Poison and Cure

XXI - Dinner

بسم الله
In the name of God
October 7th, 2004 9:37pm
Gwangju, South Korea, In-law's house

◍◍◍

Yoshito, Oliver's father, ended up arriving along with Adelaide after Meiko dolled me up and when the food was all spread out on the short rectangular table.

"You look very beautiful, subhanAllah¹," Yoshito had complimented, with a polite smile and accentless English, "Nice to finally meet the woman I've heard so much about."

I wasn't sure if he was only being polite, but I accepted it all the same with an, "Ah, barakAllahu feek². You have a beautiful home and family. You also look awfully similar to Oliver."

He laughed, amused, "That's nice to hear, people always say he looks like Meiko."

"Well, he has her skin tone and faceshape, but your nose, eyes, lips."

"Hm, that's good enough for me," he laughed again, "I hope you and my son stay together and happy for a long time."

"Thank you, me too."

Meiko sat at the shorter end of the table, Oliver and his dad sat on the long side, and Adelaide and I sat opposite them, with Oliver in front of his sister and me across from his dad.

The beautifully crafted table has miso soup and a bowl of sticky rice next to each person's seat and several dishes of braised tofu, beef, and vegetables at the centre.

As meeting the parents usually go, the parents lovingly made fun of their now-married son, sharing stories and encouragement and warnings. It's been half an hour since the beginning of meeting everyone and Meiko and Oliver have cast their chopsticks aside (they both have unusually small appetites), and the rest of us are still eating; I've become mostly comfortable with his family, alhamdulilah³, although I'm admittedly still on edge at the presence of new people.

Presently, I'm watching Oliver and Adelaide go back and forth.

She grins, putting stewed beef into her mouth before mumbling,

"Yeah, well, we all thought you were gonna die single. Who could tolerate you?"

"And we all thought you'd be married at sixteen," retorts Ollie, sipping mint tea with a raised eyebrow, "Who could deter you?"

"Mama, he's bullying me."

"You started it, it's what you deserve. Besides, we're both married at twenty-two, I guess we were both wrong."

"Ugh, whatever. The only reason I'm not throwing hands is that I'm trying to behave in front of Gen."

"Why bother, she already knows who you are by your first conversation with each other about your carn–"

"I don't care about my image, anymore, let's fight right now, chicken legs," she interrupts him, beginning to stand up as Meiko says calmly,

"Sit down, Adelaide. Where did you and Genesis meet, anyway?"

"Oh, at a science award thing," she says, sitting down and immediately defused, "It was funny, too, 'cause the first time we met she snitched that she had a crush Oliver," Adelaide snorts, covering her mouth with the hand that holds her chopsticks.

My face immediately feels hot with embarrassment, a fiery blush creeping up my cheeks.

How did I get dragged into this conversation?

"Really?" My husband raises an eyebrow, amused, "And when was that, wife?"

I look down at my teacup, "Um... When you talked to Angel at the first award show we went to."