It was a beautiful late spring day that would have been cherished anywhere in the world. But away from the everyday madness of the city, on a pristine beach on Jeju, the whole weekend seemed like a special gift. Even the weather had to fall in line to make the Wedding of the Year, if not the decade, just perfect for Ms. Lee Bo Na. Anything else would have been unacceptable to her. Cha Eun Sang smiled indulgently as she stood before the huge glass window that overlooked the beach dotted with only a handful of people this early in the morning. She tiptoed barefoot over to the recliner that sat near the window, casting a furtive glance to the huge bed, on which lay her son…..still fast asleep….barely visible under a fluffy comforter. She sat down and made the most of the oversized chair by making herself utterly comfortable by pulling up her legs and hugging her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. In spite of the room being at the optimum temperature, she shivered a little and rubbed her upper arms in a gesture that was almost instinctive. The chill that she felt though sat heavy and she knew that even multitude of layers could do nothing to disperse that. Her body and heart yearned for a warmth that only another heart could give.

But life doesn’t always fulfil all of one’s wishes. She chided herself for being greedy. She had enough to be thankful for. Kim Won had finally come home, still not entirely himself and still under treatment but stable and at least on his legs. He was frail and his schedule was set by Director Yoon and Cha Eun Sang in such a way that he only spent half the day in office. They had hired a handpicked young manager to be his personal assistant. He was a superb PR person with impeccable charm but more than that he was a trusted aide, whose main job was to create a smokescreen so that nobody got too curious about Kim Won’s habits and health. Kim Won on his part, had come back a changed man. He was a lot more affable and warm towards everybody. And he had managed to work one miracle, which had left Cha Eun Sang dumbfounded. He had come home in the dead of the night on a private plane, accompanied by Yoon Chan Young and Lee Bo Na. The very next morning, he had appeared at Madame Han’s door to pay his respects with a wan smile, a little shaky on his legs, wearing his pajamas and a robe, looking bedraggled. Madame Han had stared at him unblinking as he had carried on a one sided conversation of small talk as if he was visiting an old and familiar aunt. Cha Eun Sang was a little baffled but had held her breath for Madame Han’s reaction. In the middle of Kim Won’s chatter, Madame Han had got up from her usual chair and had gone over to stand next to Kim Won where he had been sitting on a trunk, in which Cha Eun Sang had packed away all her fine clothes.

She had laid a bony hand on his shoulder and had asked, “Have you eaten breakfast yet?” Kim Won, bless his composure, had only shaken his head to indicate that he had not. Madam Han had then turned to Cha Eun Sang and had said, “Give him the tray you brought for me. I will eat later.”

Not later, but together, that’s how they had eaten that day. After a long time, the dining table had seen the entire family…..or what was left of it…..together, eating and conversing as the years of frosty feelings and dark guilt had slowly melted away. Cha Eun Sang had watched Madame Han come back to life bit by bit as Kim Won had healed their rift with patience and kind words. Soon, she had started coming downstairs every day, waiting for Kim Won to return from office, with a pot of tea. They had spent about half an hour at first but within a week, she was eating downstairs at the dining table with the rest of them. She looked far more together these days, even if she was not what she used to be. With her hair neatly combed and her face washed, it seemed like she had recovered much of her poise, if not her gaiety. She seemed genuinely concerned about Kim Won’s health and though she never nagged him like she did Kim Tan, she often shared her folk wisdom about healthy food and healing with him. Kim Won listened patiently and seemed touched whenever she did something for his welfare. In fact, Madame Han had insisted that she would be perfectly capable of looking after the household and Kim Won for the weekend all by herself while Cha Eun Sang attended the wedding. Cha Eun Sang had said nothing to contradict her but had left a word with her mother and Madame Yang to look in on them, in her absence. Now, she a felt a little guilty that she was actually enjoying herself a little.

She looked at the garment rack that was rolled into her suite the previous evening by a young girl, who was one of the many assistants on the wedding planning team. There were four dresses hanging there which were meant for her along with as many suits for Sunny. He was supposed to be the ‘cute factor’ per the very artistic and in demand wedding planner, who was at the helm of this grand affair. He was also the one, who had handed each of the bridal party a thick file, which contained all the details of their role in the minutely choreographed wedding. What to wear, when to wear, what kind of makeup, where to sit, when to applaud and most importantly how to pose for the pictures. If Cha Eun Sang was hoping for a relaxing weekend away, then she was mistaken. There was rehearsal lunch on Friday, followed by the very in vogue Bachelorette party that evening, the wedding on Saturday afternoon, the cocktail and dinner on Saturday night and the grand conclusion on Sunday morning with newlywed couple departing for their honeymoon. Cha Eun Sang was the unofficial Maid of Honor, since she didn’t have any duties other than to keep the hyper bride from going off the rails altogether. When the entire wedding was planned, this was the only point to which Yoon Chan Young had objected. He had tried to reason with his bride that Cha Eun Sang should be his Best Man or woman since she was his closest friend. Needless to say, his words were ignored and an acne faced, teenage cousin on his father’s side was commandeered to fill in as the Best Man. She glanced at the time on her watch and decided to get herself and her son ready for breakfast, where first ‘briefing’ for the day was scheduled.

