Ji Won was practically seeing red when she slammed the door shut behind her. It was bad enough hearing that question but the pompous look on his face made her want to strangle him.
She hadn’t walked five steps in when her friend scooped her into a hug.
Taken aback by this sudden show of affection, her body stiffened. “Uhm…”
“You didn’t tell me you were dating again. I’m so happy for you! But,” she said, breaking away from the hug, “why am I always out of the loop?”
Ji Won rolled her eyes and frowned. “What loop? I’m not dating anyone,” she said as she walked further into her apartment.
Na mi folded her arms and frowned. “Then who was that guy?”
“Just a client.”
“A client with flowers?” she asked, raising her right eyebrow. “Actually, let me rephrase that. A hot client with flowers who looks at you like he wants to do a whole bunch of naughty things all night long?”
“Shut up.”
She sniffed air around her. “Yes, something definitely smells fishy here,” she said before laughing out loud. She grabbed Ji Won’s arm and dragged her to the couch. “Spill! When did you meet? How long have you been dating? Have you done the deed yet? How was he? How big? How long? How --”
“Argh!” Ji Won said as she shoved her then got off the couch. “Did you come here to cook or to talk? If you’re only here to talk, then leave. I already told you that I wasn’t in the mood for that.”
Her friend hissed loudly then shrugged her shoulders in a very exaggerated movement. “Okay, be that way. But you know I’m going to find out anyway, right?”
***
“Chingu, I owe you big time,” Na mi said when they arrived at her car.
“Whatever.“ Ji Won placed some of the food in the backseat. “Just make sure you bring back my Tupperware. “
“You know I will.”
She shut the door and watched as Na mi got into the car. “And no, I don’t mean in 6 months when you need another favor from me.”
Her friend smirked. “Oh, I see. It’s because I asked for a favor that you’re talking to me like this huh? I see how you are.”
Ji Won grabbed the door handle to the backseat. “Okay, give me back my food.”
Na mi turned on the engine and laughed. Then she blew her friend a kiss. “Make up with that sexy man, okay? I don’t know what you were fighting about but you’re not getting any younger.”
“Shut up.”
***
“You’re not getting any younger.”
“YOU’RE NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER?!?!?!’
“Of all the stupid things I have to hear today,” Ji Won yelled to empty room once she was back in her apartment. What kind of stupid phrase is, ‘you’re not getting any younger?’ Like duh, was there a person in the world who got younger?
She flopped on her bed and picked up her phone. No missed calls. Irritated, she shoved it off the bed.
“Jealous? Me Jealous? Jealous? How could he accuse me of being jealous? Jealous of some short, skinny airhead? Hell no!” Then she chuckled. Okay, maybe she was a little jealous. And she couldn’t deny the relief she felt when he assured her that nothing had happened. Well, maybe not nothing. But nothing much had happened.
She sat up and turned on her laptop. Okay, it was time to think about something else. Maybe if she surfed the internet, she could read about some celebrity’s scandal and not have to think about this.
While waiting for it to boot up, her mind wandered to Shin standing in front of her apartment, holding those flowers to her.
She laughed. “Too bad I don’t really like red roses, anyway. How cliché.”
She then opened up an internet browser and navigated to one of the most popular Korean gossip sites. She growled when the first few articles were either about actors leaving or going to the army. That certainly wasn’t salacious enough to satisfy her appetite.
“So after he left here, he somehow met up with that girl.” Ji Won realized that there were probably a lot of details missing, like how they met up in the first place and why they were doing whatever it was that he put a stop to but she was smart enough to realize that sometimes, you’re were better off left in the dark. Besides, the only thing she needed to know was that he “took the bed while she took the couch.” Which means it wasn’t too bad.
“It could have been worse, right?” she said to herself with a small smile before going over to the other side of her bed to pick up her phone.
No missed calls. Which made sense as her phone hadn’t rang in a while.
She frowned. “So now that he thinks I like him he doesn’t call anymore? He’s now gotten such a big head that he doesn’t try anymore?”
She scrolled through her phone once more to make sure she hadn’t missed any calls then tossed it on her bed before flopping on it too.
***
Ji Won laid on her bed, staring at her phone. “Has this stupid man really reduced me to this? Why am I waiting for him to call me? I have better things to do!”
She left her phone on the bed and headed for the living room. She turned on the television and searched for something interesting to watch. It only made sense that a hard working woman like her would spend her weekend unwinding instead of staring at an inanimate object.
Before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep but the minute she woke up, she ran to her bedroom to grab her phone. Her heart skipped when she saw that she had one missed call. But a frown appeared on her face when she saw that it was from her mother.
“Umma. You called?”
“Oh, hi Ji Won ah. You’re actually calling me back. I guess my prayers are being answered.”
She hissed. “What were you calling about? And what’s all that noise in the background?”
“Oh, I just had friends over. Your sister is here too. I called because do you remember Ji Heon, our neighbor from when you were young? He was your little boyfriend. He’s here! Can you believe it? I invited his wife and imagine my surprise when he recognized me and told me who he was. I was calling because he wanted to say hello.”
“Umma, you’re having a party and you didn’t tell me?” So now even her own mother was rejecting her?
“I didn’t think you’d be interested. You never come for dinner when I ask and you don’t return my calls.”
“Umma, is that an excuse?”
“Plus, it’s not a party. I’m just having a bigger dinner than usual. You can still come if you want – it’s still early.”
“Umma, I don’t need your pity invitation,” Ji Won said, grumbling.
Her mother laughed softly. “Okay. I’ll call you later. Just try to answer your phone for God’s sake!”
***
Shin’s grandmother stood up as soon as she saw him walk up the hallway.
“Halmoni, what’s wrong? Where’s Haraboji?”
Instead of responding, she simply pointed at the door in front of her. Shin was a little surprised to see her looking well.
He pushed in the door and was met with an unexpected scene. His mother, with a solemn look on her face, was sitting next to the boy he instantly recognized from the photo.
“What da…?” he swore under his breath and instinctively backed out of the room. He turned around and bumped into his grandfather.
“Haraboji, what the hell is going on here?”
“Watch your tone! Your mother called to tell me that her son had been rushed to the hospital. I rushed down but luckily, he got better overnight.”
“Since when do you care enough to rush down because of him? When was the last time you came to Seoul to see me?” Shin could feel the anger brewing up inside of him. He’d always had a great relationship with his grandfather but this issue with his mother’s son was threatening to change that. How dare he make him come to the hospital because of her?
“Since when did you become the kind of person who didn’t care for anyone?” his grandfather asked with disappointment clearly written in his eyes.
Shin frowned and looked away. “Tell me why I should care about a woman who only remembers me when she needs something?”
“But is she the sick person? It’s her son. Why don’t you just see if you can help him?”
Shin turned around and began to walk away. His grandfather followed him.
“Why should I help him? Is it my fault that he’s sick? Why should I help that woman’s son?”
“Don’t think of him as her son – think of him as a stranger. You of all people should know how one’s life can change because of a stranger’s kindness.”
“Haraboji, is that supposed to touch my heart? When did you ever see me begging for a stranger’s love?” Before Shin could say anything more, a nurse came out of the room.
“Is there anyone called Pil Suh here? The patient would like to talk to him.”
“Talk to who?” Shin blurted out.
His grandfather gave him a look that told him to go in and see the boy.
Shin looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him. Most of him wanted to walk out of that hospital but a little part of him was affected by the hurt look on his grandmother’s face.
He sighed in resignation then walked over to the room, with his heartbeats quickening as he got closer. What was he going to say to him? And how big of a monster would he be to ignore the tears of a dying child?
He pushed the door in, then walked straight to the bed, ignoring his mother who was seated next to the wall.
His brother was sitting up in the bed and smiling brightly. “Ajusshi, I’m so glad you came. My name is Hyun Woo. You look different from your picture.”
“You’ve seen my picture?” Shin asked, his eyes wide with surprise. Then his face became expressionless when he guessed that his mother must have had to tell her family about him because she needed his bone marrow.
Hyun Woo nodded.
“Where?”
He looked hesitantly at his mother then gestured for Shin to move closer. When he did, he said, “I found it in my mother’s room a few years ago. You lost weight.”
Shin laughed as he stood straight, reclaiming his previous position. “If you think I lost weight, then it must have been an old photo.” But it was news to him that his mother even kept a photo of him. He was sure it was probably a photo his grandfather had sent to her out of kindness that she probably tossed in some old shoebox.
