The Falling Petals...🌺

Her ménage...

The next day I waited for her call. Though we'd not decided that she was supposed to call me, still I had this gut-feeling that she would. By 10:00 in the office I was getting restless. I wanted to hear her voice but, at the same time, I wanted her to call me up.

Jin hyung had given me this success funda in the matter of girls: Don't make them feel that you are going crazy after them; just give some time and they will come to you.

At 11:00, I realized that Jin was a fool and I went ahead and SMSed her a "Good morning", even though it was a little late for that. But I didn't receive any reply to my SMS and began wondering who the real fool was...

And, that day, I was also uncertain. Should I listen to my heart or my brain? Both of them were pointing in opposite directions. My brain was telling my ego, "What does she think of herself?" Whereas, my heart still wished to hear her voice.

Call it my weakness or my effort to curb my ego – a little later I did what my heart told me to do and I dialled her number.

"Hey! Hi, how are you?" Dae picked up the phone.

"When wishing you a good morning, the sender also expects a similar response. I am fine."

"I was going to reply on the way to the office."

"You mean you're still at home?"

"Yeah. Actually, we work in the afternoon shift as we have to be in sync with our UK-based clients. Hey, my cab's outside," she said rushing and saying 'bye' to her mom. I could hear the door being closed and her 'hi' to her friends in the cab. After she got in, we resumed our talk.

"So what's up?" I asked her.

"Ami unni was here this morning," she said. I remembered her mentioning a couple of names during our previous call, but I could hardly remember who was among them.

"Ami Unni...?" I muttered, trying to recall the name.

"I have three sisters and one brother. Mi-hee unni is the eldest and lives in Busan. She has a very sweet kid, Daewon, who is studying in kinder garden. Ami unni is second, and she too is married. She lives in Incheon and works with BPO. Dong-in, my brother, is two years younger than me and is working as Taekwondo teacher. And Nari is the youngest, my sweet little sis," she told me about her siblings again, with no complaints or questions as to how I forgot about them so soon.

She continued, "And apart from this, mum and dad are with us. And in your family, it's your mom and dad, you and your sister, Dawon, who is also a software engineer with Infosys, and her office is in the same building as yours, except she is on the first floor and you on the second. Right?"

And that was a silent slap to my memory. She remembered everything about my family. All I could do was say, "Hmm....10 on 10," and laugh. But I laughed alone.

"So, I was saying, Ami unni was here this morning. After completing her night-shift she came to home. She visits us every once in a week or two."

This call was all about her family. I came to know about two more people- Jung won, Mi-hee unni's husband, and Minho, Ami unni's husband. Minho and Ami used to work in the same company and they happened to fall in love, which was not a good idea according to Dae's dad. The hurdles they had to face were no different from any love story in movies. Minho is cool with boozing and non-veg while these are a Big NO in Dae's family. But then, as we learn from those same movies, Love, in the end, wins all the battles. And, that is what happened here as well. All the youngsters in Dae's family successfully convinced their dad to give his approval for the marriage.