FORTYNINTH CHAPTER

                                    

                                          


                          
Of the first lovers
                          


                          
"Auntie, what are you doing?", Dara asked when she saw the old woman crouched in their craft room, her shoulders shaking and sobs coming out of her petite frame.
                          
Principal Lee smiled up at her amidst the tears and took her hand. "I haven't seen this in so long a time, come dear... I'm sure you haven't seen these pictures of me and your mom.... Well, mostly it's just your omma."
                          
"You and omma?", she exclaimed curiously and saw that indeed, the pictures were cased in an album she had never seen.
                          
"I was going through the attic and stumbled upon this", her aunt informed her, "Your omma actually owned this album. She compiled this during the last summer she spent here before she headed for New York to study."
                          
"Omma said that summer was one of the best for her."
                          
The older woman nodded "It would rank pretty high I guess but then she always said afterwards that the BEST summer ever was that summer she met your dad."
                          
Dara agreed. "She and Appa were always so cheesy about that summer."
                          
The first page of the album had a dedication... "For you..."
                          
"Who's you?" she asked curiously.
                          
"Your mom", Mrs. Lee answered, "This came from her lover."
                          
"A boyfriend before Dad?"
                          
"Yes... well... sort of."
                          
"Wow. I've never quite imagined Omma having any other boyfriend than Appa."
                          
Her aunt smiled in memory. "When we were younger, I've never quite imagined her with any man other than this man, though."
                          
"Really? Who's this man? Why have you never talked to me about this?"
                          
Mrs. Lee looked at her with melancholy. "It didn't end well and it took time for your omma to get over it. I was always thankful to your father for having been able to drag her out of the shell she hid herself in after this heartbreak."
                          
That sounded too much like her own story, Dara gulped. "What do you mean?"
                          
Her aunt handed her the album to look at. "It began in 5th grade I think when your mom developed a crush on one of her classmates."
                          
"A schoolgirl crush???", she asked as she turned the page and saw a picture of her mother and aunt running around the beach.
                          
"It eventually became more than that", Mrs. Lee looked up the ceiling with a smile, reminiscing the years of her youth, "I watched it like a fan and we both stayed up all night just talking about it."
                          
"You mean like me and Chaerin?"
                          
The older woman laughed. "I think the both of you were worse during your giggly high school days."
                          
"We didn't have crushes on any of the boys from school!", she denied.
                          
"If you say so", the matriarch answered disbelievingly and Dara would have defended herself again it but knew it would be futile. She just continued to look at the album and felt a sort of twinge upon seeing her mother looking like she was having the time of her life. God, she suddenly missed her.
                          
"What was omma's first love like?"
                          
"He was... unpredictable", her aunt answered, "He was very popular at school not only because he had a lot of beautiful sisters whose suitors were all friends of his but because he was the quintessential bad boy – the one whose actually more of your image of Robin Hood."
                          
"Unpredictable?", that was the only thing that had caught her attention.
                          
"I guess because I expected him to be a spoiled brat but he really isn't. Everyone knows him as someone who didn't speak much and I guess he's the kind of guy you'd want to have a crush on. Me and your omma sure did have a crush on him but I outgrew it after a month... now, your omma... her feelings for him eventually turned to love."
                          
"How come?"
                          
"They were classmates and seatmates. He didn't really see her then as someone more than a friend but he was always nice to her – even going out of his way sometimes for her – but I knew he only just saw her as a friend. He had a lot of girlfriends then and your omma would always cry about it."
                          
"That's pathetic", Dara said in embarrassment – this conversation is turning into the sort of conversation she'd normally have with Bom or Chaerin. It was peculiar to feel this way about her mother, but she feels happy learning something about her omma as a highschooler... as a woman who grew up and had stages in her life much like Dara.
                          
"Oh Lord I used to tell her that", Principal Lee exclaimed with a shake of her head, "But your omma fell so hard for him and when he came back from college, he was more handsome and he seemed so much more a bad boy AND (and that's a very big AND) he was also engaged."
                          
"That must have broken omma's heart...", she said sadly.
                          
"It did but that was when it became complicated."
                          
"Complicated?"
                          
"He was engaged to a woman he'd never even met and after experiencing freedom from his family while he was in Seoul, I guess his bad boy streak really won't die down. Also, he might have finally realized what he was missing on with your omma."
                          
"They fell in love?"
                          
"It was accidental and absolutely unexpected but with everything that was going around, they did. And I have never seen your mom happier or more heartbroken at the same time."
                          
"What happened?"
                          
"They had to be separated. I will never forget that night when his mother came here and talked to Soo Jin."
                          
"Did she do something bad to omma?"
                          
Mrs. Lee shook her head. "On the contrary, she was absolutely kind and understanding to her. When your omma was finally able to talk about it, she said that in all her life, that was the moment she knew and respected the power of a mother's love."
                          
"Was that the time when omma left and went to New York?"
                          
"Yes... the very night after that conversation, she left for Seoul to wait for her flight to New York."
                          
"But, how about omma's first love?"
                          
"He never got over it", the sadness that laced her aunt's voice almost cut like a knife through Dara, "I told you he was unpredictable right? I don't know what went through his mind or what really happened inside him but he became a changed man."
                          
"He still married his fiancée?"
                          
"He did. They even had a child and for a time, I hoped he would be able to move on with his life but I guess losing your omma really hit him hard. We all lost Robin Hood and got just the bad boy instead."
                          
"Do I know him?", Dara asked as she finally flipped through the last page and saw a picture of her mom smiling through the camera in the middle of an orchard... a very familiar looking orchard.
                          
  
                          
"Yes you do... he actually took all of these pictures that's why your omma kept them", her aunt answered and let out a breath, "I was supposed to give this back to him but he refused them and said all his memories of her were in tact and he didn't need these reminders."
                          
  
                          
That sounded like a very hurt man to Dara as her curiosity grew. "Who is he auntie?"
                          
  
                          
"He's Judge Kwon, child... Dr. Kwon's father."