In Between the Lines | Completed

Chapter Seven | Becoming Eomeoni

Du Shin-Il

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

My mind was not its state at that very moment. In fact, I felt like I had been electrified, set on fire, and then electrified again as I sat in the much too small car with the woman next to me. She was tapping away on her phone, ignoring me and the panic attack her nearness was causing me.

Why did you open the passenger door, you idiot? Why not the backseat?

I breathe through my nose and the smell of sweet flowers and sea spray fills my head as Xiao Mei Cheng shifts her hair and her shampoo wafts over to me.

Her phone buzzes, apologizing momentarily as she swears in Mandarin and with a groan, she answers the incoming call.

Should I tell her I speak Mandarin as well? Or is that weird?

"Mom, what is it?" she speaks softly, her eyebrows furrowed, and eyes closed. While I was purposefully trying NOT to eavesdrop, the woman on the other side of the phone was not being quiet or subtle with her berating comments and I can't avoid overhearing their conversation. I shudder at the thought of the attack dog of a woman coming after me with her words if I was in Xioa Mei Cheng's place.

"How dare you cancel on Linlin's son! I can't believe you won't go on a single blind date with that FABULOUS young man! It's like you have no desire to ever get married or have children or do anything with your life other than act as a child yourself!"

"Mom, he cancelled on me," Xiao Mei Cheng says calmly. "Besides, I don't have any interest of dating—"

"Don't even suggest such a horrible thing! Your father will DIE if he hears that! Or he'll make you go home and set you up with Xiao Hao—"

"I would rather die than marry that jackass."

I internally wince at her words and work to keep my expressions neutral as Xiao Mei Cheng continues to talk to her mother and I sit as an awkward bystander to the whole ordeal.

What exactly have I done to deserve this special sort of hell?

"You might not have a choice if you keep avoiding your responsibilities to the family."

"Responsibilities? What responsibilities? Father has his golden boy to inherit the company and he has the respectable, well-accomplished daughter he only wants to see on paper whether it be my resume or photographs."

"Meimei, you know how important the banquet's auction is to our family and we must be represented well. Can you not please participate this year—" the woman's voice grows softer, and I try to focus on the road ahead of me as we near the bookstore and not on the growing desire to eavesdrop on what is obviously a tumultuous conversation.

Auction? Is her family trying to sell her off to the highest bidder?

The car fills with silence as the conversation becomes whispered and Xiao Mei Cheng pinches her temple with one hand and cracks her neck as she listens. I can't hear her mother's next words, but Xiao Mei Cheng's own words shock me.

"If I don't start dating someone by the end of the year, you can do that," she sighs sadly.

My chest begins to pump as she wishes her mother goodbye in a hurried voice and ends the call.

"Wángbādàn..." Xiao Mei Cheng mutters as she stares at her phone, a photo quickly appearing in front of her.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see it's a photo of a man at least a few years her senior posing on a desk, but the finer details are obscured from my eyes.