Later that night, when the ‘women only’ revelry was dangerously close to devolving into a lewd, bawdy group discussion, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, Cha Eun Sang stepped out into the garden, which was adjacent to the small banquet room, which was festively decked out in streamers and banners in pink and purple and heart shaped balloons and fluffy cushions. The women, by this time in the evening, were festooned with strings of shiny beds and faux pearls that they had received as prizes in various party games and quizzes earlier in the evening. But that was 6 bottles of vodka, 2 bottles of tequila and countless bottles of wine ago. In her hurry to get away from women discussing various bedroom jokes and incidents, she had left her shoes behind. But she didn’t mind. The grass was soft beneath her feet and the cool night air didn’t bother her as she had consumed quite a few glasses of wine. She was, in fact, still carrying a glass in her hand. The wine was smooth and she had an inkling that perhaps she was a little tipsy. She felt the emptiness in her heart from that morning return, for that had only lain dormant under the hustle bustle of the day. Something was clawing at her very core, making her antsy. She was breathless and disoriented. Her skin was on fire and she felt thirsty. The echo of the laughter that she had left behind reached her ears even though she was quite a distance away from the banquet room. Cha Eun Sang impatiently tore at the garlands of beads that hung around her neck, taking off some and breaking the others. She walked faster and reached a bench that sat lonely in a far corner of the garden, bathed in the warm glow of a faux retro lamp that stood behind it. She sat down and downed the rest of the glass in one shot. And then she sat till the tears came. And they didn’t stop…..falling unbidden on her dress, washing away her makeup and extracting a confession from her heart. For the first time in many, many years, she was crying for herself. Not in mourning for her husband, not in sadness for her child, not in fear of losing her family but because she was afraid that she would never feel the warmth of a man’s love again, that she would never again feel cherished as a woman again. The night breeze carried the softly whispered plea on their wings, “Please…please…please….” as she sobbed brokenhearted.

The morning of the wedding was insanely chaotic with the wedding planners scurrying around like headless chickens, the bride experiencing wild mood swings, the wedding party feeling alternately overwhelmed and irritated and the resort resembling a battleground. Cha Eun Sang had woken up early to find that the wedding planners and their crew had beaten her to it. The flowers were already up, miles and miles of tulle strung, elegant chairs already arranged on the ground and the entire place already teeming with more people than they had seen the day before. Apart from the wedding guests in the bridal party, most of the six hundred guests were arriving on a chartered plane from Seoul. But the photographers and the members of the press were already there, clicking away in a frenzy. She was besieged by a team of makeup and wardrobe people, who treated her like a model, who had very little say in how she looked on the runway. She was dressed in a silk gown of lilac color, in keeping with the color scheme of the wedding ceremony. As the maid of honor, her dress was of a deeper lilac, while the bridesmaids wore a lighter shade. Though dress was sleeveless, her ‘matronly’ status apparently had called for a lace jacket that covered her entire arms and reached her waist in length. This fact only depressed Cha Eun Sang more as she took in the radiant bridesmaids, showing off their svelte figure and toned arms. Her hair was fashioned into a chignon and a spray of orchids, matching the theme color, was pinned around it. After the cloud of hairspray cleared, she could feel the pinch of a number of hairpins that were employed to hold the arrangement in place. She sighed and went to rescue her petulant son, who was similarly manhandled into a child’s version of a 3 piece suit by the same team.

The rest of the morning was spent in posing for photographs by the bride and her party. Multiple shots were taken with the bride, her bridesmaids, the maid of honor and the ‘cute factor’, the ring bearer. Sunny was in a bad mood from the very beginning of the morning. The poor child was drowning in a sea of adults who were talking over his head. He was feeling excluded and alone, made to wear adult clothing (according to Sunny) and putting up with the incessant demands of the photographers to smile and turn this way and that, which didn’t help either. Had he been an average child, he would have thrown a tantrum by now. But he held on with a frown and an unusually morose expression. The present shot was taking place on the top of a grand staircase, while the faux Greek façade of the main building formed the dramatic background. This was to be a part of the official wedding photoshoot and the wedding planner and the photographer were distraught that the bride’s one of a kind (not to mention, incredibly expensive), couture bridal gown was not showing up against the marble background. Everyone else in the shot was distracted as the duo tried to figure out a solution. The bridesmaids were gossiping about the many celebrities, who had arrived already, gushing over their looks and manners while Cha Eun Sang was fanning Lee Bo Na’s face with an old fashioned Chinese fan so that her makeup didn’t melt and to keep her calm, turning a deaf ear to her petty whining. Sunny was disinterestedly looking about from the advantageous position atop the staircase when he spied somebody in the crowd that made his little heart glad.

