When she was 8, Irene dreamt to get married at 24 and had first kid at 26 and second child at 28. Her husband would be a handsome prince charming that she met in coffee shop. They would live in small white house with green fence near the beach. She would take care of their little rose garden, her husband would sit on the chair at the veranda. Their kids played in beach with their little footprint behind them.
That was a nice little dream but at 28 right now, she exchanged a husband with slave driver boss, a small white house with apartment in the city, and two kids with high paid job in big company. If a man suddenly told her that he was her prince charming she would punch him on the nose before asking ‘where the hell are you when I have to pay my student loan? Where the hell are you when I had to endure the harassment?’
How dare he appeared when her life had been better with her own blood sweat and tears! She wouldn’t let him leeching on her! That little leecher!! Irene cursed her non-exist prince charming as she tossed herself on the couch. She was seriously giving marriage and men second thought. They didn’t seem so interesting right now.
Well, nothing sound interesting right now unless the food she had ordered 15 minutes ago. The delivery man should be right here now! She needed proper nutrient after spending time with her slave-driver boss. She would love to call him if he wasn’t paying her well. Unfortunately he paid her fair and square.
At least with the money she earned her mother wouldn’t call her every second of her life. When she was lucky, her mother would only call twice a month which was three days ago to blabber about her time for marriage before she was too old. Honestly, that was getting old so fast.
Speaking the devil, Irene’s phone rang loudly. No!! This was too fast. Her mother’s name flashed on the screen -actually she wrote it as Devil incarnate, but no one needs to know- Irene wanted to ignore it but her damn conscience told her if she ever ignore it, her mother would terrorize her everyday or even worse coming to Seoul which was HUGE NIGHTMARE for her.
Saying all the kind of prayer she knew she picked up. “Geeze, what take you so long to pick up my call? Are you trying to ignore me?” her mother yelled even before she said hello.
“Actually..” yes “no. I am from bathroom.”
“What time is it? Why haven’t you showered earlier?” she asked.
“I am working, eomma. I just got home, the money I send to you doesn’t grow from tree.”
“well, sorry for worrying about your health! I am just thinking about your body. You are not that young anymore.” Here we go, another age-shaming.
“I am 28, eomma.”
“yes I know, do you think I can forget how old are you and you haven’t gotten married yet. Do you know I read it, women isn’t really fit for child bearing when she is 30. I don’t want you to suffer when you give birth.” She ranted.
Irene rolled her eyes. Trust her mother to believe everything she read on Internet. Ever since Irene bought smart phone for her, her mother felt she knew every knowledge on earth more than god, himself. And her mother felt sense of obligation to scold her stupid spinster daughter -the daughter who bought the smart phone and taught her about Internet- about marriage and proper age for child bearing.
“28 is not old.” Irene stated. Damn her head started to ache.
“of course not. But you don’t have boyfriend, if you don’t start looking right now, all of decent man would be taken, you would only get some men with lot blister on his face.”
“do you even know what is blister?”
“I am offended, Bae Joo Hyun.” Her mother raised her voice. She even called her real name. -the name that she kinda discard when she studied in Canada for college but she did love her name. Sometimes she would use it though.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s why I hate when you go to abroad to study. But you father insisted. Now what happened? He got an old spinster daughter.”
It stung. The comment old spinster. It implied that no one wanted her and she wasn’t desirable when actually Irene believed she could date whoever she wanted.
“but that’s not why I call you. You know my friend son is a doctor, and he is searching for second wife.”
“Eomma!!!”
“what? Don’t you dare to yell at me! He is still young, but his wife left him. Poor man have to raise his child alone.”
“No!” she said firmly. Her mother would have to drag her dead body if she wanted her to meet that man. It wasn’t
Irene had anything against divorcee but she wasn’t going to raise anyone else kid, heck even she doubted she wanted one.
“Why? You can get worse than this. I am helping you to find one husband.”
“I don’t need you help!” she bit back a curse that almost get out from . Her mother would throw tantrum if she ever heard that.
