Loveboat in 서울

𝟙𝟡

A pair of guards in crips blue swing open wrought-iron gates onto a wide driveway. Our driver pulls through, touching his fingertips to his brow in salute.

Sohee was not exaggerating. The Jung residence sits in the heart of Gangnam, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Seoul. Along the stone walls, baby-pink rosebushes—"imported from the United Kingdom," Sohee says—rustle in a breeze. Ivy flagstones and English grass carpet the grounds all the way to a two-story building of white stucco and modern black frames of windows and doors.

"Hey, Sohee, I need to tell you something." For the fourth time, I try to catch her attention. Joohyuk and I have been trying to update her and Kang on the change in our dating status since we hit the road, but between giving Kang the scoop on her family and now, the mansion, she hasn't paused for breath.

Our van stops at the foot of a stone stairwell the width of an estuary. A butler opens Sohee's door and she flies out like a sunbeam, squealing. "Aunty Yumi! We're here!"

The update will have to wait. Two barking poodles, along with two black-haired kids around five and six, hurl themselves at Joohyuk. The boy yells basketball stats in English. The girl, despite her picture-perfect rose-print dress cries and babbles—apparently her mother just informed her she's too young to marry Joohyuk.

"Hey, Ace! You've been doing research?" Joohyuk swings the boy onto his shoulder and spins, making him yell. He tugs on the girl's pigtails. "Annie, you don't want to marry an ugly old troll like me."

"Yes, I do!" Annie lisps; she's lost two front teeth. I laugh. Joohyuk will be a great dad—um, wrong road!—it's not as though I really an his girlfriend, assessing his potential life-mate qualities. Aish!

Eager to put space between us, I follow Sohee up the steps into a high-ceilinged foyer of while marble tiles and pillars, man-sized vases, a large tree, a curved staircase—all sparkling with light from a chandelier the size of a grand piano. A Japanese-style pond, build with flat stones into the floor, swims with Koi fishes.

"Aunty Yumi!" Sohee whoops down on a petite, pregnant woman and plants a kiss on each cheek. Then she thread her arm through Kang's. "This is Song Kang."

"Welcome!" Aunty Yumi, swelling belly and all, is stunning in her tailored cream dress and string of emeralds. She bestows the same queenly greeting on Kang, then on Joohyuk, still bent double with Annie and Ace clinging like monkeys to his back and neck. Joohyuk detaches himself from his cousins, grabs my hand, and pulls me forward.

"And this is Bae Suzy." Joohyuk's tone is even, but he somehow sounds ... proud. As if he's created me himself. "My girlfriend."

A stunned silence follows. I can't look at Sohee or Kang.

Then Annie screams and runs upstairs, wailing. Aunty Yumi's eyes grow wide. I'm terrified she's about to scold Joohyuk. How dare you bring such a mouse home when your cousin brings the Heir to the Song empire?!

Then her arms go around me. Jasmine perfume fills my nostrils.

"Omooo!" she cries. My goodness! "Sohee, you should have warned me!" She holds me at arms' length and drinks me down with gorgeous eyes. "Joohyuk, you should have warned me! Suzy, sweetie, my home is yours. Do you have any favorite dishes? I'll send my maid to the market."

"No, no." I find my voice. "No. Anything is great." And where with all her enthusiasm go when I dump her darling nephew? Sohee frowns and I feel another stab of guilt.

Then Joohyuk's arm encircles my waist, warm and possessive. "I knew you'd like her."

"I'm giving you the Eleanor suite," Aunty Yumi says to me. She starts up the stairs, then turns back. "Joohyuk!" she cries, exasperated. "Carry her bag!"