It was tempting to leave him on his front steps, ring the doorbell, and run. But by the time I got Hyun Joong up to the porch, he was gazing at me adoringly and trying to apologize. His mother answered the door. Her arms were the same size as his and her voice an octave lower than mine. In times like this, I knew that honesty was the only policy. I hoped that tomorrow, when Hyun Joong’s head cleared, he would still be looking at me with those sweet, grateful eyes.

Bom and I arrived home well after 11 pm.

“Dad and I were starting to worry,” my mother said, glancing up from a pile of student papers. “It’s late for a Monday night.”

“Well, I was hoping a friend would give me a ride,” I explained, “but he wasn’t feeling good, so Bommie and I ended u taking him home instead.”

Mom nodded understandingly. “I knew I could count on your girls to take care of each other,” she said and went back to her work. That’s how it is when your parents are former sixties peace loving activists who went into education and had children late in their career. Lucky for them, Bom and I didn’t turn out to be juvenile delinquents.

We trudged upstairs, and Bom headed straight for the bathroom. Stretching out on my bed, I hypnotized myself by watching the blinking light on the answering machine. If I’d been smart, I’d have played the messages while Bom had the water blasting. But at least two of the five blinks were Jessica’s, and I just couldn’t stand to hear how really, really, really happy she was for me.

“Aren’t you going to check your messages?” Bom asked when she returned to the room.

“It’s late,” I replied, “too late to call back. Why bother with it now?”

“It’s like a K-drama, I’d think you’d want to catch up.”

I shrugged, pulled the ponytail holder out of my hair, and began to comb.

“Jessica is really, really, really…” she began.

“I know,” I cut my sister short.

“But Jiyong is wondering why he hasn’t heard from Jessica.”

“Well, take a hint, Jiyong,” I said.

Bom’s fingers hovered over her tray of lotions and vitamins. “In message 3, Jessica is really, really…”

“I know, Bommie!”

“…being driven crazy by Jiyong’s calls.”

“Serves her right,” I grumbled.

“And of course, she’s really you-know-what,” my sister added, choosing a large bottle of apricot cream stuff. “Nichkhun, meanwhile, is kind of confused about Jessica. He says she blows hot and warm. I think he means hot and cold.”

“Good luck, Nichkhun,” I said, yanking out my hair with my brush.

“Then there’s I-M-Y-O-O-N-A, I can’t believe that’s her phone number,” Bom went on.

I rolled my eyes.

“Who is this Jae guy?”

“A friend, sort of. Someone I work with.”

“He showed up in another message too. That girl left her E-mail address. Tsk! So desperate.” Bom rubbed the lotion down her legs. Every night she examined them for varicose veins. Yes, my sister is about her legs. She has beautiful long legs and she’s worried about it. “Dee, why have you suddenly become a dating hot line?”

“It’s just one of those things, Bommie,” I said.

“Nothing that’s ever happened to you has been ‘just one of those things.’ You’re up to something. We’re the Park Sisters. We think alike, you know.”

I ran a big-toothed comb through my hair.

“I think it has to do with Sleeping Beauty,” Bom said. “Would you like to hear my theory?”

“No. But I have a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.”

“You’ve got the hots for Sleeping B. That’s obvious. And you actually think you can keep Jessica away from him,” she said, shaking her head with disbelief.

When I didn’t react, she went on. “Jiyong thinks he dumbed you, but we both know you dumped him first, hoping to keep Jessica occupied.”

“Nobody dumped anybody, Bommie,” I said crisply. “It was by mutual agreement.”

She dismissed the point with a wave of her lotion bottle. “All these other guys, you’ve somehow got them lined up for Jessica. Only this time,” she added with a sarcastic little smile, “I don’t think you’re planning to date them first.”

I bit my lip.

“Am I right?”

“If you say so.”

“What I can’t figure out is how Jae and these other girls fit in,” Bom added.

“The other girls don’t. But Jae, he could be the perfect guy.”

“Dee, come on, you can’t really think this scheme is going to work.”

“What I think is that Jessica just has to find the right guy. And I’m helping her do that.”

“Oh-puhleese!” Bom began plumping the zillion pillows that are on her bed. She’d always had a few now she had a zillion, a collection of shapeless stuffed animals to comfort her.

“The perfect guy for Betty is whatever guy you’re currently dating. You should have figured that out long ago. I don’t know why you dumped Jiyong – you should have ditched Jessica.”

“She’s my friend,” I said between clenched jaws.

“She’s using you, Dee! Sweet little Jessica is using you. You call that friendship? I call it pathetic. Jessica is a very selfish person. And if you think that by playing the fool you’re being a loyal friend, well, I feel sorry for you.”

“Playing the fool? You should know a thing or two about that shouldn’t you, Bom? I said, picking up one of her pillows and punching it. “I sure hope Siwon appreciates it.”

Bom blinked. She had never told us the name of corn-muncher’s father.

“Next time, put away your own laundry,” I told her. “I saw his name on the back of a photo in your sock drawer. He looks older than you.”

“He is a little older,” Bom replied quietly. “He’s a graduate student, a TA.”

“A teaching assistant?” I exclaimed. “You mean he taught you? Oh, man,” I said, disgusted. “I hope he gave you at least a B. B for baby.”

Bom folded back the sheet on herd and carefully arranged her pillows. That’s how she always responded to things she didn’t want to deal with. She’d busy herself, retreating to her own world. She could lose her eyes and close me right out.

“Bommie,” I said while I had the chance. “Corn-muncher is Siwon’s baby too. He should help out. SIwon should help you through.”

She clicked off the light above her bed. “He can’t.”

“Well,” I said smugly, glad to throw her words back in her face. “ I call that pathetic. Siwon is a very selfish person.”

“He’s married, Dee.”

For a moment I stood dumbfounded. “Married?”

My sister and an older, married man? What had happened to the model student who had gone off to college with big dreams? How had she turned into a stay-at-home-unwed mother in Seoul?

“And you criticize Jessica for stealing boyfriends. Bommie, you went after somebody’s husband!”

“I didn’t know he was married at first,” Bom replied, her voice half-smothered by a pillow.

“But you found out.”

“Too late,” she said. “I was already in love with him…so in love with him and I was already pregnant.” She lifted her head up for a moment, speaking in a clear voice. “Still in love.”

I shook my head. “And what about him?”

“He’s married,” she said flatly, and then dropped her head.

“So that’s why you’re always hanging around our phone, isn’t it? You’re waiting for him to call you.”

“No. He already called twice. I listened while he talked, then erased the messages.”

I in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Take your shower, Dee,” Bom said in a tired, dull voice. “It’s getting late. We both need to sleep. All three of us need sleep.” She rested her hand on her stomach.

I turned off the lamp on my side and headed the bathroom. When I returned to the room twenty minutes later, Bom quickly turned her back to me, her eyes closed as if she were asleep. But in the shimmer of moonlight I had already seen her silent tears.