Chapter Fifteen #3
Timira bites her lip and her eyes wander about.
‘Well, go get him then, Royal Bengal Tiger!’
Timira mutters something about it being complicated and him being taken and about Rodrigo having complicated it further.
‘I’ll say it like it is, Timmy. It’s going to be a fight. But he is worth it, is he not?’
Timira stares at him with a blank look for a few seconds, then nods her head involuntarily and vigorously.
‘Run, Tim, Run!’
Rodrigo waves her goodbye and leaps over the stairs, two, three at a time.
Timira, feeling a little unsure, suddenly calls out his name.
‘Rod! Rod!’
Rodrigo halts his sprint and turns back. A good fifty metres away from Timira who is still in the stands so she has to yell.
‘Did you really follow me here? To Seoul?’
Rodrigo laughs mischievously, his eyes full of love, and shrugs.
And with that, he runs off on to the ground.
* * *
‘Timira, I love you. Will you marry me?’
Rod’s sincere gaze is threatening to pierce the screen of Mina’s ginormous television set.
Daebak! So, this is what it’s like? To love so madly that you make a fool of yourself on live TV? If it were me, I’d have said yes in the blink of an eye!
Mina is startled by her own thoughts.
What was that? Ah, I must be going crazy.
She lifts the remote to change the channel and realizes that she’s paused her live TV on Rod’s face. She stares at it for a few seconds and feels an odd tingle behind her ears making the hair on her lobes rise and her toes curl.
Oh, shit. No! This is not happening. I must be hallucinating. This cannot be real!
She jumps as her phone rings and looks disappointed to see Stephanie’s name flashing. As though she were expecting a different name, a certain someone in particular to call.
Why would he call me, though? How silly am I?!
She grimaces, looking at her phone, where Stephanie’s number is still saved as ‘Traitor’, even though she had been mollified a little by the photos of Timira and Haneul at the Diwali party at the Shilla that Stephanie had shared with her.
Stephanie had been racking her brain to find a way to seek her friend’s forgiveness and had come up with no foolproof plan until those photos had fallen into her lap.
An influencer friend of hers and Mina’s from their modelling days happened to be at the same party and had chanced upon Haneul and Timira.
She had promptly snapped them and shared the photographs with Stephanie, snarkily asking if Mina and Haneul’s engagement was still on.
Stephanie had had to douse that fire by cooking up a story about an Indian market outreach by SecondSkin.
But she knew it was a great opportunity for her to win back her best friend’s trust.
Mina answers just as the call is about to get disconnected.
‘ Wae ?’
‘Are we still on for your fitting today?’
‘Fitting for what?’ she asks distractedly.
‘Uh, fitting for what? For your dress, girl. Your wedding dress!’
Mina gulps.
‘Oh, um.’
‘Don’t tell me you forgot about it. Or are you trying to avoid me? Have you still not forgiven me?’ Stephanie asks in a small voice.
Truth be told, Mina hadn’t even been that upset with her.
Yes, she had felt a little cheated, but she knew why Stephanie must’ve done what she did.
She had known all along that her father had promised to invest in Stephanie’s modelling agency which had been her dream.
He had also got lawyers from Haneul’s father’s firm to take up her divorce and child custody case after her in-laws threatened to take her child away if she kept insisting on getting divorced.
If I were in her place, I’d have done the same. Appa has indeed looked after her like she were his own daughter. She was only paying my father back, in her own way, for the generosity and kindness she has shown her. For all his faults, Appa can really be a sweetheart!
‘Forgiven you for what? Nothing happened!’ Mina now speaks warmly.
Relieved, Stephanie can barely hold back her tears. Between sobs, she speaks, ‘ Gomabta, uri chinguya. I promise to never let you down again!’
Mina smiles.
‘Now, about the fitting, do you want to go together or shall we meet directly at the atelier?’ Stephanie asks excitedly.
‘Er, Steph, can we meet and talk? I’ve been thinking …’
‘Yeah, let’s meet at the studio. We can talk there! You must be relieved now that Ms Marak is no longer a threat …’
No longer a threat?
‘Eh? What do you mean?’
‘Didn’t you see on the news? Rodrigo has proposed to her. Like, wow. Dude must be seriously into her!’
‘You can say that again.’
Mina’s words are laced with sadness. Sadness that Stephanie misses entirely.
‘Such a grand, romantic gesture, you’ve got to admit! How can any woman not fall for it? I’m sure Ms Marak and he would be back together by now!’
Back with Rodrigo? Timira? No way! What is she even talking about? Not the Timira that I know. Fat chance!
