Chapter Twelve #4
‘Oh, shut up, Bhaskar! You don’t know this guy enough to …’
‘Enough to what?’ Bhaskar cuts in impatiently. ‘Go on! He practically denies having met Tim, he somehow found a common connection and hired her, leads her on, all while being engaged?! Seriously?’
Alice says nothing to him and just takes a deep breath.
‘Timmy, look, watch out for yourself. You have trusted all the wrong men. This time, don’t mistrust the right guy is all I’ll say.
Be careful. If you need us, we are just a call away.
But, explore this. I’m getting this feeling.
Like my butt is telling me this is your guy!
And you know my butt knows more than my gut! ’
Timira giggles while Bhaskar groans.
‘You mean, we just might be Seoulmates?’ Timira’s giggle has now turned into a full-blown chortle. Alice is relieved to see her mood restored.
‘Tell you what, if he doesn’t clean his shit up and do right by you, then I’ll fly down and beat him up!’ Alice offers magnanimously.
‘Yeah, like you beat Rodrigo up!’ Timira slips in a snide remark.
‘Shall I? Say the word, and I will do it. Your mum will be happy to join, too!’
‘Aloo, do not breathe a word of this to her, okay? Not until it is something. Anything, if at all.’
‘Of course, darling. My lips are sealed.’
‘Yeah, like they were when Tim’s mum magically had an epiphany about her and Rod. Sure!’ Bhaskar chimes in in the background. Alice lets loose a few choice epithets at him and threatens to break his face if he doesn’t buzz off.
Timira laughs. Alice and Bhaskar have always been couple goals for her. Their relationship, wholesome inspiration.
‘Timmy, ignore him!’
Timira nods and continues to laugh.
‘Timmy, have you been calling aunty?’
‘Aunty who? Oh, aunty as in my mum? Um, yeah.’
She’s lying. She speaks with her father every day but has avoided her mother since the phone call in Jeju.
‘Recall when we last spoke, I mentioned that she had called?’
Timira has no recollection. She had been consumed by her discovery of Haneul’s identity at the time.
‘Timmy, please call her!’
Timira knows she cannot avoid her mother forever. She grumbles but promises Alice to call her before hanging up.
Once through with her laundry, Timira sinks her bum into the soft, cushioned, purple-coloured couch in her living room, and remembers her promise to Alice.
Grabbing her phone, she long-presses a button to place a call to her mother.
But the call doesn’t go through as it is cut by an incoming call from Haneul.
He wants to take her to a party.
‘I will pick you up at seven? Wear something Indian.’
Wear something Indian to a party? Daal mein kuch kala lag raha hai. What if I end up like Bridget Jones wearing that ridiculous bunny costume to that cancelled tarts and vicars party? I’ll be a laughingstock!
‘What’s that gorgeous thing Indian ladies wrap around themselves? That thing that looks like a sarong? I’m probably saying it wrong, but is it a “sorry”?’
Aww . ‘Saree. S-A-R-E-E.’ Timira giggles.
‘Right, saree. That.’
‘Why do you want me to drape one?’
‘Well, it’s a surprise! Now get off the phone and get to it. Chop chop!’
Timira is still a little worried about being seen with Haneul in her neighbourhood, not to mention around the office. Bhaskar’s grinning face holding up a stalker placard keeps popping up in her head, too. But she decides to not dwell on these thoughts.
I will take charge and not get played. I’m a strong, independent woman. And, what’s the point of worrying about being seen? Kal raat toh he dropped me home. Ab toh ho gaya jo hona tha! My life is a soap opera anyway!
She recalls how, like a true gent, he had gotten out of the car in a flash, got her door and walked her to her doorstep.
And then proceeded to plant a deep, lingering kiss on her lips before she bade him farewell.
And how he had waited until she had reached her third-storey flat and waved at him from her balcony.
Her stomach leaps and her chest pounds a little as she remembers the details.
‘Sure. Seven is good. See you!’
Seoulmate, Seoulmate, Tim’s got a day-ate , dil mera served on a play-ate , she hums to herself as she gleefully dives into the shower.
* * *
‘Roll your shoulders down and pull them back. Brace your core … here, breathe out and activate your corset muscles, don’t hold your breath … keep breathing. Breathe in as you lower the weight to your chest, out as you push it up. Yeah, that’s it … THAT’S IT!’
The trainer, a chiselled man in his early thirties, instructs with sincerity and with hawk-like eyes watches his pupil complete three sets of chest presses, ten reps each.
Reaching the end of her workout, she gets off the bench and makes her way to the treadmill. She plans to finish off with a twenty-minute run and is setting up the speed when a familiar voice calls out her name.
