Jennie
I get my yellow pad out and start scribbling frantically, notes like rustic and outdoors and rose arbour? My glass of wine has a hole in it. Only explanation for the way the honey-gold line keeps plummeting. My pen stops suddenly when I flip to the flower selection. A laminated printout of white magnolias stares back at me.
Magnolias. Meaning purity and dignity. Often associated with yin. Femininity. A historically romantic flower.
Magnolias. The same flowers that Taehyung picked out for our wedding. The wedding that never happened, so the flowers died one by one on my kitchen table. The petals crumpled up and dried out, and then they fell, leaving nothing but empty, and abandoned stalks.
"Hey, I know you."
I glance upwards and immediately regret it. My eyes connect with two men standing at the bar beside me, one is a larger man wearing an "I Love Seoul" tee, and his friend has a deer-hunting hat. My guess is that they're both tourists. I get that pit-in-stomach sinking feeling. I try to swallow it back with a smile. "Sorry, I don't think so."
"Yeah, I do." I-Love-Seoul points a stubby finger at me. "You're on television, right?"
Yup. Definitely tourists. Seoulites know better than to accost celebrities in public, or normal people like me who suffered their five minutes of fame.
I shrug and keep up my war-paint smile. "I think you have the wrong girl."
I turn my shoulders toward them and try to refocus on my folder. Please leave me alone, my body language is screaming. But, of course, they don't take the hint.
His friend snaps his fingers. "Dude! It's that chick from the 'Bride Attacks' video!"
I pray that the carpet turns into a sinkhole and consume me into the pits of hell.
"Holy shit!" I-Love-Seoul is all excited now. "Is that you?"
They don't wait for me to confirm or deny, I-Love-Seoul has his phone out, and he shoves his whole body against mine. He's hovering his phone above both of us, with his huge thumb trying to get his camera in selfie mode. He smells like vendor tteokbokki and sweat, and this is getting out of hand. I don't need bad publicity now, not when I've just gotten my new client. I quickly lift my arm and duck my head down. "Please... can you... stop?"
"Hey." A third person approaches. Great. Just what I need. A crowd. But this third person doesn't seem to be part of their duo, though; she's tucked away in a Celine suit, with a drink in hand. She smiles and shows off a set of perfectly white teeth. "That's a nice phone. Want me to take a photo of the three of you?"
Oh, crap. I try to protest, but the tourists are already wedging me between them. I-Love-Seoul shoves his phone at the stranger and thank her for her generosity.
Tteokbokki. And the stench of body odour. Ugh. I'm stuck in this now, and I try to smile.
"Say cheese." The Celine-clad person says. Then she sticks the nice iPhone in her glass, submerging it.
My mouth falls open.
"Yo!" I-Love-Seoul leaves my side and launches at the Celine-clad person.
She holds the glass and phone hostage, while retracting her arm back. "Next time, listen to a lady when she says no." she warns them, with her voice like ice. Who is this person? But then she's all smiles again, and she hands the glass back, with the phone sticking out of it like an overly garnished Bloody Mary. "You have about thirty seconds to get this in a bowl of rice before the hardware is fried. I'd leave now, if I were you."
Cursing and red-faced, the two tourists grab the damaged phone and run out of the bar, presumably, all the way to Yongsan Electronics Market.
Catlike, the iPhone-killer slides her forearms on the bar, filling the new space now emptied by the two men. "I hope that wasn't presumptive of me..." she says to me. "But they seemed like assholes."
"No... I mean, they were asshole-ish." I respond. "I don't know if they were $1,500 worth of asshole, but... thank you. I think."
"Thank you." she smiles. "I've always wanted to bathe a cell phone."
"Well, now you can check that off the bucket list." I'm not sure what I'm feeling... relief? My heart is hammering, and I'm still coming off the jittery edge of what the hell just happened?
This person next to me looks completely unperturbed, as though swooping in and saving the day by destroying someone else's property is just another Friday.
I know the warning signs. Her smile and her ease are dangerous. It's a switch. Taehyung had one of those. A person like that will be loyal, and charming, and polite... until they are not. The second you're on their bad side, your phone goes in the drink. Or worse.
