Chapter 21: A Blast From The Past…

Somehow, what came to be known as the Echo Girl handkerchief video went viral. By the middle of the afternoon it was all over the internet. I smiled, inwardly praising Saeyoung for his mad hacking skills. Over and over, I replayed the part where Jumin hands Echo Girl that god awful yellow handkerchief made from that god awful gingham dress we made her wear for the C&R International cat commercial. My absolute favorite moment was the sound of everyone laughing, followed by Echo Girl spinning on her heel and storming out saying "Well, I never..." like some kind of 19th century prude. Best of all, the handkerchief video had inspired a whole new round of Echo Girl-in-the-yellow-dress memes that were popping up all over the internet.

"How in the world did Saeyoung even get that footage?" Zen asked later that afternoon when he called. He was already home - C&R Productions had to cancel that afternoon's scheduled filming of More Than Friends because Echo Girl had "something she needed to take care of."

"I have no idea," I said, hitting play on the video again. I was enjoying this way, way too much. I was feeling especially vindictive because Sarean had discovered a link between Echo Girl's father's parent company and Enquire magazine.

"It's clear Echo Girl's father was behind the whole thing," Sarean said. "Why else would they suddenly publish an article about you?"

I tried not to feel hurt by his comment, but I was, sort of...

Clearly I had someone on the inside to thank at C&R International for filming the whole Echo Girl escapade this morning without anyone noticing, and at great risk to their job, too. It's well known that capturing any kind of video or audio in the office was a direct violation of C&R International's non-disclosure agreement. Jaehee was up in arms. She'd already sent out a memo asking the offending party to turn themselves in, as well as for any information leading to the identification of said offender. It was getting pretty late in the work day, though, and no one had yet come forward, and we were beginning to doubt they would.

"This is most certainly NOT good publicity for the company," Jaehee said, glaring at me over her glasses. "What were you thinking, sending Echo Girl a handkerchief like that?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I had to do something," I said.

"Did you, though?" Jaehee said. "I thought Echo Girl had been 'behaving herself' - those are Zen's words - don't you believe him?"

I sighed. "Of course I believe him," I said.

"That's not going to stop you from being jealous, though, is it?" she said.

Jaehee had a point. I didn't like to admit it, and I sure as hell wasn't proud of it, but yeah, I was still jealous of Echo Girl. Jaehee turned to look at me over her glasses.

"You're really going to have to learn to deal with that, you know," she said. "By making the choice to date an actor, this is the kind of the situation you signed up for. Echo Girl or no Echo Girl, there are going to be co-stars. You're going to have to learn to deal with it."

Again, Jaehee had a point, and I damn well knew it already. "I know, I know…" I said, sighing.

"MC," Jaehee said. "I know you're better than this."

Am I though? I thought to myself. I wasn't sure I was. Jaehee was right about one thing. I had to get my head in a better place and get my jealousy in check. The plan Saeyoung and I came up with involved us letting Echo Girl hang her own reputation, not for me to go around provoking her. If this thing was going to work out as planned, I needed to keep my image clean.

In light of my new commitment to a better me, I decided to go to yoga after work. As soon as I was back on my mat, I wondered what had been keeping me away so long. For ninety minutes, I didn't think about anything other than breathing and moving my body. I let myself get totally taken in by the soothing sound of my instructor's voice as she urged me to stretch my leg in one direction, focus on my hip crease here, press the my big toe into the mat, etc. By the end of the class my mind felt totally empty. Maybe I even felt at peace.

In the midst of a yoga daze, I stumbled out onto to sidewalk - and maybe that's why I thought I was seeing things at first. Leaning up against a lamppost outside the studio was a familiar face I hadn't seen in quite some time. His tall lanky frame and moppy sandy brown head was bent over his phone, but he looked up when he saw me and broke into a wide lopsided grin. It was my ex-boyfriend, Kwang-jo.

"Heya, kid," he said. That's right, I remembered, he always used to always call me "kid". The small hairs on the back of my head stood up and bristled, and my heart jumped. I thought of just pushing past him and disappearing into the crowd without a word, but it was too late. He'd already walked forward and enveloped me into a long embrace, like we were old friends.

