To Be or Not To Be A Family - Chapter 51

Ashma sat quietly on the chair waiting for the nurse and Chin-Sun to finish their talk. She couldn’t understand a single word from their mouth. Chin-Sun kept gesturing to her wound.

After a few minutes of talk, Chin-Sun said with disappointment, “she is asking for your ID.”

“My ID? But why?” asked Ashma.

“She says it’s hospital policy.” One could hear the defeat in Chin-Sun’s voice.

“But then everyone will know that I was here,” said Ashma and looked at the nurse. The nurse squinted her eyes and tried to make out who was sitting in front of her yet was behind a mask.

“That’s what is concerning me,” said Chin-Sun with worry.

“Let’s go back,” suggested Ashma.

“No, you need the shot.”

“I will live, Chin-Sun,” teased Ashma.

“Really?” said Chin-Sun, angrily.

“Well, then talk to her,” said Ashma.

“I even suggested she use my name and my ID. She is not budging. Well, let me try again.”

Chin-Sun and the nurse again started having the conversation but the nurse didn’t budge. She kept shaking her head in no, constantly.

“I am sorry, she needs your paper.”

“Fine, then we are leaving.” Ashma stood up to walk away.

“Sit… your… ass down,” commanded Chin-Sun. Ashma immediately sat down.

“What can we do then?” asked Ashma.

“I don’t know.”

“Ahhh… fine, but could you tell her not to tell anyone,” yelled Ashma in frustration.

Chin-Sun gave her some instructions in a serious tone and the nurse nodded. Little did they know that that nurse was about to bring the secret in open.

Ashma gave her her passport. The nurse opened the documents and read her name and nationality. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped to the floor. She looked at Ashma with surprised eyes. She said something while pointing towards Ashma. Ashma looked at Chin-Sun for translation.

“She saw the live streaming of Salt yesterday. She knows you,” translated Chin-Sun.

“Great!” Ashma threw her hands in the air with frustration.

Chin-Sun again asked the nurse to keep her mouth shut and provide medical care to Ashma. The nurse went away for a minute. She came back with an injection and a few bandages. She first applied the antiseptic liquid on Ashma’s arm and injected her with anti-tetanus serum. She then unwrapped her wounds and redressed them. Chin-Sun paid for the care and they came out.

The scene unfolding before them was a worrisome one. They wanted to avoid paparazzi but Baek-Hyeon was surrounded by them.

“How are the preparations going? Sir, one photo, please. Sir, where is Man Chin-Sun? Are you guys happy? Who are you guys wearing?” were a few of the questions those people kept shouting at Baek-Hyeon. They were not even giving him time to reply. He would open his mouth then close it instantly.

Suddenly a man shouted, “Hey, there is Man Chin-Sun.” Everyone ran towards Chin-Sun and enclosed Ashma and her. Ashma froze. She wanted to run away but now it was impossible. She looked at Chin-Sun and then Baek-Hyeon. He gestured her to not say a word and move away from there slowly she looked in every direction for an opening but she was well surrounded, not a single space was there to move.

Baek-Hyeon came running to help them. He parted the sea of people and with difficulty reached near Chin-Sun. Everyone kept asking questions about their wedding completely ignoring Ashma. Baek-Hyeon again gestured her to leave. She looked all around but it was impossible to get away. She looked at him with desperation.

The next moment phone of a person chimed. Instead of asking questions, she looked at her phone. She was surprised. She shouted, “oh my god! You are Designer Ashma.”

“Shit,” mouthed Ashma. Her secret was out in open. Chin-Sun and Baek-Hyun froze.

“Please talk to us,” screamed the woman who recognised her.

“Let us go,” shouted Baek-Hyeon.

“Please one question,” said another paparazzi.

“She is not Ashma,” said Baek-Hyeon.

“We have from our sources that Ms Man took her to hospital,” said the woman.

Ashma closed her eyes and jumped into the pit of fire. “Fine, what do you want to ask?” said Ashma but still kept her mask on.

“You are with Ms Man. So, are you designing her wedding dress?”

“What? No,” replied Ashma.

“Why are you with Man family and Park family then?”

“She is here to design other ceremonial dresses, you all know she doesn’t design wedding dresses,” answered Chin-Sun without thinking twice. Ashma stared at her slightly angry, slightly impressed. Angry as now she will have to design a dress for her and impressed on her quick wit.

“Now, if you will excuse us,” said Baek-Hyeon and started moving forward.

Paparazzi kept shooting questions after questions at Ashma, about her designs, about why she was in Korea, about what she wanted to say to Salt, about what she was going to do to Salt. Baek-Hyeon helped her walk towards the car. He shoved both the girls in the car and signalled Chin-Sun’s driver to follow him.

“Shitttt!” shouted Ashma. “Why do I meet only with Morons? First Salt, then that nurse. All they had to do was keep their mouth shut. Arghhh…”

“Calm down! You gave them a moment of fame. No one leaves such an opportunity,” said Baek-Hyeon.

