Chapter 46
The wedding took place in Seoul. Everyone was notified and flew in the following month. The four of us extended our travels around the peninsula. It worked with Paul and my schedule since we didn’t have to fly home and then return months later.
It was a showstopper wedding. Koreans know how to throw a party in an instant.
Nothing like the States, where it takes a year to plan.
It was one of those pick a dress, pick a venue, pick a hanbok, go on your honeymoon kind of weddings—which Channing loved.
She was not fussy. She just wanted to be with Minjae.
She wore a huge white ballgown with a long veil and a thousand buttons down the back.
Koreans know how to apply makeup, and she had better skin than Minjae after three dermatologist treatments, which was a feat.
I improved mine after one visit and refused to endure any more, despite the urging of the aesthetician.
The therapy that surprised me had to do with my scalp.
Apparently, they had this twelve-step treatment so that your hair would be scrubbed clean and allow the hair follicles to grow thicker and longer.
I saw women in their twenties in that hair salon when actually those over fifty needed it.
I made a note to tell Mrs. Yun and Mrs. Ku since they were in town to attend the wedding.
It was the destination wedding of the year for those Stateside.
I was the maid of honor. Paul was the best man. We didn’t have to give speeches. It was all about eating great food and taking a lot of photographs.
Before she walked down the aisle with her father—who had traveled with my parents and the Yuns—I asked Channing how she could be sure Minjae was the love she’d been looking for. “What will you do if you’re wrong?” I asked.
“Then I’ll cry and move on,” she replied.
“But why do you have to marry him right away?”
“His mom wants us to. She’s an independent woman in Korea, but she doesn’t believe we love each other unless we’re married. That’s where she put her foot down. She’s stubborn.”
“So you’ll throw yourself into it and see what happens?” I asked.
“This is it. He’s the one. No more waiting around.”
“You hate waiting, that’s what it is,” I said, an epiphany suddenly occurring to me.
“I want to live,” she replied. “You have to throw your whole heart into living, Dahee. There’s no time to waste.”
After Channing and Minjae’s honeymoon in Jejudo and Hawaii, they would move into a carriage house in East End, and work remotely as a team.
Minjae had leads already. My uncle would receive treatment in a facility nearby.
In time, I planned to apply for jobs in East End and move there one day.
Maybe after I met someone I wanted to marry.
I told everyone about my plan, hoping it would make it real one day.
Channing and I hugged. I told her she had her Chunhyang ending at last.
“It’s the best version, isn’t it?” she said. Her eyes filled with tears.
I could feel goose bumps on my arms. My hands felt fine. “The best,” I agreed.
There was a traditional ceremony after the white dress and black tux one.
This one entailed Channing wearing a colorful hanbok and Minjae in the men’s version.
It didn’t matter what you put those two in.
All they did was glance shyly at each other and look like the most beautiful couple you’d ever seen.
For a moment, Channing and Minjae appeared as if they were from an ancient era.
I blinked and returned to the current day.
When Minjae carried his mother piggyback down the aisle after they were wed, my mother nudged me and said too bad she didn’t have a son who would carry her that way at my wedding.
I told her I could manage to carry her, not to worry.
Or my husband would carry his mother and then come back for her.
He was marrying into my family and would have to make everyone happy.
“That would make me happy,” my mother sniffed. She had tears in her eyes.
“I would carry you right now if it made you happy,” I said.
She laughed and then said, “We should retire to East End. Your father would like to be near his brother.” Channing planned to get her father an apartment near her, and with his reputation cleared up, he might begin to regain some of his confidence again.
Meanwhile, he’d continue his program. We looked at the two of them sitting side by side.
My father suddenly had nearly as much white hair as his brother.
“That would make me very happy,” I told her. She squeezed my hand.
At the huge wedding banquet that followed, we ate and danced for hours in the big hall with lots of shiny chandeliers.
Minjae and Channing joined their family and friends.
There was a professional photographer and a videographer for whom we all had to pose and tell our stories about the bride and groom.
Mr. Yun acted as if the professionals would miss the most important moments.
We had to pose for his camera as well as the others.
I was glad to see Ames had come. She walked over to me and introduced me to her date, a very handsome Korean man who was an editor for a large Korean English-language newspaper.
Apparently, they had struck up a connection.
Mrs. Ku made the rounds, making sure she identified everyone present.
Nora and her husband came, too, with their little girls dressed in shiny party dresses and white patent-leather mary janes.
“This is amazing,” she said. I told her to make sure to tour the country outside of Seoul before she returned to the States. “We plan to,” she exclaimed. “I’m so glad Channing’s going to live in East End. Are you too?”
I told her I’d visit, but first I had to get back to New York. And Paul was moving a few blocks away.
“Paul Yun?” she asked, and raised her eyebrows. “He was always so nice. I would have gone out with him in high school if he’d asked.”
We turned toward Channing, who was standing nearby with a large crowd of Minjae’s college friends. She looked over at us and mouthed the words, “I love you.” We waved back and said we loved her, too. Everything and everyone were bathed in a glow.
Nora’s husband swept her away for a dance. I saw Paul standing by himself off to the side and picked up some rice cakes to share with him. He examined each piece carefully.
“The one with the sweet sesame paste is the one I like,” he mused.
I pointed to the ones that had fluted sides. “I like those, too.”
We munched on them for a while.
“You know, we could dance?” he said.
“Yes,” I agreed. He took the plate from me and put it on a table nearby.
It was a festive K-pop song that brought everyone to the dance floor so that took the pressure off us, but I liked the way he spun me around.
It felt like a dream, a good dream. At one point, I sensed Harabeoji’s presence near me.
Your time will come, he would have said if he were there.
How do you know? I would have asked.
Because I’ve seen it. You’ve already met him, he would have said.
I blinked in surprise. Me?
You too, Dahee. You’ve already started.