Credits: OohBrilliant

08| The Revelation

“Do you love SooJin?”
-Umma-

Kwon MinWoo’s Thoughts Once HaNeul Opened the Door

Now I know why she is what she is.

Her housemate is a Goth.
Her friend and her mother are definitely weirder than her.
This girl in front of me keeps winking like she has an eye disease.
Then the mother gushes over my looks like a high school girl.
And why am I not surprised that I see a live duck in a cage in her house?
Just remind me, why did I come here in the first place?

I should’ve just run away when I had the chance.

I think I’ve made the biggest mistake in my life by asking her to pretend to be my fiancee.
To be entangled with her family would definitely bring much headache in the future.
I should’ve just followed Haraboji’s plan for me.

Because any girl wouldn’t be as weird as Kim SooJin.

Kwon MinWoo, you’ll DEFINITELY go out of your mind!!

*************
 

Women all over the world have always been infatuated with hot guys. 

We got mad when guys go for the skinny, y legged, younger girls when in fact we always drool over the handsome, y men we see on TV. We secretly dreamed that we could marry WonBin or bear HyunBin’s children but we get angry when boys started to fantasize about Kim TaeHee or Park HanByul.

Yes, women are hypocrites.

If we’re not, all the male idols would consist of old uncles with yellow teeth or humongous hair.

And now, I’m seeing live hypocrites right in front of my eyes. They were evidence to my theory.

HaNeul were winking repeatedly at Mr. Kwon, like she had dust in her left eye. Umma kept putting rice on Mr. Kwon’s plate like he was some starving child from a third world country.

I think the duck was a female too because I swear it was staring at Mr. Kwon.

Yes, female, no matter what age, human or not, are all hypocrites and superficial.

Let’s say that Mr. Kwon wasn’t a y creature. I doubt HaNeul would pay much attention to him and I don’t think Umma would be as generous with the rice. She was someone who once said that rice was so precious that we should never eat it so leisurely for fear that the world would run out of rice and we’d be left with nothing to eat.

That was my dear Umma, ever so thoughtful.

Mr. Kwon couldn’t stop staring at me. No, it’s not the kind of romantic staring that you think. He was staring because he was sending me a message telepathically; he was crying for help. He was asking for my help to escape from there.

Serves him right for coming here uninvited!

I already told him that they were coming yesterday but it was his own fault for tuning out what I said. Although I may have said some stupid things in the past, he shouldn’t just assume that everything that came out of my mouth would be idiotic.

To me, he brought it to himself.

But I do wonder why he came.
Knowing him, he wouldn’t have come if he didn’t have something to tell me.
Hmm.. wonder what could that be?
Did he want a refund for his carpet?
Or worst, did he want the ring back?

Frightened, I put my hand on my lap in my way to hide it from his sight.

“So, MinWoo,” Umma said, adding some extra sweetness to her voice when she uttered his name, “How do you know SooJin?”

Mr. Kwon gulped down his rice as he stole a glance my way. He was seated beside HaNeul, right opposite of me. Umma was seated beside me, opposite HaNeul. Actually, when HaNeul volunteered to sit beside Mr. Kwon, I saw his face paled. I think he knew what he was going to suffer through, sitting beside her.

Suddenly I felt a foot rubbing against my lower limb. Without looking, I knew it was HaNeul. I bet she rubbed her foot against mine, thinking that it was Mr. Kwon’s. My best friend was such a flirt!

I stomped on her foot.

“Yeowwwww!!” HaNeul yelped, her eyes widened as she stood up.

“Oh dear God, what happened to you?” Umma asked, slightly disturbed by HaNeul’s sudden yelp.

HaNeul gave me a look and I blinked innocently at her. “Nothing, Omonim,” she said, still giving glaring at me as she sat back on her chair.

“So, MinWoo? I’m still waiting,” Umma said, smiling brightly at Mr. Kwon.

“Err... ma’am..” he hesitated.
“Call me, Omonim,” Umma smiled.
“Omonim,” Mr. Kwon repeated, “Err... SooJin is- Err.. she is..” he hesitated again.

Now he knows how difficult it was to tell my mother. 
He thought it was so easy, didn’t he?

“He’s my boss, Umma,” I answered instead, “He’s the reason why I get to rent an apartment and live in Seoul without asking for money from you and Appa. He pays me a lot.”

Umma’s eyes brightened when she heard this. “So, you’re rich!!!” she exclaimed excitedly, “Now, eat more. Eat more,” she said as she piled some more rice on Mr. Kwon’s plate. It’s a freaking mountain of rice on his plate now.

Mr. Kwon blinked rapidly as he looked down to his pile of rice. I think he was wondering how in the world he could finish that.

“Eat up, MinWoo!” Umma said, “Don’t just stare at the rice, darling.”

Darling?

She found out that he was rich so suddenly he was a darling to her?
God, can she be any more embarrassing?

