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Orchid

Kris had spent his life growing up in Canada. He came from a wealthy family as his mother and father ran started a business venture that became highly profitable. He was a bit of a rebel in school because his parents put him on a tight leash at home, but he managed to finish high school without any records of expulsion or suspension. He was interested in the arts, but his parents pushed him into continuing the family business, and so he was expected to learn how to run the business and analyse what was going on in the world through economics. He hated this, but he didn’t have a choice. One thing he did to spite his parents was to bring a string of girlfriends home, and his parents made it very obvious that they didn’t like the girls, nor would tolerate Kris’ behaviour. One day, they surprised him when he got home and said that they would be going to Korea. The main reason for this was that his father wanted to expand into the Asian market and to also find Kris a partner. He was of marriageable age, and he should find a wife. Kris tried to protest but his parents’ minds were already made up.

“Why would I get married?”

“You’re old enough to get married. You need someone with you to help you run the business when we pass it over to you. We might even get you to run the Asian branches if it goes well, while we run the branches here in North America.”

“I don’t want to get married!”

“Kris!”

“Appa!”

“Let’s negotiate.”

“I don’t want to get married!”

“You’ll get married eventually! Besides, why would you want to play around with girls?”

“I’m still young!”

“How about finding you a girlfriend instead?”

“What if it doesn’t work out?”

“If you don’t like the girl after one year, you are free to choose the girl you would like to date, but you need to have the intention of marrying her, when you do bring a girl home to meet us.”

“Fine!”

“That’s settled then. Pack your bags. We’re leaving tomorrow!”

Kris trudged to his room and then slammed the door. Whoever the girl they pick out for me is, I’m going to make her suffer.

Kris was woken up at four o’clock in the morning to go to the airport. He begrudgingly got dressed, stuffed some last minute toast down his mouth and the family headed to the airport. The whole process seemed a bit tedious to Kris. They checked in, waited in the lounge, boarded the plane, spent half a day on the plane, disembarked, collected their baggage, got into a car and then headed into their home for the next year or so. The whole time, Kris had his headphones plastered to his ear and a scowl on his face, daring anyone who wanted to talk to him to try and see what would happen. When they reached their new house, he saw that only the basics had been part of the furnishings. He walked in and then climbed the stairs to pick out the room he wanted. He threw his bag on the floor and then slammed the door behind him. Welcome to your new home…

When he thought it was dinner, he went downstairs to find his parents talking to someone. He cleared his throat and his mother and father ushered him to sit down. He sat directly across from her, and his face softened when he saw her, but he continued to pretend to be indifferent.

“Who’s this?”

“This is Park Chorong; your new friend.”

He smirked when his parents put an emphasis on the word friend. What they had meant to say was girlfriend. Looks like she doesn’t know either…

“Annyeonghaseyo.”

“Annyeonghaseyo.”

After his greeting, he turned to his parents.

“How do you know her?”

“She’s the daughter of one of the leading partners for our business. She’s about the same age as you, so I thought that you two could get to know each other. She’s also going to be staying at this house.”

After hearing his parents say that, he turned to Chorong.

“Are you okay with that?”

Somehow, he felt like he needed to protect her.

“Ne.”

She was playing with the hem of her shirt. Come to think of it, Kris noticed that she wasn’t a typical girly girl. She was wearing shorts, dirty city-worn white converse, and a simple t-shirt with a logo of a basketball team on it.

“Why don’t you go outside and get to know each other?”

Kris stood up and extended his hand towards her, which she accepted. When they got outside, he finally saw his backyard. It had a swimming pool and a small half basketball court set up. It was awkward between them, and they stood around, waiting for the other to make conversation first. He knew she wasn’t going to talk first so he picked up a basketball and started to dribble and make free throws. He looked over towards her and saw that her eyes immediately livened. They caught each other’s eyes and he passed the ball over to her. She caught it, and made a three-pointer.

“Hey! You’re quite good!”

“Thanks! I play a lot of sports!”

“Yeah…you don’t seem like a typical girl.”

“Yeah…sometimes my parents complain that I’m not lady-like enough.”

“Do you want me to teach you?”

“What?”

“Like show you how to act?”

“But you’re a guy?”

“My mother enjoys things like refinement and dresses and tea parties and cotillions. I’ve escorted her to some when my father couldn’t and I had to join her practices. I can teach you a little bit.”

“Okay…thanks.”

“No problem. But once in a while, we should do some guy stuff like this…do you play video games?”

“I used to but they were mostly things like racing and Pokémon, but when I go to the arcade I like to play Street Fighter or Tekken.”

“Fighting games?”

“Yeah…I get a kick out of them…”

“You seem pretty cool to me…”

Kris saw her blush and his heart felt like it moved towards her side. He didn’t want to hurt her; he wanted to protect her.

After that day, Kris became very close to Chorong. He kept his promise, and his parents were enjoying watching their son teach a girl how to act lady-like. Kris realised that he liked her. He found out that they had a lot in common, and she was interested in the things he liked, such as art, sports, food and games. He used to look at her as some friend of his that happened to be a girl, and he would act rough around her, but she didn’t mind. It was only after six months of ‘training’ that the things he showed her became a habit. She would cross her legs, and eat quietly. She would burp to the side and start wearing dresses. That last point made Kris go crazy the first time she wore a dress. Yes, she had worn shorts, but her legs always seemed to be covered by some layer of dirt that made him think that she was just ‘another guy’. When she wore that flowing chiffon dress, he saw those milky long legs and he couldn’t see her in the same way again. When they would play soccer, he would force her to wear shin pads so that the ball wouldn’t scratch or scar those pretty legs. She would curl her hair and put sparkly clips in it and wear make-up that Kris would sometimes want to ask her out on a real date.

When the year was over, he finally thought it was time. His mother was organising a special dinner for investors and partners to officiate the opening of their first branch in Korea. Kris and Chorong were to be introduced to all those important people. They took dancing lessons, and Kris thought it was Prom all over again. He wanted to do something special for her, so he decided to buy her a corsage and match it with the flower he would wear pinned on his tuxedo. A few minutes before their official introduction he pulled her aside.

“Chorong-ah…I want to give you something.”

“What is it?”

“This.”

He handed her the corsage and then placed it on her wrist. He took his flower out and pinned it on his jacket pocket.

“You and I match.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s a beautiful flower. How did you choose it?”

“It’s an orchid. It means refinement.”

“So, you’ve finally finished refining me?”

“You were already pretty fine, I just smoothed out the edges.”

“I think it suits me.”

“It also means beautiful…lady.”

“Thank you…”

“You’re welcome.”