"He's gone!" San said to Wooyoung on the phone Sunday evening.
"Great!" said Wooyoung excitedly. "My parents have left too." The Jang's and Mr. Siwon was attending the closing dinner for a project that Park Shinhye and Choi Siwon had worked on together. It was being held at a banquet hall at a hotel downtown in Angelwood.
"Well, we better hurry," San said. "They said the dinner will be over around eleven o'clock. We've only got a few hours before they get back."
"We'll be over in two minutes!" said Wooyoung.
San hung up the phone and stared into space. On Tuesday, everything would be final. His parents would sign the divorce papers that would break apart his family once and for all. San fought down a feeling of panic. This is our last chance, and it had better work, he thought grimly. Ten minutes later, the doorbell shook San out of his reverie.
"Okay, let's get cracking!" Wooyoung said excitedly when he answered the door.
"Time to take a trip down memory lane!" Wonyoung added.
For once, San was grateful to the Jang siblings for taking charge. He was on his last legs, ready to surrender to destiny.
"Did you talk to your parents?" Wooyoung asked as they made their way into the living room.
"Well, I caught my dad before he left. Said I wanted to talk to him alone tomorrow night. We set the meeting for seven o'clock in the screening room." San explained.
"And your mom?" Wooyoung asked.
"Yeah, I called her, too. Gave her the same story. She said she'd come by at seven o'clock," San said.
"How's she feeling?" asked Wooyoung in concern. "Oh, she's fine. A little under the weather," he added for Wonyoung's benefit. She just pretended not to hear.
"Hey, you guys," said Seungyoun, coming into the living room.
"Hey, Youn," said Wooyoung, taking in his running gear. "Just been for a run?" Seungyoun's cheeks were flushed, and his body was covered in perspiration.
"Yeah," he said, "five miles. It's brutal in this heat."
"Hey, cuz, you mind running on out of here?" San asked rudely. "We've got some work to do."
"Oh, sure," said Seungyoun "See you, guys." He waved and jogged out of the room.
"Okay," said Wooyoung, glancing around the house. "San, why don't you and I hit the attic? Wonyoung and Wolyoung, will take the living room."
The twins nodded and began looking around the living room with purpose. San and Wooyoung climbed the three flights of stairs to the affic. Once there, San clicked on the light and they began to sort through boxes and trunks.
Wooyoung cast a sidelong glance at San, wondering if he felt as uncomfortable as he did. He thought back to the week before, when they had been together in the Choi's attic looking for clues about their parents' college romance. The air had been practically crackling with electricity, with unspoken thoughts hanging heavily like unfulfilled promises. And now, nothing, thought Wooyoung with relief. San was just the same old stuffy San, and he was the same old straight and narrow Wooyoung. Weren't they?
Wooyoung shook his thoughts away and turned back to the cardboard box he was going through. At the bottom of the carton was a blue flowered cloth box. Wooyoung pulled it out and lifted the lid, stirring up a cloud of dust. Waving the dust away, he lifted some white tissue paper and drew out a bundle of letters wrapped in a light-pink satin ribbon.
Wooyoung untied the delicate satin ribbon and looked through the faded sheets of paper, now brittle and yellow with age. "Old love letters," he exclaimed, drawing in her breath. "From your dad to your mom."
"Jessie, how I miss you," he read from one.
"Only five more days of summer and then I can hold you in my arms again."
San took the letter from him. He shook his head as he glanced through the letter. "Who would have ever thought my father could be so sappy?"
"San, it's not sappy," said Wooyoung. "It's romantic."
"Romantic!" San snorted, turning back to his trunk. "Well, save it if you think we can use it. All I have here are old ski clothes," he said, rummaging through the trunk. He picked out an old college letter sweater of his father's and held it up for size. "Nah," he said, throwing the sweater back into the trunk and shutting the lid. "Junk," he muttered, quickly going through the contents of another trunk.
"Nothing here, either." He let the lid fall and opened a third trunk.
"Pay dirt!" San exclaimed, gazing into it. He pulled out a bundle of yellow metro tickets and stationery from the Carlyle Hotel.
Wooyoung kneeled by him and drew in his breath. "It's stuff from their honeymoon in Paris!" he said, pulling out a paper scroll and carefully unrolling it. "A portrait of your mother!" he said, holding it up for San to see. "See how young she looks with her hair long!"
San pulled out a handful of ticket stubs. "L'Opéra," he said, reading the names written on the tickets, "La Comédie Française, Le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris…"
"Wow," said Wooyoung. "They really went in style." He pulled out a large blue cotton blanket. Some white candles tumbled to the ground. "Why do you think this is in here?" he asked.
"Maybe for stuffing," guessed San.
"Yeah, but the candles?" Wooyoung asked, setting the blanket aside. He reached to the bottom of the trunk and took out a handful of brochures. "The Louvre, Nôtre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower... looks like they were busy," said Wooyoung, flipping through the booklets.
"Hey, pictures!" San exclaimed upon discovering a pile of black-and-white snapshots in a cardboard box. Wooyoung looked over San's shoulder as he flipped through the pictures. "It's so romantic," he breathed. "Paris! They look so young and in love...."
"Look what we found!" Wonyoung called, rushing up the attic steps. Breathless, she crashed into the room.
"What?" Wooyoung asked.
"Geez, it's huge up here," said Wonyoung, looking around the enormous attic. She held up an armful of old phonograph albums.
Hey, where'd you find those?" asked San. "That's my parents' old record collection."
"In the breakfront in the living room. And look!" Wonyoung said, proudly displaying some ancient Beatles albums.
"Would you look at that," Wooyoung said, reading through the titles. "I know all these... Rubber Soul, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver... Help, I can't read this one!"
"Let me see those," said San. He ran a finger down the titles on the back, "All You Need Is Love. That's it. That's their favorite song."
"Now what?" said Wolyoung.
"Now we haul all this stuff to the screening room, that's what," Wooyoung answered.
Wonyoung groaned and plopped down onto the clutter on the floor. "I was afraid you were going to say that," she said.
"Wow, look at this place," Wolyoung said in awe, taking in the sleek ultramodern room complete with a movie projector and screen.
"I haven't been here in ages. Did you guys redecorate?" Wonyoung asked.
"Yeah. My mom decided to go for the futuristic look," said San.
Wooyoung surveyed the stack of goods piled on the floor. "Let's see," he said, sifting through the material. "We've got love letters, honeymoon souvenirs, pictures, old records, home movies...."
"It's all so magical." