Author's Notes:
I wasn't planning on finishing this chapter tonight, but then the writing ghost came and possessed me..so here u are XD
I take off my shoes, damn that polite rule that will probably prevent me from running away as quick as possible. Well, if push comes to shove I can go without them. So they're from snake leather, I can always make my personal hunter kill some snakes for some new shoes.
The interior of the house looks pretty decent, I mean for commoner taste. The door shuts behind me. Oh god, what if they lock me in? Ga Eul's mother leads us to the living room where a man with a stern face is reading his newspaper. I swallow, hard. He turns another page and without looking up he says:
"So this is the man that caught my daughters eye." His voice monotonous and slightly threatening. Pfff, I won't let him intimidate me. I'm So Yi Jeong, Korean heartthrob who conquered many hearts and broke an equal amount. And I'm still standing here without any father ever attacking me. Still, this might not be the best thing to mention now.
I give a bow and introduce myself and quite politely so, I really do rock at everything, right?
"Annyeonghaseyo, Choneun So Yi Jeong imnida." Sergeant daddy puts his paper down and looks at me, his black eyes piercing through mine as he gets up. He's not very tall, nor broad, but he is very intimidating.
"So..Yi..Jeong.. I see. My name is Chu Man Shik, first lieutenant of the marine corps, serving from 1977 until 1997. And you?" Ehhhh...
"I didn't serve my military duty yet, sir." Better play safe by calling him sir.
"I see, and how old are you?" His indifferent tone of voice isn't fooling me, he's up to something, I just know it.
"25, sir."
"So you're planning on putting it off for as long as possible?" I never said that! "No sir! It's just, I had a lot of important things to do before I.."
"More important than serving your country?" How come I'm feeling I'm not making a good impression here. Ommonim leaves the room to make some tea and tells me to sit down on the couch. Ga Eul hugs her father.
"Appa, how have you been?"
"I would be a lot better if you called me more than once a month." He complains.
"Appa! That's a lie, I called you last week this Tuesday!" She protests jokingly. Her father chuckles and pats her on the head.
I let out a little cough as my throat is itching, though I immediately regret it. Father in law from hell turns to look at me, his earlier smile disappearing as quickly as snow under a blazing sun. I try my best charmer smile, only to find it does not have an effect on protective fathers. If looks could kill, I'd be six feet under by now. Ommonim comes back in with a tray of tea.
"Yi Jeong-sshi, can I call you that?" Her mother asks sweetly. I nod compliantly. Note to self: never go through this kind of embarrassment again. "What do you think of our crockery? It's not bad right?"
"No, not bad!" I smile. Bad might not be the word no. Maybe more in the lines of hideous?
"You must have seen your share of great pottery?" Well yeah, duh. Maybe I shouldn't complain about this conversation though as she isn't scolding me yet.
"Is there anything else you can do, pottery boy?" Pppottery boy? How he can make it sound so degrading, is beyond me. Shit, he's really not going to like me, is he?
"Of course, sir. I have a lot of interests." My favorite involves banging your daughter. Yeah Yi Jeong, that's exactly the kind of phrasing I should say out loud. I mentally slap myself.
"Like what?"
"I play the sax, sir." Yeah and quite well.
"Music huh, anything else?" Okay, so not impressed.
"I like basketball and soccer."
"How about baseball?"
"Not that big fan of it, sir."
"I see." It's only then when I realize the big LG Twins poster hanging on the wall. Crap, stupid eyes, couldn't you have seen that earlier!?
"Our whole family is a big fan of the LG Twins. Even our Ga Eul has her own jersey, don't you Ga Eul?" Ommonim says with pride.
This takes me back to the time I fantasized about Ga Eul on the batting pitch, her tight jersey hugging her firm breasts and her shapy legs visible from beneath her shorts. So Yi Jeong! Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!
"Yeah, it's my favorite team." She smiles happily. I didn't even know she was such a fan of the sport. There's probably a lot I still don't know about her and it makes me like her even more.
"So do you do anything else to work out?" He continues his cross-examination.
