TAEYEON’S STORY

DADDY

“This is the busiest shopping day of the year, Yeon-ah. How can you possibly want to face those herds of people? How about you just stay at home and rest?” Jiyong told me.

“Mr. Kwon… For once, you should really stop fussing like an old mother hen,” I replied, but didn’t make any attempt to disengage my hand from his supportive arm as we moved down the staircase.

“I’m not trying to fuss…but don’t you feel tired at all? Just yesterday you were entertaining a houseful of relatives.”

“Ji…please… we have a plan.” I reminded him. “We agreed on it. All three of us. I ride to work with you, then drive over to Lotte Mall to do my shopping. I come back home and pick you up at noon and we go to Gautier so you can help me make the final decision on the living room and master bedroom furniture, then we pick up grandma and take her out to show her our new house. It’s a perfect plan. It’s efficient. It works. We’re not changing it.” I decreed.

“Fine… you’re the boss here.” Jiyong said. “I’ll zip my mouth and just enjoy a ride to work with my ethereal wifey.”

“That’s the spirit.”

We ate breakfast with grandma, who’d been remarkably subdued last night after Jiyong’s performance. She had said very little but after an encore of Yiruma’s River Flows in You, she had taken his hands in hers and kissed his cheek.

Later in bed, he’d told me that he couldn’t recall his grandmother ever having kissed him before.

Grandma had also surprised him by asking if she might be permitted to see our new house today, and he chose to believe that as a good sign. They’d been living under the same roof for years and though their lives seldom intersected except for their morning breakfasts together, he knew grandma would miss his presence in the mansion. He felt sorry for grandma and was astonished to learn that I’d feel the same too.

Undeniably, Madam Kwon Soomi used to scare the out of me with her calm yet cold demeanor, but since we began living together, her presence somewhat gave me a pleasant feeling, a feeling of having a real grandmother.

I was looking forward to showing grandma our new home but I was also nervous about it. Our relationship seemed to be on a better footing now that grandma had returned with an improved, less imperious attitude, but that didn’t necessarily mean I was ready to trust her. She’d do everything she could, though, to facilitate harmony between us.

As planned, I rode to work with Jiyong, then got behind the wheel and adjusted the seat to accommodate my legs and my baby. I’d gained only twenty-seven pounds so far, but it felt like fifty and on my small frame looked like a hundred. I expected Jiyong to start calling me Blimpie any day now but so far he’d been unbelievably supportive and indulgent.

The multilevel Lotte Mall was mobbed. Jiyog had warned me, but while I had been to the spacious shopping mall several times, my image of “busy” didn’t match the shoulder-to-shoulder reality. This was the first Friday-after-Chuseok I had spent in South Korea in a few years and there hadn’t been any malls in Jeonju while I was growing up.

Still, I was here, and I was an intrepid soul. I was anxious to get what I needed so that the new house was ready before the baby was born. Surviving the busiest shopping day of the year was simply a matter of practicing a little self-protection. I was using an enormous beach bag as a purse, which came in handy as a shield too.  I shifted it frequently from one shoulder to the other, keeping it between my stomach and the flow of heedless shoppers who couldn’t have cared less if they bumped and jostled a pregnant woman.

The bed and bath shop on the second floor of the mall was having a fabulous holiday sale and I made it safely up the escalator. Four hours later, I was satisfied that I had successfully chosen all the linens I would need for the new house’s kitchen, bedrooms, baths and pool house.

I made arrangements for the delivery of my purchases but couldn’t resist taking a crib blanket and bath set with me that matched the nature theme of Cheonsa’s room.

It was a load I didn’t really need to be carrying but I reasoned that I could use the packages as a second shield to protect both sides of me once I got up the nerve to fight the crowd on the concourse again.

Dreading the shuffle, I stood in the gigantic archway where the melodious eargasm of SNSD’s Lion Heart was being playing inside the store, giving some entertainment for the busy crowds.

“Are you okay, Mrs. Kwon?”

I glanced at the friendly young salesclerk who’d helped me earlier. “I’m fine, Jisoo.” I assured her. “I’m just trying to visualize myself plowing through that daunting sea of humanity.”

The clerk grinned at me. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to sit down again? Rest a few more minutes before you go?”

It was tempting, but I was due to pick up Jiyong in less than half an hour. If I was one minute late, he’d mobilize every single special force in this nation to come looking for me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” I reassured the girl. “Thanks again for all your help, though.”

“You’re welcome.” Kim Jisoo replied, then called after me. “Have courage!” as I plunged into the current and let it sweep me along to the nearest escalator.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know the mall as well as I thought, because I’d ended up at the granite stairway, not the down escalator.

“Nope, don’t think so.” I murmured, moving out of the flow of traffic. The stairway was only moderately congested but even under the best of conditions with Jiyong at my side to steady me, I avoided the stairs whenever possible.

I looked around to get me bearings and finally caught sight of the elevator on the opposite side of the concourse.

Turning back to retrace my footsteps, I found myself in the wrong traffic flow, swimming upstream like a hapless salmon, doing my best to protect Cheonsa from protruding elbows. I murmured excuse me when I merged headlong into a human brick wall more than half a foot taller and nearly twice as broad as I was.

I stepped to one side, registering the fact that the man’s ratty camouflage jacket did nothing to cover a generous beer belly. But when I moved left, the big man moved with me, blocking my way. Traffic separated to go around us, temporarily shielding me from its ebb, and that was when I recognized the man in my path.

Oddly, it was his smell that clued me in. even before his cruel, bloated face registered, I recognized the unmistakable scent of family, and my stomach turned sickeningly. Revulsi