Hello, Dear Readers! Here is the first part of Chapter 25. I will update the second half very soon.

Chapter 25a

JinYoung arrived home later that evening after having dinner with his parents. It had been a tense affair. His mother, knowing everything and his father knowing nothing put him in a very difficult position. Although all of the hope he had had for the future was crumbling, he couldn't show his distress. He had to put on a pleasant face for his father.

"How was it in Seoul? Did you see all your friends from school?" Mr Pak asked genially.

"Yes, Aboji," he answered.

"I was a little worried when I heard that you left so suddenly. Nothing wrong with anyone I hope."

"No, Aboji. Everyone is fine."

"That's good," his father chuckled warmly, "that's good. I remember when you'd come home with Mark and JaeBum and Jackson and you kids would take over the house. Remember that, Yeobo?" he asked his wife.

"Yes," Mrs Pak answered, "I remember."

"Sometimes you'd bring so many home, I wondered where everyone would sleep, but you all would just spread out all over the floor like puzzle pieces. I don't know how you all fit. Ah," he sighed, "those were such nice days. All the kids around. Now everyone is busy. No more time for parties and sleepovers. Now you're all grown up," he said wistfully.

"Yes . . . he's all grown up," Mrs Pak agreed, her words filled with extra meaning for JinYoung.

"I am surprised about one thing, though."

"What is that, Aboji?"

"Why didn't you take your girlfriend along?" he asked. "When I was courting your mother I don't think she would have been too happy if I had gone away for almost two weeks without her. She could have stayed with Jia or Min, right?"

"Y . . . yes, she could have," JinYoung stammered.

"Then why didn't you take her with you? Wasn't she upset?" he asked. "If it had been your mother, she wouldn't have let me forget it for months," he said.

"When you have a girlfriend, you're supposed to stay by each other's sides," Mrs Pak interjected. "Also it would have been a good opportunity for your friends to get to know MiRa." Then she sighed heavily before continuing, "oh well, that's the way young people are these days, I guess, thoughtless and inconsiderate."

Mr Pak was surprised by his wife's sudden, unnecessarily harsh words. But then he thought, 'the women must have discussed it amongst themselves and decided not to let JinYoung off so easily. There's nothing like the bite of a woman's tongue to show a man his wrongdoing.'

"No," Mr Pak sighed, determined to lighten the blow. "I'm sure JinYoung didn't intend to be inconsiderate. Isn't that right, JinYoung-Ah?"

JinYoung found it hard to answer. "No, Aboji . . . "

"You see, Yeobo, he won't make that mistake again, will you JinYoung-Ah? It's important to learn from your mistakes in a relationship. And when you love someone, you should be careful not to hurt them, so you have to think carefully about everything you do and consider how they would feel about it . . . right, Yeobo?"

"Right, " his wife agreed.

But neither of them knew what those words meant to him. He could only think of his relationship with Mark, a relationship they didn't even know existed. They were concerned with MiRa, but JinYoung could only think: he'd hurt him. He'd hurt Mark, the one person he loved most in the world. He hadn't considered his feelings enough when they were together and then he hadn't thought or acted carefully enough, and now . . . the irony of his father's words . . .

If he only knew . . .

"This is your first serious girlfriend, so you're bound to make mistakes. But as long as you don't repeat them," his father said, shaking his finger at him in mock scolding.

"Yes, Aboji."

Mr Pak chuckled contentedly as he looked at his son.

"You're a good boy, JinYoung-Ah. You've always made me so proud."

And so the evening went. Mr Pak, totally oblivious, complimenting his son and Mrs Pak making use of every opportunity to make some reference that would remind JinYoung of his predicament. And all the while, JinYoung picturing his father's face full of disappointment if he should find out the truth about any of what had occurred.

When he left he felt so many conflicting emotions stirring inside him. He was ashamed. He was angry. He was unhappy. He was full of regret.

But most of all, he could see that his mother was right. He couldn't tell his father: it would hurt him too deeply. He had to take care of the situation as soon as possible.

He would have to grow up.

*                                 *                                 *                               *                               *

"I'm sorry to call you over so late. I had dinner with my parents."

"I'm not sorry," MiRa said as she hung up her coat. "I'm just glad you're back."

She sat on the sofa, waiting for JinYoung to bring in the tea. When he did, she took a sip and then sat back and looked at him, fairly beaming.

How can she be like this? Like nothing's happened? When I last saw her she was so upset . . . why does she look so . . . happy?

"MiRa, the reason I called you over was . . ."

"I know why you called me over. Your mother called you, right?"

"MiRa, what is this all about?"

"What do you mean what is this all about?" she asked. "Didn't your mother tell you?"

"I want you to tell me," he said looking at her squarely.

"I'm expecting. We're going to have a baby," she said, smiling.

"How? I don't get it . . . how?"

"How? What kind of question is that? Don't you know how babies come into the world?"

"I mean, how do you know for sure?"

"I took a test. Look if you just asked me here to answer a bunch of stupid questions . . . " MiRa said, making to stand up.

"No, I just meant how do you know already? It wasn't that long ago."

