"Hey noona!" Lee Young Jae, my younger brother waved his hand and quickly scurried to the comforts of his bedroom.
My mother, Park Eun Ae, smiled gently at me, but somehow her eyes had lost their usual sparkle today. I walked over and gave her a long hug; I pushed her away gently by her shoulders and grinned at her. She's the prettiest old Korean lady I have ever seen. Her hair is always piled up on the top of her head in a bun. Her skin is wrinkly, but soft and malleable.
"Umma, are you alright? What happen that you suddenly wanted to talk to me? Are the debtors pestering us again?" I asked with concern. I prayed that it wasn't her health affecting her; she had always been frail from too much stress and workload.
She shook her head gently, "No. Don't worry Kara-ah. I just need to make an important announcement to you," she looked at the narrow hallway where the bedrooms were. "With the presence of your two 2 younger brother as well."
"What?" I instinctively blurted. This was getting more and more concerning, usually if it was related to matters of household expenses and so on, Ji Sung and Young Jae wouldn't be included in the conversation. What the hell is going on?
Before I could blurt out another word, my mother beat me to it, hollering down the hallway for the idiotic pair to come out. "Yah! Come out and have your dinner, I bought food back along with pastries!"
"Eh?" I looked at the plastic bag that she had placed on the table. Pastries? Takeout food?
This was very unlike my mother. Usually we wouldn't splurge on eating out or snacks and try to scrim and save as much as possible. Young Jae and Ji Sung came running out of their room, their faces wide with bright smiles at the sound of food.
"What's the occasion today?" Ji Sung questioned, peeping into the bag filled with goodies. "Whoa, aren't these the expensive pastries at the French deli?"
Wait, expensive? Pastries? French? What the hell is going on here?
"Whoa!" Young Jae eyes particularly turned into sparkling diamonds awhile he grabbed the take out box, showing a nice row of sushi and expensive belly-cut sashimi. "Umma, what's going on today? Have you won the lottery or something?" He inquired curiously; sitting down on the dining table awhile the rest of my family members followed the lead.
Sushi? Sashimi? Lottery? Ok, I must be dreaming.
Yes everything is a dream, meeting the prince was a dream, scalding him with coffee was a dream, getting a potential lawsuit and exile from Korea was a dream. I sighed in relieved and stretched my arms out, I closed my eyes and counted — anytime now I would wake up from this horrible nightmare and back to my usual dull world again. This was probably the effect of watching too much crown prince news and the whole sudden death of king fiasco.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...
I opened my eyes, expected to see myself in bed. But all I received was a peculiar look from my family members seated on the dining table, opening boxes of French pastries and expensive cuts of sashimi.
This isn't a dream, so what on heck is going on?!
Cautiously grabbing the wooden chair, my brows furrowed in perplexity. My curious eyes locked on then as if questioning, 'What is going on here? Did I miss out something?'
"Kara, sit and eat before all of it is gone." My mother commanded, tapping the empty space beside her with her wooden chopsticks. I sighed and sat down hesitatingly, some thing is going on here and I could feel it twisting and knotting my inner gut.
I nervously reached out for my wooden chopsticks and picked up a salmon belly sashimi, I examined it with great absorption. "Is there poison is here?" I joked, twisting the salmon clamped in my chopsticks in all angles. "You aren't going to drug us and kill us right umma?"
"What a thing to say, Kara!" She gasped in horror, and then she shoved a piece of sushi inside my mouth unexpectedly, causing me to choke slightly. "Eat, there isn't any poison here."
"Noona, what's with your face? You should be happy and smiling! It's been a long time since we had such luxurious food!" Young Jae grinned, his teeth speckled with bits of seaweed.
I chewed slowly, biting the soft and succulent salmon. How long had it been since I had indulged in such luxurious food such as these? Terribly long, the last time was when I was a little girl, back when my family wasn't so dysfunctional.
