My sisters showed up in my room the moment I began to dress for my dinner with Aunt Hyori.  The result was a spread of cosmetics offering for a makeover. I made the mistake of saying that I didn’t know what to do with the bottles and brushes. My sisters went to work on me, talking all the time.

“Find out if Aunt Hyori’s boyfriend, Kim Hyun Bin, is related to Jae,” Chaerin told me, squinting at the line she’d just drawn on my eyelid.

“Is she actually dating, Mr.Kim” I asked.

Aunt Hyori never mentioned him to me. Each of us had our special Aunt/Godmothers since my mother has 3 best friends. Aunt Hyorim being mine, usually told me something important before she told my sisters.

“As much as Aunt Hyori dates anyone,” Bom answered.

“He’s old,” Chaerin told me. “Too old.”

“He’s got gray hair,” Bom added.

“There!” Chaerin said, looking satisfied. Then she caught my face with a light hand. “Don’t look yet. Some lips, huh?” She asked Bom.

Bom nodded. “I’m glad you’re finally letting us fix you up, Dara. What changed your mind?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t sure to be honest. I let them choose my clothes for the night as well. Chaerin and Bom chose the shortest iest piece of dress I’d ever put on. Maybe I was making an effort to find some connection with my sisters, or maybe I wanted to feel less like a boarding school bumpkin who had embarrassed herself flirting with the YGU’s former biggest hunk. A half hour later I stared at the dark-haired girl in the mirror and thought that Hye Sun unnie might have been right – I did have my “own beauty.”

“Good lord!” my father exclaimed when he saw me.

“You look beautiful, Dara. Just so beautiful,” my mom said.

“You think I should bring my driver’s license so Aunt Hyori knows it’s me?”

“Chin up. Walk straight,” my mother replied. “And don’t talk that way.”

As I drove the short route towards the restaurant, a new kind of excitement grew in me. I felt glamorous, adventurous. I handed my coat to the guy in the cloakroom and didn’t hunch over like a school girl when he checked me out before checking the coat. Aunt Hyori came in right behind me. We hugged.

“You look wonderful!” she exclaimed.

I’d never seen her cheeks so pink. “So do you.”

She grabbed my hand. “This wasn’t what I’d planned for us tonight, but come on,” she said, “our table’s waiting.”

I stuttered after her with an amazing burst of confidence. Maybe it was the attention my family had lavished on me that afternoon or the cute guy at the corner table who turned to look at me and smiled. But for one unusual moment I was feeling so adult and sure of myself. I was ready for anything.

But I never could have been prepared for what happened next. Because one second later, I noticed Jae and Min across the room – right in the direction where we were headed. Just as I was about to suggest on Aunt Hyori that we go somewhere else so I could bolt out of there as quickly as possible, Min looked up and saw me.

“Hey!” he called. “It’s Dara Noona!”

Jae looked up with surprise. His eyes flicked quickly to Aunt Hyori, then he turned to the gray haired man, who must have been their father, rose at the same time as Aunt Hyori and I walked toward them.

Were we sitting with them? My legs suddenly felt wobbly. “Hey, Min,” I said softly.

Aunt Hyori looked back at me. “You know each other?”

Min turned to Jae, who was staring at me as if he had just been tinkled between the eyes with a rock. Min nudged him, “It’s Dara noona.”

The older man held out his hand to me. “I’m Kim Hyun Bin,” he introduced himself in a deep and friendly voice. “You don’t by any chance make highway rescues?”

“Uh…sometimes.”

“Will somebody explain this to me?” Aunt Hyori said. “I’m the one who was supposed to be springing a surprise.” She playfully flashed a bright sparkly object on her left hand.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Aunt Hyori smiled. “I’m getting married, Dara.”

I guess I gave her the same shot-between-the-eyes look as Jae had given me.

“Dara?” Aunt Hyori asked, leaning closer to me.

“Uh…wonderful,” I muttered out. “Congratulations. That’s great, really.”

Not really. My adventurous Aunt was settling down. The person whom I wanted to be like was “the other woman” in a divorce – the woman Jae had told me he wanted nothing to do with. And the guy I’d flirted with because I thought I’d never see him again was going to be connected to my family by marriage.

“Why don’t we all sit down?” Mr. Kim suggested.

There was a moment of confusion as Min sat next to me. We seated ourselves around the circle, Min and Jae on either side of me. At least I didn’t have to look squarely at Jae. Instead I studied the strong shape of his left hand and kept smelling his perfume.

“You look pretty.”

I turned to my ardent admirer, Min. “Thanks. You look good too. That’s a nice jacket.”

“She gave it to me,” he said, with a quick glance to Aunt Hyori.

“Her name is Hyori,” his father said sternly.

“You already told us.” Min replied. “Twice.”

This, I thought, is not going to be a fun dinner.

Min, did you know that Hyori is Dara’s godmother?” Mr.Kim asked.

Min looked at me as if I’d just betrayed him.

“So, Dara,” Mr.Kim said, pulling on his tie, which did not go with his shirt, which did not go with his jacket, “Hyori tells me that you attend Busan’s all-girls school and you’re a top-notch student and great athlete. For a petite looking girl like you, that’s quite an achievement.”

I stared back at him for a moment, still try