Rachel thought the earth had swallowed her whole…like Athena being pulled down to the underworld on Hades' command…
Athena? No, Persephone. It wasn't Athena.
Honestly, what the fuck was she on about?! Why was she thinking about Greek gods in this moment?
There was no Athena. No Persephone. And certainly, no Hades.
It was the antithesis of Greek gods…the most mundane mortals to ever walk the earth: Lee Bo Na and Yoon Chan Young. Still joined at the hip.
But then
the world
went silent.
Rachel could feel her blood streaming through her veins. She could hear it rushing through her ears.
For there…looking like the king of Hell himself…was Choi Young Do.
With slight devastation and disgust, in the span of thirty seconds, Rachel noted how impossibly good he still looked. Even in all black…wearing a black button down, black trousers, with a leather bomber. Some things never changed.
She wished they'd had. She wished he'd grown bald or sported a pervert mustache or gained weight in his stomach. He'd done none of those things. As if the Furies had descended amongst them, Rachel wanted to hiss and scream and spit and claw out his eyes at the unfairness of it all.
Before she could indulge in any of those things, she mixed her metaphors instead and saw light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of Johnny Kim.
The boy…guy…man who made her heart settle. The opposite of what Choi Young Do had done to her heart.
Rachel realized two things at once: Johnny had surprised her with an early visit, and he meant business. He bounded towards her purposefully, pulled her off her seat and wrapped her into a giant bear hug, sweeping her off her feet.
"Tada, my little graduate! I didn't think you would cut your hair, but it looks good. You look good, and hope you are oh so glad to see me, because I know. I know," he murmured into her ear, squeezing her tightly before setting her down. He grinned widely at her, running his hand over her hair, and Rachel felt a surge of affection towards him. She reciprocated his grin, even if it wobbled a bit.
"I didn't realize you would be here this soon, but thank you, thank you, all in a day's work…" Rachel's voice wavered, but she conveyed all that she was feeling into her stare, and he nodded. Rachel could have wept with the emotions she was feeling. She could have wept over the stupidity of it all.
It wasn't supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to see Young Do. She didn't want to see him at all. Lies, her conscience whispered. Nasty Rachel whispered, isn't this what you wanted in the darkest part of your mind, your heart, to see this worthless boy?
At least she wasn't calling Rachel worthless.
Clearly, her stupid eyes wanted to see him though. They betrayed her and slid over to Young Do.
He was looking right at her.
She didn't know what her expression was, but his conveyed absolutely nothing.
If he could look emotionless…then so could she.
No matter what he pretended, Rachel knew Young Do well, and vice versa. She knew all his sensitive spots.
She knew he had a careless, albeit desperate, mother. She knew he had a cruel, uncaring father. And she knew he hated hated hated that he'd been discarded. Disregarded.
She summoned the worst parts of herself and imbued all that nastiness into the way she looked at Young Do: with pure abject blankness.
A flicker of movement: his brows, magnificent as ever, furrowed slightly.
Rachel's stomach swooped, and even if he disagreed, she knew she'd won in this instance.
She cut her gaze back to Johnny, who gave her a cheeky smile, patted her head, and said, "Let's get a table. It may be just us for now."
Rachel couldn't help but grin back, although there was nothing funny about the situation, but he was giving it all to put on a show, and Rachel couldn't resist with the audience they had. She slid her arm though his and looked around for the waiter.
She ignored Bo Na and Chan Young, even though they were hovering about five feet away, gawking open mouthed at her and Johnny. As cringeworthy as ever.
It was considerably harder to ignore Young Do, because she felt his presence, but she focused on the weight of Johnny's arm, the scent of his cologne, the balls of her feet starting to hurt, the heat on her face, and the…sound of Myung Soo's voice…
She'd forgotten about him, although he'd been as civil to her as possible.
"Well, it was nice to see you, Rachel. I hope you have a good dinner."
As much as she wanted to walk away with her nose in the air, she didn't relish being rude to him.
Her mouth betrayed her this time. Instead of a short goodbye, Rachel introduced Myung Soo to Johnny, as purely Kim Junghwan. She didn't bother with details because, honestly, no one cared.
It was all over in a minute, and she could sense Myung Soo's curiosity about the nature of their relationship, as he glanced at their entwined arms twice, but he had enough manners to let them go to their table without further questions, as the waiter appeared.
Rachel clung to Johnny's arm like it was a lifeline through the longest walk ever, well aware of the image they presented.
It took one two three…twenty-five steps to sit down. Johnny pulled her chair out, and once seated, Rachel realized how unsteady she'd felt.
She didn't miss the way Bo Na had stiffened when they'd passed. Chan Young wasn't enough of a presence to register.
Rachel didn't dare pay attention to what Young Do was doing, but the heat on the side of her face intensified.
"He's still there. He's not looking anymore." Johnny muttered, as he had the direct view.
Rachel's body continued to betray her, because she wanted to start bawling and truly crawl under the table this time.
"How, how is it that I've avoided this wretched place for four years, and as soon as I'm back that's the first thing I see?"
Johnny rolled his eyes again, "Don't exaggerate. You're a college graduate now. And if you go AWOL this time, I'm not changing my plans to visit you, you'll have to make your own arrangements to come see me."
