Weeks passed and their relationship changed exponentially. Although their initial agreement still hang over their head, their relationship was now so much more than just an agreement. They were now something between friends, lovers and partners. Their once-a week dates had now become ‘let’s meet when we feel like it’, and they always felt like it. Nightly phone calls had also become par for the course. They often spent the hours before bed talking… sometimes, Orion couldn’t even remember what they’d talked about when he woke up the next day, just that they’d talked.
If that wasn’t a real relationship then he didn’t know what was.
Unfortunately, he still didn’t know what Vina thought of their changed dynamic. Did she think that they were still within the boundaries of their agreement? Or did she know that they’d already crossed it and was okay with it? A braver man would’ve dared to ask her directly but as Orion had recently discovered, he was quite a coward when it came to Alvina Song. He was treading on egg-shells around her, too afraid to confront her about who they were to each other and where their relationship was going for fear that he might spook her into running.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Vina asked, threading her arm into his.
“Nothing really.” Smiling down at her, he said, “Just wondering what the heck I’m doing here.”
“You’re here to be scared.” Grinning, Vina led him towards the gates of the park where the city’s annual Scream Fest was being held.
“By what?” Orion snorted. “Men dressed in black dresses and masks?”
“Snort all you want, but I bet that when one of those Grim Reapers comes gunning for you, you’ll be screaming like a little girl.”
“We’ll see.” Offering her an indulgent smile, he commented, “I still don’t get why you love this festival so much. Who enjoys being scared?”
“I do.” Vina shrugged as they stopped at the gate. “Halloween’s my favorite day of the year.”
“Really?” He made a face. “I thought most women lived for Valentine’s Day.”
“You obviously don’t know many women,” she mumbled as she rifled through her purse. A moment later, she frowned. “Where are those tickets?”
“Please don’t tell me we came all this way and you forgot our tickets.” Orion arched his neck to see what was in her purse
“No, I p-” A triumphant grin split her face as she pulled out the tickets from one of the pockets in her purse. “Here they are.”
Just then Orion saw a flash of yellow in the same pocket. That yellow paper seemed strangely familiar.
“Is that what I think it is?” he asked, suspicion dripping from his tone.
“No.” Vina went for her purse’s zipper but before she could pull it, he reached inside the purse and plucked out the yellow paper or more precisely the talisman.
“Give me that!” she made a grab for it.
He swung it out of her arm’s reach. Amusement dripping from his tone, he said, “I thought you didn’t believe in these bujeok.”
“I don’t.” She reached for the talisman again and this time he let her have it. She quickly stuffed it back into her purse. “But your mother gave it to me.”
His eyebrows shot up. “My mother?”
“Yeah, she came down to Tellers yesterday and gave me this saying it would bring career success or something like that.”
“And you believed her?”
“Of course not.” Vina said as she handed their tickets to the usher. “But I had two options, either refuse it and hurt your mom’s feelings, or take it and keep your mom happy.”
It was obvious what option she’d gone with. He smiled. Knowing that she cared about his mother’s feelings was enough to start a fluttering in his belly and sent warmth coursing through his blood. The fluttering and the warmth was nothing new. At first he’d been confused about it, confused about why it only happened when he was around, talking to or thinking about Vina. But days later, he’d realized what those strange feelings were. They were the initial symptoms of love.
Yes, he loved Vina.
He didn’t know how or when it had happened but it was what it was. He’d fallen for Vina – hook, line and sinker. Frankly, it was a scary place to be because this was Vina. What man wouldn’t be nervous to discover that he’d fallen for the woman with the world’s worst case of commitment-phobia? He couldn’t even tell her about his newly discovered feelings or ask her if she felt the same way because there was the risk that she’d immediately run.
Frankly, he was surprised that she hadn’t already run. In their last couple of days, both their families had been extremely vocal about them moving to the next stage in their relationship – engagement. Threatening to end the relationship with Vina if his mother kept hounding him had been enough to silence Yoon-ah, but Vina wasn’t so lucky.