“Or,” Shin said, rethinking, “it might have been one of my idle periods between books. I always lose weight while writing. I’m a writer, by the way.”
While Shin spoke, his mother got off the chair and dragged it over for him to sit then walked out of the room. Shin took the chair and sat next to Hyun Woo’s bed. There was so much life and energy in his face, given his sickness, that Shin just couldn’t dislike him.
“Of course I know you’re a writer.” He reached over to the bedside table and pulled out a book from a drawer. He grabbed a pen and held them both to Shin. “May I have your autograph?”
His eyes widened when he saw the title. The Demon Pirate? “Where did you get this?” It was a copy of his first novel. His failed novel. The one that was out of print and was often excluded from his bibliography. The one that most people didn’t even know about. “How…?”
“I found it online.”
“I hope it didn’t cost too much.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry about it. It was money well spent.”
“Really?” Shin said, laughing. Since almost nobody knew he was Yoon Pil Suh, he didn’t have the experience of hearing feedback about his work in person.
Hyun Woo nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. I also have all the books in the Silver Sword series. If I’d known you would be coming, I would have brought all of them for you to sign. I bet you’re glad I didn’t, huh?”
Shin laughed. “I guess so.”
“But,” he continued, “I brought this one with me because it’s my favorite book.”
“Demon Pirate is your favorite book? Publishing it almost ended my writing career before it even started.”
Hyun Woo laughed. “People have no taste. Remember the scene where…,” he began before going into full details about one of the scenes in the book.
It had been such a long time since Shin had thought of that book that he couldn’t quite remember the scene Hyun Woo was describing. But hearing him speak about it with such enthusiasm made Shin think that maybe his first book didn’t suck after all. Or maybe the child was just a kind soul who wanted to boost his ego a little bit. Either way, he was enjoying himself.
***
Ji Won rubbed her hand to warm it up. Life sucked and it seemed she could never made the right choice but if she’d done that, instead of forgetting her gloves, she’d have forgotten her phone, that way, she wouldn’t be sitting on her mother’s front porch, with freezing hands holding onto a phone that just absolutely refused to ring.
She heard some footsteps then turned around to see her mother walking to her.
“What are you doing out here by yourself?” she asked, touching her shoulder lightly.
Ji Won frowned. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Is everything okay with you? First you return my call on the same day I call you. Next, you come over. Is everything alright?” her mother asked with genuine concern.
Ji Won rolled her eyes. “Yes. I don’t call you, you complain. I call you and you still complain.”
“But are you sure everything is okay?” her mother insisted, sitting next to her.
“Yes. But you should have warned me that it was a couple party.”
“I’m sorry but I didn’t know you were coming. And it’s not a couple party – it just turned out that way. Because you know, after a certain age, everyone is coupled up. It’s just natural.”
Ji Won pretended not to understand what she was driving at. “Mr. Kang seems nice,” she said, changing the topic.
A smile immediately appeared on her mother’s face. “You like him?”
She shrugged. “How many years younger?”
“Younger!? What makes you say he’s younger?”
“He’s not?” Was Botox really that good these days?
“He is but I didn’t think it was that obvious. Everyone says I look younger than my age. How much younger does he look?” Her mother began to touch her face in a slight panic, as if feeling for wrinkles.
Ji Won shook her head and laughed. “Umma, he doesn’t look younger but since I know your real age, I can tell.”
“Oh,” she said, her face brightening up. “Even if you’re just saying that, I’ll accept it. He’s eight years younger.”
“Wow.” She’d always thought her mother would never date anyone for the rest of her life but there she was dating a younger man. She looked at her with new eyes. So this is what a cougar looked like?
Affected by her stare, her mother looked at her feet shyly. “I won’t go as far as saying we’re dating but he’s persistent.” She nudged her daughter with her elbow. “You know how that this, don’t you? Remember when Mr. Choi’s son was so in love with you that he came to see you everyday? Kind of like that.”
“But that didn’t make me like him.”
“I’m not as stubborn as you.”
Ji Won laughed. “Whatever.”
“Anyway, what I’m saying is that there’s no rule that states that you’re only allowed to love once. Just because your father isn’t here doesn’t mean I can’t find someone to love, does it?”
Ji Won shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. But you’ve changed, Umma. You weren’t like this when we were younger. I remember some ajusshis being interested in you but you never accepted them.”