Of course, his sympathy would only last a few minutes. Seconds, really.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I inconvenienced you this whole time," Rachel snapped, without any heat, "and by the way, where the hell is my mother, as much as I love you."
Johnny scanned the menu, suddenly looking very tired, "Oh, who knows. I'm just cranky and hungry. She wanted it to be a surprise but decided not to show her face. Oh, and by the way, I almost knocked him down."
Rachel gaped at him.
Then pondered at the absurdity of his statements.
Then burst into hysterical giggles.
Johnny peered at her over the top of his menu and started laughing too.
"I don't want you to almost knock him down. I want you to totally obliterate him."
"Whatever the graduate wants. Consider it my gift to you."
Now it was Rachel's turn to roll her eyes.
"When did you become this corny?"
Johnny huffed and pouted.
"Fine, fine, that's a valid present, but first, give me the gift of ordering for us, because I can't be bothered."
They both narrowed their eyes at each other, and then started cackling.
Well aware they had an audience.
/
There seemed to be some drama unfolding over at the table on their left, perpendicular to them, only once Rachel caught a glimpse when she'd summoned the waiter.
A lot of gesturing and gesticulating from Bo Na. Very little movement from Chan Young, who was engrossed in the menu, a frown on his face. Myung Soo scrolling through his phone., perhaps bored of the antics that continued to this day. Young Do…Young Do, arms crossed, emanating hostility, appeared to be arguing…with Bo Na?
Before Rachel could fully turn away, she made eye contact with Bo Na.
Nasty Rachel would have beared her teeth; this Rachel evenly looked over Bo Na until she broke eye contact.
/
Rachel would never say it out loud, but she could understand Young Do's reticence, his hostility, his general assholery.
They had bad blood.
What the fuck was Lee Bo Na's problem? Her hostility only came about once Young Do had dump—no¸ once they had both decided to end it. It was neither here nor there though.
Rachel had talked about the severance of her "friendship" at length with her therapist. They couldn't make heads or tails of Bo Na's behavior.
Rachel couldn't even attribute it to a crush on Young Do. Clearly, Chan Young and Bo Na were still going strong.
Was it jealousy? Possessiveness over Young Do? Since when were Young Do and Bo Na so close though? She was bossy, annoying, and nosy…but Rachel never expected it to turn so malicious.
/
Omma never did show her face. She video called Johnny to apologize for not showing up and took care of the bill.
Rachel huffed in annoyance, "why are you calling him?"
"Because I'm better looking, and she loves me more."
He dodged a well-aimed kick under the table.
Both Johnny and Rachel made faces at her, "We should run up the tab now."
Omma rolled her eyes, "Both of you be quiet!" and hung up.
It ran in the family.
/
Rachel deliberately kept her force field up. Johnny and the waiters and the people on the right side of the room were the only ones to exist.
There was no one of significance on the left side.
No one at all.
/
Rachel sensed some movement on the left side…but didn't dare look. Her body complied.
Johnny had no such qualms. As they began their first course, he looked over oh so casually, and with utter glee reported that Choi Young Do was no longer at the table.
"It looks like he stormed off. He almost knocked his chair over. The girl is all agog. The other two are shoving food in their mouths. Now, they're drinking. Now she's glaring at them. Now, she's looking at me. Now, I'm going to wink at her."
"Good god, Johnny," Rachel hissed.
He winked at the direction of the table, and then winked at Rachel.
/
Rachel took a moment to digest this news. He could have gone to the bathroom for a prolonged reason. He could have been taking a phone call. He could have had an emergency.
But when he didn't return even after 10 minutes (she counted) …she couldn't help but feel some of that glee Johnny had felt.
He had driven her away from Korea. Now, she'd driven him away from this restaurant. On a cozy night out with his friends. He couldn't bear to be in the same space as her.
The glee increased.
/
Rachel felt more than a few glances thrown their way from the left side of the room. From the table perpendicular to them, across the room, with one less occupant.
Now she felt safe looking around. At one point, she deliberately made direct eye contact with the culprit, who had been quite obviously staring their way.
She didn't even have the good grace to look embarrassed at being caught.
Typical.
/
The other table had looked sullener as the night went on.
As they exited the restaurant, Rachel almost wished she would see Young Do skulking about in a shadowy corner, but she'd had enough wins for the night.
Bo Na had kept up her goggling throughout the night. Her eyes kept swiveling between Rachel and Johnny, lingering on him more than necessary.
Rachel wondered how Chan Young felt about it…his face was as bland as ever though.
All in all, it was the most eventful, uneventful night Rachel had had in a while. For all intents and purposes, it had been a dinner with her oldest, truest friend, while running into some acquaintances and her ex.
However, Chan Young's face had become stonier through the night, Myung Soo looked tenser, and at one point, Bo Na had stood up abruptly, almost toppling her chair over, before being yanked down by Myung Soo.
What was with them and chairs?
Johnny had guided her out, his hand on her shoulder. Rachel had slowed down to nod at Myung Soo, and flicked her eyes over to Bo Na, sorely tempted to raise her eyebrows as a challenge.
Bo Na had loudly hiccupped.
Rachel had most certainly won, even if it was the lamest of victories.