To Be or Not To Be A Family - Chapter 84

Young-Jae was observing Yong-Sun and Ashma while they were kicking and hitting Won-Shik. He understood what they were trying to do. They were punishing him in their own way. After many kicks and hits, Won-Shik fainted. Dak-Ho came running and knelt near his brother. Jong-Ho shouted at Ashma and Yong-Sun but they were still being naughty.

They kept trying to tell the world that they were working against one another but he knew that both were working together in kicking Won-Shik’s ass. Two generations were involved in the fight. When no one stopped, Young-Jae had to get everyone in line. One word from him and everyone halted in their path.

Ashma left with Eun-Kyung to change her dress but not before fighting with Young-Jae. She always had to fight with him, no matter what he said. He told her the truth that she was stinking and she needed a shower, but she had to be condescending and rude.

While Ashma moved upstairs, Young-Soo called for an ambulance and informed the doctor in advance. The medical team came and carried Won-Shik with them. Jong-Ho was angry but he was afraid of Young-Jae so the Ryan family said goodbye to Young-Jae, said sorry on Won-Shik’s behalf and left.

Ashma went upstairs in her room and ran to the bathroom. All the house was turning red due to the dripping blood. It was sticky and syrupy. She stood under the shower and took her loofa in her hand. It took her quite some time to get rid of all the blood from her long hair and her body. She shampooed four times and washed her body three times to get rid of the stickiness and smell.

She turned off the knob of the water and stood in front of the mirror. She looked at her naked body from all angles and looked for any trace of blood on her body. She succeeded in removing every bit of it. But she was still not satisfied, so she stood under the running water once again, shampooed again and washed herself again.

After taking a long shower, the knob squeaked as she closed the shower tap. She dried herself, wrapped a towel around her body and slightly opened the bathroom. She looked all around no one was in the room. She moved outside, she was surprised to see that all the traces of the blood were removed. There were her footprints and droplets of blood all over her room, in fact, all over the house but now all the traces were gone.

She stood in front of the closet with a towel around her body and another one on her head. Suddenly the main door opened and she shouted, “no, no, I am not wearing anything.” She ran and hid behind the closet door.

“You don’t have to hide, it’s just me,” shouted Eun-Kyung. The crinkling noise of a paper informed Ashma that Eun-Kyung had a parcel with her.

“Oh, mumma,” said Ashma and came out of the closet. She looked at the large box that was wrapped with pink paper and a golden bow was placed over it.

“What are you doing?” asked Eun-Kyung and laughed after seeing that Ashma was hiding inside the closet.

“I didn’t know who you were. I had to be modest,” pouted Ashma.

“Silly girl! Did you find anything to wear?” asked Eun-Kyung.

“I can go downstairs in my pyjamas but I am thinking about your guests. What will they say? I don’t want people to talk about you behind your back,” said Ashma.

“I knew it, you are my sweetie.” Eun-Kyung moved forward and kissed on Ashma’s forehead.

“Aww… thank you.”

“Here, take this.” Eun-Kyung presented her with the parcel in her hand.

“What is this?” the parcel was big yet light. The beautiful pink wrapper was too pretty. The golden bow was even prettier.

“This was supposed to be your birthday gift for this year,” said Eun-Kyung and winked at her.

“You prepare for my birthday months in advance?”

“What do you think?”

“But, mumma!” exclaimed Ashma.

“Just accept it and wear it today. I know you will look beautiful,” suggested Eun-Kyung.

“What is it?” Ashma shook the box. There was a faint ruffling sound.

“My love,” said Eun-Kyung and caressed her chin.

Ashma’s eyes started watering. Her lips quivered and she gulped. “Ohh, mumma. How much love do you have for me? It’s too much, how will my heart be able to contain it?” she said in a sad tone.

“It’s easy.” Eun-Kyung too went emotional after seeing Ashma cry.

“What?”

“You have a big heart,” it was getting hard for Eun-Kyung to speak.

Ashma hugged Eun-Kyung, dearly. They stood in the embrace for a long time, tears falling from their eyes.

“Uhmma! Is she ready? Everyone is waiting for her, we have to cut the cake,” shouted Bong-Cha from downstairs.

Both Eun-Kyung and Ashma smiled at Bong-Cha’s shouting. Eun-Kyung broke the embrace and said, “now get dressed and come down. Let your hair be open today. You look gorgeous in open hair.”

