeing his do the same. Nari stared up at Yoongi.
“You!” he ejaculated.
She was speechless.
“You two know each other?” His eomma questioned as her eyes darted from one to the other.
Nari found her voice. “We met a couple of weeks ago in the diner where I work.”
“You work in a diner?” His appa’s voice was sharp.
Yoongi met his gaze as a flaming arrow of irritation suddenly exploded in his heart. “And what’s wrong with working in a diner?”
His appa stared, intrigued, at his son. Yoongi had never defended any of the girls his father had invited to meet him. He grimaced as he made a choice to push his son on purpose.
“I would expect a girl from this family to comport herself more appropriately.”
Yoongi’s eyes blazed with anger. “How dare you?! You – of all people – should appreciate her work ethic! Looking down on her simply because it’s a simple diner is despicable.”
He glanced down at Nari. He bent to grasp her wrist. He tugged her up out of her seat. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. You don’t have to stay and endure such insults.”
She could smell the wine on his breath. Her heart sank. Was he drunk again?
He was just a kid. Why did he drink so much?
His eyes collided with hers then, and he saw the sorrow in them. It drew him up short in consternation as his appa laid into him.
“Sit down!”
But Yoongi didn’t look at him. He was too lost in Nari’s sad eyes. The two of them stood staring at each other.
Yoongi’s eomma sighed. Her boy was already in love with this girl. She could tell. But he was so stubborn, he would probably never admit it to them. Simply to spite his appa. She decided to intervene.
“Take her out to dinner, Yoongi.”
His eyes reluctantly left Nari’s face to move to his gentle eomma’s countenance. Then he glanced down at Nari’s plate. “Hasn’t she already eaten dinner?”
“Then, for dessert,” his eomma responded.
His eyes met Nari’s. She swallowed, and he saw pain bursting from her glance. His heart bent towards her. He nodded.
Then, he murmured, “She does like dessert.”
“Not anymore,” she breathed.
At his questioning glance, she intoned, “I’ve decided that desserts are a lie, leading you to believe that life is sweet. When it isn’t.”
Her eyes left his. She made a move to sit down.
But his grip around her wrist tightened. “We’re going,” his voice brooked no argument.
But her appa had had enough. “Young man, kindly unhand my daughter. Right now.” His last two words were steel.
Startled, Yoongi glanced at her irate appa. He dropped her wrist. “I do beg your pardon, sir.” He bowed to her appa then turned towards her eomma. “Ma’am.”
Then he was gone.
—
Nari watched his fleeing back forlornly. But Yoongi’s eomma didn’t miss the desire in the girl’s eyes. Or the disappointment. She had to try to salvage their relationship.
“Please, Yoongi is not himself tonight. Please forgive him. Let’s have some dessert, shall we?”
Nari’s eyes filled with tears at the suggestion of dessert. The next moment, a maid stepped into the room with a tray full of…
What else?
Lemon tart.
Nari burst into tears. “Where is your bathroom?” she gasped.
Yoongi’s appa frowned. What on earth was going on here?
But his eomma responded, “Just through that door right there. Then all the way down the hall. On the right.”
“Thank you,” the sweet girl replied before slipping silently from her seat and practically running for the exit.
Sobbing, she ran down the hall. She stumbled as she turned to enter the bathroom. She came to an abrupt halt as her face landed against a solid chest. Her heart flew into her throat as she glanced up into Yoongi’s dark eyes.
She backed up instantly even as his hands closed around her upper arms. His eyes reached out to her in concern as they took in the tearstains on her cheeks. Then his face grew hot with anger.
“What did he say to you? I’m going to give that man a piece of my mind.”
“Wait. Yoongi,” she placed her hand against his chest.
That’s when she became aware of his heartbeat. It was thundering. Just like hers.
His eyes raked hers again.
“It wasn’t your appa,” she informed him clearly.
A deep valley developed between his eyebrows. “What then?”
She glanced down at the crisp, white shirt under her fingers. In a tiny voice, she whispered, “Your eomma had the maid bring us dessert.”
He didn’t understand, so she enlightened him as her eyes met his again.
“Lemon tart.”
