Meant To Be

Four

 

There’s no proper theory to explain this progression. One moment she’s been under the most intense gaze ever and now there’s only painful screaming. Wendy blinks in utter silence as she makes eye contact with a very hairy bear; few feet away from her.

 

“Lie down as if you’re dead!!!” Taeyeon’s voice shakes and there’s slight fear in those fierce eyes, though Wendy holds onto her laugh noticing the woman is already lying flat on the ground; acting dead in her own defense. 

 

“We can just run back to the house.” Wendy speaks for the first time, her eyes still lingering on the very weird short bear who is pacing back and forth????

 

“And have that thing follow us!??? I am not running back!” Taeyeon closes her eyes, spouting some mantra here and there.

 

“Don’t you think that bear looks kind of weird, Mrs. Bae?” 

 

“This is not how you survive in the wild, child. I’ve seen some documentaries about them, so just lie down like me. We will wait until it disappears into the woods.” Taeyeon whispers, a slight irritation in her tone.

 

“Uhm…not to be weird but that bear is laughing at you.” Wendy looks at the bear, who is at the ground laughing and rolling like a child. 

 

“This is no time to joke around.” Taeyeon doesn’t buzz from her act. 

 

Soon, the bear starts to jog towards them; literally, but Wendy doesn’t inform the lying fake dead person next to her. 

 

“HAHA, I got you so bad, Aunt Taeyeon.” The bear speaks, taking out the head and Wendy is greeted with a childlike face; grinning so hard at her fake girlfriend’s mom.

 

Taeyeon opens her eyes instantly and looks up, her eyes hardening as she realizes this whole situation, “KIM YERIM!” 

 

“Woah, you should’ve been able to challenge Celine Dion with that high note.” Wendy can’t help but laugh out loud, the whole thing making no ing sense but Yeri gives her an acknowledging nod, “It was funny, right? She straight up died.” 

 

“Do you possibly think this is funny!?” Taeyeon yells, red with angriness, dusting herself while she stands straight. 

 

“Weren’t you the one to tell me that you’d survive anything? You also bluffed that you’d enchant bears if you ever meet them.” Yeri smirks.

 

“That doesn’t give you the right to do something stupid like this.” Taeyeon sternly says, crossing her arms as she glares down at the fake bear. 

 

“I wanted to prove you wrong.” Yeri laughs.

 

“You’re grounded this whole year. Say goodbye to your winter vacation to Switzerland. And you. If this gets out, you’ll be like Pluto.” Taeyeon walks away after having the last word. 

 

“That was ing epic.” Yeri laughs again, getting out from the bear costume which looks legit; Wendy wonders if the girl had hunted a real bear for this purpose. “I can’t believe she laid down and acted dead.” 

 

Yeri takes out a camera which was attached to the costume, “She wants to be this scary one in the family but she’s actually the scaredy-cat. Bluffing is her second name.” 

 

“Your cousin was very much right about you.” Wendy helps the girl to carry the costume.

 

“Oh? Which cousin of mine had the time to talk about me?” Yeri beams. “The crazy doctor? Cold lawyer? Unstable Psychologist?”

 

Wendy laughs, “Probably the crazy doctor.” 

 

“You’re dating Joohyun unnie????”

 

“Last time I checked, yes.” 

 

“What did that grumpy doctor say about me?” 

 

Wendy smiles, “About how you love to irritate Mrs. Bae and everyone else, you’re the queen of pranks which I got to witness in a VIP seat. I’m not complaining at all.”

 

“Oh , did I ruin your chances of heart to heart talk with your future mother in law?” Yeri widely asks her and Wendy claps her hand, “Ruin? You helped my poor against Mt. Everest.” 

 

“Oh, is that what we’re naming her?” Yeri chuckles. 

 

“I felt like I was running out of oxygen.” Wendy truthfully says.

 

Yeri shrugs, “I act to please after all.”

 

“I hate to ask this but I’m so damn curious, how the heck did you get this costume? It looks like you hunted down a bear from China.” 

 

“I’m at a theatre club in uni, last semester we had a play called ‘beauty and the bear’, I took all the props from that set.”

 

“Beauty and the Bear?”

 

Yeri shakes her head, “Don’t ask. Our writer was high from weed.” 

 

“I can’t stop imagining a bear kissing Belle now. Traumatized for life.” Wendy snorts. 

 

“The uni almost stopped funding our poor club after that play.” 

 

“They had good reasons to do so.” Wendy cheekily says.

 

“Yerim! If you are scaring my girlfriend in anyway, I will throw your hoverboard down the lake!!” Wendy is astonished and excited to hear Irene’s voice, even though it hasn’t been that long since they parted. Only thirty minutes. 

 

“Damn, no trust in this big crazed fam at all.” Yeri grumbles, walking with Wendy towards the mansion where Irene was eagerly waiting. “Touch my hoverboard and I’m telling your girlfriend about Chicken party fiasco 2017!!!”

 

“You wouldn’t dare!!” Irene shouts back. Wendy pauses and whispers to Yeri, “You’re telling me, right?”

 

“Depends on what answer you’ll give to my next question?” Yeri stops in her track, holding the costume dearly.

 

“Shoot.” Wendy calmly states.

