Broken Guitar Strings

Chapter 9

(ALLIE’S POV)

Tonight’s a pretty special night, because we’re actually having a family dinner. My mother’s new Hollywood movie has been out for a month and it’s box office sales are topping the charts. She came back today when I was at school so I’m super excited to see her for the first time in months. My dad’s in a really good mood too because the new Adidas Prime Knit soccer cleats have been slaying on the market. I know all about them; they literally weigh next to nothing. So I guess we’re having a family dinner to welcome mom back and celebrate my father’s hard work in the office. Sometimes I miss spending time with them, so it’ll be a great evening.

Seeing my mom after two months is so great. Her whole face lit up at seeing me and we embraced; expressing what we couldn’t express in words through that. During dinner, she asks, “How’s school been, Al?” My dad looks over at me too. “Yeah, I was wondering how you were getting along with Park.” I chew on my alfredo and swallow. Pasta is the best thing I’ve ever had, next to pizza. “Park Chanyeol?” My parents both eagerly nod. “Alright, I guess,” I say sheepishly. We kissed. What the hell. My father raises an eyebrow. “Don’t you think that boy has everything going for him? He knows what he’s doing and he’s set for success.” My mother says. “Plus, he’s got the looks.” She subtly winks at me. I make a “what” face, and my mom goes back to eating her pasta as if she didn’t say anything. “Speaking of the Park family,” my dad says, “I’ve invited them to come over and have a nice Thanksgiving supper with us.” My mother nods in agreement. I put down my fork. “Wait, what?”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“Actually, nothing. I guess I was just surprised.”

“Is there conflict between you and Chanyeol?” My mom looked extremely worried. I don’t think she was this worried even when Robin Williams passed away.

“Well, no, but would there be a problem if there was?” I question.

My parents look at each other and I know they’re exchanging telepathic words. “Alright, what’s up.” I say, halting my food intake for now. (I don’t know how that was entirely possible. I mean, it’s pasta….) “Allie, we just want you and Chanyeol to bond. You know, get to know each other.”

I scoff. “Who doesn’t know Chanyeol? I’m pretty sure almost every girl in the grade besides me knows which pair of shoes he’s going to wear to school tomorrow. Dad, you’ve actually been mentioning him to me a lot these past few days.” What was that all about?

My dad looked at my mom and she sighed. She sipped her butternut squash soup and tilted her head slightly down, as in a faint nod. “You see, Al,” my dad started to explain, “the Park family is an amazing family. They uphold the values that we do and set their eyes on reasonable goals. Both of our families hold much power in the marketing industry.”

“Yes?” I move my hands in a gesture to convey, “carry on.”

“Imagine if these two families were to, say, become one.” What.

My mom’s a very sensitive and caring person overall, and through my peripheral vision I could see her stare at me just to see my reaction. From the expression on her face I think she was expecting me to explode or light on fire right then and there. Something fiery like that.

“What do you mean by...become one?” I say slowly.

My dad clears his throat. “Well we need something, right? Something to connect the two families. Something such as --”

I was already out of my chair and dashing upstairs by that point.

♪♪♪

(ALLIE’S POV)

My parents didn’t even try to come after me. I guess they were expecting this exact reaction from me. I had already made my way halfway down the Kpop list on my phone. Even as f(x)’s Dracula concluded with a terrifying scream, I still couldn’t clear my mind. Thoughts were racing through it, one after the other. I sigh. I’m so confused right now. I had heard stories about families who owned conglomerate companies joining together through their children. It seemed all happy and nice at first but it was absolute torture for the kids. 90% of the time, they had no interest in each other and the story would go down in a blaze of glory.

However, it never occurred to me that my story would head in that direction. More importantly, am I interested in Chanyeol?

He is great. Just like my mom said, Samsung’s popularity has been increasing rapidly and that kid has everything going for him. The girls, the grades, and the money.

But marriage? Marriage? MARRIAGE? Why are they already thinking about that when I’m in freaking eleventh grade? I wonder what the Parks’ perspective is on this. I’m not sure about anything right now other than the fact that Chanyeol has showed interest in me.

I shake my head and tell myself, “Let’s focus on something else.” I open my laptop to check my email. Indeed, Lay’s first draft of our composition was sitting there waiting for me.

♪♪♪

(ALLIE’S POV)

The email included a GarageBand attachment accompanied by a few qualification sentences. I read through the “I’m so sorry if you don’t like this” and the “Send it back to me if you need me to make changes.” Lay is such a...delicate person. Since I haven’t talked to him much, I don’t know if that’s the real him or if that’s only because I intimidate him. I listened to Lay’s piece, and it was actually really beautiful. It gave me the soothing, cozy feeling that he gives me. Really, I should be the nervous one, not him. He’s a freaking musical genius and his voice sounds amazing whenever he sings in class.

Since this is a Thanksgiving composition piece, I’m thinking about writing lyrics about fall and maybe gratitude. I work for almost an hour on writing and perfecting my lyrics so they flow with the music.

When I finally feel like I’m satisfied, I send the lyrics to Lay. Hopefully he won’t be too disappointed.