His rotund face was now hostile as he looked from Bruce to the girl and back to Bruce.
“Guys, this is my friend Jihee, you met her before at Miae’s birthday party, remember?” Bruce beamed, slurring his words. They all stared back at him. She probably knew a good third of their sisters and wives and co-workers. Probably their parents too.
The girl retreated further into her seat, looking as innocent as she could. She didn’t want to leave, it was clear.
There was a silence, one that none of us girls cared to tide over. It was bad of Bruce to break the unspoken rule, but the guys couldn’t stay angry at him. For one thing, he was too drunk to care, and more important, he was paying for the whole night, as he always did. The bill was probably equivalent to half of their monthly paychecks. So the men turned back to their girls, though they were much more restrained now.
If it had been like most other nights, I would have gotten up and left for another room, as I tend to have regulars asking for me at the same time and I rotate room to room. But Bruce is an exception and it was a slow Tuesday. Besides, I was hungry and no one had touched the plates of anju. Although it was against the salon’s policy and I’d never done it before, I took a slice of dragon fruit and started eating. The flesh was silky but almost tasteless.
“So how did this fight actually start?” the girl asked.
“Miae wanted to have dinner tonight with her brother’s new girlfriend,” said Bruce. “I’ve been working so hard for this IPO I’ve been sleeping on my desk every night, and there’s no way I’m going to sit down with some country girl her idiot brother is dating at his no-name university. I don’t give a shit.”
He nursed his whiskey and brooded. He ignored me completely, as if he hadn’t fucked me over a chair two nights ago.
“She takes that kind of thing as you not caring about her family, you know. You should be careful.”
He snorted. “Do you know that her brother actually asks me for pocket money?” He jerked his head in disgust. “And of course he’s going to come to me for a job, when we don’t hire anyone who’s not from the top three schools. Or at least from KAIST. Or someone with parents that have direct power to help us.”
“What does her dad do again? I think I heard once but I forgot.”
“He’s just some lawyer with his own tiny firm in some neighborhood I’ve never heard of that barely counts as Seoul.”
He looked upset.
“Why don’t you just break it off, then?” the girl said, impatient now. “She’s become my friend too, and I’m saying this for her. Don’t waste her time if she is going to have to meet someone new. It’s going to take her another year to meet someone, maybe a year of dating to talk about marriage, then another few months to marriage and then another year to have kids. And she’s thirty already!”
“Yeah, I know,” he said gloomily. “So I agreed to have our parents meet. For dinner. And I’m freaking out right now. Life as I know it will end on March first. Independence Movement Day. Seven P.M. Even all the siblings are coming.” His face was tragic.
“What?” she and I said at the same time. And then both Bruce and the girl looked at me, Bruce amused and the girl with a withering stare.
“A sangyeonrae?” she went on. “That’s more final than a proposal.”
I don’t know why this news shocked me so, but I fashioned my lips into a teasing smile and joked, “You’re getting married? I guess I’ll be seeing you even more often!”
“That’s why I was so pissed,” continued Bruce, as if he didn’t hear me. “I don’t want her brother’s girlfriend there at the dinner—my mother would have a stroke on the spot if she thought someone like her could become an in-law of our family. As if things aren’t going to be difficult enough.