Her grandmother had become even more aggressive about planning the wedding. Last week, Doo-shim had even given an event planner a tour of their estate to assess its viability as a wedding venue. Min-kyu, on the other hand, was being his usual insulting self and doing a bang-up job of turning Vina completely off relationships.
Orion wished that he could just pull the man aside and tell him to shut the hell up. If Min-kyu had even an iota of fatherly intuition he would’ve realized that his attempts to shove Vina into marriage were only making her more adamant not to give him that satisfaction. The older man was unwittingly screwing up Orion’s chances of ever convincing Vina to give them a chance at a real relationship.
“Are you going to just stand there looking at me, or are you coming in?” Vina cut into Orion’s thoughts. She was standing behind the gate, impatiently tapping her feet and glaring at him.
He grinned. “I’m coming.”
Scream Fest was just as juvenile as he expected it to be. Skeleton costumes, fake blood, fake zombies, fake corpses, rides in dark tunnels, eerie screams echoing from the overhead speakers… Orion found it all more funny then scary. But it was fun to watch how much Vina was into it. She was like a kid in a candy-store; eyes glittering with excitement, lips parted in shock, screaming every time anything ‘scary’ crossed their path. But most of all he loved how she clung to him whenever something scared her. What man wouldn’t?
By the time they’d taken all the horror-themed rides, he was the one who asked her if she wanted to go for a second round. Unfortunately, his brother chose that particular moment to call.
“I have some information for you,” Julian said. “How much will you pay?”
Orion’s eyebrows shot up. “I have to hear the information first before I decide how much it’s worth to me.”
“It’s worth a lot,” Julian assured him. “Hint; it involves Madam Hong and Vina’s grandmother.”
The mention of his mother and Vina’s grandmother in one sentence was enough to make Orion’s blood run cold. He snuck a nervous glance at Vina, who was busy buying ice-cream for them, before turned back to his brother. “Just tell me. We’ll negotiate later.”
The urgency in his tone must’ve convinced Julian because the younger man said, “They’re meeting today.”
“What?” Orion’s exclamation was so loud that Vina turned to face him. Avoiding her eyes, he spoke to his brother. “Where? Why?”
“I don’t know why,” Julian said. “But I know the where…”
As soon as Julian was done giving him the address, Orion ended the call then grabbed Vina’s hand. “We need to go.”
“Go where?” Vina protested, her eyes wide with surprise. “We haven’t even gotten our ice-cream yet.”
“Later.” He dragged her after him. “This is more urgent.”
“What is more urgent?” she asked, struggling to keep up with his long strides.
“I’ll explain in the car.” Once they were in the car and on their way, he explained, “My mother and your grandmother are meeting today.”
“What?” Vina’s mouth fell open and her hand flew to her chest. “Why?”
“I have no idea why! But I know it can’t be anything good.”
“This is a disaster. If I know my grandmother then they might be meeting to discuss weddings.” Real horror flashed in her eyes. “We need to stop it.”
“Let me call my mother. Maybe I can stop her.” After setting up his phone for a hands-free call, he dialed his mother’s number. Several rings later, she still hadn’t picked up. Frustrated, he gritted between his teeth. “She’s not picking up.”
“My grandmother isn’t picking up either,” Vina, who was also on the phone, said. “Let me try my mother.”
As luck would have it, Na-ri picked up.
“Eomma, what’s going on? Is it true that grandma is meeting?” Vina asked. Her mother’s response must’ve been yes because fresh panic flashed in her eyes. “What? You’re on your way there with her? Eomma!” Vina exclaimed. “You can’t go there.”
Na-ri said something else that made Vina nod vigorously. “Mm. Put her on the phone.”
Orion guessed that that meant that Doo-shim was getting on the phone. His guess turned out to be accurate because Vina exclaimed, “Halmeoni, why are you and Orion’s mother meeting?”
Doo-shim said something that made Vina release a heavy breath. “No, I’m not being rude. I’m just-” Her grandmother cut her off by saying something that had Vina rubbing her forehead in obvious frustration.
