Now and for the Last Time

37 장

"How'd the airport go?" Sehun asked.

I sank into one of the leather chairs, letting out a big exhale. "Painful. But they are on the plane. I went into the terminal and watched the screen until it said DEPARTED, just to be sure."

"I'm glad," he said. "When she unpacked her entire carry-on searching for her passport and it was in her hand, I thought for sure she was going to just bag the whole trip."

"Oh, we had, like, two more incidents like that while en route," I told him, rubbing my eye. "I'm starting to think it's a good thing she never goes away. I don't think I could take it."

"But she's gone," he said, wrapping a rubberband around the stack of place cards he'd been counting and dropping them into the bin at his feet. "And we have the weekend off. Just as soon as we finish all this."

I looked at the arrangement of vases, guestbook, cake toppers, napkins, and other wedding-related items piled on the table in front of me. It had all been purchased for the Mina Myoi Wedding, which had been booked for the next day. A moderately expensive, mid-size double hander with a chic theme, it was to have been the kind of event Eomma and Wooyoung could do with their eyes closed. And it would've been lovely, I was sure of it, if Mina's finace hadn't called it off with a little over a week to go.

It was too late to get back any deposits or return stuff, even if she wanted to, which she did not. In fact, the specific orders, delivered by her mother, were that she "never hear about this unpleasantness again." We could always use extra supplies for emergencies, but there was still something sad about boxing up all this tuff that had been bought, I knew, with such great plans and hopes. I reached over, picking up the cake topper: it was a groom holding a bride in his arms, both of them smiling.

"I'll wrap up the candles and candleholders," I said to Sehun now, standing up. I ripped open a box of tissue papers, pulling out a piece, and picked up a small blue votive. The colors for the wedding were to have been yellow and blue, the bride and groom's favorites, respectively. "But, to be honest, I never liked the whole green idea."

Sehun looked over at me. "Green idea?"

"The tablecloths," I said, nodding at the stack of them on a nearby chair. "My mom hates anything but white. but Mina was all about symbolism, you know, of merging yellow and blue together. So for the reception, she wanted a lot of green."

He laughed. "Man, in this business people can find meaning in everything. Even the color wheel."

"Weddings makes people do weird things," i told him, wrapping another votive. "That's the one truth that never changes."

As we worked quietly for a few minutes, I thought of Mina Myoi, a girl that loved ballet and statement jewleries whom I had met a couple of times at the office. All brides tend to be obsessed with their events, but I remembered her being mostly focused on her huge engagement ring, which she was constantly turning to catch the light. Perhaps, I thought now, it was like crystal ball, and looking into it she saw everything turning out perfectly, with yellow and blue and then all that green. Or she just liked the way it shines. Maybe both.

"So," Sehun said now, as I wrapped a larger pillar candle, "what's the latest on the dating news? You've been awfully quiet since Alien Lover. Hope you haven't had trouble keeping up your end of the bet."

"Nope," I said. "Last night I doubled with Gayeon and Im Jaebum with one of his friends, also a food truck guy."

"Wow, that's a big community, huh?"

"It is," I agreed. "This guy Youngjae, his parents do dumplings, I hear they're delicious."

"And what about Youngjae?"