“Now, Seulgi…”

“Excuse me, ma’am, we were about to start making dinner. Would you like some tea as you and your husband wait on the couch? You must be parched from your trip.”

She frowned, but could not find any fault in what was asked of her. She could not find anything objectionable in this impudent whelp’s question, and that made her even angrier.  

“Some tea would be wonderful, thank you.”

At this, Alfred came back from putting the suitcases in the spare bedroom.

He watched as Yeji deftly handled his wife. He was impressed all over with this young lady. He was glad that hsi daughter had a friend like this.

“Would you like tea as well, sir?”

“Yes, please.” Even he was impressed with her exquisite manners. It was almost as if that mischievous child who was in the grocery store with him never existed. “So, what brings you to town, dear?”

“You hadn’t answered your phone. I was worried something had happened to you two.” She emphasized the word ‘two’ because she was trying to ignore the busybody in this statement.

The busybody in question smiled behind her back. She also goaded Seulgi back into responsiveness with a poke to the ribs. They pulled a few extra things out of the fridge and made a larger meal than they were expecting.

“We were at the gym for a couple of hours. It takes at least three hours to get her by train, dear. So you left an hour before you sent all those texts. What’s going on?”

As she drew a breath to start back up her tirade, she was interrupted by the doorbell. All four turn as one to look at the front door. All four were annoyed for different reasons. Three were not expecting anyone else, so there was a sense of danger. One was getting annoyed at being interrupted.

Alfred started to get up, but Yeji waved him back and she went to the door. They all heard her soft, “Oh!” And the door opened with a soft whoosh. “Please come in, ma’am.”

“Who are you expecting at this time of night, Seulgi?”

Not you, she thought back waspishly.

In sauntered a slinking Sonja. She walked with her typical feminine grace that bordered on liquid.

“Seulgi! That smells delicious. Hello, Yeji. Where’s Alfred? Oh, there you are. We need to…”

“Alfred?” with an arched eyebrow. “Who is ‘Alfred’?” The pointed look was quickly becoming more and more pointed.

“…talk about what was going on in the hospital. The test results came back.” She sat herself across from Alfred with a poise that Suki would have envied had she not been a cat and ignored what was going on around her.

“Test results?” was asked even a bit more tart.

“Good evening, Sonja….”

“Sonja?!” that voice nearly went up an octave.

“…May I introduce you to my wife, Seulgi’s mother.” The word ‘mother’ was emphasized, which made the mother in question even more curious about who this intruder was. She also forgot that she was also considered an uninvited guest as well. She was family, not a hypocrite in her mind.

“Who else would be Seulgi’s mother?!” There was a bit of stridency in the voice now.

“Good evening. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Sonja.

“Charmed. Who is this person, dear,” the implied threat of violence was danger close.

“Dear, this is Sonja. An old…”

“Not that old,” came the interruption.

“…Co-worker of mine. We happened to meet up due to Seulgi being a co-worker of her son. He was in an accident…” which was true from a certain perspective. “…and we met at the hospital that he was staying at.” So, no lies so far.

Not yet mollified, but a few degrees warmer, until the temperature dropped back into the Kelvin scale near absolute zero with a simple question: “Alfred?” She glared a glare at Alfred that Seulgi had yet to fail to perfect.

Seulgi was just glad that it was not aimed at her. Yeji was also thinking the same thing.

Yeji, however, stopped the maelstrom again by saying, “Sonja, would you like some tea?” this gave everyone a moment to step back and collect themselves.

“Yes, please, dear,” responded with a beautifully melodic voice. She could have been a siren in a past life.

Seulgi’s mother was still mildly offended at Sonja’s beauty and grace. She started to glare at the woman again. She started to take a break in to continue her questioning when Sonja beat her to it.

“Now, as I said, Jackson’s hospital test results came back. His blood work came back clean. His MRIs came back normal. Nothing broken. He does not even have any sprains. All in all, he is very lucky. We are all very relieved.”

Yeji brought a tray of three glasses of tea. There was a small bowl of sugar cubes for those who wanted to sweeten their tea. Seulgi had to wonder where those came from as she had never seen them before. Yeji was turning into a better hostess than she was.

At this she turned around to face Seulgi, “You should be able to have him back Monday.”

“Wait, she has a Jackson? I thought that you were not seeing anyone, Seulgi?” She was getting even angrier at being ignored. “What else are you hiding from me, young lady?” She conveniently forgot that her daughter was thirty years old and no longer a young lady. “What do you know about this, ‘Alfred’?”

“That’s wonderful, Sonja. We have all been missing him a lot. You know that we all love him at the office.” Seulgi sounded truly pleased at this.

“I’ll be sure to let him know that you are looking forward to his return. While that smells delicious and I would love to stay and have dinner with you…”

“Who invited you?” was not so quietly murmured convientatly forgetting that she had not been invited either.

“…but I have to get going. Work doesn’t stop for personal issues, you know. Alfred, see me out?”

“Of course, Sonja,” came the reply with a gentleman’s grace. He walked her to the door, holding a quiet, secret conversation. Something that his wife should not hear.

What could be heard was the grinding molars of a particular person on the couch who was getting more and more angry.

Feeling immense danger, Suki fled to the bedroom while Seulgi and Yeji went back to the kitchen to put the finishing touches on dinner.