It was Christmas morning and your whole family was over, opening presents in the living room. As Minjun reached for a box with a distinctive bow, you cringed, knowing it was a sweater your grandmother had knitted. Though her hair had long gone white, she was still sharp as a tack and you knew – you just knew – that she purposely made those sweaters as ugly as possible to torment the rest of the family.

He carefully unwrapped the present, lifted the lid and fought to keep from laughing as he pulled out a hideous green, red and white sweater complete with crocheted holly leaves and berries hanging from it. “Thank you, Grandma Marie,” he said smilingly. Grandma Marie chimed, “Beautiful, isn’t it?” while her lips trembled with the effort of keeping a straight face.

With all the gifts opened and breakfast finished, everyone was finally ready to leave. As you waved goodbye to everyone, your grandmother bounded back up the steps to give you a hug. “I thought your parents would never be ready to go,” she whispered, “I was about to fake a back spasm if they didn’t wrap it up! You two need some time to celebrate alone.” With that, she stepped back and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Ew, Grandma,” you replied through giggles. You said goodbye, and raced to the upstairs window to watch your family drive away, like you always did. Usually, you were sad to see them go, but the chaos of cooking Christmas dinner and breakfast had taken a toll on you. This time, as they pulled away, you heaved a sigh of relief and relished the opportunity to be alone with your husband.

That is, until you heard the door slam. “What the hell?” you thought aloud. You looked through the window again and saw Minjun’s brown hair bobbing as he jogged down the steps and got into his car. Assuming he was running a quick errand, you returned to cleaning up around the house.

Three hours later, though, you were pissed. You muttered to yourself, “You’d think since we just got married and we’ve had family coming and going for the past 3 months that he’d want to stay here, but noooooo…” To calm your nerves – you always did have a bit of a temper once you got yourself revved up – you lit some candles and drew a bath. You were relaxing when you heard a soft jingling noise downstairs. You quickly got out of the tub and wrapped yourself in a robe.