Tae’s heart stopped.
Julia?
She had bigger balls than he did. Maybe a couple days was all the time she’d needed. He smiled. Why wasn’t he surprised?
Tae took a quick look in the mirror and patted down his hair. He sniffed his armpits. Clean. Looked at his teeth. Clear. He held back from running and taking the stairs two at a time. He was chill, the epitome of relaxed. He tripped on the final step and fell through the door, landing on his hands and knees. When he looked up to see her sitting on the sofa, he scrambled to his feet.
“Oh. Annyeonghaseyo,” he said with a bow. Not Julia, but her grandmother. Halmoni. The tiny elder was a force, and her presence took up the whole room.
“Come sit down,” she said.
Tae’s mom left for the kitchen to make them some tea, leaving them alone. Tae wasn’t sure what shook harder, his hands or his knees. He sat in a chair across from her and tried to smile.She did not smile in return. It reminded him of the first time she spoke to him about the job proposal. He should have held his ground then. He shouldn’t have felt guilty about sayingno. He should have made it clear so that there wouldn’t, couldn’t, be a misunderstanding later down the line. He should never have put himself, or Julia even, in that position. Halmoni continued to stare at him. Was she upset that he’d failed at the job? Was she pissed that he hurt Julia? He would promise to make it right as soon as he could.
The silence was killing him.
“Taehyung, do you know why I asked you to help my Julia?”
Tae nodded. “Yes, because she agreed to be set up by the family. So you wanted her to maybe date someone nonthreatening that would make her feel comfortable to eventually go on the dates the family chose.”
She shook her head. “If that was the only reason, I could have asked anyone—your brother, Min, the manager at H Mart, her cousin Justin.”
Tae scrunched his face and tried not to take offense on Julia’s behalf at the lack of options her grandmother could have had him practice-date with her.
“No, I asked you for a very specific reason.”
Silence.
Tae waited, head bowed. He would take whatever harsh words of punishment she had prepared for him. More silence.
Nothing.
He looked up to find Halmoni’s eyes closed, her breath even, followed by a low rumble from her nose. A snore?
Wait, did she fall asleep? Had she had some champagne before coming over? She really could sleep anywhere. Impressive.
“Um, Halmoni?”
Snore.
Should he just wait? But who knew how long it could be before she woke up? Tae reached over to give her a little shake.
She woke suddenly as if startled out of a dream. She fixed her eyes on Tae and spoke as if her little nap never happened. “Tae, did you take time to think about it?”
“Why you asked me to help Julia?” Guess she was just going to take a nap while he came up with an answer. “Well, I suppose that maybe you believe that the rumors are true. Did you think that after dating me, Julia would find the man she was going to marry?”
“Oh, I’m quite confident she will.”
She pulled a small silk pouch from of her apron pocket and held it out to Tae. “I know you said you didn’t want anything, but I insist. It’s payment for the job.”
Tae wasn’t sure what was inside. A rolled wad of cash? Gold? Historic coins from Old Korea? He shook his hand, refusing to receive it. “No, Halmoni. I’m sorry, but as I told you before, I can’t take your money. I don’t want it. It’s not right.” He knew it would be hard to reject the payment. Koreans were stubborn about these things. But he had to. There was no way he was doing this to Julia. He couldn’t. If he ever wanted her trust back again, if he ever wanted her in his life in some meaningful way again, he couldn’t do it. It was the only true apology he could give her.
Grandma Song looked him in the eye, nodded, and placed the pouch down on the table between them. “Tae, you are not tall, smart, or successful.”
Tae was five ten; it wasn’t like he was a hobbit. But fine, he’d take the hit. “You’re right, Halmoni.”
“Not in the way that people see these things. But really,” she said as she leaned in toward him, “you stand taller than anyone because of your honor. You are the smartest because you built a reputation for being good. You are successful at caring for others and showing loyalty. There is no one more suited for and worthy of my Julia.”
Tae swallowed down the surprising emotion brewing withinhim. He’d been near tears more times today than he had in a long time. He didn’t realize she saw him this way. It was an honor. But if she knew how he’d treated Julia, how unworthy he’d been, she wouldn’t be saying these things.
