When the morning came, the sun threw its rays on Ji Hye's face as she stretched and yawn on her bed.

The weekends are usually the best part of the week. She sat on her bed for a few minutes before glancing at herself in her mirror and noticing the eye bags under her eyes. 

"Wow, I need to start sleeping early," she thought as she gently tapped her skin.

That's when she remembered what exactly caused them or, her, staying up for so long for her mother last night: when she arrived Home all drunk.

Ji Hye wanted to confront her mother, asking her what may have caused her to reach Home in front of her daughter this way with another man. But she knew she couldn't do that just yet when chatters from downstairs were audible.

Not just chatters, but actual laughters. 

And the only person her mother ever enjoyed so much with in the house was Ji hye herself. It would be wrong for Ji Hye to admit that this entire scenario of her mother hanging out with another man would not make her jealous.

She had no idea who he was, and she was afraid that perhaps even her mother might not. 

 

So before any further addo, she slipped her bunny slippers on and walked down the steps into the kitchen, where her mom was cooking. Yeah, cooking. Her mother never cooks. She doesn't even know how to cook. 

But it all made sense when the man she saw last night was also helping her cook, with the Apron that her mother almost burned a million times hung around his neck. He looked like he was a good cook, teaching Ji Hye's mother how to cook too.

 

*

 

"Honey," said Ji Hye's mother as she stood at the aisle, wearing a white bridal gown, hand in hand with that very man wearing a black-coat, whose face was blurred. She was smiling and held a bouquet of flowers.

 

"Meet your new father," Ji Hye's mom told Ji Hye with a big smile on her face, almost creepy-like, as Ji Hye stared at her mother in confusion.

Ji Hye suddenly looked down at her own slender body and found herself wearing a maid of honour's dress with flowers in her hand. 

 

"What?" she asked her mother as her mom looked at her with a big creepy-like smile, almost too scary too imagine.

 

"Yes! You'll now have 5 baby siblings, don't you just love kids?" Ji Hye's mother repeatedly kept on speaking with ecstasy while Ji Hye just stood in the blurred setting of the wedding, where everybody around was emptily staring at these two people having the conversation, and somehow everybody else just quietly blended into the backrgound.

 

The arrival of 5 little kids, almost half the size of Ji Hye happens right after her mother completes her sentence.

The 2 girls out of the 5 kids, had their hair in a mess with mud on it while the 3 boys angrily looked at Ji Hye and barked. Yeah. Barked.

"Aww, don't you just love kids?" her mother repeated as Ji Hye stared at the 5 little kids in horror as they ran around and made noise in the beautiful chapel, ruining the mood.

Ji Hye consequently found herself covering her ears at the noise, that gradually kept on increasing with the second.

 

"Now they can give you the lovely family I could never offer you, honey," Ji Hye's mom said and laughed all evil after the sentence, leaving Ji Hye in the sight of more horror. Although Ji Hye only lived with her mother, she enjoyed the peace her house offered and would hate to give it away for anything. 

 

"I hate kids!" Ji Hye repeated as the noises the kids made became louder and louder along with her mother's evil-like laugh. The bouquet of flowers she held also fell onto the floor as she sighted people around her suddenly pointing and laughing at her.

 

"But you don't have a choice," somebody from behind her, that she didn't even know, said. 

"No!" Ji Hye yelled at the voices that seemed to be symbolizing the sabotage that was about to be shadowed upon her life due to the marriage. 

 

"No!" Ji Hye whispered in her sleep, shivering from the sweat that accumulated onto her cold skin. It was morning, and Ji Hye was in the middle of a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. However, nightmares are mere fiction. This nightmare was this phase of her life, where her mother was actually being wed off to some stranger Ji Hye didn't know, who probably even had 5 or more kids who barked.

 

As she layed her eyes on the rays of sunlight that entered her room, she sighed at the relief of her nightmare being only one in her head. But remembering the consequences of the events in her house, the relief only lived short.

"Rise and shine, darling!" Ji Hye's mother walked into her room with a tray full of breakfast. They knew each other well, and didn't require the same house rules most families did in order to function properly, since it's hard to have fights in a family of 2 women.

But imagining that this level of comfort would soon disappear is another side-effect of the marriage Ji Hye feared.

 

Her mother, as usual, brought in a tray with a plate of 4 toasts, 2 thick pancakes, a glass of orange juice and 2 apples. Ji Hye and food were a never-ending bond of love and this bond came with a heavy appetite that Ji Hye naturally had.

Although her body was not that small and slender, thanks to her fast metabolism, none of the food ever accumulated too much under the skins of her adipose tissues. Ji Hye looked rather delicate, but was strong due to her appetite. She normally ate more than an average teenager.

 

Ji Hye immediately took a bite of the pancake and stared at her mom who sat on the same bed as her, suspiciously. Is that man she brought with her still downstairs?

Should she initiate this conversation?

 

"Mom," Ji Hye said, taking another bite of her pancake.

"Hmm?" her mom said very innocently.

 

"Why would you not allow me to bring any males home when you're doing the same thing?" Ji Hye said, frankly. 

 

"Huh? Oh, that" her mom pretended. 

 

"Yeah, that" Ji Hye nodded with sarcasm. Her mom knew she shouldn't have done what she did last night by being so drunk and bringing a man over her place all in front of her daughter.

 

"I didn't get a chance to-to introduce Mr. Jeon to you yesterday night," her mom rubbed her neck.

 

"Mr. Jeon? You mean Jungshik Jeon?" Ji Hye recalled. She had seen that name in her mom's high school yearbook. He was that man who was in love with Ji Hye's mom in High school but Ji Hye's mom was already dating Ji Hye's dad at the time, and hence Jungshik's love for Ji Hye's mom was just unrequited. 

Ji Hye remembered seeing a few roses pressed against the yearbooks as given by Jungshik Jeon. But so far she knew her mom wasn't interested in him. Guess things are different now.

 

"Yeah. He's different and a lot less annoying than what he used to be in 10th grade," Ji Hye's mom said, smilingly. 

 

"We got talking yesterday at the reunion and he's doing well with his life, still not married." her mom continued, "So while we were talking I realised how much I admired that man for who he is now, because I wouldn't want to ever marry him back in the day." 

 

"Yeah, people grow and change for the better" Ji Hye said. But as soon as she did, she regretted it since it made it sound like she was on her mom's side.

 

"Yeah, it's not even about the money but more about how people surprise you, you know? Who knew the guy who kept on bragging about himself back in 10th grade would grow up to become so humble and respectable?" her mom described him, dreamily.

But this was not good. For somebody she just met yesterday after so long.

 

"Mom, I understand he's nice or whatever," Ji hye finished her plate of pancakes, "but you were so drunk last night I wonder if everything was okay"

 

"Yeah I mean what could've happened, did happen" her mom blurt out, immediately after which she regretted the way she phrased the sentence and eyed Ji Hye in fear.

 

"Uhh I meant-" her mom was about to clear out,

 

"What do you mean!?" Ji Hye's eyes turned the size of the apples on the plate as she looked at her mother in such shock.

 

"Uh about that," her mom said.

 

"After coming home," Ji Hye used her hands to understand most of the scenario that was shocking her with slight anger, "You guys slept together!?" Ji Hye yelled.