When Doo-shim finally let Vina talk again, she said, “Halmeoni, Ri-on and I have been dating for barely three months. There’s no hurry to-” Her grandmother interrupted her with another long tirade that left her sighing. “No, there’s nothing wrong with you meeting his mother but you-”
Doo-shim cut Vina off mid-sentence again. It seemed like that was the older woman’s strategy for winning arguments. Overwhelm the other party with so many interruptions and screams that they’ll eventually just sigh and give in. And that’s exactly what happened in this situation. Vina kept sighing, Doo-shim babbled on and on and on before abruptly ending the conversation.
Vina stared at her phone in absolute shock. “She hang up on me.”
“There’s only one option now.” Orion’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. “We need to get there before your grandmother does. My mother is probably already there right now since it’s just a few blocks from her college. If I can catch her, I think I can convince her to ditch the meeting.”
WHY WERE THERE so many red-lights and speed-bumps? Vina thought as she mentally pleaded for Orion to drive faster. Didn’t the city know that they were in a hurry? And why was her grandmother so intent on interfering in her life? Why couldn’t Doo-shim be like other grandmothers who spent their days enjoying their latter years hanging out with their friends, going on cruises, playing Go-Stop, and generally keeping out of their grandchildren’s business.
The woman was a menace and bloody annoying.
Frankly, Vina should have seen this coming. For the last couple of days, her grandmother had been nipping at the bit because Vina and Orion’s relationship wasn’t progressing as fast as she wanted it to. Vina’s reminders that they didn’t want to seem too desperate to Orion’s family had worked less and less on Doo-shim, and she’d expected the older woman to do something drastic soon – something like ask to see Orion again. Vina certainly hadn’t expected the woman to organize a clandestine meeting with Yoon-ah.
“We’re here,” Orion cut into her thoughts.
As soon as he parked his car, Vina scrambled out and headed straight for the entrance of the hotel with him at her heels. It was only when she got to the foyer that she realized that she had no idea where they was supposed to go next. Luckily, Orion did.
“This way.” He set his palm on her lower back and led her straight ahead.
They came down the steps that led into the open-concept restaurant. There were few enough people there that Orion and Vina immediately spotted Yoon-ah. She was seated alone, swiping through her tablet while sipping on a glass of juice. She didn’t notice them until they were right at her table.
The moment she lifted her head and saw them, shock flashed in her eyes. “What are you two doing here?”
“No, what are you doing here?” Orion bit out as he glared at his mother.
“I’m having lunch.” Recovering her composure swiftly, Yoon-ah calmly lifted her glass of juice. “As you can see.”
“Eomma! We know what you’re here for.” Orion spat out. “Julian told us.”
“Julian told you? That little punk!” Yoon-ah kissed her teeth. “Well, there goes his allowance.” Then completely switching gears, she turned her attention to Vina and smiled, “Hi, Alvina. You’re looking lovely as usual.”
Vina started, “Thank you. But Professor-”
“That’s it? Hi, Alvina?” Orion cut her off as he glowered at his mother. “Shouldn’t you be explaining yourself or making an excuse?”
Yoon-ah opened her mouth to say something but before she could, he cut her off with a firm shake of his head. “No, don’t do any of that. Just call Vina’s grandmother right now and let her know that you can’t make it.”
“I’m not doing that.” Yoon-ah took her phone off the table. “Ahn Doo-shim and I already agreed to meet today. I won’t stand her up.”
“Yes, you will.” Orion’s nostrils flared. “Why would you even agree to meet her?”
“Why would I not?” Yoon-ah countered with a raised eyebrow. “She’s your future grandmother-in-law.”
The mention of in-laws had Orion and Vina trading looks. This time it was Vina who spoke. “Ri-on and I haven’t even discussed marriage. We’re just dating.”
“Well, your grandmother doesn’t know that.” Yoon-ah shrugged. “And I couldn’t refuse to meet her without seeming rude.”
His lips a thin angry line, Orion retorted, “You never cared about being rude before.”
“You’re right, I didn’t.” Yoon-ah picked her tablet off the table and started swiping through it again. Without looking up at the two fuming people glaring at her, she added. “But this is about you not me. I’m not going to ruin your future in-laws impression of you.”