‘Mina-ssi! Fancy seeing you here!’
It belongs to Rodrigo. Drenched in sweat, breathing heavy and cheeks flushed red, Mina debates if she should ignore him and get on with the cardio or acknowledge him. She recalls their time together in Jeju and feels unusually good.
No, no, I shall not encourage him. After all, his reputation does precede him.
‘I didn’t know you worked out here,’ Rodrigo says with a smile, as though he is happy to bump into Mina.
Mina usually doesn’t. The boxing gym she frequents is undergoing renovation, which is why she’s at the gym of the Shilla Hotel, where her father is a member of the board. Which is why they let her use it this late in the evening.
Why is he here? The team is staying at the Conrad! And at this hour? God, he really must be the kind of player they say he is!
She smiles and says nothing. Rodrigo is feeling chatty.
‘Why, you’re in great shape, I must admit! That’s some crazy good muscle definition, unusual for women!’
Unusual for women? What sort of an athlete is he?
Has he not seen enough women athletes to know what women and their bodies are capable of?
Oh, wait. Does he mean it’s unusual for women like me, a model?
Or is it because I’m Korean? Argh. Typical Asian man with his typical toxic standards of beauty. I’m not surprised Timira dumped him!
‘What brings you here, Rodrigo-ssi? Don’t tell me the gym here is so good that you’ve come all the way from Jung-gu just to work out! And at this ungodly hour. Shouldn’t you be in bed by now?’
Does Coachnim know he’s here?
‘I should be in bed, you’re right. But it sucks having to sleep alone!’ he pouts.
Groan . Mina keeps wiping off beads of sweat from her temples.
Unable to elicit a response from Mina, Rodrigo switches to polite conversation.
‘The gym really is quite great, to be fair. But you’re right, I didn’t come here to work out. I had the day off, so I thought I’d meet a friend from back home who now lives here. Slept all day and by the time I woke up, my body was craving some movement. I still had time until my “friend date”.’
Friend, my arse! Meeting one of his thousand girlfriends, I’m sure!
‘So I decided to run here from our hotel …’
He ran eight kilometres and nobody recognized him??? Mina can barely hide her surprise.
‘… which explains how I look.’
He is dressed low-key in running shorts that put his muscly quads in full display and an oversized training hoodie from under which a vest with the Aston Villa logo peeks. He has a skull cap on, the rim of which kisses his eyebrows and he has to keep adjusting it every few seconds.
Probably makes him ticklish, Mina smiles in her head . How did he brave the icy winds and all the people on the roads? That jersey is a dead giveaway! Not to mention the footballer’s calves. Is this guy reckless, foolish, or both?
‘I came into the gym at the request of the hotel CEO who wanted to show me around! He said it’s usually cleaning hour, but they’d kept it open for a VVIP guest. Honestly, I was quite surprised it was you!’
‘Why? I don’t seem like a VVIP?’ Mina is mildly offended and unable to hide it.
Rodrigo laughs out loud and waves his hands. ‘No, no, that’s not what I meant at all!’
‘Well, what did you mean then?’ Mina is still upset.
‘I thought it’ll be some old, wrinkly business tycoon who goes to the gym just to keep up with his twenty-year-old girlfriend. Who else could possibly need to work out so urgently as to have a five-star hotel reschedule their, well, schedule?!’
Not entirely satisfied with Rodrigo’s answer, Mina makes a feeble attempt at brushing him aside. ‘I see. Well, I’m sorry I’m not a wrinkly old man. Anyway, I’d love to chat with you, but I’m yet to finish my workout.’
Mina remembers feeling quite safe and good in Rodrigo’s company back in Jeju, but now that they are alone, she feels a little uncomfortable. In a strangely thrilling way. She feels her heart race a little.
‘Of course, of course. Please carry on! You really have a great body!’
What an incorrigible flirt!
Mina presses the start button without checking the settings. She doesn’t realize that the speed is set at sixteen kilometres an hour. She misses a step, then another and then another. She loses her balance and falls over. Only to be caught in the arms of Rodrigo, just in the nick of time.
‘Whoa, whoa! You okay there, Miss?’
Mina’s coach, who has been keeping a little distance in order to give Rodrigo and Mina space, rushes over. As do some of the housekeeping staff who have been meticulously wiping sweaty benches and mopping shoe stains off the floor.
Mina shuts her eyes and is embarrassed to open them when she realizes she’s in Rodrigo’s arms.
Why did it have to be him? And why is my heart racing? Geurae, must be from the shock!