Umma and HaNeul fluttered their eyelashes at Mr. Kwon like butterflies in distress.
I rolled my eyes.
I saw Mr. Kwon’s face getting paler as he looked down and ate a spoonful of the fried rice.

“Isn’t it nice? SooJin has always been a great cook,” HaNeul suddenly decided to compliment me, which is a rare occasion for her. She was never generous with compliments but I guess, seeing a gorgeous guy changed her.

“Hmmm..” Mr. Kwon muttered, nodding his head. He still didn’t look up.
I bet he was even afraid to look up.

Seeing my boss who always yelling at me squirmed in his seat was actually quite fun. I think I quite enjoyed the moment. I hid my smile behind the back of my hand.

I saw Umma stealing a glance at the ring on my finger and a weird smile crossed her face. I knew it wasn’t going to be good. 

“So, do you love SooJin?” Umma asked out of the blue.

Mr. Kwon and I choked on our food.

“Umma!!!!!!” I protested as Mr. Kwon coughed loudly. I offered him a glass of water which he gladly took. HaNeul was being ‘nice’ by lightly tapping his back.

“Are you okay?” she asked with concern and he nodded, “My, my, do you often work out, MinWoo-shi?”

That made Mr. Kwon coughed even louder. It sounded like his insides were about to be cough out from his mouth. I watched as he gulped down the entire glass of water in one go.

“Haha! Got ya, didn’t I?” Umma laughed in glee as she winked at HaNeul, “I’m just playing with you, MinWoo. Don’t be nervous. Relax. I know it’s not even possible for you to like this silly daughter of mine. I bet rich, handsome bachelor like you only date celebrities.”

“Umma!!!” I protested loudly again. 
I didn’t know what was more embarrassing; she saying that I’m silly or she thinking that I was way out of the league for Mr. Kwon. 
I bet if I told her that I was engaged to Mr. Kwon, she’d die of a heart attack. I thought she’d be angry but judging by the way she was acting so embarrassingly giddy like a high school girl in front of y creature, I guess she would jump up and down with joy if I told her that.

Umma would be ecstatic to hear me getting married to a handsome, rich man like y creature.

“What?” Umma asked oh-so-innocently, “I was just asking. He can just say no, like what JiWoon did.”

“Err.. JiWoon?” Mr. Kwon inquired.

It was a bad move for him to inquire about JiWoon.
He should have just kept his mouth shut.

“You mean, SooJin haven’t told you?” Umma asked and Mr. Kwon shook his head.

Here we go again.
I bit my lips. Umma was going to tell the whole embarrassing story again.

Umma sniffed, the way she always does whenever bringing up my ‘sad, non-existent’ love life. HaNeul handed her a tissue, her way of encouraging Umma to tell the story.

Like I said, my best friend was ever so ‘supportive’.
I wonder why she was still my best friend.

“There was once, SooJin really loves this guy, Kang JiWoon. He’s a sweet boy, I tell you, although not as handsome or rich as you.”

She just had to insert that, didn’t she?

“Then, during her graduation day, I asked him to marry SooJin since she was so in love with him. But that boy rejected her. Who can blame him, though? He’s way too perfect for SooJin but of course, not as perfect as you.”

It amazed me still, how Umma managed to insert compliments for Mr. Kwon in her ‘sad’ story.

“MinWoo, JiWoon doesn’t want SooJin even after I promised him half of our farm. Omo, my SooJin is going to die a lonely .”

Mr. Kwon’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out.

“Umma!!!” I protested loudly, slamming my palms on the table, “Mr. Kwon doesn’t need to know that!”

“What are you so embarrassed about? It’s not like you stand a chance with a handsome guy like him,” Umma waved her hand dismissively at me.

I buried my head in my hands as I groaned.
That’s my Umma, the bane of my life. 

Oh, I almost forgot the other bane of my life.

HaNeul.

She fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously at Mr. Kwon as she said, “She doesn’t stand a chance but I do, don’t I MinWoo-shi?”

Out of reflex, Mr. Kwon quickly took out his cellphone. “I’m sorry, there’s an important phone call that I need to make,” he said as he stood up and went towards the living room for some privacy to answer the non-existent phone call.

HaNeul pouted. “Why does he have to call someone right at the crucial moment? He was about to confess to me.”

I groaned even louder. Leave it to my delusional friend to be even more delusional.
Didn’t she notice how frightened the man looked?
He even feigned an important phone call just to get rid of her. Even a blind can see that.

“Don’t be ridiculous, HaNeul,” Umma said, “He’s definitely dating someone like Kim TaeHee. You, just like SooJin, stand no chance.”

HaNeul and I groaned loudly.

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating. “You’re going to be rich, yayayaya~” my ringtone began to play. I quickly picked it up without looking. “Hello?”

“Help me get out of here!” was Mr. Kwon’s frantic shout from the other line.

“I need to answer this,” I told Umma and HaNeul and excused myself to the living room. I s