Orion started, “We already told you-”
“Yes, I know. You’re just dating.” His mother looked up to meet his eyes. “Look, Ri-on-a, I’ll just listen to what she has to say. Nothing more. I promise.”
Orion glared at his mother for a long, silent and uncomfortable moment before he pulled out a seat for Vina. “Sit.”
“Why?” Both Vina and Yoon-ah exclaimed.
Laser sharp gaze on his mother, he said, “Because we’re staying to make sure you keep your promise.”
Yoon-ah protested, “You don’t have to-”
“It’s either that or Vina and I break up right here, right now,” he threatened.
His threat was enough to shake not just Yoon-ah but also Vina. What if his mother called his bluff? What if they really broke up? In the last couple of weeks Vina had developed what she preferred to think of as a soft spot for Orion. She’d never met a man who she connected with as well as she did with him, a man she trusted enough to share parts of her life no one else had ever been given a peek into.
The thought of not getting to see, talk, touch or kiss him anymore was enough to make her throat tighten. She wasn’t ready to let Orion go. Nervously, she watched Yoon-ah. Mentally, she pleaded with her to just let Orion win.
Yoon-ah glared at her son for a painfully long while before she finally sighed. “Fine. Take a seat.”
AS SOON AS Doo-shim saw that their party of three had now become a party of five, she protested, “How are we supposed to talk about marriage arrangements with them here?”
“Halmeoni, how can you two talk about marriage arrangements when we’re not even engaged?” Vina protested, her gaze shifting between her grandmother and mother.
This whole thing had the eerie air of those forced-marriage type negotiations and she didn’t like it at all. Na-ri sent Vina an apologetic look but it did nothing to assuage Vina’s annoyance.
Vina asked, “Why are you rushing us?”
Determination in her stiff posture and set jaw, Doo-shim ignored her granddaughter and turned to Yoon-ah. “Send them away.”
The hard look Orion sent Yoon-ah had her quickly saying, “Let’s just let them stay. We’re discussing them anyway so they should be here.”
Despite Doo-shim’s very vocal protests, she was no match for Yoon-ah’s sweet smiles and well-reasoned arguments. In the end the group moved to a larger round table that was more suited to their bigger party.
“Sorry,” Na-ri whispered as she squeezed Vina’s hand beneath the table. “I only realized that we were meeting Yoon-ah as we were leaving the house.”
“Then you should have called me immediately,” Vina countered.
Before Na-ri could defend herself, Yoon-ah drew her attention. “It’s really nice to finally meet you. After I met Vina and saw what a genuine, friendly, successful and beautiful woman she was, I assumed that her mother would be a really great woman. I’m not disappointed.”
Na-ri smiled. “Thank you. It’s also nice to-”
“If you want to thank someone for raising Im-na, it should be me and her father,” Doo-shim cut Na-ri off. Sending Vina an affectionate look as she added, “It’s hard to raise a daughter in this country, and if it wasn’t for our firm guiding hand who knows what she would have turned out to be.”
Instant irritation shot through Vina. How rude did you have to be to try and steal a compliment from someone else? She would’ve said something but Na-ri squeezed her hand tightly as if to silence her. Vina settled for just glaring at Doo-shim – not that the older woman noticed.
Yoon-ah and Orion looked just as uncomfortable with the unsubtle shot at Na-ri. Yoon-ah offered Doo-shim an uneasy smile. “You raised her well.”
“Thank you,” Doo-shim smiled. “Frankly, she’s such a good woman that I agonized about whether I should send her to your home or not.”
Yoon-ah chuckled. “I can understand that. Most families find it hard to let their daughters go, especially good ones like Alvina.”
“That’s just part of the reason.” Doo-shim sat back in her seat. “Your Ri-on is a very handsome and accomplished young man-”
“Thank you,” said Yoon-ah
“But I was a little worried about him.” Doo-shim sighed heavily. “Sometimes when one comes from dirty blood it eventually ends up speaking louder than their accomplishments.” Her thin mouth curved into a smile. “But after I met him I realized that I was worried for nothing. He’s the perfect man for our Im-na.”