“Easy for you to say. Uff… I will have to call my PR team. Arghhh…” shouted Ashma.

“Stop screaming,” shouted Baek-Hyeon.

“Why are you guys not screaming? Your marriage could be in jeopardy,” yelled Ashma. It was impossible for her to talk normally. All she wanted was to shout.

“Why because you are my sister?” inquired Baek-Hyeon, concentrating on the road.

“Hmmm,” growled Ashma at Baek-Hyeon.

“Okay, not sister. You are worried just because you are related to me. I don’t care about that, she doesn’t care about that,” said Baek-Hyeon on behalf of Chin-Sun.

“You should. Do you want your marriage to be surrounded by the scandal of your dad?” suggested Ashma.

“No, I don’t want that.”

“Arrgghhh… Fine, I will design a cocktail dress for all the women in the house. You all can say you hired me for that. And I need payment to show that in my taxes. That will be the ultimate proof,” Ashma made a plan in an instant.

“That is a very good idea. Man family will pay for it,” said Chin-Sun in an instant.

“Yeah, you will find it nice,” teased Baek-Hyeon.

“What? Why?” inquired Ashma.

“Chinsuna and Bongie love your design. They always fight over it. They have a few in their collection but your designs are hard to get,” said Baek-Hyeon with a smile on his face.

But Ashma was stressed and tense. “Pray to god my idea works.”

“Oh, it’s still 5 am in India. I don’t know if anyone would be awake. I will have to shoot another email,” shouted Ashma.

“I hope everything is alright at home,” said Baek-Hyeon.

“Why?”

“People will start calling our families soon,” said Baek-Hyeon.

“Good luck to all of us,” answered Chin-Sun.

Ashma opened her email and pressed the ‘reply to all’ over her previous email. She started typing

“Sub: Urgent, urgent PR disaster

Dear PR Team,

Please announce to the world that the Man family has hired Samvlta for designing a dress for cocktail parties related to marriage. Say nothing about my returning to India. Avoid that question at every cost.

Regarding my injury, as you will hear in the news. Tell everyone I am doing okay and was in the hospital just for a check-up.

Call me as soon as you wake up.

Best Regards,

D. Ashma”

While she was typing the mail, they reached the house. Baek-Hyeon got out of the car and helped Ashma to walk in. She was limping slightly but instead of feeling the pain, she was stressed to her core. She was eagerly waiting for her team to call her.

Chin-Sun walked in first. Baek-Hyeon and Ashma walked in after her. The moment they walked in Young-Jae shouted, “how dare you?”

Ashma let go of Baek-Hyeon and moved her head to look at him but before she could look him into his eyes, his palm made contact with her cheeks. Her cheeks vibrated violently. Her face turned to the extreme right side. Her mouth opened with shock. Her eyes started watering with pain. Her cheeks turned red and they burned with agony.

“Ahppa! Harabuhji! Shiahbuhji!” every single member of the family shouted at Young-Jae.

“No one, I repeat no one will talk today. She destroyed everything, everything,” shouted Young-Jae. His eyes were shooting flames.

“Harabuhji! At least listen to her. She has a plan,” Chin-Sun took Ashma’s side.

“Plan? What plan, after she destroyed everything,” he shouted at Chin-Sun. He then looked at Ashma who still had her face turned and was looking down. “I asked you to leave and now everyone will find out you are staying with us. Then they will dig into our past. 28 years, for 28 years we hid the secret. It will come out and it will be a great scandal. Our name, our reputation, our stocks, everything will be destroyed because of you, you BASTARD.” He emphasized the word ‘bastard’.

“Ahppa!” shouted Young-Soo.

“Excuse me!” yelled Vidhi.

The word bastard jolted Ashma out of her pain. Her whole body shook violently due to anger.

“You are a bastard,” said Young-Jae directly to Ashma.

“What?” said Ashma through gritted teeth and flared nose.

“It’s true that you have a father, and a mother but they are not married, you are a bastard,” mocked Young-Jae.

Ashma started moving forward, breathing heavily, staring at Young-Jae like a bull. “How dare you, old man? Who do you think you are?” shouted Ashma.

Vidhi understood that Ashma was going to hit Young-Jae. She immediately stood in front of her. “Ashu, please. Baek-Hyeon, stop her,” pleaded Vidhi. Both enclosed Ashma in their arms but ashma was still able to drag them with her towards Young-Jae. Seeing her anger, Young-Jae was scared a little. He traced his step and moved a step backwards.

“Mom, get out of the way,” screamed Ashma looking directly at Young-Jae. Her eyes were crimson, her cheeks were red and smoke was coming out of her nose and ears.

“Please for me,” begged Vidhi. She started crying.

She stared at her mom and then at her grandfather. He slowly kept moving backwards away from her. She looked at Baek-Hyeon. He had his key in his hand. The next moment, she jerked her mother away and punched Baek-Hyeon. He flew away from her. She moved towards him. He hid his face with fear.. She snatched the key from his hand and ran out of the house.