Chapter 16

B with good news, Yunho felt a little deflated when they got home after dinner & found the house was nearly empty. His mom didn’t seem to be back yet from her reunion & Chanyeol, a maid said he went out a few minutes after Tiffany left. Nobody knew where he had gone.

“It seems we have to wait until tomorrow.”

Seeing Yunho so disappointed, Tiffany made up her mind & faced him, “Yunho, there’s something I want to tell you. Well, all of you, it’s about.”

“Where you came from?” He finished her sentence.

Tiffany nodded & opened to start her story but Yunho shook his head & gently framed her face. With a sigh, he leaned down & brushed his nose on hers, “Tomorrow, sweetie, along with our big news.” He whispered tenderly, “Although I want to hear it tonight, I think we had better save it for breakfast since you said you want to tell them too, it would be a waste of your energy to tell the story twice, don’t you think so? Especially when we could use that said energy for something more fun.” He wiggled his eyebrows naughtily, devilishly, that Tiffany couldn’t help but laughed at his expression.

She didn’t protests when Yunho pulled her toward the couch & sat her on his lap. Instead, she snuggled closer into his welcoming arms, not caring if Yoona saw her. What could she do anyway? Yoona wouldn’t be a threat to her anymore. She could tell the whole world about her secret & it wouldn’t make a bit of difference now, “Oppa.” She whispered, “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to hear it now? You had rather wait until tomorrow?”

“Even though I want to know about your past, it’s only a healthy curiosity, Fany. It wouldn’t change anything. I love you. You. It doesn’t matter to me who you were before you came into my life or where you came from. To me, you are Tiffany, period. The only person I want to have by my side, to hold hands with when we are both too old & wrinkled to do anything else.”

Tiffany giggled & looked at him with amazement, “I never know you can spout mushiness like that.”

“Stay forever with me & I will give you so much more.” He winked & grinned. Then he sighed as he played with her hair, “But the truth is, Fany, I have been waiting to satisfy that curiosity for months now. What are a couple more hours, right? Although, I really want to tell them about our good news now.” The frustration was so apparent in his voice.

Tiffany, on the other hand, felt a bit relieved since she wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. To announce their engagement to everybody, Chanyeol included, seemed a bit of a rushed to her. Sure, now that they are engaged, the problem seemed to disappear. With a wedding to look forward to, she didn’t think her father would force her to go back home & leave her fiance. At least not indefinitely & with the announcement, she could put an end to Yoona’s blackmail too, leaving the road ahead smooth & free but still, there’s something niggling at the very center of her heart & try as she might, she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. After all, now that everything had fallen right into place, what else would she have to worry about, right?

The answer came to her that very night.

She was dreaming about spending the rest of her life with Yunho when a soft knock on her door made the dream wavered & then vanished into smoke of grogginess. Cursing herself for the light sleeper she was, she closed her eyes, trying to ignore the person who, obviously, had lost his or her watch & regain her sweet dream but the person out there didn’t give up & continued to beat on her door incessantly. When Romeo & Hani started barking with a loud sigh, she jumped out of bed & scowling, wrenched the door open, ready to spew fire on that unlucky person & felt the fire stopped in the middle of , burning & choking her.

It was a somber Chanyeol who had his hand on her door & behind him were two guys that had been her shadows during her college years.

“Miss Hwang.” Both of them greeted her politely.

Suddenly, she was aware of how she looked like. She had forgotten her disguise in her haste to open the door but instead of gasping & retreating back into her room, she looked at them defiantly, “What do you want?” She asked coldly, “Don’t you know what time is it?”

The two huge guys looked back at her without answering. She looked at Chanyeol & lifted her eyebrows, “Well?”

Chanyeol sighed & shook his head, “Can we come in? Please?”

After a moment of hesitation, Tiffany stepped back & opened her door wider. No more danger, she comforted her jumping heart as she walked to her desk. Everything was in place already. Nothing could separate her & Yunho now. Absolutely nothing but it turned out that she was wrong.

“Tiffany.” Chanyeol called her softly, gently. Then he took her hands as if trying to transfer some of his strength, his warmth through them, “I’m sorry but you have to go back tonight.”

“No.” Tiffany snatched her hands away from his grip & glowered at him, “No. You can’t force me to go back. Yunho Oppa & I...we are engaged. He just proposed to me today.”

She saw Chanyeol flinched & closed his eyes as if he didn’t want her to see whatever reflected through his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, they were clear & guarded.

“Tiffany.” He called again, “You have to go back. I got a call from your father an hour ago, saying that your mother was involved in an accident.”

