Wedding Bells

1

Do you ever have one of those moments where your entire world is shattering but you have to pretend that everything is fantastic? If so, then you can probably imagine how I felt staring into the face of my best friend of twenty plus years as she thrust a basket with the words "Will you be my bridesmaid?" on it into my unsuspecting hands. I had thought we were just meeting up for brunch to drink mimosas and give me a space to bitch about life while we caught up, but little did I know that she was gonna drop that bomb on me before the drinks even arrived. I get it, you're probably thinking that it's odd for someone to label a person as their best friend and proceed to express horror at the news of their impending marriage. The thing is, Minji isn't just my best friend. Our relationship is a little more complicated than that-well, it is for me. Minji herself would smile and insist that I have had her back since we were little and that's all there is to it. In my case, however, things go beyond being platonic. Maybe I should give some background so that you can have some idea of how I managed to fall into the hellhole that is my inescapable crush on Kim Minji.

Minji and I met in kindergarten. We went to the same school and as luck would have it, had been placed in the same class our first year. As even more luck would have it, we'd also been sat at the same table in the classroom. Minji has changed very little since the day we met. She still exudes the same childish innocence combined with the elegance of a princess. Her smile still holds the same sunny quality it had back then, and her laugh still sounds the same despite her voice getting deeper with age. Heck, if she could still fit into it, she would probably wear the same sweater she had worn that day-her love of the color pink is yet another thing that has not changed. Now, you might be thinking that I'm about to spew some cheesy nonsense about how five-year-old me somehow knew the concept of love because I fell for Minji the minute we took our seats at the table. You might be disappointed, or perhaps relieved, to know that is not the case. When I first met Minji, the only thought my kindergarten self had was that it was unfair how tall she was. I had always been one of the scrawniest kids in my grade, and had developed a bit of a Napoleon complex as a result. It bothered me when other girls were bigger than me, especially when they were as nice and pleasant as Minji was. If they were going to be giants, I wanted them to at least be horrible ogres to match their size. Now that I think about it, Minji and I were a pretty hilarious combination. She was bigger, but she was a pushover, while I was the small one with an attitude big enough for both of us.

"Um, earth to Bora? You're spacing out on me. I know this is all moving kind of fast and I'll be ready for one of your grandma lectures another time. For now, please just say yes! Come on, I worked really hard on that gift basket! Won't you please open it? You've always told me I'm an excellent gift giver," Minji cut into my reminiscing by grabbing my shoulders and shaking me back into the present.

I blinked, "Oh, right. Uh, yeah, you can count on me," I sputtered out.

Minji grinned, "Hooray! I'm so excited for you to meet Yoohyeonie. I know you probably don't approve of me coming back from Europe with a fiance, but you gotta understand, it was so romantic! Meeting her in the city of love, traveling to so many magical places with her, I just knew she was the one for me. Not to mention she is just as excited about this marriage as I am. She finally finished her degree, and was able to pay off her tuition. Her family is so generous to not only pay for her schooling, but to also pay for our wedding and offer their estate to have it on. I just couldn't be happier! I wish I could have shared more of this with you, but it all just happened so quickly. I'm still kind of in the clouds trying to make sense of it all," she gushed.

I forced a smile as I pretended to listen to her love-sick rambling. I was pretty pissed that she vanished for months and suddenly returned with a massive ring and a woman even taller than her by her side. I hadn't even gotten to see any of this in person, it just popped up on my Facebook wall one day. Then, a few days later I got the text from Minji asking me to brunch, and you know the rest from there. That's right, Minji's own best friend knew nothing of her relationship with this apparent soulmate of hers. I had received occasional postcards from her when she first left for Europe, but apparently all of her time went into frolicking around with Yoohyeon because she eventually stopped writing. I was curious to meet the woman who had managed to snatch all of Minji's attention for months. In the past, Minji had gotten bored with relationships pretty quickly, so it surprised me to see her so eager to commit to one woman for the rest of her life. To be honest, a part of me wonders if she wasn't blinded by wanderlust. Being in an exotic, romantic setting would make anybody more attractive. Still, even the picture of Yoohyeon had been intimidating. She loomed tall and thin, an elegant figure that could easily be a supermodel if she wanted. Unfortunately, her looks came with brains too. Based on my research on various social media sites, the university she studied at was extremely prestigious and she was one of the top students in linguistics. On top of that, she was known for being extremely philanthropic and supporting all kinds of charitable causes. Basically, this Yoohyeon looked and sounded like some kind of perfect goddess robot.