There was a ringing of the bell at the doorstep of The Jung Family's mansion. Youngjae was waiting outside patiently, checking his watch with some difficulty. 5:00PM. He was exactly on time again. Smiling to himself. Eunji was struggling to wear her dress, fumbling with the zip.
"I can't zip the damn dress up!" She cursed, giving up.
Hikari was leisurely sitting on her bed playing with magic with a bored expression. He was snapping his fingers and every time he did gold dust would fly up.
"Hikari! Why don't you get your lazy over here and help me zip this up!" She stomped over to him, glaring fiercely.
"Calm down lady, your boyfriend's not going to be mad just because you're late by a minute." Hikari rolled his eyes and flew over to zip her dress.
"I'm not trying to be on time for that ugly person. I'm trying to be on time to keep up with my reputation here so that no one will realise that there's something wrong!" Eunji remarked.
Then, she hurriedly took her bag and ran to the doorstep. Opening the door, she saw Youngjae smiling at her.
"You look beautiful." He complimented, taking her by the hand. Eunji smiled but wasn't really used to their relationship yet. Although the Youngjae in this world was much nicer.
"You're really nice." she chuckled, glancing at their hands which were intertwined. Somehow, she didn't seem to mind their intimateness even though she despised him. He had a different feeling, a warm one.
Youngjae held her hand tighter as she caught him smiling to himself.
And she smiled too.
"What would you do if we were enemies?" Eunji asked.
"I'd love and care for you secretly."
Eunji surprisingly, was not grossed out, but felt sorry towards him. It was heartening to see that she was well taken care of in this world but she belonged to someone else. Who which in this dimension, was her arch enemy. She thought silently, would he love her secretly too?
She never answered herself.
"I booked reservations for dining seats at my Grandmother's restaurant. Your favourite dishes, all specially cooked on request of me by my Grandmother." Youngjae somewhat boasted, hanging his arm loosely around her.
Eunji laughed nervously, his Grandma? She wasn't too sure about her emotional self in this world but she had quite a comical fear herself. And that was the fear of Grandmothers.
I know, but don't laugh! First, listen to my explanation. It's perfectly normal to have fear of Grandmothers. Of course I'm not going to throw up some fancy english word to force you to believe me, because such a fear does not exist.
Just kidding, I caught you there didn't I? There is a word, that exists for this specific meaning, yes, the fear of your gran nannies.
Babushka-phobia, the fear of grandmothers
This fear developed when she was fairly young, at the age of adolescent. The reason was quite humorous, to anyone, but to Eunji it defintely was not. The story goes like this- Eunji was about 10 years old. Celebrating her birthday, her parents invited many elderly for some weird reason, and most of them were dressed up as clowns. They were all chatting, going so close to her, too close for her comfort. And that was it, that was why Eunji was so afraid of Grandmothers. Just because her private space was intruded.
He concentrated on her face, she was distracted by her thoughts, losing focus on what he was saying.
"Hey, are you alright? You seemed zoned out." He let go of her hand gently, firmly gripping both her shoulders.
"Huh?" Eunji snapped back, her voice suddenly went louder than usual,"I'm fine! Just you know tired from school." She smoothly covered up, changing the subject.
He didn't notice anything weird, "Yeah, I'm so drained out. How do the teachers expect us to do all of our homework and revise in the few free hours we have?" He sighed.
Eunji nodded her head profusely,"Exactly."
"Anyway, we should get going!" Youngjae pointed to the long black limousine car parked in the front porch of her house.
She stepped down the stairs, (which Youngjae forced her to hold his hand even though she didn't really want to) walking to the posh limousine.
"It's humongous in here!" She said.
And that was her first mistake.
"You've been in here a thousand times Eunji. You have a bigger limousine too." Youngjae looked at her suspiciously, burning holes in her eyeballs.
Eunji laughed awkwardly,"Of course, just you know...complimenting." She swallowed the last word.
Youngjae blinked twice, there was an evident awkward silence that broke the both of them into a fit of laughter. Their eyes rolled back as their jaws dropped open naturally letting the sound of joy and happiness fill the limousine. From the corner of her eye, she saw the driver chuckling softly at the front seat. After awhile, the laughter died down, leaving the smiles on their faces stiff.
"Complimenting? Great word choice Eunji!" Youngjae remarked sarcastically, jokingly hitting her shoulder lightly as it dropped to the side of him. His fingertips lingered at her hand for a long time, then his fingers gently touched hers. They intertwined. They smiled.
The ambiance in the room was suffocating. Her phobia crept up to her as she saw the fragile old lady making her way to the 'couple'. Youngjae stood up out of manners to greet his grandmother. She stayed in her seat petrified in her seat as her mind recalled the tragic and traumatizing past events. Her hearing was muted, she saw the monster turning towards her, a clown. Her lips were mouthing some mute words.
Eunji gawped at her while stuttering, "W-What?"
The old lady was nothing like how Eunji imagined. She wasn't as hideous as a clown. She wasn't the monster that hid in her closet as a child. She was a pleasant and respectable lady. She begun to laugh heartily,"Youngjae dear, your girlfriend is kind of jumpy isn't she?
Youngjae chuckled,"A little." He placed his hand on her lower back assuring her that she was fine. Eunji swallowed a gulp of saliva that had been lingering in for a long time. Then she took a deep breath and smiled,"H-Hi. I'm Jung Eunji. How are you Grandma?" She stretched out her right hand. She waited for the proffer of acquaintance but it wasn't made. She simply smiled and went back to the kitchen. As soon as she saw her exiting the dining room and into the kitchen, she let out a loud sigh and drooped onto her chair.
"What was that? This isn't your first time meeting Grandmother, why were you so nervous?" Youngjae asked tenderly.
Eunji thought for awhile, why was she so scared? She replied with the exact sentence she had in her mind,"I don't know."
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