CHAPTER III:

It was 7 in the morning and Rahyun wished her grandma had a snooze button installed for her nagging.

“Did you know who took you home yesterday? Did you remember how stupid you were acting? You were a total schmuck!*”

She dug her face into her pillow. From her hung-over condition, her grandma was screaming louder than Metallica. On speakers.

“The pretty one drove you and the poor boy home. God bless his soul. You should’ve seen yourself! Hanging onto his arm like a Gucci handbag!”

The woman groaned, “I’m at least a Louis Vuitton, bubs- and please, I don’t understand anything you’re saying. I wouldn’t be able to remotely function until 9 AM tops.”

“Angel. You’ve got work at nine.” Her bubby reminded, “Chop chop.”

Knowing that she would have to face her impending doom, Rahyun started sinking deeper into her duvet, crying silently for all the wrong decisions she’d made in her life. Who said it was a good idea to throw a birthday drinking party on a weekday?

Hey- it seemed like a tempting idea at the moment okay?

“Rise and shine sweetcakes.” Bubby sang, stripping the warmness of the blanket off her, “You better be nice to that guy you victimized, you hear me? I’m telling you; he’s a keeper.”

Rahyun cringed. It was way too early for her to deal with the ‘get married and give me my great grandchildren’ ordeal.

“Bubby, about what I said the other day, I meant it.” She said rather tiredly.

The old woman raised an eyebrow, “And the thing I mentioned about you getting married and not dying alone? I meant it too.”

Rahyun sighed in frustration, “Don’t be like this…”

“Oy, she’s turning into an old spinster right before my eyes.” Bubby deadpanned.

Her granddaughter gritted her teeth. “Stop it! Enough is enough, okay? I get it. I already have an agonizing hangover and I somehow have to look presentable for work, and I haven’t had my morning coffee yet. So it’s really not the time to pick a fight.”

“Fine. If it kills you so much then I won’t.” The other woman snapped, “Just so you know, I will be in my room.”

“No, wait let’s eat breakfast together-”

“I AM GOING TO MY ROOM.” Bubby’s voice echoed across the house, “Don’t call for me.”

As soon as her grandmother left, Rahyun began kicking her bundled up blanket and groaning from the massive headache she was having.

She didn’t mean to snap. She just couldn’t help it after bottling up the abuse for so long.

Of course she knew that her bubby only wanted the best for her, but it didn’t help that each time she would be so blunt and harsh about it. Sometimes Rahyun would even feel attacked by her words.

It was simple really- she and her bubby had different takes on the definition of happiness.

Bubby thought it was stability, companionship, and love.

To her, it was a whole different case. She feels satisfaction in doing her work, in being able to achieve something, to gain acknowledgement within the field of her job.

Rahyun didn’t know how to make her grandma understand her views.

“Miss?” She heard one of her house-maids speaking from the door, “There’s a call for you.”

Hmm. More surprises. “Why didn’t they just ring up my cell phone?”

“I don’t know, miss. I was only told that it is one of your friends who are calling. If you do not wish to take the call then I would leave-“

“No.” Rahyun waved a hand frantically, “No just give it to me. Thank you.”

The young maid handed her the house phone. It’s been ages since she touched the device. Ever since she earned her own smart phone to be exact.

“Hello?” She spoke groggily into the mic, “Who is this?”

“You idiot! Why didn’t you pick up my calls, huh?! I even had to phone Luhan to ask if you’ve gotten home safe!”

She sighed, “Is this Kang Miji?”

“No. This is a person who will murder you if you don’t give her a thorough explanation on what the hell happened.”

Rahyun laughed hoarsely, “For your information, I was knocked out completely. I didn’t think I checked my phone. Wait let me look for it.”

Miji growled on the other side of the call. “Didn’t you know how worried I was for you? Luhan said that you went completely nuts on that Bang Yongguk guy on the car ride home.”

“Yes… yes very interesting…” She said distractedly as she looked around the room for her purse.

“Wait so you remember?!” Miji half-shouted.

Rahyun was snapped back to the conversation from the loud outburst. “Remember what?”

“What you and Bang Yongguk did on the car ride home!”

At this point, she herself was panicking. “Holy crap, what did we do?!”

Miji was exasperated, “I don’t know! Why don’t you tell me?!”

After scanning the floors for her purse, Rahyun’s imaginary light bulb flickered on.

“Wait, who are we talking about again?”

Her friend wanted to smack her head with a frying pan. “BANG YONGGUK YOU AIRHEAD. WHO ELSE?”

“How am I supposed to know who the hell he is? I’ve never heard of him!” Rahyun cried out, looking under her bed for her missing bag.

“You met him when you were tipsy you idiot. Being drunk doesn’t directly mean amnesia.” Miji sounded sick of her already, “Now please tell me you recall a memory!”

“Don’t scream, Kang. I’m warning you. I just had another shout-fest with bubby and I really can’t right now.”

She listened to her friend taking a deep breath to calm down.

“Alright I’d just break it down to you then.” Miji resorted to the last option, “Look, when you were already influenced by the beer, Luhan came along and joined our table. He met some few friends who were also in the bar. You were really drunk- just repeating that fact- and I don’t know… You sort of hugged one of Luhan’s friends’ friends and sobbed onto him like you were watering plants.”

Rahyun paused her bag-search and gasped, “Oh good heavens… no.”

“Yes. So you basically were the stamp to his mail. You wouldn’t b