Tiffany couldn’t hear anything else beyond it, only the sound of her blood rushing down from her head. Her mother, her beautiful mother, the one who was always there for her, the one who always knew when something was troubling her even before she confessed it to her, the one who always held her hands & gave her the courage whenever she felt her burden was too heavy, her mother, friend, sanctuary & champion, who would be holding her hand now?

She didn’t remember how she did what she did but by the time she was herself again, she was on her way back to Seoul.

Tiffany placed her heavy head in her hands & sighed loudly. From the corner of her eyes, she saw her two guards were back in place, becoming her shadows. Right now, they were guarding the door of the study in where she had been spending her afternoon. She closed her eyes & groaned in frustration. How could she be back in this situation? After five months of freedom, this confinement was really unbearable.

The knock on the door made her jumped up in hope. Maybe it was her father saying that he finally believed her. Maybe he was coming here to tell her that he permitted her to go back to Seoul & seized her happiness back. Only to feel that hope crashed down & burned when she saw Chanyeol stepping in.

“Go away!” She ordered crossly.

“Tiffany.” He said softly, “Please listen to my explanation first before you pronounce me guilty?”

“What else do I have to listen to?” Tiffany said coldly, “You tricked me into coming back here. You even stooped so low & used my mother’s health to get me to cooperate with you. You, along with all these people, made me leave Yunho without any explanation.” Her eyes felt hot at the thought. Yunho must be worried sick about her, leaving in the middle of the night without saying anything. God knows she had tried to contact him but it was fruitless. His cell phone was turned off & his secretary said he was out of town. She wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot to take his cell phone with him in his hurry to come here & free her.

Chanyeol sighed & sat down on one of the chairs. Raking his long fingers through his short brown hair, he looked at her & said, “I left him a note, Fany, while you are packing. I told him that your mom was involved in an accident & you have to go back. I explain everything in it about who you are, where you came from & what made you run away from home. Don’t worry about him.”

Even though she felt as if a massive burden was taken off of her shoulders, even though she felt relieved & grateful for his thoughtfulness, she kept the scowl on her face. It was the principle of things anyway, “But that didn’t mean what you did was okay. How could you say my mom was involved in an accident when she only slipped a little while dancing? Only her shoe was damaged in the so-called misfortune as the heel broke. God, even though she cried & mourned for the demise of it, I didn’t have to go back that very night.”

“I didn’t know. Your father called me in the middle of the night & told me that your mother was involved in an accident. What do you think I should be thinking? The only thing I could think & do at that moment was to find you & take you to her. If she’s in the condition I imagined her to be, I know your presence would mean a lot to her recovery.”

Tiffany couldn’t find any reply smart enough to argue with him any further. Nothing without making her seemed like a sulking little girl. So, she sat on the chair opposite of him & looked at him piercingly, “Are you telling me the truth?”

“I would never lie to you, Fany.”

She scoffed, “Never lie to me? Did you know who I was when you first saw me in Yunho’s house?” Chanyeol shook his head, “Not at first. Although I found you suspicious at first, it never entered my mind that you had pretended to be a guy. It was that morning after you called me & Yunho for breakfast that the thought finally entered my mind. Do you remember that day? When you called me his boy-toy boyfriend?”

A morning she would never forget. Blushing, Tiffany nodded & signaled him to continue.

“I saw Yunho kissing you then. See, I went back there because I left my cell phone & almost jumped out of my skin when I saw the kiss. Since I knew Yunho’s not gay, since I knew my eyes didn’t deceive me, I rubbed them twice to make sure & I knew then that you are not what you presented yourself to be.”

“My god.” She whispered. Embarrassment made the color of her cheeks turned just like the dark red rose bushes outside, “Just how many people have actually witnessed that kiss?” She muttered, under her breath.

“Auntie Jung saw it too, I think. It was her chuckle that made me realized what I was doing.”

“Oh my god.” She groaned in mortification & covered her face with her hands. No wonder ever since that morning, Mrs. Jung had always had this small secretive smile on her lips whenever she looked at her.

Chanyeol could only smiled faintly, looking at her with these indescribable emotions playing all over his round face. Happiness for her, sadness for himself, then finally resignation for both of them. By the time Tiffany’s hands were gone from her face, his face was wiped free from those emotions. Only friendliness was left in the depth of his eyes.

“But I don’t understand. If you came there looking for me, if you knew who & where I was, how come you stayed silent all this time?”

“Because…” ‘I love you & I don’t want you to be unhappy.’ “Because I want to let you have your fun a little longer.” He finally said.

“Okay.” She drawled slowly, but then shook her head, “No, it’s not okay. I want a complete picture. Tell me from the start.”

Chanyeol tweaked her nose & smiled softly, “Then you had better stop cutting me off.”