 

“What are your intentions with our crazy doctor?”

 

Wendy rolls her eyes, “My intentions with her? It’s her intentions with me you guys need to worry about.” 

 

“Damn right.” Yeri laughs.

 

It didn’t come up as a surprise to see Yeri so enthusiastic, Wendy thinks. She watches as the younger girl hugs Irene and whispers something, getting her forehead flicked in return. It warms her heart to see the cute interaction and anyone could notice that they’re close, and super protective with each other. The doctor had previously talked about each of her cousins, so she knew far more information about the whole behind the scene team.

 

“What did you do to mom? She was super mad when she returned…I thought my one did something to spook her.” Irene looks at Wendy adoringly.

 

“I wouldn’t be here if I did that…this devil of a cousin did all the work.” She ignores the way Yeri smirks as she settles to stand beside Irene, who immediately holds her hand. 

 

‘Part of the act’ Wendy’s constant mantra in her scribbled mind.

 

“Ew, you guys are throwing this disgusting rainbow smell. I ain’t got time for heart-eyes, as if the cold lawyer and her cute y legged fiancé aren’t enough for this vacation.” Yeri moves away from them, muttering how everyone she knows is rudely in love and how she will die alone in this state.

 

“Well, that’s Yerim.” Irene squeezes her hand gently, “Are you okay?”

 

Wendy smiles at her, “I feel like I’m one of your patients with the amount of times you’ve asked me that.”

 

“I just worry about you,” Those doe eyes glistens like a ray of sun and Wendy is send into a trance, “you’re yet to meet the others…if anything makes you uncomfortable, promise to tell me.”

 

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve met the star of the vacation already so I think I’ll be okay with few more.” 

 

Irene leans and randomly kisses her cheek, “Thank you for doing this.” 

 

One thing Wendy gets from this is that she will not survive this vacation in one piece.

 

Crazy. Wendy wondered why Irene used that term while describing her family but now she perfectly sees it. The whole family tree is scattered at the big yard, preparing for a very hearty meal and lot of them can be seen bickering or throwing raw chicken leg(Yeri and Seulgi to be precise) around. Thirty minutes passed since she was introduced as the ‘girlfriend’ to the whole pack and she’s immediately pulled in the patio between two comical aunts who loves to talk. 

 

“When Jennie was inside me, I feared to even fart thinking her head could pop out if I did.” Dara, Jennie’s mom, says and Wendy is kind of happy that she’s not the one feeling so awkward with all this because Jennie’s fiancé, Roseanne Park, is seated beside her, fidgeting every now and then. “And now, she is getting married. I feel so old, it was only yesterday when she came home laughing while holding half of Joohyun’s hair.” 

 

“Oh?” Roseanne questions, wanting to know more about the love of her life’s childhood memories. 

 

Sunny, another of Irene’s infamous aunt, laughs, “Poor Irene had a bald spot in elementary school.” 

 

“It was your son’s fault! My Joohyun cried for a month refusing to go to school.” Taeyeon strolls in, comfortably sitting beside Dara. 

 

“Spare my son from the drama between your competitive daughters. Instead it was my son who had to deal with their tantrums.” 

 

“No wonder he chose to study psychology.” Wendy says remembering Irene's description about her cousin brother, making all of them chuckle, Sunny even gives her a high-five but Taeyeon doesn’t even stir. 

 

“Look at them go.” Dara side hugs Roseanne with a small smile gesturing to the three figures behind the bbq stand in the yard. 

 

“That is ing raw, Jennie. Put that back!” Irene says with authority, pointing her tongs at the brunette, who frowns immediately.

 

“I have eyes, Rene but maybe you need to get yours checked cause this meat is not raw.”

 

“I have perfect eyesight, thank you very much.” Irene grabs the meat from Jennie’s hold and throws it to the grill in a matter of seconds.

 

“Did you just take my meat!?” Jennie growls.

 

“Guys calm down.” Jin finally speaks, getting in between the two riled up woman.

 

“Cause it’s raw, Jennie. I am not feeding my girlfriend with your raw cooking skills.” 

 

“And I am not feeding my fiancé your burnt meat, .” 

 

Wendy and Roseanne look at eachother, gulping simultaneously, wanting to do something but before they stand up, Taeyeon snorts, “Here comes Jin.” 

 

“Jesus, are you both on your periods? Does it happen everyday? I swear, I have been dealing with this since I was born. I’ll just grill all of these myself cause it’s obvious both of you don’t know how to do so. You two can go and pull each other’s hair down the lake.” Jin grunts, taking both of their tongs and shooing them away.

 

“Did he just shoo us, Jen?” Irene raises an eyebrow and Jennie crosses her arm, “Did he just try to mansplain us about grilling meat, Rene?” 

 

Jin looks at them in disbelief, trying to utter something but Jennie takes back the tongs from his hold, handing one to Irene, “Jin is why I have lost faith in men.” 

 

“He burns water and has the audacity to say we don’t know how to grill?” Irene rolls her eyes, flipping the sizzling meat over. 

 

“All the burnt one goes to him.” Jennie says.

 

“All the raw ones too.” Irene adds.

 

“Deal, bestie.” Both of them giggle and Jin surrenders behind them, “Even