Wicked Fate

SEVENTH CHAPTER

Against the tide

"Am I hallucinating?", Daesung asked Teddy as they watched Dara dismount from Ji's motorcycle.

"If you're hallucinating then I am too", Teddy answered.

The two of them had just arrived for their shift and got the surprise of their lives when they saw Ji and Dara arriving in a motorbike.

Ji took off his helmet and greeted the both of them.

This, obviously, flustered the uptight Head Nurse.

"Doctors", she greeted and without further ado, took leave of the three of them. She disappeared from the parking lot with the speed of lightning that Ji wondered whether she took lessons from Houdini in escaping.

"Where have you guys been?", Teddy asked Ji.

"We visited the haenyeos", he answered as he put away his helmet and zipped down his jacket.

"You got her to ride a motorbike?!?", Dae asked in wonder, "How the hell did you do that?!"

"Wow!", Ji exclaimed, "Maybe I should put myself on the Guinness book for that. Everyone's commented on it already."

Teddy laughed and put a shoulder around him. "You be careful ok? Dara's not someone to mess around with."

"I got no plans", he shot his cousin down immediately, "Everyone should really stop thinking I'm out for her blood."

"Hey! Don't be so touchy", his oldest cousin replied, "You know, I know, Dae knows that you're a different man now and that you're out here to just do a job but a lot of people are still not going to believe that... you told me that yourself. I just want you to be careful and look out for things that people might put stories in to. Ok?"

He knows that what Teddy said is right but it still irritated the hell out of him.

"Maybe it's better if I just stay away from her", he told himself.

***

What wishing stars often hear

Dara sat down for dinner with her Aunt.

Ever since coming back here, she's lived with her Aunt and Chaerin. However, as the latter is now married, it's only be her and her Aunt living under the same roof.

"I received an invitation today from Ahn Ro. It seems that the girl is finally getting married", her Aunt told her.

"That sounds great", she answered, "It seems everybody is getting married nowadays."

"Well... I daresay it's high time for you too to get married. Have you not yet thought about it?"

Unbidden to her mind, an image of Ji Yong suddenly flashed in front of her and she shook her head to dismiss the image.

"You seem very determined in being single as long as allowed", her Aunt commented, taking the shake of her head as a firm negative against the idea of marriage.

What her Aunt just said is true and she most definitely isn't going to correct her assumption about her firm shaking of head awhile ago. She doesn't need to know it's because of Ji Yong. "I still have a lot that I want to do and being married will only be a hindrance", she answered – the same old adage that she always uses for questions like this.

The older woman let out a sigh, "Poor Jay... if he is really going to wait for you, I believe he will grow old and wither away."

Dara smiled. "He doesn't have to. I told him that he can go out with other women and look for other potential partners. If in the end, we still end up together then maybe we are indeed meant for each other."

"Let's hope he does as you have said then... he seems like a very cautious man... I hope ladies don't get bored with him."

This directness of her aunt is what has endeared the old woman to her even when she was still a child. Her cousin, Chaerin, has acquired the same directness but has the biting tongue to go with it. The two women were such sources of comfort to her in the past and even up to now that when Chaerin married Seungri, she cried harder than her Aunt.

"He's a good guy Auntie", she replied, "and I daresay, there are women who will want to find a man like him."

"And how about you? Is he not your type of guy?"

"Me?"

"I was just thinking... is the reason that you do not want to marry Jay is because he is too cautious?"

"It is not that at all Auntie", she denied, "I fell out of love with him and I have told him so. However, he continues to go after me."

"That's because your answers still give him hope..."

"I've told him to date other girls –"

"The last part where you tell him that it could still be the two in the end IS a very safe answer. I think that you purposely leave him hanging so you always have a fall back... you are more cautious than Jay actually is."

Growing hot in the neck, Dara knows that what her Aunt just said is true.

She couldn't find anything to say as a rebuttal.

"I want you to find someone you love dear", her Aunt continued, "but you can't very well find that man if you're not willing to take the risk."