16

“Mrs. Park is in the games room with guests. She asked you to come in when you arrive home.” The housekeeper greets me with kind eyes and a gentle voice as I wander in, heavy with the tiredness of the day and home late. Dealing with the protest fallout on top of so much else these past few days has me exhausted. My shoulders ache, my neck is stiff, and I have a headache coming on. I’m nowhere near in the mood to entertain her guests, but I’m obedient to a fault. I was raised in the good old ‘thou shall obey my parents’ of my culture, and I grimace and paste on a fake smile. Sighing and knowing I should get it over and done with. It’s a show-off move to remind her friends how magnificent her family is.

“Where’s Yoonie? Is he home?” I ask with a raised brow, seeing as he left the office hours ago. I already know it’s pointless to ask about Jyeon, who was still burning the office lights when I left.

“Yes, Ma’am. He was asked in also; he’s there already.”

I knew it before I asked. When mother decides to impress her socialite friends, no child is safe from her demands, and I grit my teeth and make my way to the opposite end of the house. Throwing my briefcase on the lounge table in passing, knowing I have so much work still to do and it’s already ten pm.

I hear the chatter and laughter of drunk rich women before I even get to the door and open it. Bracing myself for the onslaught and knowing that I should remain calm and elegant no matter what. I hate these women.

I’m assaulted with a view of many overdressed glamorous over fifties sat around the huge dining table in here while playing cards. Poor Yoonha is propped between two of the most cougar-type elderly I have ever known and being prodded and squeezed at every opportunity. His cute self is irresistible to this affection starved trophy wives. I roll my eyes for him, seeing how uncomfortable he is but for mother, we always do as she says. Playing the part of the perfect family.

“Sohla!!” She exclaims dramatically upon seeing me, and the atmosphere immediately cools to a subdued quiet as all eyes turn my way and her friends take me in. This isn’t a new reaction but one I have endured my entire marriage to Jyeon. None of them like my persona, face, voice, anything…. let alone my marriage status to Jyeon.

“Mother. Ladies. Yoonha.” I nod politely, and Yoonie uses my appearance as an excuse to jump up and come around the table to pull out a chair for me, sighing his relief and pulling one next to it for himself.

“Sit, sit. I can help you with your cards as I know you are awful at playing Gin.” He smiles brightly, suffocating me with his wiggled eyebrow signals of ‘save me.’ The boy will use anything to free himself from being molested.

I want to bail; I really do, but that face. How can I leave my baby brother to fend for himself? I know all too well what these people are like.

“I can only play one game as I have so much work left to do. OLO is very busy currently, and I brought home a mountain of paperwork.”

I still haven’t had one actual greeting from a single lady, besides pained fake smiles and nods, and mother pulls in the cards to shuffle them. Oblivious to their apparent dislike or ignoring it anyway. She’s looking very queenlike and in her element when sitting at the head of her brood, lording over them because our family is top of the pecking order in this city. This is the woman I have watched all these years, observing over everything in her wake, and is the role model who pushed me to be just like her even if it was unwilling.

“My daughter-in-law is a machine in the office. Without her, Jyeon would not know how to rule quite so effortlessly. Such a blessing.” She praises me, beaming with pride at the creature she created, so inwardly satisfied that I carry out what she intended with little resistance. It never usually grates on me, I know it well, but lately, I’ve been feeling it more and more. This inner bubbling sense of rebellion.

I sit and allow Yoonha to catch my cards and assembles them before placing them in my hands. Always such an attentive boy. I’m actually very good at this game but playing dumb is better than being made to do this every week. And it always gives him an excuse to come and sit by me, safe from overly touchy wenches.

“He’s so lucky to have a wife who can take the helm. My son’s wife only produces children and smiles.” A merry comment delivered with big smiles as though demeaning her daughter-in-law, but we all know that’s not what it is.

I stiffen inwardly at the jibe, feeling the cattiness, and ignore it. This is common. Nastiness veiled in humor with a sweet tone is commonplace in her circle of friends. A brood of women whose only goal in life is to marry off their kids and have as many heirs as possible as though it’s a marker of how successful they are as mothers. A daughter’s failure to provide for them is a significant black mark.

“They are both still young. I’m not putting pressure for more grandchildren until OLO reaches a level that we’re all satisfied with. Then Sohla can take time to produce worthy heirs.” Mother doesn’t even miss a beat.

“I like the fact that she’s not just a pretty face and an empty head whose only skill is popping out Park babies. I chose her for her skills.” Mother flutters my way, smiling affectionately, and I robotically smile back. Feeling nothing inside at those words because they have been etched into my soul since I was eleven years old.

“It’s why OLO has reached a level our fathers never achieved. Jyeon and Sohla are a formidable pairing.” Yoonha breaks in to smooth the ice in the air, and I nod with grace and throw down a card in my turn. Blanking them, showing nothing, feeling nothing, just like mother taught me. To survive in this fake and cutthroat society is to play nice and surround yourself with all kinds of catty frenemies.

“Talking of which, where is that handsome son of yours? We never see Jyeon at all. He truly must be a workaholic like his father was.” One of the chubbier, overly made up, and laden with her entire jewelry box pipes up, looking wistful. Jyeon is still flavor of the month, even being married all this time. Most of these women wait perched with the hope that one day he divorces me and gives their daughters a chance.