"What the fuck, Kwang-jo?" I said, wriggling my way out of his long arms. I noticed he still wore the same tattered mauve corduroy jacket and cheap mirrored sunglasses. Kwang-jo always insisted the sunglasses and jacket were an essential part of his "look". I remembered with a tug of sadness the day we'd found that jacket at a thrift store. That was a good day.

"Aren't you glad to see me, kid?" Kwang-jo said. I gave him a look that said you've-got-to-be-kidding, and he reached out to touch my cheek. "Why didn't you tell me you were back in town?" He made it sound like he was hurt I hadn't called him as soon as I got back into town.I slapped his hand away.

"Are you serious?" I said. "What makes you think I'd even want to see you again?"

"Aw, come on," Kwang-jo said, smiling, revealing a dimple that made him look like the good kind of trouble. "You're not still hung up about that thing with Kira, are you?" He smiled. "MC, I thought we had an agreement…"

"We agreed NO FRIENDS!" I found myself nearly shouting - so loud that a couple of people actually glanced over their shoulders to see what the fuss was about. "Did you forget about that part?"

Kwang-jo and I had agreed to an "open" relationship while I was studying abroad in California, "open" meaning we agreed we could sleep with other people - as long as they weren't friends. At the time, it had sounded like a reasonable suggestion. Besides, I never thought either one of us would ever act on it. Boy, how wrong I was… Just a few months after I'd left for California, Kwang-jo slept with my best friend, Kira. It had broken my heart, so completely that I had to quit school and eventually come back to Seoul.

Kwang-jo looked up at the sky and sighed in an I-can't-believe-you're-this-upset-about-this-and-being-so-unreasonable kind of way. "Aw, Kid," he said, reaching out to put his arm around me and pull me close. "Come on, let's grab a drink…"

I wriggled away from again, this time giving him a good shove backwards. "Don't touch me like your property," I seethed. People were turning to look again. Kwang-jo held up his hands as if to say "don't make a scene." Then he said it.

"Hey, hey, hey, MC," he said smiling and through his teeth. "Don't make a scene…"

I took a few moments to catch my breath, trying to regain some of that yoga bliss composure and put it to good use.

"Look, Kwang-jo," I said, finally. "I don't want anything more to do with you, so I suggest you just walk away." I glanced meaningfully over both shoulders in warning. There were still three or four people standing around. One guy, a tall blond I recognized as a regular in my yoga class, was even watching, waiting around to see if I was OK. Kwang-jo was no dummy, so he took a step back.

"Look, Kid," he said, trying to look sheepish. "I just wanted to say hello…I know you're with that actor dude now…"

"Damn right," I said through clenched teeth. "...and his name is Zen."

"Yeah, yeah," Kwang-jo said. "I know, I know…" Then he bent his moppy head down to peer at me over the top his sunglasses, and I could see myself mirrored in the lenses. "But don't you, you know, worry about Echo Girl?" He smiled. There was that dimple again. Kwang-jo reached forward and made out the shape of a curvy woman with his hands. "Because she's, you know, kind of hot…"

Like I'm not, I thought. It was like I'd been stung. Words always hurt the worst when you already suspect they're true. Tears sprung to my eyes and I ran, I just ran...

I cried in the subway all the way home to Zen's apartment, and then stood outside blinking my eyes in the cool air. It was a lame attempt to try to dry my tears and make the puffiness and redness disappear. At least maybe I could blame it on the yoga.

When I got inside, Zen was kicking back on the couch reading a script. "My god," he said, flicking the pages with one hand. "We're getting back together again, damn."

At the end of season one of More Than Friends, Ji-yoo and Jae-joon, the two main characters played by Echo Girl and Zen, had broken up as a result of a jealous fight. Believe me, the irony was not lost on me.

"Oh yeah?" I said, trying to sound upbeat and cheerful even though I was anything but. "All of South Korea will be happy to hear that…" OK, so maybe I wasn't doing such a good job of ditching the sarcasm. Zen politely ignored that comment.

"You know what's even worse?" Zen said. No, I thought, I couldn't at this moment, imagine anything worse than that. I grimaced. Scratch that. Make-up sex for Ji-yoo and Jae-joon… That would be worse.

"I get to grovel at her feet," Zen said. "Listen to this… It literally says 'You know I love you and only you, Lovey-hunny... Can you ever forgive me?' … and then director's note says that Ji-yoo turns away from Jae-joon to look out the window… and then, fuck, basically I have to beg."

