It was near midnight when Yonghwa’s car entered the gate. He gathered all of his stuffs from the back seat of his car and walked tiredly to the front door of his parents house.

In spite of his successful career as an avionics engineer, he still lived with his parents. Reason? Just because his mother asked him to do so. He was a very obedient child to both of his parents. He nearly never refused any of their requests, even if he didn’t like it.

“I’m home,” Yonghwa called out as he heard the television from the living room.

“Oh, my dear son, you’ve come. How was your day? Have you had your dinner?” his mother stood up from the sofa to help him put down his stuffs.

“Just another tiring day. And yes, I have had my dinner,” he responded as he sat down beside her, “Why are you still awake? Are you waiting for me?”

“Not really. I was just thinking about something.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing important. You should take some rest now. You look so tired,” said the mother while caressing his head, “Aigoo, my poor baby look so pale these days. Why do you always overwork yourself?”

“It’s okay, Omma. I’ll take a good care of myself,” he assured her.

“How I wish you have a wife to take care of you.”

“Oh, not again,” he sighed weakly like he always did when his mother brought up this topic.

“I’m just worry about you,” his mother continued, “It seems like you have forgotten to get married.”

“I do not forget about it, Omma. I just haven’t found the girl yet, and I still can handle myself. I also have you and father beside me, right? It’s not like I’m all alone.”

“But you need to hurry up, Son. Both of your parents are already old. What if we cannot take care of you any longer?” she reminded him.

“Please don’t speak like that, Omma. You only make me sad. I believe that you and father will stay healthy for a very long time,” he hugged her warmly.

“Still, you need to start looking for someone,” his mother insisted.

“Do you want me to meet your friend’s daughter again?” he guessed it right away while his mother just smiled.

“And you were thinking about this when I came up awhile ago, am I right?” he continued as he released his hug and rested to the other side of the sofa.

“Listen to me first. Last week I met my old best friend and she had a really nice daughter. She is so beautiful, smart, and polite. She is also a very good cook. I hope you can meet and get to know her, Yonghwa. Of course, only if you agree about it.”

‘Here we go again,’ he mumbled silently.

“Arraseoyo, Omma. I’ll meet her later. Are you happy now?” he finally agreed to her request.

“Oh, thank you so much. I will arrange us a dinner with her family tomorrow night. How about that?”

“Us? Her family? All of you will join the blind date?” he asked her in disbelieved.

“Actually yes. It has been a long time since I met with her mom, so I decided to make your blind date as well as our reunion,” she explained it cheerfully. It was difficult for him to let her down.

“Alright then, I’ll try to clear out my schedule for tomorrow night. Just let me know the details beforehand.”

“Sure,” as she hold both of his hands and wishfully said, “And please, Yonghwa, be more serious this time and try to make it work. Omma’s best friend is a very good person, and so is her daughter. I hope you will find your love in her and get married soon.”

“I hope so.”

***

On the next day, Yonghwa was very busy as usual to complete his daily tasks. He really loved his job. It’s always his dream to work on the aeronautics sector.

As a result of his significant contributions for the company, he will be sent to Germany to take his master degree under a full-scholarship program in the next two months. He felt so excited about that and could not wait to get it started.

He was engrosed in reviewing one of the blueprints when his deskphone rang, “Yoboseyo? This is Yonghwa speaking.”

“Yoboseyo, Yonghwa. This is Taeyeon. I have reviewed your proposal for the ‘D’ project.”

“Ah, de. What about that? Have you approved it’s financial budget yet?”

“It is nearly done. But you still need to fix some parts before I could approve it. I’ll send one of my staff in a minute to guide you about that, okay?” the latter offered.

“You could just send it by email, you know? Why do you even bother to send one of your staff?” he commented.

“And you’ll read it in Germany? Like I didn’t know you. You always forget to check your email. Let’s get this proposal finished before you leave,” Taeyeon persuaded him.

“Arraseoyo, Taeyeon-ssi. Please send one of your best staff to help this forgetful man.”

“Hahaha.. Good thing you realized your weakness, Yonghwa. Okay then, I will send Seohyun to your room in a few minutes.”

“Ugh, please anyone but her,” he refused immediately.

“Why? She is the best staff in the finance division,” she replied innocently.

“Oh, you do know my opinion about this. I agree that she is the best staff in your division, but she is the most difficult person to deal with. Strict, inflexible, stubborn, and not to mention her perfectionist nature made her replaced all of my proposal’s contents the last time she tried to ‘help’ me. What a waste of time,” he grumbled quite long.

“Wait a minute. Are you still angry about your last proposal?” as Taeyeon tried to suppress her laugh.

“Just a bit, okay? But I’m serious about today. It’s really not a good time to have a long argument with her. I have an important appointment at 7 pm, so I need to leave on time. Please help me, Taeyeon-ssi,” he suddenly remembered the family dinner.

“Let me guess. Your mother set you on another blind date, am I right?” she .

“De. But I think my mother is too desperate right now, because tonight I will meet her on a family dinner with all of my parents and hers. Troublesome indeed,” he replied her weakly.

“Brace up yourself, Yonghwa! Your mother just worry about you.”

“At this very moment, you sound exactly just like her.”

“Sorry, I can’t help it. Kekeke. Tell you what, we can discuss both of your ‘D’ project and marriage proposal over lunch. You choose the place.”

“Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Taeyeon-ssi.”

“You’re welcome. See you at lunch. Bye.”

“Bye.”

So, Yonghwa spent his lunch time with one of his best friends, Taeyeon, to discuss the ‘D’ project’s proposal and his endless blind dates which was set by his mother.

***

Later that day, his mother bombarded Yonghwa’s mobile phone from 5 pm so he would not come late to the dinner.

“Yoboseyo? My dear Yonghwa, where are you?” his mother asked him restlessly for the nth time since he started his car to the restaurant.

Okay, he admitted that he was a little bit late. But it only took 5 minutes to reach that place from his office. Besides, he didn’t want to be the first one to arrive. So, here he was, stood reluctantly in front of the dining room after 10 minutes late.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before he opened the door and apologized right away for coming late, “Annyeonghaseyo, Jung Yonghwa-imnida. I’m very sorry for coming late.”

Then finally, he saw her sitting comfortably between her parents while looking back at him.

.

.

Seo Joohyun, the best staff of finance division, as known as his proposal’s enemy.

.

.

‘Uh oh. I need to escape from this marriage meeting. Immediately.’