Keep it in the Family (209) - Family Dinner II (Patreon)

Eun Ha's POV:

Eun Ha found her cheeks and her body heating.

Jae-il broke from her intense gaze, approached her and bowed gallantly. "Mom, you look stunning." He then extended his arm, and she could swear her cheeks would combust as she rested her hand there. He carefully helped her down the last few steps, never taking his eyes off of her.

Eun Ha nearly choked on her own tongue.

This is exactly what she wanted to avoid. This type of intimacy and attention that could be easily misconstrued by a casual observer. But now she felt like the world's luckiest mother.

'Oh, this is not good...'

"J-Jae-il, honey, you don't have to..."

"Nonsense." He simply stated, and as they arrived at the bottom, Yeong Gu turned to face them both, a smile on his face.

"My wife! My beautiful wife! Look at you, Eun Ha, you are so lovely tonight!" His voice boomed and his eyes swept over her appreciatively. He took her hand, which she had to reluctantly remove from Jae-il's arm. And then he turned to Jae-il, giving him a pat on the back. "And you, my boy! A gentleman through and through. Your mother raised you well!"

"Indeed she has." Jae-il chuckled. Eun Ha looked away, not quite liking how suffocating her husband's hand on her felt like.

"Alright! What a beautiful family, don't you all agree?" Yeong Gu asked, laughing. "You all look great! Now, let's go greet our guests! They should be arriving any minute now." He turned to Eun Ha. "Are you ready, dear?"

Eun Ha swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes, let's do this."

It was a small comfort knowing her children were beside her.

She was not alone.

And she was grateful for that.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Mia and Su Ah exchange a disgruntled look. Jae-il, on the other hand, looked quite calm and poised; as expected of her son. Then again, for someone who was shouldering what amounted to an entire nation's expectations on his shoulders, greeting a couple of guests would hardly be an ordeal.

Eun Ha smiled weakly, and then she cleared her mind and focused on nothing other than keeping a smile. It was the only thing that mattered.

They all prepared themselves accordingly.

The first few guests began arriving just as Yeong Gu finished talking.

The doorbell rang, echoing through the house like a death knell.

Eun Ha stiffened, and though it was ridiculous, she had this urge to go running upstairs and locking herself in the safety of her room.

"Alright. Alright, everybody. Time to put on a big smile and welcome the guests!"

Everyone just groaned in response.

"Please... they're our friends. Behave, just a little bit."

'Friends...' Eun Ha thought with a grimace--something that was shared by her daughters as well.

And with that, Yeong Gu opened the door, revealing their first group of guests.

There were five people, the heads of Cha Financial Group's business partners, a bunch of corrupt old men from whom the Company had secured billions worth of dirty profits in their long history. Eun Ha personally didn't like them, but that was irrelevant.

Yeong Gu lit up and the smile he put on was big and open, though that still did not do justice to the pure enthusiasm he must have felt deep inside.

They were all dressed sharply, as if they were competing to see who could wear the fanciest, most expensive tuxedo, and also wore rings so large that it was a mystery to Eun Ha how their bony, frail wrists didn't collapse under their own weight.

"Yeong Gu! Good to see you!" An old man greeted him first.

"Same to you, Park! How's the wife?"

"Still sleeping. Still going deaf, if you ask me."

They all laughed.

"You wound her! She's been taking very well care of you. Your liver should have been gone long ago already."

They all laughed again.

'This is insane.' Eun Ha thought, not sharing even an ounce of their easy familiarity or friendly cheer.

Their banter seemed harmless at the very least.

'Disgusting.' The trio thought in unison as each of them briefly stepped forward in the sequence the routine required and politely greeted the guests before standing in the corners of the room like good little angels.

Each of them put on their best faces and a big smile, even if the reality was far from being cheerful.

After exchanging more laughter and a little more useless small talk, the five old men turned their heads, finally seeing Eun Ha, Mia and Su Ah.

"Yeong Gu, are those your children!?" An old man with a comically oversized mustache stepped forward, eyeing them up and down. "That is one beautiful wife and children, no wonder you work so hard!"

Mia and Su Ah's smiles were forced enough to crack glass.

"Of course. A real man needs to feed and provide the best for his loved ones."

More laughter.

At those words, Mia flashed another big, polite grin at them, which could very well be translated into an expression that would cause a five year old child to cry in fright.