“That’s true. But that’s part of life, isn’t it? You evolve and mature with time and certain things make you realize that despite your past, it might be time to take a chance at finding someone again. You understand what I’m saying?” she asked, looking at her daughter pointedly.
Ji Won rolled her eyes. “Umma, you’re not being very subtle.”
The older woman laughed. “Since you don’t think I’m subtle, then I better not try any more. Mr. Choi’s son is still single and his mother tells me he hasn’t forgotten you. He recently got promoted to general manager and all he needs now is to find the right woman. Will you let me give her your number?”
Ji Won grimaced and pushed her mother playfully. “Umma, not this again!”
“Of course ‘this again’.” She laughed then gave her a side hug. “If a mother doesn’t worry, who will worry?”
***
“Pil Suh ssi, thank you so much for this,” Hyun Woo’s father said to him with a bow.
They’d taken a cheek swab to do a preliminary test which had produced some promising results. So they’d extracted some blood for further examination. Apparently, it would take two days to get the results.
Shin had been briefed on the procedure should he be a match and it didn’t sound too pleasant. He couldn’t pretend that the idea of sticking a long needle into his bone to extract marrow was something he was looking forward to. But after seeing Hyun Woo and hearing him speak, after thinking of what his grandfather said and knowing how horrible he’d feel if he’d allowed his anger at his mother prevent him of prolonging a life he would otherwise have, he’d decided to take the test.
Seeing the relief on his mother’s face when the cheek swab results had turned out positive did nothing to him. However, the delight on his grandparents faces, as well as on Hyun Woo’s father’s face was proof that he’d done the right thing.
“Ajusshi, would you like a potato?” Hyun Woo’s little brother said, holding the bag to him.
“Thank you,” he replied, taking one.
The little boy went over to his father and sat next to him while he instinctively wrapped his arm around his son. Then his wife came out of her son’s room, walked over to her husband’s side and sat next to him.
It was a scene from his worst nightmare – his mother giving her kids the life she’d denied him. And perhaps on another day, it would have hurt to see her openly show affection to her family. But with his grandfather sitting next to him, stealthily stealing pieces of sweet potato from him, he couldn’t help but feel this his own family was okay.
“Halmoni, would you like some potato before your husband eats it all?”
Shin’s father grumbled. “What a tightly wound child you are. You must take after your grandmother.”
His comment was met with a pinch from his wife and all three of them laughed.
***
Shin’s grandfather shut the trunk of his car then hugged him. “I’m so proud of you, my boy. “ His grandparents had spent a few days with him and were now leaving.
“It still ended up being a waste of time since I’m not a match,” he said as he disentangled from the hug. The blood test results had been released and had not been favorable.
“I know. But you did the right thing and did you see how happy Hyun Woo was to meet you? I think he’d been waiting for this for a long time.”
He nodded slightly. “I really didn’t know he knew about me.”
“I don’t think your mother even knew about it too.”
If it were a movie, he and his mother would have patched things up but Shin had done his best to stay away from her the whole time and had barely exchanged any words with her. And he didn’t feel bad about it. Perhaps theirs was a relationship that was always meant to be cold.
“You’re getting thin,” his grandma said after hugging him. “How many times have I told you not to get so wrapped up in your writing that you forget to eat?” She began to grip various parts of his body, feeling him.
“Halmoni, what are you doing?” he asked in a high pitched voice. His grandmother’s touch was ticklish.
She stopped then raised her eyebrow, giving him a displeased look. “How old are you? Isn’t it time for you to think about getting married?”
He hissed. And he’d naively thought he could get one weekend without having to hear this nonsense. He opened her car door.
“What about that girl you brought with you that other time. It didn’t work out?”
“I’m still working on it. Don’t worry – you’ll be seeing her soon.” He hadn’t had any time to think of Ji Won as he’d been wrapped up with his grandparents and Hyun Woo but now that they were leaving, it was back to the regularly scheduled programming of his life.
“You promise?” his grandmother asked.
He nodded with a wicked glint in his eye. “Definitely.”
***
“You look like sh.it,” her boss said, walking into her office.
“Bite me,” she said under her breath. Yes, she knew she looked like sh.it, after all, she did have a mirror. And if she’d figured out of a way to get out of the stupid funk she was in, would she look that way? No. So unless people could give her instructions on how to stop thinking about how she’d been dumped before she’d even dated that stupid guy, they needed to keep their damn observations to themselves!
