A very short chapter update to keep the ball rolling. ) Comments and Crits please! The next one will be much longer, I promise!
"Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs. Hwang."
The prospective parents nodded graciously. They smiled, shining teeth glowing eerily from their mouths. The ward mother took note of this. It made her uncomfortable.
She cleared her throat nervously.
"Well, I've surveyed your papers, ran them through government checks, and it seems that you are perfectly eligible parents for adoption."
They sat there like carved wooden dolls with relentlessly toothy smiles etched permanently into their faces. They made no expression showing relief, or excitement or any other emotion. They just looked at each other, exchanged meaningless smiles, and then turned back to the ward mother. It was mildly frightening. And made the ward mother very uncomfortable.
"Erm…well. Follow me this way." The ward mother stood clumsily, the extra twenty-five pounds of bulk around her belly hindering her somewhat. The perfect parents stood up robotically in sync, their expensive jewelry and watches clinking dryly. They followed the ward mother, who looked positively roly-poly next to statuesque Stepfords, into a play room where all the children were playing, eating, laughing, relaxing.
This wasn't a rich orphanage at all. Located in the homely, countryside city of Mokpo, it was small, with barely over sixty children. Some of them were children of people that were just too poor for care for them on their own, so the nuns and ward mothers took them in. The parents would come in from time to time to visit and spend time with them. But most of them were orphans.
The ward mother led the prospective parents into the room. They stood stiffly, their smiles still just as eerily perfect. They were just roving their eyes over the kids, like butchers choosing a piece of choice meat, or gold miners surveying the terrain a good place to drill. Not like people about to adopt a child, a little person that would become the object of all their love and energies. The ward mother took note of this. And felt very, very uncomfortable. But they were paying the orphanage. And in order to take in more unfortunate children, she needed their money. And the government checks were satisfactory, albeit more quickly approved than usual…it's fine. They're perfectly fine people, she tried to comfort herself. Perfectly fine people. Perfect people.
Finally, they pointed at one little boy, barely five years old, and sitting by himself playing with Tae Kwon Do action figures. The ward mother was surprised. No one had ever taken a liking to this one before. Well, they might change their minds after they talk to him. He was a strange one for sure…
"Jang-Hyuk-ah. Please come here."