"Hello, I'm Jae-il." Jae-il finally greeted, taking some of the fire for his sisters.

The eyes of the old men shifted towards him, a grin plastered on their old, wrinkly faces.

"The crown jewel! Of course, we've all heard a lot about you. Come, son! Walk us through the house, and show us around." The largest and eldest said.

With that, they were already pushing into the living room, making themselves comfortable. Eun Ha followed along with Jae-il beside her while her daughters were close behind her.

Yeong Gu guided the five men past the foyer and into the large living room, smiling his broad smile all the while.

'Great. This is going to be one hell of a night...'

Eun Ha thought as the men settled in her living room, spreading out like oil on water, in such a way that no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't be able to stop noticing them.

And it did not improve from there.

One after another, more of their associates joined, most of them equally unpleasant and old.

In the next fifteen minutes, her house was soon flooded with middle-aged and elderly men and their ladies, all of them as boring and monotone as one another. The ladies themselves, all around the same age as Eun Ha, if not considerably younger, were pleasant, friendly and warm enough when they arrived and saw her, but visibly unsatisfied with their own husbands' behaviors.

Eun Ha wondered what their marriage looked like. 

Did they have any kind of affection between them, or was it an alliance made solely for benefits? She supposed the women here were no different than she and Yeong Gu; stuck together in a loveless relationship solely for the sake of convenience.

Jae-il and Yeong Gu had wandered off together, already conversing with a number of their associates, laughing and drinking together, enjoying some good-natured roughhousing like boys with their old friends.

Still, as the wives gathered on one sofa to chat among themselves, Eun Ha couldn't help but notice how their gazes inevitably shifted in the direction of Jae-il as often as was not blatantly obvious.

And Jae-il had caught their looks once or twice and would give a polite smile and nod his head before returning to his conversation.

Was he oblivious or merely indifferent?

It wasn't an overstatement to say he was the center of attention, so much so that he barely got a moment of peace with how each and every one of the male guests attempted to drag him back into a new topic whenever it seemed he was in danger of slipping away. All while the women sat there, sipping their drinks, openly staring, and shooting one another furtive, hungry glances when Jae-il moved toward the kitchen to refresh their drinks.

"Those fucking hyenas..."

"Unnie, calm down."

Eun Ha heard Mia's soft murmur, and could imagine her seething rage all too easily.

Even a saint would've blown a gasket by this point. And the glass in Mia's hand was being choked dangerously tight.

Eun Ha's patience was nearly spent as well.

Those old crones were ogling her son and thinking lewd, inappropriate, disrespectful things about her son. She wouldn't just take their nonsense laying down. With all the calm and benevolence of a mother bear, she rose and approached the group of ladies.

"Hello~" Eun Ha's face was polite but stern.

'Don't cause a scene, don't cause a scene, don't cause a scene!' She said to herself, mentally preparing herself for the next twenty minutes.

The other ladies smiled politely, their eyes dropping almost instantly back to her son.

"Hello, Mrs. Cha~ you have such a lovely house, it is a dream." A woman in her thirties giggled, her ring finger was adorned with an overly large, very expensive diamond ring. Her husband must have cheated. A ring that big was like wearing a neon light sign that read 'please take pity on me'.

Yeong Gu had gifted her a similar one; she could imagine those old men over there having an emergency meeting on how to appease their cheated wives.

"Why, thank you." Eun Ha smiled again, trying her best to sit in a way that would block their view of Jae-il.

"Congratulations on your son, Mrs. Cha. He is really handsome, is he not and strong and polite, if I dare say so"

Another lady who looked to be in her mid-thirties smirked; her husband, another old fool with an oversized mustache, was deeply engrossed in conversation with his peers and clearly did not care. "

His father was quite handsome in his younger days too from what I've heard, but he pales in comparison~ your son must have taken from you."

"Haha, thank you..."

Another older woman joined in, her grin exposing her bright white teeth, lips curled around her long, narrow wineglass. "It is a shame, really. Such an accomplished son would be a good match, but there's not a single woman here worthy of him~"

"Ah, if only I were ten years younger." An elegant, older woman joined, sighing. "I could make him into a fine gentleman. I was a real beauty back in my youth."

"Oh shush, as if he'd ever look at you. His standards are certainly higher than that."

"Hey, now~"

They all burst into a round of tittering giggles, somehow some familiarity with each other, and Eun Ha forced a smile and gritted her teeth.