He was smartly dressed in a steel grey suit with a burgundy silk tie and like all the men at the wedding, who were either guests or part of the wedding party, he was sporting a designer boutonniere, featuring the same shade of lilac orchid. He smiled genially and shook hands with various guests as he made his way around the ground. He spoke to a few at length and made quick excuses to the most. He was talking to a fellow business owner, whom his father bitterly hated and he greatly respected because he had managed to fight his father’s dirty ploys to take over the family owned business. He was in the middle of sharing the knowledge he had gleaned off an article he had recently read, when he saw the older gentleman’s eyes getting distracted. It seemed to him that Chairman Han was looking over Choi Young Do’s shoulder and leaning to his right with a slightly curious expression. Choi Young do was a little miffed and wondered if the gentleman had a roving eye as he brought his champagne flute to his lips to take a sip. Right at that moment, a high pitched squeal pierced his consciousness and he was unceremoniously tackled from behind as a weight crashed against the back of his knees. He stumbled forward, spilling the contents of the champagne glass down his front and over his hand, before the glass was knocked off his grasp due to the impact. He would have fallen on his face but Chairman Han had swiftly reached out to block his fall. In the bargain, his starched cuffs also got partially drenched.

The older gentleman steadied the younger man before asking concernedly, “Director Choi, are you alright? Who is that child?”

Sunny looked stricken as he stood behind Choi Young Do, realizing how his impetuous action had led to this terrible mishap. He hung his head and tried to swallow the tears that he felt threatening his eyes. He nervously fiddled with the button of his suit. Choi Young Do knew only one child who would dare to touch him so he instead apologized to Chairman Han and then thanked him first. He turned around and looked down on the little figure, who looked petrified. He noted the few gentlemen around them, who looked on with slightly disapproving expression at the said child.

Choi Young Do vainly tried to dab at the wet spots with a handkerchief as he evenly introduced the little boy to the people around, “Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Kim Jin, Chairman Kim Won’s nephew and my friend’s son.” A few murmurs went around the group that only deepened the sense of shame that Sunny felt, “Chairman Kim…..of Jeguk Group? Is he here? I haven’t seen him”, “Ohhh! Kim Tan’s son. Poor boy”, “No wonder! A boy needs a father to reign him in”.

Suddenly, in a rustle of silk and led by a couple of wedding planners, Cha Eun Sang appeared at the site of the ‘accident’ as was reported to her by a wedding planner. She looked at Choi Young Do, his wet jacket, the spilled champagne flute lying at his feet and figured out what had happened. Thus the question she asked was meant as a scolding rather than a query as she roughly grabbed Sunny’s arm and shook him,

“What did you do?! Who told you could run around like a hooligan? What part of ‘behave yourself’ did you not understand?”

Her cheeks were aflame as she felt embarrassed on account of her boy’s misbehavior. She was irritated and angry beyond measure. She didn’t even care that Sunny was sobbing already, ashamed and remorseful. She hissed at him threateningly, “Apologize! Right now…..to everybody.” She let go of his shoulder with such force that Sunny stumbled a little. She didn’t see Choi Young Do flinch and clench his jaws.

Sunny bowed so deeply that it looked like he was kneeling as he managed to apologize in the strictest formal words between sobs. Choi Young Do tried to sound amused for the benefit of the onlookers and said, “It is alright. Someday, I think, you will make a very powerful rugby player. Just don’t practice on people who don’t know that you are in a mood to play.”

A mild laughter went around the little group but it only made Cha Eun Sang feel worse. She could barely look Choi Young Do in the eye as she formally apologized to him on behalf of her son and glanced instead at Chairman Han as she offered the service of the wedding planner crew to see if they could help with the stained and wet clothes.

Chairman Han good-naturedly waved her offer aside saying, “I merely got sprinkled upon since, thankfully, I was not the intended target of little bundle of energy’s enthusiasm. Director Choi here is…another matter.”

Another round of mild laughter went around and though Choi Young Do only smiled indulgently, Cha Eun Sang felt prickly herself as if Choi Young Do had suffered some sort of humiliation on her account. She addressed him directly, “Director Choi, let me get somebody to clean that jacket for you. Please follow this girl and she will arrange to have to your jacket cleaned in no time at all. This is the least that I can do to apologize.”

