I mentally cursed at my perfectly annoying alarm clock that troubled my escape from the terrible memories that I was sure would claw at my mind immediately once my eyes opened. I was optimistic about sleeping the whole morning, well, at least until Haneul would arrive.
It was Saturday, and I had a wedding to – though I'd rather not – attend. As I opened my eyes to a brightly lit room, thanks to the sun transparently hidden by the curtains, I shut my eyes as I rolled off the bed and strolled into the kitchen to quench my sudden thirst. Last night's episode replayed in my mind as I drank the refrigerated water, which tasted bitter on my tongue when I remembered the taste of tears.
The sudden play of my phone's ringing tune synchronized with my thoughts like a customized soundtrack, which, if I must agree, was awesome. Still drinking, I looked at the caller with my eyes, it was Hana. Of course, I knew the wedding had already started – who goes to weddings early?
Well, in Nigeria, the party is always during the end part of the wedding. Hana was yet to pick me up as promised, so not my fault, and with this courage, I decided to answer, and before I could reply, Hana beat me to it.
"Hey, I'm on my way, are you ready?" she screamed into my precious innocent ears with her voice porous as expectation laced through.
"No, but I'll be when you're here," I answered tiredly, flinching from the sudden scream. "Hurry up, we are late already!" she screamed tirelessly again, this time to my discomfort, which made me angrily roll my invisible eyes, but I still answered weakly, "Ok."
"And Viv..." She called with a tone that once made me believe she owned the Cheshire cat that always grinned so evil in every photo.
"Yeah...?" I answered with a suspicious feeling, knowing what was to come next was one of her nasty requests.
"Luciferess! You know you always dress gorgeously and I love you, right? But could you sprinkle a little bit of sexy to it? Like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce…" I could hear Haneul's voice cut in, making them both sound mischievously caring.
I asked, "Why?" not surprised at all.
"Well.... There's a dude that's gonna be there and…" she cooed and sweetly responded, but I wasn't buying it this time.
"And...?" I said sarcastically uninterested,
"You know since you're still single and..." Her voice lowered when she realized I knew what she was about to say. I didn't even allow her to finish before asking,
"Yah!? Do both of you have a death wish?" jokingly.
"Ha ha, I'll be there, just be ready, gorgeously sexily hotly ready, chalga..." As they both laughed, I overheard Hana screaming that Haneul was way over the speed limit and that she didn't want to die yet, before the call ended. I answered,
"Alright, please take it easy, Haneul…" with a big smile on my face, and then I hung up with a loud laugh because this wasn't the first time Hana or Haneul had tried cooing me into something like this or introduced me to their male acquaintances, the friends of their spouses, or even set me up for blind dates, all because they wanted me married with a handful of kids like them, plus they were kinda curious how my own would look. I knew those women like the back of my palm.
The problem now was, what dress should I put on? I know I denied the request, but a little bit of sexy wasn't going to hurt anyone, especially me. Oops! I forgot to ask if our hardworking Manager of the year would grace the occasion. Recently, he worked so hard that you might think he was the Chairman instead of that talking android, Mr. Song, and I thought he might become the next General manager.
Manager Choi and Young Pil both interned and got employed together, that's why I hoped that he would be in attendance. Girl... get your billies on, it's time to make a move. Ok, two options before me, a red off-shoulder, knee-length dinner gown, or my Ankara Aso-ebi (pron. Ah shor a bee), specially made for me by Queen BiBi's Empire back in Nigeria.
I had refused to wear this Aso-ebi because of its sole aim of displaying every curve I needed to cover from whomever, and the fact that Queen BiBi made it obvious with a handwritten note that 'she hopes' I'd find my Mr. Right wearing these, which I suppose the time is now.
This was a wedding party, and I needed to at least showcase my African attire and maybe my afro curves just this once, huh? Promise I won't hurt anybody, maybe Bae Dana's pride and for the sake of not letting Queen BiBi's hopes down, I'll take my chances and rock them with my matching purple heels and purse, just the way we do it in Naija.
I stood in front of the mirror so wonderfully satisfied with what I was seeing that I blew a kiss to myself to top it all before stepping out of the house while singing Sia's - "You're never fully dressed without a smile."
"Heeeeeeeeeee!" I stumbled and almost fell before I looked up and saw Hana squealing like a high school girl.
"I almost lost my balance, Hana!" I didn't mention that Hana was a very good soprano singer? Well, she's good, so good that my ears hate me now.
"You look gorgeous, girl from Africa," well, that girl is about to send you to join the choir in Hades! I regained my stamina and looked at Hana, making sure she was herself again – because this warning was prepared just for her – before I held the top of the half-winded up glass and leaned on the car for stamina as I got closer to her.