After the conversation with her mother on the phone, she’d decided to finally have a heart to heart with Shin so she’d called him. But he didn’t pick up. She’d slept over at her mother’s house and the first thing she’d done when she woke up that morning was to call Shin. But this time, it went straight to voicemail. He hadn’t returned her calls nor had she even gotten as little as a damn email from him. So since then, she’d wondered why he was such a confusing, stupid guy who rejected women once he got an inkling that they might return his feelings.
Ms. Lee dropped a brown envelope on her desk. “Here’s some background information on your new client.”
“New client? I thought I was going to work on the new author?”
“Yes. You’re still working on that but this is a rush job. Should take less than a month. Two or three week at most. It was Hye Rim’s assignment but as you know, she’s currently bedridden so we need to pick up the slack.”
Ji Won scrunched her nose. Was it her damn fault that Hye Rim was having a difficult pregnancy and was ordered bed rest? Her face fell as she instantly felt guilty about having such thoughts about an innocent woman. Okay, not only did she look like sh.it, her attitude had begun to stink. What should she do? Find Shin and make him talk?
“… the writer is compiling some of his previously published essays into a book. You need to read them all and help him with the final selection as well as do some light edits.”
Ji Won smiled widely, hoping that it alone could brighten up her mood. “What’s the subject?”
“The environment.”
The smile immediately left her face. “You really hate me, Boss, don’t you?”
The older lady laughed and looked at her watch. “You probably should start getting ready now. Here,” she said, handing her a sheet of paper. “That’s the location and your appointment is in about 30 minutes. I don’t know where Hye Rim ssi keeps her files so the writer will be bringing a disc with all his work on it. Please don’t be late.”
Ji Won grabbed her coat, the envelope and her purse, walked out and hailed a cab. She jumped into the backseat and handed the driver the address.
The first thing she did when she was sitting comfortably in the cab was think about how she’d managed to get dumped even when she’d tried her best not to fall for him. How could this be? Again? Was this her fate? But maybe her mother was right. There was no rule that said that one must love once… or twice… or whatever.
The best way to get over an old love was to get a new love. And just maybe the environmental essayist was exactly what the doctor had ordered. Maybe he was tall and sexy in a way Shin wasn’t. Had a smile that lit up his eyes in a way Shin’s didn’t. Told funny, interesting and meaningful stories about the ozone layer and pollution in a way Shin couldn’t even dream of.
She sat up and smiled as she looked out of the window, enjoying the scenery. Maybe, just maybe this impromptu meeting was the solution to all her problems.
But hold up. “Wasn’t that what got me in this mess in the first place?”
“Agasshi, did you say something?”
Ji Won chuckled. “Ignore me – I’m slightly insane.” More like Shinsane. She could feel her face redden at the extreme corniness. Shinsane? You’ve really lost it, Ji Won!
“We’re here,” the driver said, handing her back the sheet of paper with the address.
Ji Won paid him then stepped out of the cab. She looked at the address and picked out the building with the number. Her heart stopped for a second before she held the piece of paper close to her face and scrutinized the address. Why hadn’t she made the connection before? She slowly looked away from the sheet of paper and back at the familiar building. It was the restaurant she’d first met Shin and his agent. She sighed. Just when she thought her day couldn’t get any worse.
***
A/N: Thanks for reading, guys!
So I debated on whether to stop there or not for certain reasons but why not? LOL.
Thanks for all your comments and I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Your comments keep me motivated and remind me that there are people who actually read the stuff I write so thank you again.
Frenetic, I don’t know about Shin sweeping her up her feet… lol…, but he’ll do what he can.
Rikyala, hello. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m sorry for making you lose hope but at least now it’s going to be completed.
ixl0v3xbl00h, yeah, leukemia is like the cliché kdrama illness but is actually less dramatic than the original reason I’d made Shin and his mom reconnect. So it could have been worse. Lol. The source of my writer’s block is almost always my dislike for editing. So having a hot editor would solve the problem. Got any suggestions? :D And as for the ending, well, these days I tend to write happy endings. But with one more chapter to go, I guess you’ll find out soon enough. I hope it doesn’t ruin the story for you. Lol.
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