Vina blinked, and blinked again. For a moment, she thought she’d misheard her grandmother’s words but when she saw the other shocked faces around the table she realized that her hearing was just fine. Her grandmother had, very sweetly, insinuated that Orion came from dirty blood.
Na-ri was the first to speak. “My grandmother didn’t mean to imply that you – that Ri-on-”
“Then what did she mean to imply?” Yoon-ah asked. Her face completely devoid of any expression, she stared at Doo-shim. “What do you mean coming from dirty blood?”
A sane person would’ve taken note of the tight tension around the table and decided that it was a good idea to quickly apologize and let the matter die. But then Doo-shim had never been sane, had she?
The elderly woman tittered. “I don’t want to be indelicate.”
“By all means, be indelicate.” Yoon-ah smiled but it was the kind of smile that immediately sent a chill trickling down Vina’s spine.
Na-ri tried again, “My mother-in-law just meant that-”
“I can speak for myself,” Doo-shim cut her off sharply and with a scornful look. “I’m not some old woman suffering from dementia. I know exactly what I meant to say.”
“Then tell us what you meant,” Yoon-ah said, still with that frightening smiling.
“Eomma, just let it go,” Orion tried to diffuse the ticking time bomb that was his mother.
But Doo-shim was apparently determined to force an explosion. She said, “What I meant is that I know all about you. I know about how you remarried-”
“Halmeoni!” “Eomoni!” Both Vina and Na-ri exclaimed in an effort to reel in the matriarch of their family but it was a waste of time. Nothing could quell the loose cannon that was Dooshim.
“I know about that young man you got yourself and how…” The elderly lady went on to list all of Yoon-ah’s perceived sins.
By the time she was done, Vina and Na-ri were reeling in horrified shock while Yoon-ah and Orion were stiff and glaring with obvious anger.
Uncaring of the effect of her words, Doo-shim continued, “So you can see why I would be a little wary about giving Vina to your family.”
“That’s enough!” Orion shoved his seat back and stood up. Vina had never seen him so angry. His face was stormy, eyes flashing, lips thin, jaw tight. His eyes on his mother, he bit out, “Eomma, let’s go home.”
“Sit down,” his mother ordered him without once looking away from Doo-shim. To the older woman, she said, “So you’re saying that I’m dirty?”
Doo-shim didn’t answer but from her smirk it was obvious what she thought.
Yoon-ah laughed. She laughed loudly. The harsh sound was loud enough to draw some attention to their table. But no one could’ve been more shocked than the four people watching her laugh. When she could finally speak, it was say, “Then I guess Vina’s blood must be just as dirty as Orion’s.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Doo-shim’s eyes narrowed. “We’re a very respectable family.”
“Respectable?” Yoon-ah laughed again. When she quieted down, it was to taunt Doo-shim. “You’re not the only who knows how to look into people. I looked into your family too.” Ignoring the sharp in-drawn breaths that met her words, Yoon-ah continued, “I know all about Im-na’s father and the dirty things he’s been doing outside his marriage. And you call me dirty? Ridiculous.”
Vina didn’t know whether to gasp, laugh, clap, cry or bow her head in shame.
Doo-shim looked just as stunned and unsure of how to react. “I… how…” she sputtered. “I can’t believe… This is so insulting.” Practically shaking, she stood up. “Im-na, Na-ri, let’s go. Let’s go. We’re not going to tie ourselves to such a rude family.”
“Ya! Who’s the rude one here?” Yoon-ah stood too. She looked like she was about to jump across the table and strangle Doo-shim.
“Eomma, let’s just go.” Orion grabbed his mother’s hand.
Doo-shim sneered. “Ya? Hear that? Ya! How can she speak like that to an elder?”
“I wouldn’t speak to you like that if you behaved like an elder,” Yoon-ah yelled out as Orion forcefully walked her away from the confrontation. She tried to extract herself from Orion’s grip. “I haven’t finished with that woman.”
But Orion held on to her firmly and dragged her towards the exit.