To Be or Not To Be A Family - Chapter 91

Ashma closed her eyes and gulped. Tears were falling from her eyes, non-stop. No matter how much she wiped them, her cheeks would get wet again. She didn’t want to call him her father but was ready to acknowledge all the struggles he had in his life. Now, she understood why Young-Jae didn’t like him.

First, he fell in love with a foreign national, next, he wanted to marry her, third, he didn’t finish his studies. Fourth, he never told about his child to Young-Jae, he found on his own and that resulted in his heart attack. He was ready to leave his father because of her.

She got up, locked the door and ran upstairs. She went up to the terrace to find Young-Soo and apologise to him. But he was not there. He had already gone to his room. She lowered her head with defeat.

“I need to control my anger. Why do I act like an idiot when I get angry? Do I need to go to therapy? I think so,” said Ashma to herself and facepalmed, hard.

She went back to her room, disappointed and lay on her bed. She looked at the roof of her room in agony thinking about what to do. She didn’t want to go to his room at this hour. She was aware that he must not have been sleeping after she broke his heart but still didn’t want to go have a conversation with him at this time of night.

Nothing to do and sleep miles away from her, she picked up her phone and started researching for the new show but nothing she saw could spark an idea in her mind. She looked at other designers’ work too but nothing came to her mind. Her brain was blank.

She read a lot of blogs, read online books for inspiration but she was still drawing a blank. She stared at a colour palette for hours to get an idea but instead of getting ideas, she fell asleep. Her morning was greeted with a notification on her phone.

She picked up the phone and looked at the notification. A few were mails from her office, a few were from her vendors, some were spam emails. One message was special as it was from Yong-Sun. He invited her on a date. He asked her to get ready by 8 am. She smiled at her phone. She needed a distraction from all the drama that occurred yesterday and the block she was facing while thinking about new ideas.

She threw all her concern away and jumped from her bed. She would go on a first date with Yong-Sun, she was excited. She read all her emails and saw the new ideas her team sent her but she rejected all of them. One wanted a bridal collection as she was now designing for the wedding. One wanted an all-black collection. One wanted all pastel colours for summer, but all these ideas were outdated and made a thousand times by numerous designers.

She took a bath and wore a pastel pink summer dress and let her hair free-flowing. she was ready to go out. She moved towards the breakfast table when Bong-Cha saw her.

“Wow! Where are you going?” asked Bong-Cha. All others looked at her and smiled. Young-Jae rolled his eyes as usual. Ashma looked around to find Young-Soo but he was not present at the breakfast table.

“Um.. work. I have a meeting,” Ashma said a white lie. She had a meeting but with whom she didn’t tell anyone.

“Here?” asked Bong-Cha.

“Today?” asked Vidhi.

“Yes, mom. Don’t worry I will be back soon. And Bong-Cha, I have to buy fabric for your cocktail dresses,” she lied. Both Yong-Sun and Ashma decided not to tell the family before they decided on a steady future. They didn’t want any hearts to be broken. They were not even sure how to tell their families that they liked each other.

“Wow! Really?” Bong-Cha jumped from her seat.

“Yes, really. I tried hard to work on my next project but I have no ideas. So in the meantime, I thought of making dresses for you guys.”

“When will you be back? I need to approve the fabric,” said Bong-Cha, excited. Ashma raised one eyebrow and looked at her sceptically. “Fine, design as per your ideas. I won’t interfere,” Bong-Cha threw her hands in the air and accepted defeat.

“Good!” exclaimed Ashma. She said her goodbyes and moved out of the room.

She went outside the house without having breakfast and waited for Yong-Sun. After five minutes, he arrived. He got down the car and opened the door for her.

“Wow!” excaliemd Yong-Sun.

“What?” inquired Ashma.

“You look gorgeous,” said Yong-Sun, staring at her lovingly.

“Thank you, you don’t look bad yourself,” said Ashma and smirked at him.

“You must wear your mask, we are going to a public place,” warned Yong-Sun. Ashma took out a pink mask from her pocket which was matching her dress and covered her face. Yong-Sun wore his glasses and inserted the key in the ignition. The engine roared with the twist of the key and the car started.

“Date at a public place?”

“Yes and no.”

“Where are we going?” asked Ashma.

“It’s a surprise,” replied Yong-Sun.

