What the heart wants

Chapter 36: Korean style time bomb

Alex's POV

Her household got busy soon enough because her grandmother is coming and her mom is making everyone clean the house again from top to bottom, making sure that no speck of dust can be seen even with a magnifying glass.

Even poor Michael and Angelique didn't escape the cleaning general. Jayden felt bad for them that she had to take them out and buy them pizza and beer.

Her Halmeoni's long awaited visit finally came and Jayden asked me to come and meet her and have dinner with them. Meeting her grandmother, now I know where she got her petite figure.

Her grandmother was no taller than her but she looks cute until she opened her mouth. Which I attributed Jayden and her mom's spunkiness from her also.

Dinner that night was Korean style, complete with side dishes and bulgogi beef. That's the only dish I know from this country since it's pretty popular in some restaurants as appetizer.

She cooked some kind of soup with green leaves floating around and what I thought was cooked ziti in red sauce was actually a spicy Korean rice cake.

Her grandma said the name but all I heard were the letters T and K and some vowels mixed somewhere in between.

After dinner, her family moved to the living room except for me and Mark. He started talking about the hospital where he's interning.  We swapped stories, passing learned techniques to make our shift less painful.

I happened to glance in the living room and I see halmeoni passing around pictures. I got curious but it's probably just some family pictures so I shifted my attention back to Mark.

I glanced at my watch and I was surprised that it was getting late. I I told Mark that I need to head home since I have to be at the hospital early tomorrow. I said my goodbyes to the family and Jayden walked me to my car.

'Did you like the dinner?' she asked. I smiled and nodded my head. Finally, an alone time with my girl.

'I like your grandma, she's like you. Cute and spunky,' catching her hand.

'Yah, that spunky lady cooked all the food tonight and she criticized my mom that the rice was too wet for her liking and told my dad that the house is too big for 5 people,' putting more umph to grandma's spunkiness?

'Are those pictures from your family in korea?' I asked just out of curiosity.

'Are you kidding me? I wish. No, its pictures of Korean boys that she wants me to check out in case I have any interest in marrying one of them. She also brought some pictures of girls for Mark,' she nonchalantly explained.

I could feel my body heat going into my head before she could even finish.

'She did what?' my voice must have been so loud because she covered my mouth with her hand.

'Shhh, not so loud, they might come out and tell me to come in. She won't like it that I'm here alone with you,' she anxiously pointed out.

'Babe, how could she do that? She knows that I'm your boyfriend,' I'm feeling agitated by the minute. I was torn between going back in the house rip all those pictures or not make a scene and just let it be.

'Here's the thing, in Korean culture, there's a strong tradition of matchmaking. Back then, males and females were not allowed to mingle freely with each other because that's what some Confucius guy said. So marriages were arranged by matchmakers hired by the parents.' I couldn't even concentrate on what she's saying about some Asian tradition.

All I could think about is how to stop little spunky grandma from marrying off my Jayden to some other guy.

When I got home, my mom was in the kitchen. She asked how my meeting with Jayden's grandma went. I told her that I thought she was cute at first until she pulled out a bunch of pictures of Korean boys to match Jayden with.

At first she couldn't speak and then she busted out laughing. There's nothing funny about this situation at all. She quieted down when she noticed that I didn't see any hilarity about my impending doom.

'I think she was sent here from Korea to sabotage my relationship with Jayden. I mean, if my granddaughter tells me that she has a boyfriend, I will never do something like that. That's just wrong,' grumbling  to myself.

'You should have seen her, she looks really harmless but then she pulls this korean time bomb out of her pocket and throws it at me, grandmas are supposed to be nice.' complaining some more.

My mom just came over to me and gave me a hug and trying to temper her laugh, 'you poor thing, who would have thought that big bad Alex can be taken down by an Asian grandma,' she is not being supportive right now.

'Mom, it's not funny and you're not making me feel any better,' I said as I stand up to get some water to cool me down.

'Honey, she wants to make sure that her granddaughter marries a reliable person. I heard they screen these guys to make sure that they are worthy candidates,' okay, mom, you saying that is still not making me feel better.

I couldn't believe that this is happening to me right now. 'How am I going to convince grandma that there's someone here next to Jayden that really wants her and they've been together for almost a year now? That he's the best candidate although it's going to be a while before he can support a family but still he's a very nice guy,' turning to my mom, convincing anyone who cares to listen that I'm worthy.

'Alex, you don't have to persuade me. I believe everything that you're saying but she doesn't know you from Adam. She knows more about those boys because they are part of her culture,' isn't she supposed to be on my side?

'But Jayden grew up here. We share the same culture,' I'm not getting the culture part. What's that got to do with who you marry? I thought as long as you love the person that that should count more.

As soon as I said the word marry, I realized what I had to do. I called my dad who was in his home office and we had an emergency meeting.

With our plans set into action, we invited Jayden's family the following week to our house for a get together. Of course, my Aunt's family is also invited. The more witnesses the better.

Thanks to my mom who loves parties, she had everything ready when next Saturday rolled in. All I had to do was get myself ready and find the courage to make grandma see that I'm the one for her one and only granddaughter.