The café owner interjects. “Why should we tell them though? Elders have weaker hearts, I don’t want to surprise them. Let them assume no news is good news. Just visit them after you are discharged. I’m going to cover the hospital fee, so no need to worry your parents.” This is the first time I’ve seen the café owner take a grave tone of voice. It disgusts me. She always acts like a child, only doing things that please her, but now she’s taken on a serious tone, trying to perform the role of reasonable elder, but I see right through her. She’s trying to control the situation to protect Sungyun, her nephew. I’ve been an idiot. Or was I pretending not to know? I shouldn’t have thought she was a good person. Eunyong was right. She would’ve taken me to work at the sketchy bar in Guangan if she’d had her way.

“It was just a split-second bad decision,” she sputters, “he must’ve been possessed or something. Must’ve been too drunk! Why else would he do such thing? I’m sorry. I apologize for him. I’ll kneel before you if it’d please you.”

“Do you know what Sungyun did to me? I wasn’t the only one he did that kind of shit to either!” I bark back.

“Are you crazy? Do you want to ruin his life? He has been trying to be better. A man does that kind of stuff when he’s drunk. Okay, let’s be real. It’s not like he got to do it. And he told me you invited yourself into his room!”

“What? Jesus Christ!”

“Sungyun called me and told me all about how it went down. You’ve been acting coy and distant, but I heard you went over to his place late that night and cried, asking for money? I told you I could pay you in advance if you were broke! You are so ungrateful to drag things out like this!” The irate café owner was screaming at me, before Eunyong finally intervened.

“Stop, stop! You didn’t come here to fight with Yeoul! Yeoul, you should stop too.”

The café owner turns to Eunyong. “Eunyong, you told me you want to marry Sungyun. So, let’s set the date. But for now, just focus on taking care of the café, okay?”

“Umm, I thought I wanted that, but now, I’m not sure anymore. I want to think about it.”

“You want to think about it? You slept with Sungyun. You slept with him so often your vagina must be all stretched out! I know you’ve been incessantly visiting him at night. So now what? Are you gonna pretend to be a virgin? Are you gonna try marrying someone else?”