‘Babe, I think by now you and I both know she’s not the type to go crawling back to an ex who cheated on her just because he made a grand gesture. She has far too much pride to do such a thing. As do you. Did you forgive your husband for cheating on you?’
Stephanie, smarting from Mina’s words, speaks in a small voice. ‘He never apologized …’
‘Would you have taken him back had he apologized? No matter how grand the gesture, would you have given him a second chance?’
‘Hell, no. Never! Not in a million years.’ Stephanie does not even have to think before answering.
‘Well, there you go. Rodrigo can do what he wants; he’ll never win Timira back. And this speaks volumes about who she really is.’
Her words are meant as a compliment for Timira, but she can feel the jealousy start to rise like bile.
What is this odd feeling? I clearly admire her but why am I so envious of her? It’s as if I wished I were a little like her, argh!
Stephanie can now sense the sadness in her friend’s voice and attempts to cheer her up.
‘To hell with cheaters. Never mind them. Let’s focus on good news … speaking of which, when were you going to tell me? I was going to ask at the studio, but I can barely contain my excitement! You must be absolutely thrilled!’
‘Huh? Tell you what? Thrilled about what?’
Mina has no idea what news Stephanie is referring to.
‘Just before I called you, I received a call from your wedding planner. They wanted to reconfirm the wedding date. My number was saved with them as an alternate contact, it seems. Neither you nor Hoejangnim were taking calls, so they called me instead.’
‘Um, what? I’m not sure I follow …’
Appa must be plotting something. What is that guy up to really?
‘What was the sudden need for reconfirmation?!’
‘Hasn’t Haneul-ssi called you? Have you guys not spoken?’
Haneul and Mina haven’t spoken since his fistfight with Rodrigo. She had flown back from Busan as quickly as she could. She had tried reaching him but his phone had been switched off throughout.
‘They got a call from the Baeks, they said. Asking for the date to be brought forward. Haneul-ssi must’ve consented to it! And, they must’ve discussed it with Hoejangnim, too. It’s just the best news!’
‘Whaaaaat?’ Mina is unable to hide her shock.
Oh, no! This wasn’t supposed to happen. Ah, I must hurry!
‘Why are you so surprised? I thought you knew. Didn’t Hoejangnim or Haneul-ssi talk to you about it?’ It’s now Stephanie’s turn to be surprised.
‘Steph, I’ve got to go. Do me a favour, will you? Please cancel my fitting. I have to rush someplace. I’ll call you later, yagsog halge [I promise]!’
‘Wait, what’s going—’
But the line goes dead.
* * *
‘Appa, it isn’t working for me. I’d like to be free of it, please.’
At Chairman Ri’s office, Mina has just informed her father of her intention to break off her engagement with Haneul. He repeats what Stephanie had said earlier over the telephone, ‘That other girl is no longer a factor, clearly. She has interests elsewhere.’
‘No, Appa. She doesn’t have interests elsewhere. Someone else has his interest in her. The two aren’t the same!’
Of course they aren’t. I know that. But why is she suddenly talking sense?
‘Appa, I don’t want to bind someone in an arrangement with me. Least of all Haneul, who is my friend. I ought to have realized this sooner; I don’t want you to buy me his love.’
Mina is surprised by her own maturity and the clarity in her thoughts and words.
‘But isn’t that what you wanted all this while?’
‘I must’ve mistaken what I felt for Haneul as love.
It was just an obsession built on habit.
I was used to being his shadow and I guess I did not wish to let it go.
I was desperate to do whatever I could to hold on to him, to the idea of us that I had in my head.
Appa, I used to be his only friend and I imagined that was how it was going to be.
That I’d always be the only one in his life. ’
‘Mina-ya, are you sure of this? Are you sure you are not going to regret this?’
‘ Aniya, Appa. For the first time in my life, I want to do something entirely for myself. I’ve lived my life trying to please you and Haneul-ssi, but not any longer.’
I deserve to be loved wholly and fully. Never again will I settle.
‘Ah, what a mess! Ah, I should never have involved myself in young people’s business.’
‘Appa, this isn’t your fault. You were trying to be both my mother and father. What else were you supposed to do? You got involved, like any mother would. And now you’re having to clean up my mess, like any father would!’
‘You brat! Have you decided how you are going to broach the topic with Haneul? Would you like me to intervene?’
‘Didn’t you just curse yourself getting involved in my business? Don’t worry. Naega araseohallke [I will figure it out on my own].’
* * *
Mina wasn’t sure if her texts to Haneul were going to get delivered but, to her relief, he had switched his phone on. She is now at Haneul’s parents’ house, having texted him to come there. He arrives looking exhausted, unshaven and angry.