Ta Pol, turn right and left, feeling very uncomfortable after realize what he just did by bring the news, he want to leave as soon as possible, but given the situation, he knows it isn’t polite to do that.

Ta Bua tries to calm Aom down by saying what he think is best for the situation, which is not necessary best for the listener.

“Hey it’s good that it turns out like this, so all those people that talk down on you can shut the hell up. The head engineer is the nephew of the Admiral, let see what those people going to say now”

Mrs.Orn scold at Ta Bua and shake her head, because she knows that what Ta Bua just said would make her daughter feel worse than before.

“Ok, why don’t we stop talking about this for now, I’ll get these betel nuts clean up and we can discuss more about this later. Honey, where is your grandma?”

Ta Pol sliding his hoping to leave without causing too much scene, when he saw someone about to walk up the stairs.

“Aom…your dad is here!”

That sentence make the petite girl’s eyes widen, she kinda feel happy for about 3 seconds.

Mrs.Orn that is picking up the betel nuts bags freeze in her place, before slowly continue to do the task in front of her, even so, her hands still shake a bit.

“Here, let me help you put this in the kitchen Mrs.Orn” Ta Pol grab the basket from Mrs.Orn’s hand, because he wants to get out of there fast, “Come on Bua, grab that second basket and follow me to the kitchen, let find something to eat while we’re in there too”

The two buddies quietly disappear into the kitchen.

The tall middle age man that is walking up the stair has a very serious face while walking up. His eyes that look to the two ladies in the house look a little sad. Mrs.Orn wears a blue dress with white short sleeves shirt, even though it’s very clean it looks kind of old. Her hair that used to be short when she was younger, is now long and put up into a bun. As for Aom, while her dress look a lot newer than what her mom is wearing, her face look pale and very skinny. The tall middle age man look around the house, while it’s kept very clean, you can still see the visible ware and tare. He has mixed emotion as he saw that sight, especially when the two ladies bow to him with respect.

Mrs.Orn’s face shows no emotion, and her voice seem distant yet polite like she is talking to someone important, “Please come in sir, Aom can you go get him some water”

Those words from her mom is signal for her to leave because she wants to talk to the guest by herself. Aom opens her lips like she’s about to say something, but decide not to, while whisper to her mom before leaving.

“Mom, please talk to Dad, say no ok?”

Mrs.Orn didn’t look at her daughter, but her face show seriousness that her decision is already final.

The tall middle age man sit down not too close to Mrs.Orn, while Aom quickly back away about to leave.

“Aom, are you ok? Your face look very pale” The deep voice of Aom’s Dad ask.

The petite girl didn’t answer, instead she give him a faded smile before leaving, so the her dad turn to Mrs.Orn and ask,

“Where is your Mom?”

“She is probably in the orchid”

“Wow, she is very healthy, she can still work in the garden?”

“Sometime, but not recently because she just got better from malaria. However, she still want to do many of the stuff herself” Mrs.Orn told the story like the person that is sitting in front of her is a distant guest.

Aom carry a tray of hot tea set to where her dad is sitting, the tea set is very old that you can see the crack in the teacup while saying softly, “We don’t have ice, we only have hot tea”

The Lieutenant grab the cup from the tray and look at it with interest.

“Wow, this tea set is still here?”

“We only have three cups left in the set, Aom accidently drops two of them and another the crack is pretty bad so we just stop using it”

“Aom, I heard you didn’t continue your education”

That sentence hit the petite girl weak spot like a lightning, so she snap back with confident,

“Last year the flood got pretty bad, the trees was wipe out by water. We just got back on our feet, I don’t want Mom to work too hard”

“Why don’t you go talk to me?”

Aom moves her lips, about to answer, but Mrs.Orn cut in and answer very calmly.

“Me and Aom already talk this over, it’s our problem”

Aom back away from where her dad is sitting, but still over heard his serious voice.

“So how could you let this happen then? You have the newspaper too?” said Aom’s Dad as he sees the newspaper close by.

The petite girl walk over to the kitchen to listen quietly from in there, while Ta Pol and Ta Bua standing in the kitchen chewing on some leftover food they found.

“It’s a long story, I was about to tell Aom to go get you so we can talk about this. Because I know it won’t be appropriate if I just made the decision alone, I don’t want you to blame it all on me about this later. You came at the right time so we can talk about this once and for all”

“I have a lot to say about this” The deep voice sound very pissed.

However, Mrs.Orn still answers back very calmly, “I have a lot to say about this too, but if you’re going to talk with bad tempered, then I don’t think we should talk about it now. Right now I’m a lot older and more mature, I know everyone can get impatient but I want to have a calm adult conversation”

The Lieutenant pause for a second, but as he continue speaking his voice become calmer.

“The other day, the Headquarter ask me to go have a meeting with the Japanese Admiral, so I went. I didn’t think for a second it would be about my family. When I arrived, the Japanese side already prepare the Culture Ambassador to talk to me and also the newspaper interviewer. We talked for a while before I found out they want to ask for my blessing for my daughter. I was so confused and a little shock, so I ask which one of my daughter…”

The petite girl that is eavesdropping feels a little lightning again, she just forgot that if those people would talk about her dad’s daughter, it would mean the other two of his daughters but not her!

“They were confuse too, we got everything clear up after a long explanation of the Japanese Admiral’s nephew being the head engineer around here, and fall in love with my daughter, so I just realized then that they talk about Aom. I don’t even know how to answer them, I can’t just say I know nothing about this, it would sound too irresponsible, but I can’t just say I won’t allow this to happen either, everything was so messy…”

“So what do you think about this sir?” Mrs.Orn’s voice is still calm like always.

“All I can do was stand there like an idiot and after the meeting, every there just come and congratulate me. Some of my commanders walks up to me and tell me that it’s about the relationship between two countries. So what do you think I could do?”

Mrs.Orn gives out a long sigh while Aom’s Dad voice turn aggressive again.

“All I want to know is how did Aom end up falling in love with that stupid prick. I have a lot…” The Lieutenant pause for a bit before continue, “I really think this is very wrong and unsuitable, I mean think about it…”

“Sir, we can’t just look only as it’s suitable or not. It’s only looking at the tip of the iceberg, there is many more things we need to factor in”

Mrs.Orn tell the whole story to Aom’s Dad, without emotion, only thing that she left out is about Kimhan being a girl, because she knows it won’t be good, for either Kimhan or the Lieutenant.

“He do all this with good intention to help us and didn’t do anything out of tradition at all. The reason he told his uncle is probably to just get his uncle opinion, he probably didn’t mean for it to get this big. Somebody probably overheard it and told the Admiral that Aom is your daughter, so that is why, it’s more about politic now. I was about to talk to you about this, but just realize about the news in the newspaper just before you came not long ago. I’m just a regular person, it won’t affect me that much, no matter which way this thing turn out, but it would probably have much more effect on you because you are high rank soldier with glory. So how do you think we should go about this?”

The last sentence from Mrs.Orn shows a little sarcasm so Aom’s Dad look up at Mrs.Orn with an uneasy face.

“I think there is not much else we can do”

“What do you mean?”

“It means we have to let it be, if we were to refuse it, it would