"Mrs. Kim Hana, next time you get to drive – which, I'm sure I won't let you do because I'll make sure your driver's license is revoked before then – think of the family waiting for the person or persons you might be unfortunately driving, and for heaven's sake, Lee Min Oh and Suzy Bae won't be attending your funeral, so please, please, please, and please I beg you with the god of safety rules and regulations, drive with the fear of God!" I finished, feeling my gut become solid again. I walked into the building ready to let Mr. Right find me or, at this point, I was just going to drag Mr. Left to the right.
I tiredly walked barefooted into my apartment as I flung my shoes to the floor before I fell flat on my face on the bed, overfilled and happy too. The party wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be, except when I had to carry Hana's and Haneul's kids because the little puppies didn't want to let go of "heuk Noona" as they'd called me, which I and their mothers didn't like, but what could I have done when they all looked cute and adorable as they screamed it?
I had to carry them, yes, all of them, anywhere I went, which made it impossible for Haneul to introduce me to the mystery guy she had made me wear my gorgeous Ankara for.
Oh boy, she was pissed all through the wedding at her own kids, and she asked me why there wasn't a children's section at weddings, like they do at church? "As cute as kids could be, they can be a pain in the ass." I laughed hard just thinking of it.
No, the Manager wasn't in attendance, but he sent gifts instead because he had to be with the General Manager on the last business trip that would be continued by the C.E.O when he would resume.
And yes, I did get some stares, but I was too distracted by 'when is Manager Choi coming?' that I didn't even relax and have a good time.
Now feeling the weight of the full glasses of champagne I had with different guys at the party, including Hoe Jung Hoe, I staggered lightly to the bathroom, guessing I was just a little bit tipsy. I unzipped my dress and watched as it slowly fell down to expose 'what my mama gave me'.
I looked at the mirror as my hips of 40 inches carried my waist of 26 inches, while my bust of 37 inches bubbled behind my soft silicone nude bra, and I couldn't help but appreciate my Maker for making me on a weekend.
I was a complete doppelganger of my mother. Well, being an only daughter, an Àdá (first daughter) for that matter contributed to my hourglass embodiment which always gets me stares that sometimes weren't appreciated.
Yet, I wondered if it ever worked on Mr. Choi, if he ever almost broke his neck just watching me walk past him, and if it did, I never noticed. I moved towards my wardrobe as I picked my neatly folded towel that I tied around my body as I walked into the bathroom to wash up.
Wiping away the cooled steam off the mirror reminded me of last night's events that I'd rather not remember - the translucent girl's last words.
"How do I know who to tell and where can I even start in finding her little brother?" I asked myself while staring at the mirror on the wall as if we were having a session, and it would be weird if I said it replied to me, but it did, with an idea. Thanks, yeah, great talk. I quickly took the towel hung by the door and tied it around me as I walked into the bedroom. I sat down before pulling up my Macbook to open my Google photos after connecting to the home Wi-Fi.
I went over and took a picture of the bracelet on the table before uploading it on my Google photos, and one million plus results came out. Every picture I clicked and compared wasn't as beautiful or detailed as this. I even did some Google searches, but all proved futile.
After an hour of indeed futile image comparison and a little bit of deviation - don't blame me, blame the internet - I tried jade bracelets. A lot of meaningful but not useful results came up, and next thing, I found myself at a page that talked about Superheroes' powers... like, WTH.
Another hour passed, and it read 11:10 pm, and I'd tried as many search ideas as I could come up with, but all this wasn't to do it. In frustration, I raised my hands and sighed loudly before lifting the device up from my lap.
I strolled to the kitchen to make myself a cup of hot chocolate to raise my fallen morale. As I sipped from my cup, I picked up the bracelet and slipped it onto my wrist. I admired how my skin tone made the bracelet look more gorgeous, and for the first time, I noticed an engraved image of a crescent moon on the biggest pearl, with a carved crescent moon tied between the bigger pearls.
"What a beauty, I'm sure this was made with a lot of love." I raised my wrist admiring it, and when I remembered that it was a full moon that hung high that night, I compared it with the crescent moon tied to the pearl, and it fitted perfectly into the glowing circle, so much that it reminded me of the Yin and Yang.
"Would you look at that, it's so beautiful." I exclaimed, feeling like I had found something pricey. I considered it the magic of Art when the engraved crescent moon began to glow, and I watched with surprise and anticipation to see what would happen next. Maybe a portal would open, or a celestial being might appear, or the owner of the bracelet might leave a clue on how I could find her brother.
You can never know what the paranormal has in store for you. The light continued growing and glowing brighter each second, yet the will of my anticipation was so strong that I couldn't take my curious eyes off it, even while I was being engulfed by it, until it brought me to where my story actually began...