I was awakened by a call, it's almost 6 in the evening. I didn't realize I fell asleep unpacking my clothes. If not for the call, I might have not woken up on time for the party.
"Hello, this is Ara," I think my voice is still sleepy.
"Ara, Professor Kim here. I guess you've settled in. Did I wake you?" he asked, and I can sense that he is apologetic with his voice,
"Yes, but no need to worry. I'm actually thankful that you called otherwise I would have dozed off until tomorrow and missed the chance to come to the party."
"I wanted to ask you about that, I can pick you up at your room and we can go together? Since we are not allowed to bring any plus one, I might as well take advantage to have a date…" I can hear her wife's remark from the background. I knew Prof Kim's wife Myeong-dae and their 11-year-old son, they are with him in Copenhagen when he came as a visiting professor.
"I can just meet you at the mezzanine hall, no worries. I can't let you wait for me in my room, you know how woman prepare. Please say hi, to Myeong for me."
"She is actually asking if you can have dinner with us one of these days before you leave"
"I would love to, I don't really have many things to do aside from the seminar, tomorrow evening after the seminar is fine with me?"
"That's perfect, she will be happy. I'll see you later then?"
"See you."
You know how a woman prepare for a party. Two hours might seem long but I'm a bit frantic now. I needed a shower to freshen up. I am actually looking forward to seeing Prof Kim again. I had a crush on him back then. My first crush after my divorce, if I have not met his family, I would have flirted with him back then. I smiled at the thought. Then, that annoying smile cross my mind. Nam Jae-woo, he is quite a charmer, he reminded me of the Korean actor, Jo in Sung, his smile makes you want to stare at him and drown in those eyes. I wonder if he is coming tonight. Oh no. Nope, I should not think of these thoughts, I have to be here on pure business. I can feel he will be trouble, the moment I saw him. He looks like a player, a predator ready to claw his way to an unknowing prey. And I refuse to be that prey.
I finally decided on my outfit, a black satin off-shoulder knee-length dress with a longer back hem. I love dressing up, and I am so proud that I have achieve this body through hard work because it allowed me to dress up with whatever type of clothes, I felt comfortable with. As expected, I still need to do some finishing touches before I'll go down and it's already half past 7. I grabbed the black and gold, Dior Montaigne Flap Chain bag and my black Valentinos with golden rock studs. How hard it is truly to be a woman preparing for a party. I just put on a simple make up since I am not really a professional makeup artist. I learned how to do this stuff on YouTube just like most women I guess, tied my hair in a bun to emphasize my clavicle, my hair is long again, I used to have short hair but, I kinda feel that longer hair makes me feel more womanly and makes me look younger. Putting my hair up and wearing an off-shoulder blouse shows my bare neck that makes it seems longer than it actually is. I looked at myself for the last time on the mirror, I love it. Most of the guests are academic people, so dressing up really is not a big deal.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting," I approached Prof Kim with a nervous smile. He knew about my crush on him a while back, but we are both adult and professional to put it all behind us.
"Women, right?" he said, with a teasing smile. We kind of hit each other's humor already.
He ushered me to the party room, it was set up quite nicely for the event. I looked around and people are already seated at their table, there's about 5 tables with 6 people each, and I'm happy that there is no definite seating arrangement. I guess you can say it's first come first serve seating.
"Let me take your coat? It's not cold in here." Prof Kim is offering to take my coat off.
"I'll take it, thanks…" I went back to the coat area to deliver my coat. As soon as I took the ticket for the receipt of my jacket. I head back to our table, but I came across a broad shoulder when I turned around.