The next morning I got up early and helped my mother around the house, carrying a cup of cocoa and a stepladder, fixing curtain swags and rearranging ornaments at the top of our Christmas tree. Aunt Hyori also called me to see if I could meet her at her office so we could run together and grab a quick lunch afterward. At school, I ran as part of my training in sports, but Aunt Hyori had done marathons, and I always liked to be challenged by her. As I was heading out, Bom came down for brunch.

“How was the party?” I asked, pausing at the kitchen door.

“Great!” Bom replied. “Some guys came.”

“Anybody who was anyone was there,” Chaerin added, walking behind her.

“How you’d know who else was there is beyond me,” Bom remarked to her sister, “the way you kept orbiting around Jae.” She filled a mug with water and put it in the microwave.

“Just for an hour,” Chaerin replied. “Jae left the part by 10 pm,” she explained to me. “Everyone was wondering why.”

Both of them looked at me expectantly.

“”Well, why?” I asked.

“I was hoping you’d know,” Chaerin said.

I lifted my car keys form the hook. “Nope.”

She wasn’t dragging me into this campaign. This time I wasn’t helping her out – getting information, carrying messages. If Chaerin was in serious pursuit of Jae, the only way I’d survive the holidays was to distance myself from their affair. I started out the back door.

“Did you see that hissy fit Jessica threw when Jae left?” Chaerin asked, grinning at Bom.

I hesitated. One question, then I’d distance myself: “Is Jessica the girl with blonde hair?”

Chaerin nodded.

“That hissy fit was brought on by you, Chaerin,” Bom pointed out, “long before Jae left. Jessica seemed to think he was her date.”

“Well, Jae didn’t.”

“How was Hyun Joong?” I asked, my resolution weakening again. I couldn’t help wondering if he’d thrown a macho hissy fit when he saw his “babe – a.k.a. Chaerin” flirting with Jae.

“Funny you should mention him, Dara unni,” Chaerin replied, “He asked about you.” She gave a little shrug. “I told him we didn’t think to bring you because you weren’t much for partying, and anyway, you were out with someone else.”

“Dara, are you sure you didn’t see Jae last night?” Bom pressed.

“I left the Kim’s house when Uncle Hyun Bin came home.” Technically it was the truth.

Bom removed her cup from the microwave and dunked a tea bag, studying me.

“I’m headed over to Aunt Hyori’s,” I told her and Chaerin, then walked out the back door.

As I drove to Aunt Hyori’s office, I wondered about Chaerin’s plan. Her show of interest in Jae might have been nothing more than a strategic move in her game with Hyun Joong, a ploy to make him jealous. But if the prize really was Jae – and I had the terrible feeling it was – all other interested girls might as well forget it.

When I arrived at Aunt Hyori’s office, she was dressed for running already. She waved at me, and I started pushing back oak chairs, clearing a space in the room. As soon as she finished the call we did warm-up exercises.

“I haven’t been running as much as I should,” Aunt Hyori admitted as we bent our right legs back and stretched. “Men can be such as distraction.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Oh, really?” Aunt Hyori turned her head sharply. “You tell me about it – tell me about him.”

“Who?” I said quickly. “There’s nobody.”

I could tell she didn’t believe me, but she let the subject drop and continued the stretches. “Okay.” She said, standing up and putting her jacket. “I’ve got money for the deli and keys.”

“I’ve got tissue,” I told her, rising to my feet.

“Lip gloss.” She slipped it in her pocket. “That’s it. Let’s go.”

As was our custom, we didn’t talk much the first mile and a half, just cruised along, finding our rhythm. It was forty-something degrees but the air was still and the sun bright and warm on our backs. By our second mile we were outside the small town, running a hilly road next to a golden winter park.

“Dara, thanks for being such a good sport the other night,” Aunt Hyori said. “I’m sorry our dinner for two turned into a party of five.”

“Well, things always get crazy during the holidays,” I replied.

“I told Hyun Bin he should have time alone with the kids,” Aunt Hyori continued as we shortened our stride to take a steep hill, “especially when they first arrived, but he decided otherwise. And I didn’t want to seem like I wasn’t happy to join them.” We crested the hill. “Anyway, thanks for making it easier, especially with Min.”

I didn’t know what to say. I loved Aunt Hyori, but I cared about Min and Jae too, and I knew this marriage was upsetting them.

“There are a lot people who don’t approve of what Hyun Bin and I are doing,” Aunt Hyori went on. “There are people who make me responsible for his divorce.”

“Are you?”

She laughed. “I can always count on you to be straight with me. And to be straight with you.” She said. “The love between Hyun Bin and his wife died shortly after Min was born. But they’d decided to continue as partners in raising their children. That arrangement did not become difficult for them until I came into the picture. For that, Hyun Bin and I are jointly to blame.”

We ran another half mile in silence. “I want to be really happy and positive about your engagement,” I said at last.

“But you’ve already seen the other side of it, the effect on Min and Jae,” she replied.

“Yes.”

“Which is the proverbial good news – bad news for me,” she added as we reached a flat stretch. “The bad news is your Aunt Hyori is a villain to your two new friends. The good news is I now have a wonderful link to them, especially to Min, who has obviously taken to you.”

I nodded.

“I asked Min if he wanted to hang-out this afternoon,” Aunt Hyori continued. “I told him we could watch a movie and dine out.”

“He didn’t want to,” I guessed.

“Right. The problem is, I need to keep my hand extended to him, but I also have to respect his feelings about me. He has every