Reality Bites

It was late in the evening after Selina and Jiro have their dinner.Jiro received a call from his father.He wanted him to come and talk to him that very same night.He was quite alarmed but did not say anything to Selina.He said his goodbye and left.

When Jiro arrived at home ,he was surprised to see Hebe and her parents there.Somehow something is wrong here he thought.he quickly eyed Hebe and give her a questioning look,but like him ,she does not have any idea what was going on.He was about to say something ,but then their parents move to another room and talked among themselves.Hebe and Jiro was left in the living room just looking at each other.

After an hour of hush hush talking ,their parents came out.Jiro and Hebe sat together in the sofa.

"Are both of you seeing other people right now ?I know you are seeing somebody Hebe,we saw you this morning with that boy."Mr Tian said matter of factly.

"Yes I am seeing somebody right now"Jiro said"And I intend to marry her."

"We want to see them tomorrow for dinner,but that does not mean we are agreeing to what you want."Mr Wang said.

"And we want the four of you together evening here."Mr Tian announced.

The next evening Jiro came with Selina and Arron came with Arron.The four of them was so nervous,thinking what could their parents be planning at this time.All four of them dresses formally.Hebe and Selina are both wearing a nice cocktail dress and the guy are in a suit.Both wanting to make a nice impression to the parents.

Both set of parents came at the same time.They must have talked about it.Jiro and Hebe introduced their own partners.
They could not make out what their impression were for both have a blank face.

They have dinner first.This is the first time that Selina stepped in Jiro's house.It is huge and each room was elegantly decorated.Hebe's house is nice but Jiro's house is grander in style with more of Chines antiques that must have dated hundreds of years back.She knows that those jars and tables and adornment must have cost a fortune.

Suddenly Selina felt the difference in their social status starts to sink in.And the thought that she is not Chinese,although she have like a fourth or less in her vein does not classify her as a Chinese for she didn't grew up Chinese more like an American Asian.She suddenly felt very uncomfortable.Jiro never told her the scale of their wealth.And somehow talking about it and seeing it created a different impact.

Arron have known Hebe's family before.But that does not mean they are going to be easier to him,in fact the more he is going to be grilled tonight.And the fact that his family is now American citizen will certainly make him loose some boy scout point to them.

There is not much conversation on the table.everybody is looking and trying to gauge each other.And the fact that Selina has a limited Mandarin did not help it either.

After dinner they were summon back to the living room where tea and dessert were served.Mr Wang signal jiro to come over and told him to come the library with Selina.Jiro readily obliged.

He ushered Selina inside and talked to Jiro first in Mandarin."I gathered you have very limited command of our language"Mr Wang said."Excused my English also I am afraid I am not that fluent."

"No you speak perfectly fine."Selina said and smiled.

"You know that Jiro's marriage has been arranged since he was very young.I know you American will not understand our values and customs but we always keep our words.Our honor is stake if we don't keep our oaths and promises.in one's life we have to compromised certain things and me and my wife talked about this very deeply.We have to uphold our parents wishes and that to have the Tian and Wang family join together by marriage of our next generation since in our generation they produce only sons and the fulfillment will be at this generation with Jiro and Hebe."

Jiro's face suddenly becomes red...he does know what his father getting into.

"My son loves you,and I don't question your love for him.You seem to be a decent girl and I know my son, his standards for girls are quite high.To break his heart is like breaking our hearts too but our old folks wishes cannot be ignored also."Mr Wang continued.

"I am proposing to you to be equal to everybody,we will give our blessings to both of you only after Jiro and Hebe will date for a year and if there will be no feelings that will develop then you can marry each other freely."

"Dad what kind of proposals is that?And I cannot date Hebe I have to go back to States in a week time."Jiro said.

"No you are not going back to the States,you are going to stay here for one year"Mr Wang said firmly."I think I have said my line here,we will leave you to talk it out among yourselves if you will agree.You don't have any choice for that matter."and with that he left.

Jiro and Selina was glued at the spot unable to say something.Selina wanted to say something and Jiro like to shout and scream to take away the frustration that he is feeling.One year without Selina,what are they thinking?Jiro thought.He walked near her and wrapped her around his arms as she started crying.

Outside Arron and Hebe was unable to say something after Mr Tian said his announcement,Hebe cried right away.Arron very much wants to hold her in his arms but the look that Hebe's father means that it is an unwelcome gestures especially in front of him.A year without Hebe as he close his eyes.No I will never agree,we have to run away,Arron thought.Hebe loves me she will agree.Jiro and Selina will help us to run away.