"You're kidding me," I said, frowning. "Gross."

"Yeah, seriously," Zen said, making a puking face. He tossed the script onto the coffee table and motioned me over. "Enough of this shit… Come over here, beautiful…"

Zen opened his arms and I rushed forward, throwing my arms around his waist and burying my face into his chest where he couldn't see my red puffy eyes. I inhaled his smell. Delicious, as always. I closed my eyes as he kissed me on the top of the head and started stroking my hair.

"So…" He started, carefully. "You had a visit from Echo Girl this morning?"

"Mmm…" I murmured, not really wanting to get into it.

"You know, I didn't really want to get into it on the phone," he paused. "But I don't think it's a good idea to provoke her…"

"You've been talking to Jaehee…" I said into his chest.

"Maybe…" Zen said, still stroking my hair. "But she has a point… Echo Girl is like a nest of hornets… You don't want to poke…"

I sighed. "I know…" I picked up his hand and intertwined my fingers in his. God, his fingernails were even perfect. "Do you get manicures?" I said, out of the blue. Maybe I could distract him.

"Don't try and change the subject…" He said, squeezing my hand. "Of course I get manicures…" I smiled. I could always count on my vain Zenny. I closed my eyes and listened as he began to describe some of his favorite types of treatments, hot lotion vs. paraffin wrap, etc. After a couple of minutes I found myself beginning to doze.

"Hey," Zen said, shaking my shoulder. "Are you even listening to me?" He tilted my head up so he could see my face. When he saw my eyes, his jaw dropped.

"God, MC!" he said. "What happened? Have you been crying?" The level of concern in his voice made my heart swell, and I suddenly felt tears coming again. I choked them down.

"Uh, no, not really…" I said, cueing up my excuse. "I went to yoga… It was the hot yoga class and, you know, sometimes that makes me puffy…"

Zen gave me a quizzical look like uh-huh, right. "Hmm…" he said, stroking my cheek and studying my eyes. "Babe, are you sure?" He narrowed his eyes slightly studying my face for tells. "You know what we said about secrets…"

I looked down and started playing with his sleeve. There was no way I was telling him about Kwang-jo… Who wanted to bring that up again, especially when there was always Echo Girl to blame? Besides, she was pissing me off, too.

"It's Echo Girl, isn't it?" Zen said with a sigh. "You know, you don't need to be so jealous…"

See? Zen even said it, so technically I didn't have to lie to him. Even as I continued to rationalize, I felt a gnawing sense of foreboding chewing at the lining of my stomach. I heard Dolly Parton's voice, my sworn idol, in my head clear as day: "Storms make trees take deeper roots."

Dolly was trying, as always, to deliver me sound advice, but I wasn't listening. I sighed. Maybe she was right… Maybe I could step out on a limb here and tell Zen the truth, that I'd seen Kwang-jo today… But that was hard, and it would mean that we'd have to be talking about that, and not doing other things...

In the end, I couldn't really see the reason why we needed to talk about it now… I reached up and pulled Zen's gorgeous face to mine instead. It was easy to get lost in his kiss. We had a familiar rhythm now, but kisses were never the same. Every time was singular and different, like a tasty snowflake. I pulled him closer and raked his hair with my fingers. I felt his hands slide up and down my back, feeling my shape over the thin, gauzy sweatshirt I was wearing. Then, just when I thought we were really getting to the good part, he suddenly pulled away.

"Nuh uh," Zen said, pushing me to arm's length. "Not tonight, not yet…"

My mouth popped open in surprise. "What?" I said. I hadn't felt this level of resistance since the early days, back when Zen was still a virgin. God, I thought, had there been a day when I didn't have access to this gorgeous body? I reached for him.

"What the heck are you talking about, my lovely Zen…" I cooed, banking on my go-to pet name to draw him in.

"Nuh uh," he said, his red eyes twinking. "Not now… I've got other plans for you tonight, pretty girl…"
My forehead wrinkled in doubt. I couldn't imagine anything halfway as good as what I currently had in mind.

"Go get dressed," he said, pushing me up. "We're going out…"

Author's note: Ooh… Zen & MC are going on a date...I have a feeling it's going to be a fluffy chapter, but who knows? Oh MC, trouble seems to find her… Thank you, my lovely readers (as always) for reading, reviewing, commenting, etc. :-) :-)