“Why would I need my passport? Why did you ask me to get it?” inquired Ashma.

“Just trust me,” replied Yong-Sun.

“Okay, fine,” said Ashma.

The whole car journey Yong-Sun kept glancing at Ashma as she was looking beautiful as always. He drove her to the airport and drove in a private hanger. He stopped near a small plane and opened his car door. He opened the door for Ashma and took her hand. She came out of the car and looked at the plane.

“What is this?” she asked, surprised.

“One of your surprises,” replied Yong-Sun with a sweet smile on his face.

“What?” asked Ashma, shocked.

“Please just trust me,” said Yong-Sun.

“If you say so,” replied Ashma and shook her head in disbelief.

He took her hand and they went inside a small plane and sat on the seats. They buckled their seat belt and the engine of the plane started. The pilot greeted them over the intercom.

“This is your pilot, Anthony Ormund. I welcome you to our flight. The outside temperature is 27 degrees Celsius. We will reach Jeju island in an hour. Have a nice flight.”

“Jeju Island?” asked Ashma.

Yong-Sun just smiled at her and raised his eyebrow.

“What is in Jeju island?” inquired Ashma, again.

“You will see. Now you can take your mask off,” said Yong-Sun.

“That was not public,” protested Ashma.

“I could not risk anyone spotting you,” said Yong-Sun.

“Why?” questioned Ashma.

“It would be breaking news that you were roaming with the most eligible bachelor of Korea,” teased Yong-Sun.

“Ha-ha, That’s true,” laughed Ashma.

Yong-Sun smiled at her laughter, grabbed her palm and held her hand gently, she smiled at him. But the spark of her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“Are you okay?” asked Yong-Sun.

“I am fine,” lied Ashma.

Yong-Sun felt as if someone ripped his heart out. “Did you not want to go on a date with me?”

“What? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?” scolded Ashma. This eased his mind. He was happy at her reaction.

“You don’t look happy,” said Yong-Sun.

“It’s not this, or you, it’s me,” replied Ashma.

“What happened?” asked Yong-Sun.

“I said some things to Mr Park last night and now I am regretting it,” said Ashma with sadness. Yong-Sun squeezed her hand with adoration.

“What did you say?” inquired Yong-Sun.

“He offered me help and I rejected it,” answered Ashma.

“What help?”

“I can’t think of a new idea for my upcoming work,” said Ashma.

“And?”

“He offered me help,” replied Ashma.

“What kind of help?” questioned Yong-Sun.

“I don’t know, I rejected it. I told him I am not his daughter, and my brand is international, his brand is not even national and many more stupid things. I was harsh and rude. I think I broke his heart,” Ashma lowered her head with shame and guilt.

“Why do you hate him?” asked Yong-Sun.

“I don’t hate him, I just want nothing to do with him,” replied Ashma.

“Listen to me Ash, you opened your heart for me, your heart is in love with Gomo, you opened your heart for Bongie and Baekhyeona, then why not him? Don’t accept him as your father, at least accept him as your elder and he will be happy,” suggested Yong-Sun.

“He broke my mom’s heart, he never came back, he abandoned me and now suddenly he wants a relationship, that angers me,” replied Ashma.

“He must have a reason for doing so, have you asked him?” asked Yong-Sun.

“No, but mumma told me everything yesterday,” answered Ashma.

“What?” Yong-Sun was shocked.

“Yes.”

“What did she tell you?” asked Yong-Sun.

“That your harabuhji kidnapped him and brought him back to Korea. He forced him to marry mumma and when he was about to leave everything behind and come to meet me, your harabuhji had a heart attack. He chose the health of his father and I am proud of him for that. But now I hate Park Young-Jae more,” explained Ashma.

“Come here!” he hugged Ashma tightly, kissed her forehead and continued, “I know you will say sorry in the best way possible. He loves you and your anger is not going to break his heart. He knows that he broke your heart ages ago and trying to compensate for that. He will forgive you, I am sure of that.”

“Why are you so sweet to me?” asked Ashma with love.

“Because I know you are kind and polite, your anger makes you crazy sometimes,” replied Yong-Sun.

“Hey! I am not crazy,” shouted Ashma and punched him over his shoulder, softly.

“Ha-ha,” laughed Yong-Sun. Ashma too smiled and this time her eyes twinkle with her smile.. Yong-Sun was happy and content now.