May 16, 2011

“Sehun!” An old lady swings the double doors open, helping herself into the man’s office. From her head, she removes a taupe, wool fedora with a grosgrain band trims and a brim that’s longer in front. Her straight, black hair in a bob. She wore a cream jacket, with 3/4-length cuffed sleeves, designed in a stylish and longer length than a usual jacket, a coral sleeveless pullover dress underneath. A brooch of a snowflake is fastened at the right of her chest, shimmering in Technicolor under the afternoon light. Her leather loafers are mustard in color, faintly rapping against the marble.

“Mother,” Sehun is caught off guard, “I’ll call you back.” He quickly whispers out of his mother’s earshot, discarding his phone that was stuffed in between his ear and neck. The man clears his throat and straightens his tie, rising from his seat. “What brings you here?” He goes to meet his mother halfway through the room, gently taking her into his arms.

“Well, I woke up this morning with an unusual hunger for Italian cuisine. When I asked your father, he dismissively waved a hand at me! Can you imagine? Anyway, after that I thought of you.” She smells of vanilla and lavender today.

“You should have called me.” He says, pulling away.

She raises a brow at him, soothingly curling her lips. The old woman places a hand over her son’s cheek, soft and calming, “I’m your mother, Sehun. What would you have me do? Schedule an appointment?”

“Of course not mom. What I meant was—”

The doors swing again, only this time it was someone Sehun expected. Returning from the copy room, Hyunsu comes in carrying a tower of project proposals that reached to her chin. Looking down, she doesn’t acknowledge the presence of a stranger. “I’m back! Do you need anything else?”

“Uh, mother, this is my new assistant, Jung Hyunsu. Jung Hyunsu, this is my mother, Oh Hyosub.”

“I’m terribly sorry! Where are my manners?” She sets them down, hastily smoothening its surfaces as she walked to where they stood, taking the old woman’s hand to shake it. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Oh. A pleasure meeting you again.” She beams at her, all teeth and crescent eyes.

“Again?” The old lady reiterates, “Hyunsu?” Lines in between her brows meet, the ring of the name familiar to her ears. “Oh, Jung Hyunsu? Isn’t she the same girl from law school? The one you couldn’t stop talking about?”

“Mom.” Humiliation vibrating in his throat, the vowel uttered a second too long. He sounded like a teenager wiping his mother’s kisses with the back of his palm, hoping no kid his age saw.

“I’m sorry son, I didn’t know it was still an issue.” The old woman puts a hand over her lips, a coy smile creeping at the corners of .

Hyunsu shoots him a look, bewildered and perplexed, the man purposely dodging her eyes. Sehun used to talk about me? She thinks, attempting to imagine a loquacious Sehun, buoyantly chattering about Jung Hyunsu despite a grueling session on Criminal Procedure Laws.

As for Sehun’s mother, she couldn’t take her eyes off Hyunsu, a smile stuck on her face as she recalled. How often she heard her name escape her son’s lips, how she finally met her the first time in a school event and how she liked the girl that very moment.

“Shall we get going?” Sehun initiates, ridding the discomfort that hung pungent in the air.

“Of course,” The old woman locks arms with her son, perching the fedora back up her head.

The man begins to walk, shepherding his mother and taking his coat from the couch he threw it on earlier. “We’re going out for lunch. Make sure you get the papers signed when I return.”

“Wait no, what about her?”

Sehun halts from wearing his coat, speechless and irresolute. So was Hyunsu, both bewildered at the elder’s question. The man stifled the urge to visibly roll his eyes at his mother. He had a hunch she was doing this on purpose, desperate to marry him off. If he wasn’t mistaken, just last weekend she talked about succeeding his father and grandkids. She wanted three and she wanted them soon, a sense of urgency definite in her voice.

“I-it’s okay, Madame. I have a lot in my hands now.” The woman sheepishly remarks, “Besides, you two could use some quality time alone.”

“Nonsense, you’re coming with us!” Hyosub insists.

“Mother,” Sehun seethes through clenched jaws, it was too obvious to miss. All the more reason to be left behind, Hyunsu immediately looks away, pretending to not have heard it and at the same time, wondering why she was wounded at his reaction.

The old woman abruptly fumbles through her bag, pulls out a phone and speed dials, “Yejun, get me a table for three at casAntonio.” Looking back at the two who stared at her deadpan, she says, “It is done. Now, not another word.” Sehun swore he saw his mother smirk mischievously at him before removing her arm from her son’s. She then walks ahead, head held high with only the sound of her footsteps echoing through the vast room.

*

“Buongiorno! My name’s Kim Jongdae and I’ll be your server this afternoon. Here are the menus.” A cheerful man in a penguin suit and a neat, white apron hanging over his hips, arrives their table in a skip, handing the t