Wedding Bells

2

The rest of the month went by basically without a hitch. Aside from the occasional argument with a bratty dance student, and weekly venomous phone call with my mother, things were pretty uneventful. I felt the dread building up as I continued to scratch out more days on my calendar. The worst week ever was approaching like a speeding train, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Just think, Minji and Yoohyeon both probably had this week covered in hearts and doodles of wedding crap with something like "The Best Week Ever" scrawled in cursive, while I had put down skulls and crossbones and wrote "Time to Crave Death" in my ugliest script. Isn't it funny how the same event could mean such drastically different things to different people?

True to her word, Minji had emailed me everything I needed to know as her bridesmaid. Her email was pretty useful once you got over the initial urge to vomit at the cheesy font and mushy rhetoric. I had to remind myself that she was my best friend and she was happy in order to keep myself from deleting it or replying with something like "New phone who dis?" In the email, Minji had given a rundown of the entire schedule of the week, as well as what each member of the bridal party was expected to do for each event. I had been put in charge of the rehearsal dinner, much to my relief. That seemed easier to plan than the shower or bachelorette party, which would require a lot more pretending to be happy for the betrothed. Maybe I could poison Yoohyeon's meal while I was at it.

Based on Minji's email, it seemed that the bridal party was only made up of five people. That surprised me considering Minji had always been such a social butterfly. She had millions of friends who would jump at the chance to be in her wedding. I kid you not, people literally worshipped the ground she walked on. Heck, some of those girls probably kept locks of her hair in secret bedroom shrines devoted to her. Those same people probably had dart boards with pictures of me all over them, jealous that I had always been Minji's closest friend. I gotta admit, I was relieved none of those girls had gotten the bridesmaid shoutout. The only other name I recognized was Lee Gahyeon, Minji's next door neighbor who was five years younger. Minji had babysat her growing up, and Gahyeon was like a little sister to both of us. I would be relieved to see a friendly face who could help me endure my suffering. The other three bridesmaids appeared to be Yoohyeon's cronies. I found it unfair that that beanpole got the bigger cut when Minji probably had more friends. Maybe Minji had agreed to a smaller bridal party in order to spare Yoohyeon's ego. It gave me some satisfaction to think of Yoohyeon as a friendless poindexter. The satisfaction vanished when I remembered that social reject or not, she was still marrying the only person I've ever truly loved.
~
The minute my Uber pulled up to Yoohyeon's family's estate, I thought about telling the driver there had been a misunderstanding and that we needed to leave immediately. Unfortunately, some extravagantly dressed and intimidating woman had already seen me and was approaching the vehicle. My instincts were telling me this was Yoohyeon's mother since I had met Minji's mother multiple times, and could think of no one else who would exert this much power over the wedding committee. I had to force a smile on my face as she opened the door.

"Welcome, dear! I'm Yoohyeon's mother. I already met that sweet little Gahyeon, and of course I know all of Yoohyeonie's friends, therefore, you must be Bora! It's nice to meet you. Minji has been raving about you every chance she gets! I'm sure you'll live up to your highly regarded reputation. The rest of the girls are getting settled in the guest house where you'll all be staying for the week. I'll lead you there myself. Everyone is looking forward to seeing you. Isn't this such an exciting time?" Mrs. Kim gushed as she took my hand.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am. This all sounds lovely, let me just grab my bags and-" she cut me off by waving her hands frantically.

"Oh no, please don't trouble yourself with those heavy bags. You're such a tiny, fragile thing. We have staff here to handle those matters," she insisted as she ordered some man in a uniform to grab my stuff from the trunk of the car.