The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 36

Jenna had waited in vain for joanne to show her the prints from the roll of film she had used up at Hamoa Beach. Several times she had been tempted to remind the American woman. In the end she hadn't mentioned the matter for fear joanne might suspect how much she longed to possess the photograph of herself with jihoon.

On Christmas Day, joanne presented each of her fellow passengers with a plastic cube paperweight into which could be slotted six photographs. In the cube she gave to jenna there were three snapshots; the one with jihoon, another of hana and joon, and a picture of Ocean Wanderer at anchor in Lahaina Roads.

Everyone who recieved a cube was delighted with joanne's clever idea. She was congratulated for having had the forethought to bring a box of them with her from California.
Joon's gifts were more lavish. He gave hana a necklece which made her shriek with delight when she opened the case, and jenna cringe with concealed mortification as she watched him fasten the costly string of fine pearls round her sister's neck.

Further embarrassment was in store. Joon's present to jenna was a pendant on a fine gold chain. The pendant was a gold disc set with five diamonds representing the five stars of the Southern Cross. There was nothing she could do but pretend to be grateful for his generosity. But for the rest of the morning, until they all went swimming before lunch and she could take the thing off, she felt humiliated by it.

The presents which she gave people had had of necessity to be at the opposite end of the scale from the expensive gifts joon bestowed on his guests. Like him, she had included the ship's officers and the cabin crew on her present-buying list. But it was a surprise to find that, with the exception of Terry Anson, all the officers had chosen a present for her.

She and joanne were the only passengers who received presents from them, and most people on board could have predicted that lee yong would give joanne a token of his increasingly obvious regard for her.

But why she should be signaled out to receive presents from dong won, lee yong, and jihoon was beyond jenna's comprehension. Although she didn't understand it, she found it extraordinarily warming. And when she opened the wrapping on jihoon's choice for her, she could have burst into tears, she was so much moved. Fortunately she was able to mask this reaction as she had hidden her other feelings. But later on, in her cabin, she couldn't help shedding a few tears as she tried on the sulu he had given her.

It was one of several she had received, but the others were the standard pieces of opaque cotton brightly patterned with hibiscus flowers, palm trees and similar South Seas motifs. Jihoon's choice was a sulu of semitransparent fine voile printed with swirls of colour.... Deep sea-greens with streaks of indigo and amethyst.... And criss-crossed with fine silver threads.

She decided to wear it for lunch. After Christmas she would put it away in tissue paper, to be taken out sometimes and fingered gently, like a wedding dress.

For her, now, there would never be a wedding day, or a trousseau, or a honeymoon, or any of the bridal delights which, before coming on this cruise, she had taken for granted would be a part of her life.
Jihoon must like her much better than he had at first, or he wouldn't have selected this beautiful Christmas present for her. It showed an insight into her taste of which, at the beginning of their relationship, she would have thought him incapable. But the fact remained that the man she loved was in love with someone else. That was unalterable.

Brushing away a large tear which had brimmed over her eyelid and trickled down her cheek, she made a resolute effort to batten down her emotions. It wouldn't do to appear at lunch with red eyes.