Someone Like Yoo

VIII

Chapter VIII: Yoo Don't Need To Be Perfect

"Have you met them?"

"No, not yet." I catch him steal a glance behind me, a serious look plastered on his face. "And I don't think I will."

He was taken aback by my answer, leaning over our table as if to strain an ear to the conversation. "Why not?"

"First and foremost, they abandoned me. They never even once showed up to any of my birthday parties. Second, I have exactly no idea where I could find them. Not even Auntie Samshin. She would've known my real eomma's whereabouts since they're sisters." There was a flying white bug resting on my glass of wine and I shoo it away. "Third, I've learned not to care about it anymore."

He continues observing the couple three tables away from us, chewing on a piece of his steak. "Go on," he mumbled.

"Lastly, are you even listening to me?"

Yoo Deok-hwa brought me to a meat restaurant, the Siwhadam Grill Bistro, after we had gone from the shopping mall. He had even pushed me to a jewelry boutique and a salon just an hour ago to "prep up" and I'd said no. I refused to be seen as some girl prying off an older man's wallet. He's not my sugar daddy.

"Err, what?" He jumped, and our table had a tiny shook that the buttered parsleys fell off my steak.

I couldn't believe it. I'm wearing the light blue wrap dress he picked, eating in a restaurant he picked, and chewing on a 100% angus beef steak he ordered and picked at a time of the day he - again for the hundredth time - picked. It was supposed to be an evening dinner, not a late-in-the-afternoon meal when the sun is glimmering like gold and my head is boiling hot and my soul is on fire from annoyance and -ugh! This was never the romantic dinner I imagined. "Who are you spying on anyway?" For the last twenty minutes that we spent here, he's been looking over my head and quietly studying the people eating behind me and I've been tempted to turn my body around to what has seemed to be more interesting than a talk about my biological parents.

"It's okay, you don't need to know." His tone was so low and austere that no one would have suspected any humor in his words. "Just someone from work," he added.

It was either because of the blandness of the steak that we had just a minute ago or Deok-hwa doesn't sound like himself at all. The look in his eyes were different as well, as if they were replaced with new pairs of a darker hue. He looked serious for a whole second and I thought of laughing because I've never really seen that look on him before, but he was insanely set on the couple in the back that I couldn't help but get extremely curious. So I angle around - and as slowly as I can.

Exactly one moment before I could get a clear vision of the woman's face, I felt a strong hand cupping my right cheek and turning my face back in front. The hand belonged to Deok-hwa and immediately I was disgusted by his touch, yet unconsciously warmed. "I told you they're just someone from work," he warns matter-o-factly. "They're not important."

Slapping his hand away from my face, I try not to roll my eyes too high. "If they're not that important, then why the hell have you been lingering your eyes on them ever since we got here? Look," I let out a sigh. "I've accepted every request you have on our way here. And now I'm finally talking about something that might be of importance here and you choose to look away and pretend you're listening?" His jaw drops the entire time and I stand up from the cushioned seat, pulling down the skirt of my dress as I grab my purse. "You know what, I'm outta here." I walk away from the table, heading myself towards the double doors of the restaurant where we first entered. My two-inch heels are already enough to slow me down, but I don't stop.