“yes, you need. You don’t make effort to meet men. You are beautiful just like me, you can marry well. Do you know woman changed her life with getting married well. That’s why I find you a doctor!”
Being narcissistic was a must for her mother. Not even one conversation would end without her praising herself.
Talking with her mother always stressed her out. Irene felt impending headache was coming. Her stomach started to hurt badly. “you want me to find a man right?”
“yes.” Her mother said hotly.
“Fine! I’ll find you one.” She heard the door bell was ringing, she walked to the door, “I will open the door for the delivery man right now, if he has the face of V from Bangtan Boys I would kiss him and get married with him!!”
Ha! Take that!
“W-wait what? Joohyun!” she ignored her mother’s voice. Irene yanked the knob harshly to face the delivery man which she believe would have just ordinary face.
“Hey, miss here is your food.” He smiled widely showing line of white teeth. His tan skin glistened under the hallway lamp. His eyes were so big even with mono eyelids. He was dropdead gorgeous, but the most important thing, he was carbon copy of V.
God or Devil or any invisible force just pulled prank on her. It must be karma or divine punishment because she didn’t respect her elder, right? Was it because she didn’t really pay attention to her mother desperate plea? Irene was started to worry about angering any other deities and as the superstitious person she was, Irene started to scream.
***
That’s ladies and gentleman how Taehyung met his first love. Just kidding!
Even though the lady was one of the most beautiful woman he ever saw, but he had standards and one of them was the woman should be sane not some hysterical screaming banshee. So as the reasonable and educated young man he was, he called his lovely boss.
“Boss, you just send me an address of crazy woman not our customers.” He informed with flat tone. He juggled the food in his left hand a bit, damn. Could he just put it in front of the door?
“what? Do you get the money?” his lady boss asked. “I believe that crazy woman is our customer.”
“boss, she screamed like banshee and slammed the door in front of my face. Do you think she would give money to me?”
“She slammed the door in front of you? Did she break your nose?” his boss was eccentric young woman, if he had to say it kindly but in his honest pure opinion she was just as crazy as the woman if not more. She also had attention span of 5 years old.
“Not yet.”
“Then why are you calling me? You should knock the door, and shove the food and get my money, Kim Taehyung.” She said, “we need money.”
“I think if I do that, she would really break my nose boss. Can we just sell it to another customer?” he leaned on the wall.
“No, we can’t. Don’t you know our café motto? ‘we make your food no matter who you are.’ That including your screaming banshee as long as she is not some serial killer.”
He heard some of mouse clicking and a woman voice about tower under attack, “Boss, you are not just making that motto while playing DOTA right?” he asked.
“Of course not. I am offended Kim Taehyung. I am making report.”
Yup, his boss was lying. That woman would rather walked without shoes in the snow rather than doing report. That’s why she hired their manager, so she could play game all day long.
“Now, shoo… send that food to her, I don’t want to know how you do it.” She said.
Taehyung sighed, he was stupid. He knew that calling his boss would never solve the problem but somehow he always ended up doing that. Why didn’t he call his manager? Yeah right, he would kill him if he called for this trivial matter.
“Fine.”
“good. And Taehyung…..”his boss paused for a while. Taehyung felt some tension raise, “Don’t die. Because we all are waiting for you…”she paused again “to close the shop. It’s your turn today.”
Was it consider abuse to smack his boss head? Because really, he wanted to do it right now. Taehyung sighed and shoved his phone into pocket.
He braced himself for the worst possibilities, well at least she is just some screaming banshee not a serial killer or serial . Oh god, he didn’t just think about it. . He worked too long for his crazy boss.
He just wanted to knock the door before it opened suddenly. The woman smiled sheepishly while rubbing her nape, “hey, Can I get my food now?”
Taehyung shrugged, “as long as you pay, miss.” He didn’t feel to treat her like normal customer because she wasn’t that normal anyway.
“Of course.” Then she managed to give him some sincere smile.
Taehyung felt something punch his stomach. Crap!! Was Jeon Jungkook -his satanic co worker- gave him spoilt food again? He swore he gonna kick that brat when they met. Because right now, he felt really sick and weird.
***
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