CHAPTER I:

p.s. scroll down to the glossary at the end of the chapter for definitions of *ed words.

“Why don’t you just stab a stick through my heart?!” her grandmother screamed at the top of her lungs, clutching her chest as if her heart was about to fall out.

Rahyun shook her head in boredom, not even trying to calm the old woman down.

“Grandma, please stop threatening me with that phrase, I’m 30 now. It never worked anyways,” she said tiredly.

“It’s Bubby* to you!” the older woman corrected, “And I’m 81! So stop whining about your age!”

The granddaughter scoffed, “81? From all the screaming I thought you were a newborn baby.”

“I heard that young lady- oh please do correct me, I meant 30 year-old yenta*!”

They were in the kitchen, watching their chefs dial the phone to order some Chinese food. Bubby had insisted that Chinese food were better delivered than made. It was more authentic that way.

Sometimes Rahyun wondered why their family even decided to hire any cooks at all.

“Oh, please, I am not a yenta.” She said indignantly.

“You'll get there angel, I passed you down my big mouth.” Her bubby glared at her, “I don’t understand! This world is huge- and you’re not hideous or heaven forbid- have any chronic illnesses… So why won’t you get married already?! I’ll take in anyone at this rate- even a Gentile*!”

She exhaled a breath of frustration, “Grandma- I mean Bubby, we are Gentiles! You’re not even Jewish in the first place! We’re all Korean!”

“Oy,” Bubby touched her head to massage it, “Like it was my fault I was raised by a Jewish nanny.”

“Thank god my nanny wasn’t Jewish,” said Rahyun.

The chefs were still staring at them, not understanding a single word due to the great barrier of the English language. They nudged one another and pushed one unlucky co-worker to disturb the two ferocious looking women.

“Uhh, ma’am, dinner’s been ordered… It’ll arrive in 30 minutes.”

Bubby stared at the man who muttered in Korean, “Call them again, tell them that they’ll lose a loyal customer if they don’t get here with my jjajangmyeon in 20.”

“Right away madam,” he ushered off to tell his fellow chefs the horrifying news.

As soon as he left, Rahyun’s grandma started wailing again. She had to admit that for an old woman with a tiny frame, her bubby had the biggest voice she’d ever heard.

“Why won’t you let me see my great-grandchildren?” The older woman cried.

“Because I have better things to do than becoming a mother?” Rahyun answered, “Besides, marriage isn’t the most important thing right now. I have my work to focus on. Dad’s company will be handed down to me and I want to make sure that I’m capable enough to handle such a huge responsibility.”

Her bubby scoffed, “See? You wouldn’t have to worry about such a thing if you had a husband, because he’d be handling the company, not you.”

“Grandma!” her hands were shaking at her sides. She fisted them, trying to keep herself collected. “Please- I am perfectly happy the way I am now. I don’t need a man by my side to guarantee that.”

Her bubby looked at her with hollow droopy eyes, her lips drawn to a thin, sad line. She opened to say something but shook her head instead.

Rahyun saw the old woman turn around quietly, shoulders sagging down as she breathed out a long empty sigh.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Bubby whispered with a shaky voice, “I also know that you are a bright woman, as capable as any man. I shouldn’t have said that… I know that you could handle the company just fine but I don’t want you to carry the burden all alone.”

“Bubby, I-“

A wrinkled hand came up in the air to stop her from talking any further.

As she was heading to her room, Rahyun heard her bubby say one last sentence.

“It’s a lonely and dull path you’re choosing, angel. I’m just trying to spare you the pain.”

The heavy glasses of beer clanked against one another, spilling some of the golden liquor down the sides. Rahyun drank her glass in one-shot, her friends’ cheers blurring with the background noises of the pub they were in.

“To gettin’ older!” they all screamed in unison as they started drinking their own glasses of beer.

Rahyun felt burning, grabbing the table to steady her spinning head. One of her friends was asking if she was alright.

“Super,” said she, sounding like she had swallowed some nails.

Miji cringed at the sound of her voice, “Having your voice crack like a teenage boy going through puberty is not okay.”

Rahyun waved her arms clumsily, feeling very woozy all of the sudden, “I’m fine. Don’t you worry about little old me~”

Her other friend with the thick eyebrows frowned, “Great. Why did she want to have a drinking party for her 30th birthday when she can’t even handle a glass of beer?”

“Shut up Kris.” Miji snapped, “She had a pretty rough day today. Don’t question it and just drink your fill.”

Rahyun was now singing the soundtrack for a drama in a very high-pitched (and not to mention off-key) voice. “You are my destinyyyyy~ you areee… You are my destinyyyy, you are~”

Kris tried to block his ears to prevent it from bleeding. He eyed the dishes in front of them and huffed in discontent. “I can’t help but question why we are here, eating fried chicken when we could easily afford fine-dining restaurants!”

“You are my everythiiiiing ~”

 Miji gave him a little smirk, “Why, is fried chicken not your sty-“

“I just don’t like it! Now cut it off!” The giant man growled, chugging down half of the beer in his glass.

Rahyun was still belting out the OST