"Well Ga Eul and I.." Wait. Was that out loud? I look at Ga Eul's father to see that he's very curious to hear the next thing coming from my mouth. Ga Eul gives me a mortified look. "..have golden membership cards at the gym." Yeah, our private gym and we regularly use it, I might add. Father frowns and I'm not sure if he's satisfied with my excuse.
He gets up and walks to the kitchen, I'm hoping he's going to leave for a long while, but let's not get my hopes up. He walks back only half a minute later and drops a magazine on the coffee table. I recognize it as a tabloid and swallow. I don't like where this is heading.
"Page 24." He says gruffly. Actually I'm a bit disappointed this news didn't make it to the cover. Ah well, I turn the pages to find the title "Famous potter heir announces that he is officially taken" and there's an old picture of me with my regular noonas. Oh great. I can just tell him it was years ago, but will he believe me? I'm now dreading not changing my hairstyle for the last 7 years. Ga Eul walks over and snorts as she sees my picture.
"Look, your favorite noonas."She jokes. Yeah, not helping here. I look up to see her father eyeing me and I automatically use my famous smirk again. Well you know what they say: if at first you don't succeed try and try again.
"Favorite noona eh?" He repeats. "I'm guessing you've had your share of women eh..So..Yi...Jeong?" Why is he pronouncing my name so slowly? What do I say? I have no way out, do I? Silence is agreeing, denying it too much is agreeing, agreeing is agreeing and smirking is DEFINITELY agreeing.
"Appa! That is all in the past now!" Ga Eul to the rescue! I mentally make a sigh of relief. " You know he waited four years for me in Sweden and he said he never looked at any women and nobody was as good as me, right sunbae?" I nod, wow, way to embellish Ga Eul.
"Sunbae? Why do you call him that?" Nothing goes by you huh? "Well ehm, I guess because he was Jan Di-yah's upper classman."
"But that still doesn't make him your sunbae, now does it?" I know what it does make me when she calls me that. Hard! No, down boy!
This day is utterly exhausting. After an hour and a half her dad is still giving me the third degree about all the things I should be doing, like work out more, cut my hair, give more to charity and go to the army ASAP. I'm surprised he hasn't yet challenged me to a match of arm wrestling or push ups. I excuse myself to the toilet and dial Woo Bin's number.
"Yah, Woo Bin-ah. Call me in five minutes okay? I need an excuse to get out of here."
"And where is here?" I don't want to tell him, really.
"You don't need to know."
"If you're not telling, than I ain't calling." He threatens. "And no lies, I can see straight through you boy!"
"I'm..at" I really don't want to do this, maybe I should call Jun Pyo or Ji Hoo.. but they would also tell him anyway. "I'm at Ga Euls' parents house." I can hear Woo Bin's snort.
"Oh how the mighty So Yi Jeong has fallen. Meeting the parents huh? And how are you doing? They must consider you the perfect son in law."
"Far from it. Well, the mother's okay with me I guess, but the father hates me."
"That bad huh?"
"Yeah. So just call me in 5 minutes alright? You owe me anyway!"
"No prob." I hang up and get out of the bathroom, peeking left and right to see if father's going to pull some kind of guerrilla attack on me. I relax when I see he's not around and head for the living room. Ga Eul is chatting happily with her mother. I can't help but feel my heart skip a beat as she squints her eyes and tells her story with an animated voice.
A sudden chill spreads on my back. Is it..
"You should treat her right." Goosebumps form on my arms as her father appears behind me, apparently in stealth mode. "I know I've been saying a lot of things today about what you should do and I think I'm correct in that, but the most important thing is that you treat her right. As long as she's happy then so are we and it seems you are the one that makes her happy right now. Look, she's practically glowing." I turn around and look him in the eyes, genuinely touched.
"Abeonim." Wait, did I just say..ah never mind, I'm stuck anyway. We enter the living room and a few minutes later, my phone rings. Saved by the bell.
I'm back in my car again. Oh freedom, sweet freedom. Ga Eul decided to stay longer with her parents, but we're meeting up again, later tonight. Ha ha, I subtly reminded her of the promise she made me for tonight. Oooh, this is going to be fun! I head for the F4 lounge while planning for a relaxing day today. I'm gonna need all the energy I have tonight.