There was a note of desperate plea in her eyes and something else….akin to frustration perhaps….that Choi Young Do noticed and was a little intrigued. He decided not to upset her any further and agreed. The girl led him away towards the main building but not before Choi Young Do saw Cha Eun Sang walk briskly away in another direction, literally hauling Sunny by the hand. Something told him that there was more to her ire than what was justified. He just wished that Sunny didn’t bear the brunt of it. He was shown into a suite and the girl waited for Choi Young Do to take off his jacket before vanishing with a promise to do her best in the quickest time possible. Choi Young Do made himself comfortable on the sofa and pulled out his phone. He decided to check his work email to pass the time. But that was not for long since there was a knock on the door, which disrupted his plan. He called out for the person to enter but there was only a more insistent knock. Choi Young Do was a little irritated but got up to open the door anyway.

He cast one look at her harassed face and pronounced abruptly, “You are a horrible mother!” He didn’t even wait for her to respond as he his heels and stalked off to retake his previous seat.

Eun Sang sighed resignedly and entered the suite holding two champagne flutes. She carefully put down both on the coffee table in front of Choi Young Do and locked her palms together in front of her in a gesture of apology, “I am sorry. I am so sorry on Sunny’s behalf and I am sorry that I let him out of my sight. I didn’t even see him slink away. I should had been more attentive. I will keep him away from you. I hope you didn’t have to face any awkwardness out there on account of his misbehavior. This shouldn’t had happened.” She brought her hands up to her forehead, rubbing her temples to release some of the stress.

Choi Young Do took that opportunity to dispel her assumption, “You think I called you a horrible mother because Sunny caused this….whatever….incident? You think I am mad because of that?” Cha Eun Sang looked at him through narrowed eyes, at the end of her tether to play games with Choi Young Do.

Choi Young Do picked up a glass and sipped before caustically remarking, “Why two? Making good for the spilled one? What are you? A small time merchant, handling a customer complaint? Tsk! Tsk!”

Cha Eun Sang bit out through gritted teeth, “What is your point?”

Choi Young Do seamlessly picked up where he had left off, “You are a bad mother because you lost your temper….in public. You humiliated him in front of strangers. What was the big deal? It was an accident. I could have done that to myself. You hurt his pride. A child has pride and they can’t rationalize like adults when they are hurt. They just feel hurt. You shouldn’t had yelled at him or even…..shaken him like that.”

Cha Eun Sang was still standing but she straightened herself further to look authoritative as she protested, “I know what I did. It is for his own good. Children learn from the cause and effect conditioning. He would not dare act so thoughtlessly again.”

Choi Young Do was just as unyielding, “What did he do so wrong? He just wanted to say.....’hi’ to me, I guess.”

Cha Eun Sang yelled out angrily, “I will not stand for bad behavior. He will not grow up to be bratty little spoilt kid. He has to respect boundaries. Such undesirable traits have to be nipped in the bud.”

Choi Young Do came to his feet and leaned in over the coffee table and challenged, “You think that was bad behavior? Seriously? It was a mistake! He didn’t set out to harm anybody. It just happened.”

Cha Eun Sang held her own as she hissed impatiently, “Mistakes have consequences. He has to learn about taking responsibility. It’s the way of the world.”

Choi Young Do’s eyes flashed as he uncharacteristically raised his voice, “He is a CHILD! He is allowed a few mistakes. He doesn’t have to be cut down because of that. Let him learn from his mistakes and not just remember the punishment. The learning will become a second nature. But, trust me, he will never forget the punishment. Is that how you want him to remember his childhood? A series of punishments?”

Cha Eun Sang felt the beads of sweat break out on her forehead as her heart raced and she was dangerously close to snapping. She clutched a handful of her lilac gown to steady her nerves and closed her eyes. She was not going to be told how to raise her child by a man like Choi Young Do. If anything, she wanted to raise Sunny to be the exact antithesis to someone like Choi Young Do. She tried to keep her words civil as she put him in his place.

“You are the last person, who should lecture me as to how to raise a well-mannered child.” She opened her eyes to see Choi Young Do sneer cruelly and advance towards her a little menacingly. Something in his body language evoked some long lost memories in Cha Eun Sang and she took a couple of steps back, trying to keep her distance.

Choi Young Do saw the emotions in her eyes change. The panic, the fear and the anxiety was the same, even if her circumstances were not. Choi Young Do smirked and synched his words to her feelings, “Exactly! So, I suggest that you get yourself some perspective on bad behavior. I know what bad behavior is all about and……so do you” his voice dipped dangerously.

Cha Eun Sang couldn’t think of a smart comeback immediately, squirming under his pointed gaze. Choi Young Do noted her taut body language and correctly deduced that this was about more than just Sunny. He changed tactic and softened his tone.

“So, you want to tell me what really is bothering you?” Cha Eun Sang looked startled at his question, which only confirmed his suspicion, “Is it the bridezilla herself? Or some other woman here? May be a group of mean women?”

Cha Eun Sang frowned a little at his