"These days, under certain circumstances, you can tell after a week. There are tests that can detect a pregnancy that early, you know."

JinYoung hadn't known. But, he should have known.

"So you're sure?"

"Positively."

So it wasn't a mistake. She'd taken a test. It was true.

JinYoung felt his stomach twist in shock and anguish.

"But, why would you even take a test that early? Did you want to get pregnant?"

"What? Did I want to . . . ?" MiRa asked incredulously. "I don't even know how you could ask me something like that! I hadn't planned on it, if that's what you mean, JinYoung." She took a breath to cool down.

JinYoung looked worried. He didn't want to upset her, but it seemed strange that she would take a test that early.

"It's just that, after . . . well . . . what happened between us happened . . . and then with you leaving me like that, I felt so down and . . . so lonely. I started to worry, I mean, it could happen, right? I started to think, 'what if . . . ? What would I do if . . . ? And . . . then it turned out that . . . it did . . . I'm sorry I called your mother, but I was so alone . . . I felt so distraught. I called you, but you didn't answer any of my calls, so what was I supposed to do?"

"I'm sorry . . . "

"Why didn't you, JinYoung? Why didn't you even want to talk to me afterwards? That . . . time we spent together was . . . something so special to me. Do you think I do something like that every day?" Her tone softened. "I love you. I thought we were at least good friends. So why did you run away like that without even a word? Why didn't you return any of my calls? Weren't you concerned about me at all?"

"I'm sorry . . . "

"Is that all you can say? 'I'm sorry?' Well, I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry I loved you so much that I wanted to give us a real chance. I'm sorry that I'm . . . "

She couldn't go on.

JinYoung reached over and took her hands in his gently.

"MiRa . . . what . . . I mean, what do you want to do about it?" he asked quietly.

"What do you mean, 'what do I want to do about it'? What do you expect me to do about it?"

"I was just wondering if you'd given this any thought."

"I've given it nothing but thought, JinYoung," she responded. Then she turned fully towards him and said, "of course, we should announce our engagement and then get married as soon as possible."

Married?!

"You can't be serious," JinYoung said.

"Of course I'm serious," she replied. "The pregnancy is in the very early stages now, so it would be possible to cover up what's happened if we to pretend that I got pregnant during our honeymoon, but that will only work if we get married quickly," she said.

"MiRa, I can do anything for you and the baby. I'm prepared to be a responsible father. I will pay whatever you want in child support and I will be there to raise the child . . . 50% of the time, if you agree to that. I could even take the child and raise it myself, but . . . you already know . . . I can't marry you."

"What?" MiRa said, blanching.

"You know I can't marry you. We've already been through this."

"But that was before I got pregnant," she said. "Surely you can't expect me to face my parents, my friends, my father's work colleagues as a single mother?! Do you know what that will do to me? To my family? To our child?" she exclaimed. " . . . you can't be in your right mind . . ." MiRa muttered to herself.

"But I can't marry you," JinYoung pleaded. "I don't love you."

"What's that got to do with anything?" she asked. "I already told you, we can build on what we have and now, and with a baby on the way, it will be even better. JinYoung, I love you enough for the both of us and once our baby gets here, your feelings will naturally change. You'll love the baby and . . . you'll love me, too. We can have a happy family, I know we can," she promised.

"But . . . "

"Look. The truth is, we have no other option. I was so embarrassed about the situation, I couldn't talk to my family or any of my friends about it, especially after how things were between us . . . you know . . . I had no one I could talk to. I had to go to your mother. Just think how I felt, after that morning, to have to go to your mother. I had to throw away all my pride and admit, to your mother, what we'd done. Your mother had been impressed with me, she respected me and my family and then I had to go and tell her that? Do you know how bad that made me feel? How low? Do you really think it's fair to ask me to do that again and again for the rest of my life, just because of what we both did together? You're a man. You know that you won't be judged; nobody even needs to know you have a child if you don't want them to, but what about me? I have to put up with the looks? The stares? If I have this child without being married, no one will want to know me, can't you see that? . . .  I thought a lot of things about you, JinYoung, a lot of bad things after the way your treated me that morning, if you want to know the truth . . . but I never thought you would be so cruel as to want to dump me into this situation alone . . . "

"I never said . . . "

"The only way is marriage, JinYoung . . . marriage! Otherwise, I can't face anyone and I'm not going to be branded some sort of 'promiscuous woman' just because of what we both did. You know the way it is here. I'll be the only one to suffer. Why should I when we both did it? It's not fair . . . it's just not fair . . . " MiRa said as she began to sob.

JinYoung moved closer to her and tried to comfort her. MiRa took the opportunity to lean her head on his shoulder.

"I know you didn't want to marry me," she said. "But, things are different now; we have a baby on the way. We can't just forget that, JinYoung." She raised her head to look at him. "I can't manage this alone. I can't bring all this shame on my parents by being a single mother. I just can't . . . " she wept.

JinYoung knew she was right. Everything she said made absolute sense. Under the circumstances the only decent course left to him was to marry her.

Not the most satisfying, I know. I will update the second half shortly.