But no matter how much I wanted to eat in peace and simply enjoy the food, I couldn't. There was something terribly off happening in my family today — this was not like them at all. Something big must have happened, something that they didn't want me to know until the very last minute hence they are boot licking me by buying expensive food.
My beloved family, I knew them too well.
Even though I was having one of the most luxurious foods I had ever had in a long time, my stomach seemed to reject it and churned constantly. Something isn't right.
I coughed to gain attention and placed my chopstick down. The muscles in my cheek retracted slightly as I studied them and they looked back at me. Giving up on coming up with useless assumptions, I started my monotonous speech. "Ok, I give up. What happened that you guys have to do this? Lee Ji Sung, I know that you are in this as well so you better spill the beans or else..."
I narrowed my eyes down like a cat, sending him a direct warning that I would spill all his secret flings to our mother if he didn't talk now.
"Yah!" Ji Sung screamed and slammed his chopstick down, my mother looked at him with questioning eyes. Sensing her scorching gaze and in order to not leak out any of his dirty little secrets — he backed down and slumped to the back of his chair. "Umma, just tell her." He spoke calmly unlike before.
My mother sighed deeply, placing down her wooden utensils as well. I could read her face as clear as an open book. She was so easy to read. I could tell that she was debating on telling me or not. She was chewing on her lower lip nervously, the words choked up in her tensed throat. She slowly looked at me, and held onto my hand softly and assuring.
I blinked at her sudden gesture.
"Kara-ah. We know that you have had a hard life, every since we were that incident. Your appa had made a great mistake and landed us in great debt, but he passed away before he could make up for his mistakes. We have been struggling for the past years because of this..."
I bit on my lip hard; I could feel my expression soften at her genuine words. I shifted my eyes down to her hands and grabbed it. I remembered these hands used to be soft and well-taken care of, but after so many years of doing various odd jobs — those once lovely and gentle hands were gone forever, replaced by roughed calloused hands.
"Yes, umma." I became increasingly depressed as I locked my eyes into her honest gaze.
"Umma, wants only the best for you. The very best and nothing less, do you know that?" She waited for my small nod and she smiled, caressing my cheek. "My poor daughter, having to suffer with me for the past years. I only wish for you to live comfortably and securely."
I chuckled at her sweet comforting words. What's happening? Why is she being so emotional out of sudden? While I stared into the depths of her soft brown orbs, I could see her eyes shimmering with sorrow and regret.
"Umma..." I whispered softly. "What are you saying? Don't look so sad, it's not as if I am leaving you guys!"
Silence. Pure utter cold silence was all that I received. It was so shocking, so revolting that I felt something drop in my pit of my stomach and twisted around my heart. I was joking back then, but all of their faces looked so serious, so intense, without a single drop of their usual smile or happiness. I waited for something, a smile or a joke, but nothing came. I slumped back into my seat defeated, the wooden chair knocking onto my shoulder bone hard.
"...W – What...?" Was all that I managed to say, I couldn't believe it, and what did they mean that I was going to leave them?
I blinked for a couple of times, the words that I wanted to say choked up and gurgled at the back of my tight throat only to have it forcefully swallowed down again.
"Umma has decided," she spoke slowly and gently, as if she was afraid that if she went any faster, she would break me. She spoke each word with careful consideration and dedication, like she was walking on thin ice. "To let you have your happy ending, to allow you to live in comfort and luxury."
Comfort? Luxury? What on earth was she saying? I was about to open my mouth to question her words when Ji Sung held his hand out, signaling me to wait till the end of our mother's explanation awhile Young Jae meekly nodded, clamping his mouth shut.
My mother let out a loud longing sigh, like she was deeply sadden about something. I knew that whatever she wanted to say, I couldn't take it lightly because she is trying so hard to even spill it out of her mouth.
She crumpled the end of her simple dress with her tenacious clutch and with a heavy voice, announced the decision that would change my life forever.
"It was decided that you are going to be the next princess of the republic of Korea, wife to the crown prince, Kwon Tae Hyun. Crown princess Lee Kara, the future mother of our nation."