Tiffany opened to answer him & then quickly closed it as she noticed his raised eyebrow. Her jaw clamped shut & then she nodded & waved her hand, asking him to continue.

“Like I said, when I first met you, I didn’t know this guy was the person I was looking for. True that I had this strange feeling like I have seen him before but foolish that I was, I put it aside, thinking it was my overactive imagination but the longer I stayed there, the more suspicious I became. Yunho treated him very differently from the way he treated his other friends. He seemed so protective over him & he was too easily riled where he’s concerned & the way the both of them looked at each other set off something iffy inside of me, although at that time, I couldn’t be sure what it was. Not until I saw him kissing Tim by the pool.”

He paused to let the twinge in his heart subsided. Then & only then did he continued, “My first thought was that either he was drunk or the pressure finally got to him & turned him gay but how could he be drunk when we are only drinking soda? & the possibility of Yunho turning gay isn’t even worth to be thought over. He was more likely to win nobel prize tomorrow than to ever turn gay. Then the answer came to me. There’s only one possible answer why Yunho would kiss Tim, he must be a girl. As the thought entered my mind, everything else seemed to fall into place. No wonder he had acted so abrupt when he introduced us & he had even warned me off when I stared at you longer than manner dictates.

The night you asked me to tell Yunho to meet you at the Han River made me even surer that my deduction was right. I could see the jealousy in his eyes as clearly as I can see you in front of me now & the way you are so curious, yet worried about my search, I need no other explanation. So, for these last months, all I had to do is to keep Keunsuk, your father’s main informant, busy tracking your false trail while I’m keeping my eyes on you. I decided to let you have your fun since I have never seen you looked so happy before. You are not in any danger anyway so I don’t have to feel too guilty to your dad.

Little did I know that he became suspicious from the lack of progress in my search. I thought I had given him such good excuses for the delay. Smart as your dad is, he secretly asked Keunsuk to watch me. He had suspicions that I was hiding something from him by the vague answers I gave him & Keunsuk reported to him that I didn’t seem to go out as much as I used to but they had no idea why. Your dad thought I was slacking, ready to give up.

Not until last week when Keunsuk saw you falling into the fountain at the mall with Yunho, he knew Yunho from my college days, that he realized why I had spent most of my time at Yunho’s house. He called your dad right away, telling him his conclusion. That very night, your dad tested the water by telling me that your mom got into an accident, without going into details about it. Just like he expected, I jumped into the conclusion he had already set up & in my panic, I told him that I could get ahold of you. Three hours later, those two bodyguards had already arrived at the doorstep. You know the rest of the story.”

Sighing, Chanyeol looked at Tiffany’s scowling face, “I’m so sorry, Fany. I should have reacted better than that. It’s just that the mention of your mom getting into an accident blinded my common senses. I know how close you are to her & the first thought that popped out in my mind was to take you to her as soon as possible.” Tiffany stomped her feet & jumped out of her seat, “Dad is really too much this time. It’s not your fault, Chanyeol Oppa. In fact, I should thank you for your thoughtfulness & kindness so don’t blame yourself. Do you know that he didn’t even believe me when I told him I’m engaged to Yunho? He only looked at me incredulously for a minute before bursting out laughing as if he’s very amused with the excuses I could come up with.”

“Why didn’t you show him that ring?” Chanyeol indicated to the ring on her finger.

“I did & he said I bought it by myself just for this occasion!” Tiffany grumbled indignantly. Then she turned around & said more loudly, “As if he couldn’t believe there’s a guy who would want to marry me! What kind of father is that?!”

“A cautious one.” A deep voice sounded from the doorway.

Both of them whirled around & saw Mr. Hwang stepping into the room. He looked at her daughter & let out a heavy breath, “It seems like I owe you an apology, honey.”

Tiffany only looked at him then made a sound & turned her back on her father.

Mr. Hwang walked to his daughter & caressed her hair, “You have grown up on me.” He said softly, “My baby, my baby is getting married.”

Tiffany quickly turned around & faced her father with surprises & suspicion written all over her face, “You mean you believe me now? That I found the guy I want to share my life with?”

Her father’s smile was full of love & pride as he nodded firmly, “I’m sorry. Well, not too sorry actually to say that I accidentally overheard your conversation with Chanyeol. I also saw how miserable you are this whole week, sweetie, & I noticed how lovingly you touched that ring on your finger whenever you are lost in your daydreams. Just like your mom used to do during our engagement period all those years ago.”

The suspicion cleared up from her face, leaving behind a blooming beautiful smile, “Are you saying you are giving me your approval, your blessing? Are you, daddy?”

“If I deem he's worthy of you but one way or the other, we are going to Seoul tomorrow.”