“As you wish,” Ashma sniffled.

“My sweet daughter,” Eun-Kyung kissed her on her cheeks.

“I love you, mumma,” said Ashma. Both smiled at each other.

“Really! Do you?” teased Eun-Kyung.

“Yes, I do,” said Ashma with confidence and kissed Eun-Kyung on her cheek.

“Ha-ha, come down soon,” said Eun-Kyung.

“Yes, ma’am,” saluted Ashma.

After Eun-Kyung left, Ashma locked her door as she didn’t want anyone else to get in. Extremely carefully, she removed the pretty pink wrapper and golden bow and a paper box revealed itself. She opened the white paper box and was surprised. Her eyes widened at the sight of a pretty silk hanbok. The jegori was olive-brown in colour and the chima was red. Kutdong and whajang were white in colour. Gorum too was Red in colour. For a minute she appreciated the beauty of the dress.

As she had knowledge of all the world fashion it was easy for her to dress in hanbok. She let her towel fall on the ground and wore her underwear. She then wore the pretty hanbok, air-dried her hair, did her makeup and let her beautiful long hair down.

“Are you ready?” shouted Bong-Cha and knocked hard on the door.

“Coming!” replied Ashma. She went and opened the door. Bong-Cha gasped with surprise.

“Wow!” exclaimed Bong-Cha.

“What?” Ashma asked, confused.

“You look…” Bong-Cha had no words to explain.

“What?” asked Ashma, again.

“Amazing, beautiful, stunning, all the words are not even enough,” blurted out Bong-Cha.

Ashma tilted her head and reprimanded Bong-Cha, “Don’t butter me up, this all happened because of you, don’t think that if you praise me I will forget what those idiots did to me.”

“No one is going to forget, believe me, now, let’s go,” said Bong-Cha and took her arm. She walked along with her and they both climbed down the stairs.

All the eyes went up to Ashma. All were shocked to look at her, she was looking gorgeous.

“Um… why everyone is staring at me?” asked Ashma by slightly opening her mouth.

“Because as I said, you look beautiful,” whispered Bong-Cha back. Everyone was looking at her with surprise, only Eun-Kyung was smiling at her. Even Young-Jae was surprised.

“Shut up!” said Ashma.

Everyone was looking at her but all Ashma could notice was that all the blood was gone. Not a single drop was present on the floor or the stairs. Only blood spots were visible on the dress of a few guests who too were splattered by the prank.

“What happened to all that blood? There was a lot of it. Who cleaned it within minutes? Who cleaned the whole house within minutes, not only the living room but my room too while I was taking a shower? Or did I take hours to shower? Oh, god! Did everyone wait for me for hours? Wait! Where are those idiots? I want to kick their ass again,” she pondered. She looked around but she could not spot Won-Shik or Dak-Ho, all she could see was his friends who were now scared of her. They looked at her and immediately lowered their eyes with fear. They didn’t want her to punish them too.

She squinted her eyes and looked at them, she made a point to remember their faces for revenge. They too were in on the prank. She only punished Won-Shik, his brother Dak-Ho was next.

Let’s cut the cake,” announced Bong-Cha. She pulled Ashma down the stairs and brought her near the four tiers, double chocolate cake. The ganache of the cake was so shiny that one could see their faces in it. A large ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARK YOUNG-JAE’ was written on it with white chocolate ganache.

Everyone went around the cake and Yong-Sun brought a guitar. Everyone sang “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” in Korean and Yong-Sun played the tune. She looked at him, he was looking at her and playing the guitar. She curled her lips and made an impressed expression. He smiled at her. He was happy that she was showing some kind of reaction to him.

Young-Jae cut the cake and the first piece he gave was to Bong-Cha. She took a bite and again wished Young-Jae, a happy birthday. Slowly he fed every family member a bite of cake. Lastly, it was Ashma’s turn. Young-Jae was hesitant, Ashma didn’t want him to feed her. But Bong-Cha brought Young-Jae’s hand near her mouth. Eun-Kyung signalled her to eat. Ashma rolled her eyes, exhaled loudly and accepted the cake. Finally, she wished him a ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ but she added “OLD MAN” at the end of her sentence as usual.. All Young-Jae could do was grunt at her wish.