That Friday as they packed for the trip, Luhan notified her that they would have to share a bedroom at Mr. Nam‘s house. “Don‘t worry. I won‘t take advantage of the situation,” he assured her. “Should you decide you want to consummate our marriage, I‘ll be more than happy to oblige you. I‘ll just wait for your signal.” She was too excited and nervous to speak. She decided to pack her new nightgown for this occasion.

When they arrived at the Nam residence, she noticed that the couple prided themselves on their mansion and collection of flowers in the yard. On the inside of the house, she was shocked when she saw all the cats running around the place. A couple of birds remained free to fly around. She was afraid one would fly down on her but, to her relief, none did. During their dinner, a small poodle sat on the table in the place next to Mrs. Nam Sunyoung. She insisted the dog receive the best part of the steak and cut it up into bite-sized pieces and set them on her best china. The dog even drank from a crystal bowl. The cats were given their own scratching posts next to their own litter boxes. Each cat had its own miniature mansion, and the ten birds had fancy birdhouses. Sunyoung was an eccentric fifty-two-year-old woman.

“We don‘t have human children,” she told them at one point during the meal. “Our pets are our kids.” Then she went into a detailed description of each animal‘s personality and likes and dislikes. “I even have an entire room where I display all of their paintings. They are very artistic,” she told Seohyun.

Seohyun forced herself to smile. She decided that even if she had to adopt children, she would find a way to have them. She didn‘t want to end up like Sunyoung. The woman gave her the creeps. She suddenly realized that the next day was going to be a long one since she had to spend it with her.

Mr. Nam remained quiet during the entire meal. The only time he did contribute to the conservation was to grunt when his wife asked him, “Isn‘t that right, Jinnie?”

“Jinnie,” Seohyun soon learned, was short for Sungjin.

After dinner, Sunyoung gave Seohyun the tour of her pets‘ houses while Sungjin showed Luhan his collection of animal heads. Seohyun tried to pay attention to Sunyoung but after the fifth house, all the houses began to look alike. By the time it was eleven, her eyelids were drooping. All that she wanted to do was sleep.

“Well, we can continue to talk about this tomorrow,” Sunyoung told her as she patted her hand. “I will have to show you all the scrapbooks for each of my kids.”

There was more to this woman‘s pet collection? Seohyun simply nodded and followed the maid, Eunji, to her room for the night.

Luhan was still listening to Sungjin, so she changed into her newlywed nightgown and went to bed. She wondered if Luhan found the evening remotely interesting. She had been bored to tears. She couldn‘t imagine how many scrapbooks that Sunyoung could possibly own, and she dreaded finding out.

She waited for Luhan to show up but she fell asleep shortly after her head hit the pillow. Surprisingly, she heard Luhan enter the room and softly shut the door. As soon as she realized he was there, she was wide awake. She heard him quietly move around the room and get ready for bed. She wasn‘t sure what she should do, so she finally opted to wait for him to make the first move.

He slid into bed next to her. She was keenly aware of his body, though he wasn‘t touching her. Her heart raced with a mixture of feelings. She was as nervous as she could possibly be. She also experienced an exciting thrill of anticipation that increased the heat in her face and pounding of her heart. She had her back turned to him so she couldn‘t see what he was doing or how he was lying on the bed. She was too timid to roll onto her back to find out.

As the minutes passed, she realized that he was keeping his word. He really wasn‘t going to take advantage of the situation. He would wait for her permission to approach her. She wasn‘t sure why, but she was disappointed. If he loved her as much as he claimed, then wouldn‘t he at least make an attempt to gain her permission? As it was, he seemed as interested in her as she was in his investment reports.

The minutes turned into an hour. And one hour, turned into two, and then three. She lay in bed, unable to sleep. Her body was too wound up to relax, no matter what she did. She closed her eyes and counted backwards. She imagined being at the beach with the sound of the surf pounding against the sand. Just the very nearness of him is driving me crazy. She gritted her teeth and willed the building tension in her to die down, but the more she tried to resist it, the more she wanted him. Why doesn’t he make a move toward me? Was he lying every time he expressed his desire to consummate their marriage?

Through the next hour, she began to grow angry. He should at least say something or touch me or kiss me. He should do something to engage my interest as he has done on several occasions in the past when we were at the house. She heard his steady breathing. Was he asleep? She frowned. Was she so dull that he could actually sleep with her next to him? She decided it was time to make him aware that she was beside him in a very intimate place. She had to be careful in how she did this since she didn‘t want him to think she was doing this on purpose. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as she rolled over so that she was facing him. She kept her eyes closed and wiggled toward him until her body lightly touched his. He feels so amazing! 

“Finally!” He rolled off his back and on top of her.

He kissed her passionately. The very intensity of his actions sparked a fire in her that raced through her entire body.

He quickly sat up and ed his pajama shirt. He threw the shirt aside and lay back on top of her. “I was beginning to think you weren‘t going to give me permission to do this,” he whispered in her ear as his hands hungrily roamed her body, caressing her s and her hips.

“You...you weren‘t asleep?” she stammered, hardly able to focus on anything but how good he was making her feel. She pulled him closer to her.

“Are you kidding? I‘ve been too wound up to sleep.” He kissed her neck.

“Then why didn‘t you do something?” Though she tried to sound appropriately angry, she was enjoying his actions too much to give energy to that anger.

“I promised to wait for you to tell me you wanted this.” He kissed her again. “I knew you weren‘t asleep.”

“How could you know that?”

She heard him softly laugh. “You weren‘t snoring.”

Oh. She had forgotten she told him that she did that. She pulled him closer to her as he continued to kiss her. She was hardly aware of the knocking on the door, but it continued until she realized she wasn‘t imagining it. Luhan yelled for the person to go away before he kissed her again. The knocking didn‘t stop. It seemed to only grow louder.

Hands on her hips, Luhan stopped kissing her and sat up, clearly annoyed. “Who is it?” he demanded, not hiding his agitation.

“Mr. Nam wants you downstairs right away,” the person on the other side of the door informed him.

She recognized Jongin‘s voice. Apparently, so did Luhan. He looked as startled as she felt that he was there.

“Go away, Jongin,” he snapped. “I‘ll be down there when I‘m ready.”

“He is quite insistent that it be now,” the other man insisted.

He rolled his eyes. “I‘ll be down there when I‘m ready,” he repeated through clenched teeth.

“Aren‘t you done with your wife yet? You‘ve had all night.”

Suddenly feeling as if everyone knew what they were about to do, she moved away from Luhan. Her face was hot from embarrassment.

Luhan heavily sighed and resigned himself to the task at hand. He climbed out of the bed and opened the door. “I‘ll be there,” he snapped. “Go away.”

She couldn‘t make out what Jongin told him, but she saw Luhan‘s shoulders tense before he shut the door.

When Luhan turned to her, he groaned. “I suppose if I got back into bed with you and continued what we started, he would return and bother us again.” He angrily grabbed a clean pair of black pants and a green long sleeved shirt. “I‘m sorry, Seohyun. I had no idea that Jongin would be here, and I didn‘t dream for a minute that Mr. Nam would want to hunt at this early hour. He had me up past midnight. I thought he was going to sleep in.” He looked out the window. “It‘s not even daybreak for goodness‘