Forty-Five

     The SHINee boys are finally finished with their album pictures for the night.  They have a couple more takes left and is scheduled for next time.  The boys and the staffs congratulate and thank one another for the hard work of the night. 

     Onew is given his crunches by someone other than Yuri, so he asks the staff, “Where’s our manager Yuri-shi?”

     The staff replies, “Ah, she left about half an hour ago.  She told me to give this to you boys.  I’ll get your minivans ready outside in fifteen minutes.”  The staff thanks them and then leaves.  The rest of the SHINee boys gather around Onew, curious about what Yuri had left for them.

     “Don’t tell me she ran away because she’s scared of my project.”  Jonghyun smirks.

    “I don’t think so, Hyung.  Look, she wrote she’ll just be late for your ‘project’.”  Taemin explains.

     Onew reads the paper out loud, even though everyone’s read it, “Sorry boys.  I just remembered I’ve got another business to do.  I’ll be late, so please bear with me.”  Onew chuckles, “Look Jonghyun.”  He taps Jonghyun’s shoulder.  “She has something for you, too.  She wrote, ‘P.S.  Jonghyun-shi.  Please call me within an hour when you get this paper.”

     Confusion falls upon the boys’ face and they all look at Jonghyun.  Jonghyun raises his hands, “Hey, I don’t know, too.”

     Does he really not know or is her faking it?   Minho glares at the nervous laughing Jonghyun.

     What exactly is going on between them?

     Yuri looks at the time on her watch.  She hopes she’ll make it in time for the dinner with Lee Soo Man.  She’s trembling with fear.  She’s nervous.  She wants to cry, but no tears are out.  Should I just go clean and demand for answers?  Yuri shakes her head furiously.  No!  I can’t!  Appa will get the news and who knows what would happen.  She heavily exhales.

     I guess I will have to wait until I’ve received news of Appa successfully risk-free of the surgery to start my demands.

     “…Miss,” says the taxi driver.  Yuri averts her attention to the old man.

     “Yes?”  Her head perks up a bit.  “Is something wrong?”

     The man chuckles, “Actually, I was going to ask you that.  I know it’s not any of my business, but I’ve never seen anyone young sighed so deeply like you before, so it grabbed my attention.”

     Yuri smiles, “Oh, sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.”

     “No, it didn’t.  It’s just, I’ve always thought young children nowadays don’t have any worries, yet you proved me wrong.”

     Yuri’s smile fades.  “Worries, eh?  …Ahjussi.”  The man quickly looks at Yuri to answer her call.  “Have you ever lied to your child?”

     The man answers with no hesitation, “Of course I have.  Every parent has.”

     Yuri sits up straighter, “No.  Not those kind of lies.”  Her voice becomes shakier and she tilts her head down, “But, lies that are enough to break a child’s heart.”
 

     “She’s in here!”  Sooyoung shouts through someone’s bedroom as Tiffany, Sunny, and Taeyeon enter the SNSD dorm room.   The girls enter the room where they heard Sooyoung shouted and see a Jessica checking an almost empty closet next to a pile of clothes.

     Taeyeon slowly walks over to Jessica, trying not to step on any shirt, pants, shorts, skirts, etc.  With her mouth wide open, she looks around and says  “Yah….what’s…this?”

     Jessica doesn’t look at Taeyeon, but her voice is cheery, “Help me pick an outfit with them.”

     “Them…?”  Taeyeon asks.

     Voices from behind her make Taeyeon look back.  She sees Sooyoung and Seohyun raise their hand in exhaustion.  “Us.”

     Tffany crawls over to Sooyoung and places an elbow on Sooyoung’s shoulder, “What’s the occasion?  How come it’s only you?”

     Sooyoung smirks to Tiffany, “Because it is just only her.”  Tiffany’s eyes become big in disbelief and Sunny and Taeyeon immediately gather around Sooyoung and Seohyun.  “Spill.  Now.”  Tiffany demands.

     Sooyoung smiles widely, “You see, she’s going on a date.  But, that’s not the juicy part.  It’s the fact that we don’t know who the guy is.”

     Tiffany, Taeyeon, and Sunny immediately gasp.  They look at Jessica.  She’s leaning onto the closet, holding onto a hanger, smiling to herself, off in her own ‘Jessica-world”.

     Taeyeon whispers to Sooyoung and Seohyun, “You girls didn’t ask?” 

     The two girls sighed.  “We did, but she’s tight-lipped.”  Sooyoung replies.

     “This date must mean a lot to her for her to be that happy.”  Seohyun points to Jessica.  The rest of the girls follow Seohyun’s point and see a lost-Jessica happily turning the room into an uglier mess as Jessica picks up some clothes off of the pile of clothes into the air and spins as the clothes fall down on her.

     Is it okay for me to still have hope for us?  Jessica’s ‘world’ gets ruined when a pain is felt on her head.  Jessica must’ve grabbed a hidden hanger from the pile of clothes and it had fallen on her.  As she raises a hand to ease the pain on her head, she and the rest of the girls laugh at the hilarious scene.

     As Yuri stands outside the door of Lee Soo Man, she nervously and slowly rings the doorbell.  She wishes she could had a stand-in for her like how some actors or actresses use stand-ins for scenes they don't want to personally act out in.  After the first ring, she silently waits and fidgets outside the door. 

     Yuri sighs again, for the last time to calm her nerves.  The conversation with the Taxi driver crosses her mind:

     "Ahjusshi, what would you do if you found out that you weren't the biological child of the parents who raised you?"  Yuri asks the Taxi driver.

     The taxi driver smiles, "I'd question my parents."

     "...But, what happens if you can't at the moment?"

     "I'd find answers."  The man immediately answers.

     "Aren't you scared to find out the truth?"  Yuri quietly asks.

     The man stops on a red light.  "Child.  Aren't you scared to not know what happened?"  Yuri understands his question, for it was true.  When Yuri had first found out and became clear of the relationship between her 'father' and her, she was scared to not being able to understand what had happened at the time she was an infant and was given away.  The questions at the time she wanted to ask her real father behind the curtains were, "Why did you leave me under another man's care?"  "Did you and Mom not want me?"  "Was I going to be a hindrance?" 

     Now, the only question Yuri has on her mind is, "Why want me back after all these years?"

     The Taxi man continues to speak, "If your friend's problem with her father and her biological father is related to the question you asked about a parent lying, I'd say that the child is wrong in hating just her biological father for giving your friend up to another man."

     Yuri's eyebrows furrow.  "Why do you say that?"  Thankfully I lied that I had a friend who had my problem or else I'd probably be criticized by a stranger!

     "Don't you think that it's not just him to blame but both of them?  The father who is raising your friend right now is also at fault for having cooperated with your friend's biological father in accepting your friend as his own child." 

     Yuri gasps.  I...never thought of that.  "But, the real father shouldn't had--"

     The driver steps on the gas pedal, "It's not about who should or who shouldn't.  The point is they both, as your parent, regardless of the relationship to you, had a reason behind it, and it's up to your friend how she wants to take matters into her own hands."

     The flashack ends just in time for the door to open.  But, instead of Lee Soo Man, or anyone who could live in the house with him, opening the door, it is a familiar tall and muscular man whose face is in front of Yuri's.

     What is he doing here?  Yuri is frozen.  She's confused.  Lost.  Did the taxi driver dropped me off at the correct place?

     "...Taec...yeon shi...?"