Chapter 37: Thirty Six

When she got home, Seulgi received something she dreaded. A voice mail from her mother. It was never a good thing to see her name on the caller ID. She avoided the inevitable by putting her things away. She worked in a shower. She made some dinner, taking a glance at her phone to see if the message light went off. No luck. 

Hey! The litterbox did need to be emptied despite having been cleaned this morning.

She had been working out a lot more recently, so she needed to make a bit more for dinner than normal. Not only that, but it would be a shame to let it get cold. So, she would have to eat it before making any personal calls, right? Being responsible, she did all of the dishes that she had been avoiding for the last two days as well.

Seulgi cursed the clock that was moving at about half the speed that it normally did. If time had been running like normal, it should be 10:30 pm, not 8:30 pm.

Her phone then rang. This was not a sound that she normally flinched at when heard. But, tonight was special. She almost physically recoiled when she saw ‘Mommy Dearest’ on the caller ID.

She reached out to grab the phone. She nearly dropped it when it rang/vibrated again. It was as if the phone was taunting her with full malice about her not totally unreasonable fear.

She knew she could not avoid it again, prolonging answering the phone would only increase the retribution. She was already in deep enough kimchi that she was sure that her mother would make life unbearable. Even if could extricate herself with a quickness, it still would never be fast enough.

It should be noted here that Seulgi loved her mother. But, she also feared her. Her extremely stern father was the same, but for different reasons. She knew they had her best interests – in their opinion, at least – at heart, and were absolutely unabashed in sharing their opinions about how she should be living her life. No matter how unwelcomed those opinions were. Needless to say, their views did not align on many things. Even though she was a 28 year old woman who was a successful adult, and had many good and positive traits, more friends and admirers than even she was aware of, she still felt like a truant six year old in their eyes.

She started to wonder if she needs therapy to work out this inadequacy. Her phone rang and buzzed in her hand again.

This time, she answered.

Without even a chance to say ‘Hello’, she heard a deep, melodic voice yelling at her: “SEULGI! IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU ANSWERED! ARE YOU AVOIDING ME? AGAIN?!’

With a sigh, she responded “Hi mom. How are you tonight?”

“Why haven’t you called recently?”

Why indeed, she thought. Maybe because of how you talk to me? Instead, she said “Oh, you know. I’ve been really busy at work. I just got done with a big project and starting a new one.” This was all she managed to get out before getting steamrolled again.

“Well, you know that your brother has been <blah, blah, blah>”

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Soon as she hears ‘Your brother has…’, she quit listening. There would be nothing productive said for the next hour, if she does not manage to cut her mother off. In the past, Seulgi had put the phone down and walked away for thirty minutes and her mother had not noticed. This was both amusing and disheartening. She should be used to this by now, but it still stung her in her heart. Seulgi tried her best to be a good daughter to these insensitive…people (she had to stay respectful. They were still her parents).

She made ‘uh huh’ and ‘mhmm’ noises every few moments to pretend as if she was still listening. Normally this worked, but today fortune was not with her.

“ <noise, noise, noise>….are you listening, Seulgi? Seulgi?! SEULGI!”

“Oh, yes, mother, I am listening.” Ooops, almost caught.

“As I was saying, they have someone they wanted to introduce you to. Naturally, I accepted for you since you are getting along in years and your marriage prospects are becoming limited.” 

“Wait, what? You did what?!”

“I accepted for you. So, you need to be here next weekend. The meeting is at 7 pm, Friday evening. Don’t be late. And don’t embarrass us. Again.” *click*

Seulgi’s mind was skidding like a car on ice. It took nearly ten minutes to process what just happened. Another ten minutes didn’t help. She just sat there, gaping like a beached fish.

That’s it. She’s had enough of this. This time was just too much. She is NOT going to go. She didn’t care who set up what with whom. No one asked her opinion, so why should she respect theirs? The only real question was if she warned them or not. If they were not going to give her any respect, there was no reason to reciprocate.

She could legitimately say that she was not listening to what was being said as an excuse to not go. Granted, that would bring a whole other set of problems involving her talking with her mother. More, when her mother talks at her. That might actually be worth it, too. She would have to weigh the balances of pros/cons as to what would, if not could, happen.

She could be honest and say that she had no intention of going because she was not consulted in her opinion. She was sure how that would go, but at that moment, she really didn’t care. She might tomorrow, but at this moment, she was ready to tell them all off. Including this poor guy that they are trying to pawn her off on.

She thought that if the man was getting railroaded into this as she was, he probably was not worth the effort.

Seulgi was not opposed to the idea of marriage. However, she was opposed to being forced into it. Traditional marriage be damned. She will marry the person she chooses when she chooses. It’s not like she does not have options.

Perhaps she should take a look into some of the people around her if for no other reason than to derail her mother's machinations.

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