Chapter 19

If there’s one weakness, one habit of his he hated most above all, it was his tendency to fall into a very deep slumber whenever he was too stressed out; it didn’t matter where he was at that moment, his mind & body just shut down when they reached a certain point. He guessed it was his systems way of coping with the pressure. He knows it better than to go completely crazy but still, he hated it when it happened.

The sun was already high in the sky when he opened his eyes that morning. Still disoriented from sleep, he looked around while his mind tried to catch up with the current event. The room he was sleeping in was small, cramped & dark. It only had a small window which very little sunlight passed through. The bed, if it could be called that, was hard & lumpy & it reeked of sweat & some unknown substance that almost made him gagged, ‘Where is this?’ He wondered. His eyes caught the iron bars enclosing him & then it hit him hard, all the things that had happened to him the previous night. He quickly sprung from his cot, screaming like a lunatic, “What time is it?! God, I have to see Tiffany before it’s too late! Guard! Somebody!” He yelled, banging on the metal bar with his fist.

After what seemed like a lifetime had passed by, after his throat had gotten hoarse & dry from all the shouting, he could finally hear someone’s faint footsteps approaching his cell. He quickly rattled the bar, “Let me out!” He shouted, “Just tell me how much bail I have to pay to get out of here?!”

The person that appeared before him was someone he had never expected to see, “Mom?” Even the echoes of his voice sounded incredulous, “What are you doing here?” He asked stupidly!

“I got a call this morning that you are in jail. Luckily, my heart didn’t decide to stop on me when I got the news.” Looking at her disheveled son, Mrs. Jung sighed & shook her head, “Yunho, what have you done? Breaking & entering someone’s property.”

“Mom, I will explain it to you later. What time is it? Could you please get me out of here now & give me your cell phone? I have a very urgent call to make.”

“It’s almost noon.” Mrs. Jung waved the paper in her hand, “Your release paper.” She said, & handed him her cell phone, “& the cell phone.”

Yunho would have jump, hug & kiss his mom then & there if there’s no iron bars separating them. He settled on giving her a very grateful & adoring grin. While waiting for the police to fetch the keys to open his cell door, he dialed some numbers.

“You are calling Chanyeol to press charges on Joowon Hwang?”

“No.” He replied, “Tiffany. I have got to talk to her before it’s too late.”

When his call was answer on the other line, he knew it wasn’t Tiffany who answered his call. It was the old bat again. He could tell by the shouting that rattled his eardrum, “Tiffany Hwang please?!” He shouted, “Yunho, really.” Mrs. Jung looked around apologetically when people stirred in the next cell, “I taught you better manner than that.”

“Mom, you don’t understand.” He muttered. Then he shouted again, “Tiffany! I need to speak to Tiffany!”

“Oh, it’s you again!” The old bat grumbled, “No need to shout as if I’m deaf! I swear, I have never seen someone as rude as you! Well, you are too late! Miss Tiffany has already left to her wedding!” Realizing what she had said, she corrected, “Eh, I mean to the wedding.” But the person on the other line had already hung up, “Oh well, no biggie.” She shrugged her bony shoulder & hung up the phone. She was adjusting the hearing aid on her ear that got skewed by the phone when it rang again.

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Flores, I’m expecting a call from someone called Mr. Jung. If he called, could you give him my cell phone number?”

“Oh, it’s you, Mr. Hwang. Actually, Mr. Jung just called but he wasn’t looking for you. He was looking for miss Tiffany.”

“Damn!” Mr. Hwang muttered, under his breath, “I forgot to tell her to forward his call to me, rushing out from the house as we did this morning. Now, I have to do some damage control before my plan get ruined.” Then he added with a louder voice, “What did you tell him, Mrs. Flores?”

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Hwang, but I think I kind of implied to him that it was miss Tiffany who is getting married.” The housekeeper’s voice became very timid, afraid that she had done some irreparable damage but her anxiety was blown away by the boom of laughter coming from the other side.

“You did good, Mrs. Flores. Very, very good. Thank you.”

“Yunho, what happened to you? You have been acting crazy ever since that phone call. What did Tiffany say anyway? Could you please slow down a little?” Mrs. Jung’s hand gripped the door handle tightly, “My heart wouldn’t be able to take much of this.”

“But I’m going to be late, mom. I’m already late as it is.” But still, he took his foot a fraction off of the gas pedal, “Her housekeeper told me that Tiffany is on her way to getting married. I have to stop her.”

Mrs. Jung’s eyes went round, “Tiffany’s getting married? To whom?” Then she looked at her son’s set expression & demanded, “What are you waiting for?! Go get her! Hurry!”

Even in this situation, a grin still managed to curve onto his lips, “You know how much I adore you, Mrs. Jung. You are the coolest mom in the world."

It was almost noon & the church was almost packed.

The wedding of the year had just ended & another thrilling event was just about to take place.

Inside the church, things were just as hectic & glamorous. An artsy-looking guy was shooting instructions through her mouthpiece, storming through the hundreds of details that seemed to go wrong just minutes before the event while the florist was directing tons of flower arrangements to be brought into the church. The crew in the corner of the church was busy doing their own things while the main focus of it all stood in the center of the church with his family, watching the buzzing around him like a hawk & measuring the preparation stage with keen eyes.

“Mr. Hwang.” His assistant hurried in, looking peaked & pale. He whispered something in his ear that made him exploded.

“What do you mean she couldn’t come? We have got a scene to shoot today.”

“Minseo said a huge zit popped on her nose all of a sudden so her confident is at an all-time low now. She couldn’t make it today.” The tiny guy looked even more harried. His eyes darted from left to right as if looking for a way out until his eyes stopped at Tiffany. Then suddenly, he brightened, “Or we could use miss Hwang. From the back, their built is similar. Nobody would notice any difference. This scene doesn’t require her to turn around & show her face much anyway. We could arrange the camera angle so it wouldn’t be too obvious. If she’s willing to help, we can shoot this scene now & all our effort today wouldn’t go to waste.”

Mr. Hwang turned to his daughter & looked at her critically, “Minsoo, I think you are right. We can use her as a replacement. The veil wouldn’t show her features clearly anyhow. So, how about it, Fany? Care to try it & put your old dad at ease?”

“But dad…”

“Please Ms. Hwang? All these elegant flowers arrangement & the other set-ups cost us very dearly & it’s important that we do the scene today. The schedule is already a bit tight as it is.”

Seeing that Minsoo would likely fall dead if she shook her head, seeing the pleading look on her dad’s face, Tiffany reluctantly nodded, “Okay, I will try it. Just for this scene, right?”

Both guys nodded in relief. Minsoo gave the thumbs up signal to the crew who immediately cheered & grinned. Escorted by the makeup artist & costume director, Tiffany walked to the dressing area, not even suspecting that behind her, Mr. Hwang & Minsoo were exchanging conspiring looks & grinning widely. The show was well on its way.