zeng zu mu - great grandmother

Luhan muttered to himself as his fingers flew across the keyboard.

He was clad in pair of jeans and a hoodie. His hair was covered with a black beanie. He looked like a total hoodlum.

The people sitting at the table near Luhan’s watched his back as he typed ferociously onto the computer screen. But when they looked at his screen, all they saw was complete gibberish. They were all lines of coding.

There were other people in the restaurant too, a handful of older couples who were having their brunch.

A young woman had also walked in and sat down, but he was too busy to notice anyway.

In order to get his promotion, he had agreed to the blind date. But since he was promoted, he wanted to finish off the work he had left before he took on his new position, and hey, it didn’t hurt to finish it up while waiting for the girl. He thought he was allotting his time wisely.

He took a second to look at the corner of laptop screen. The woman was almost half an hour late.

Figures, he thought, all women are the same.

He really didn’t understand why his grandmother was so adamant on him meeting this girl. From the way she talked he assumed that the said girl was interested in him. But from the looks of it right now, that doesn’t seem so.

He took a second to take a sip of his drink and stretched.

Suddenly, his phone started to vibrate across the table and he picked up the phone.

“Yifan?”

There was a short pause over the line.

“I have a favor to ask…”

Luhan internally groaned as he recalled his cousin promising him that he’d try to attend more of Xiao Yen’s events. “Try my . You can’t make it, can you?”

“Something came up and I can’t cancel. Tell her that I’ll make it up to her.”

“I’m not going to lie to your daughter for you, man.”

“At least go there in my place.”

Luhan sighed in agitation. “Okay, I’ll go now.”

“Thanks.”

“Shut up.”

Nari ran down the sidewalk and practically flung the café door open.

She panted as she looked around the café.

She sighed in relief. He wasn’t here yet.

The only people here were some couples and a guy sitting in a secluded corner working.

She walked over to counter and ordered a drink.

A few minutes later, she sat down with her drink and started to text to Minhee on her phone.

Nari knew she was late. Traffic was bad and she couldn’t control it. She was afraid that she would be keeping him waiting.

Since he was late too, she felt slightly relieved. It was most likely that he didn’t want to come on the blind date which tells her that he wasn’t interested either.

Time passed by quickly and he still hadn’t shown up.

“He could have at least called or something,” Nari said aloud as she stared at her phone. She debated whether or not she should stay a little longer. It didn’t make sense for her to wait on somebody that wasn’t going to show up.

Coincidentally, her phone started to ring and the person calling was from a number she didn’t recognize.

She picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Nari-ssi?”

“Yes?”

“Hi, this Luhan. Something came up and I can’t meet with you today.”

“Ani, it’s totally fine. I was running late anyways. I’m not even there yet,” she lied thoughtfully. She didn’t want to make him feel bad.

“But about my grandmother…” he said over the line. “She really wanted me to meet you.”

Nari laughed silently. “Mine too, its okay. We can just lie. How about we tell them that we both had coffee and did a little window shopping in Myeongdong?”

Nari stood up and got ready to leave.

“Sounds good.”

“Alright, I’ll save your number and if we run into any problems with the elders then we’ll contact each other. Is that okay?”

“Works for me.”

“Okay then, I’ll hang up first.”

“Bye.”

Nari left the café and looked around.

She had cleared her entire day because of this meeting.

“Unnie’s school is around here. Maybe I should pay her a visit,” Nari said as she started walking in the direction of the school.

She had taken the bus since she assumed that her blind date would be driving her around after they had met.

When she finally arrived, she walked into the office and the school employees who recognized her greeted her happily.

They told her that her sister-in-law was outside helping run the sports event out in the field.

Nari thanked them and headed out to the field where she saw Ahri leaning against the brick wall looking slightly sick. She quickly walked over in alarm and placed a supporting hand on Ahri’s arm. “Unnie, are you okay?”

“Oh, Nari. You’re here.”

They hadn’t met since the party—which was two months ago.

Nari gave her a worried look. “Are you sick?”

“It’s nothing. I’ve just been feeling a little dizzy lately.”

“Then what are you doing outside? You should let another teacher cover for you. You need to be more careful,” the younger girl chided.

“The other’s are either busy with their classes or already helping out. I have to watch over the kids.”

Nari frowned. “This won’t do. This event won’t take too long. How about you go take a rest in the nurse’s office and I’ll take over for you for a bit?”

“I don’t know…”

Nari pulled the woman towards the building and gave her a light push towards the door. “Just go unnie, I got this.”

Xiao Yen sat on the bench with a very dark expression imprinted on her face as she watched the other children participate in the games with their families.

Luhan and Feilin were sitting on either side of their little niece trying to cheer her up from her father’s blunder. Luhan had called his cousin after he left the café and asked her to come to the school as well.

“Aw come on Yen Yen, let’s play!”

“No.”

“Don’t you want to have fun?”

“No.”

“Don’t you want to win a ribbon?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to get you some food?”