Chapter 33 of Portrait
INDEX
Chapter 33
Dongjoo sat in his usual silence as he twirled the spaghetti around his fork, but his mind was filled with chatter. He was trying out various conversation starters in his head, but none of them sounded right. Here they were on their second date in a week and things this time around were drastically different.
That first date, Hyekyung had seemed back to normal - too normal, if that made any sense. It was like she took herself and magnified herself a hundred times. Hyekyung was usually rather garrulous to begin with, and that Wednesday, she honestly kept up a steady river of chatter for the whole entire time. She had insisted that Dongjoo take her out that day and it was almost as if her whole mission was to show the world how proud she was to have him as her boyfriend.
She wanted to go shopping in the trendiest area of town. While there, Hyekyung had latched onto him and practically forced his arm around her waist. There was no way that either of them could afford anything there, but somehow Hyekyung had put some money into Dongjoo's pocket. So when Hyekyung picked out a pair of matching tees and Dongjoo tried to gently remind her that the shirts were out of their budget, Hyekyung feigned surprise and "discovered" the money in his pocket. So the T-shirts were bought and Hyekyung had giggled, "Aren't these cute? Let's wear them on our next date on Tuesday!"
Hyekyung had then wanted to go eat something so they had then entered a café. She ordered a giant waffle ice cream concoction and brought back two spoons. She even went so far as to take a spoonful of ice cream, then say, "Say 'Ah!'" and slip the ice cream into his mouth. When the waffle was all eaten, she snuggled closer, rested her head on his shoulder, and then murmured, "Jagi-ya, isn't this nice?" Dongjoo had murmured back some noise of assent, but really, he thought it more strange and awkward than nice. Dongjoo had always made it clear that this kind of lovey-dovey-gooiness wasn't really his style - at least not out in public. So far in their relationship, she hadn't seemed to like it so much either.
Maybe she remembered that we're not really comfortable with this kind of stuff...? Dongjoo thought. Right now, Hyekyung definitely did not look like she wanted anyone to be within a mile of her, let alone touch her like she had wanted a few days ago. She had an angry expression on her face and she even ate her pasta angrily - she stabbed each noodle individually with her fork so that there was this constant series of tings as fork tine smashed into plate.
The noise kept on hurtling through and piercing Dongjoo's train of thought. So he just kept on waiting for the real Hyekyung to arrive and make things okay.
*~*~*
Junho was waiting for Hyekyung to arrive and make things okay. He had been called by Halmoni to come over and help with Hyekyung's parents' luggage. So he had come and to say the least, it was very awkward as he sat in the living room with Halmoni, Hyemin, and Hyekyung's 'parents' or whatever it was they were. Halmoni had said they were Hyekyung's parents, so they must be, but Hyekyung had said they weren't. So Junho believed Halmoni but was left confused (as usual) about what Hyekyung meant.
They were all waiting for Hyekyung to arrive, that was clear. The silence was horrifically loud - Junho could feel it buzzing in his ears.
Where is she?!?!
Junho had never wanted her to be near so badly.
Hyekyung's parents' flight was at 9:00 in the evening. They had wanted to leave at 4, just to be on the safe side. But it was already about 6:30 and Hyekyung was nowhere in sight. And, as Junho knew, Hyekyung didn't have a cell phone. Neither Somin nor Dongjoo were answering their phones. So they didn't even know where she was.
What if she was attacked or something? All sorts of crazy ideas started to pop up in Junho's head. What if she was mauled by hyenas? Or LIONS? What if...
And then there she was, walking in through the door, with her hands clenched onto Dongjoo's. It was an odd sight - they were wearing couple shirts but judging from their expressions, you would've thought it purely accidental that they were wearing the same shirts and their hands were touching. Dongjoo looked completely bewildered and Hyekyung glowed with a fury.
With that same glow, Hyekyung's mother launched shrilly into, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, YOUNG LADY?! WE TOLD YOU TO BE HERE BY 4:00 AT THE LATEST! IT IS ALMOST 6:30 NOW! YOU ARE TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATE, YOU B****! WE MIGHT MISS OUR FLIGHT!"
Hyekyung didn't even raise her voice. "Then why didn't you just leave? You had no problem doing that ten years ago."
Hyekyung's mother got up and slapped Hyekyung hard across the face. Her hand went up to smack Hyukyung again, but then Hyekyung's father suddenly appeared, with his hand clenched onto Hyekyung's mother's.
"Sit down." Hyekyung's father's voice was much quieter than both Hyekyung's and her mother's, but his voice struck with such a force that Hyekyung couldn't help a flicker of fear flashing in her eyes. Nobody was sure to whom that command was directed, and both Hyekyung and her mother instantly sank into a seat. Junho had never heard Hyekyung's father speak, and really, he was glad that he hadn't, because there was a terrible iciness there that edged every syllable. Junho glanced over at Dongjoo. He looked as terrified as Junho felt.
"Junho, Dongjoo, get our luggage. We'll miss our flight. Get up, Suji."
Junho and Dongjoo looked at each other. What should they do?
Hyekyung's mother did get up, but got up to block Dongjoo and Junho's way, leaving them to not have to make a decision.
Suddenly, what looked to be emotion mutated Hyekyung's mother's face into a pitiful and strange arrangement of her features.
"STOP!" A tinny echo ringed around her desperate protest.
She turned to Hyekyung and tears sparkled in her eyes, a sight that strangely struck Hyekyung as very familiar. Hyekyung's mother grabbed Hyekyung's hands and Hyekyung flinched in fear.
"Hyekyung-ah, don't you ever think it was easy to leave you. I'll admit it, it was wrong of us and we should've been here to be your parents. It's our fault you became like this."
"Then why did you leave? Why weren't you here?" Hyekyung's voice trembled.
"Hyekyung-ah, we couldn't stay. We were looking out for you, trying to do what was best for the family."
"What would've been best for the family would've been to stick together! What you did wasn't what a true mother does! You were never a true mother! You were never my true mother!"
Hyekyung and her mother matched with the rage in their eyes.
"Is that what you want, Hyekyung? Is that what you want, for me to not be here at all? To not even try?"
"No! I want you to be here. I want you to act like my mom!" Hyekyung couldn't help it now, she was crying, crying, crying. All of those years, the loss of her parents had been painful to such a degree that it even surpassed sensation - it hadn't felt like anything most of the time. But now, Hyekyung felt like she was feeling it, letting it out and making her mother understand. This was the threshold; this was the moment where her mother would see how much pain she had caused, and her mother would become her mom and would fix things and make everything alright. Her mom would hold her and would say that she wasn't going to just act like her mom, she was going to be her mom.
"Then why didn't you act like a daughter?"
Hyekyung was shocked into a halt mid-cry.
Hyekyung's mother had won.
Hyekyung's father stood up. "Let's go." He directed his gaze to Hyekyung, collapsed down to such an extent, she looked like she was a six-year-old child cowering in fear. "Don't bother seeing us out."
He then turned his attention to Junho and Dongjoo. They tried not to shiver but also not to look defiant at the same time. "We'll take care of the luggage, boys. You can leave." They wanted to stay and be there for Hyekyung, but under Mr. Kwon's powerful gaze, they hurried out.
"Goodbye, Omonim. Goodbye, Hyemin."
And with that, they were gone.
Once more, Hyekyung was left without a goodbye.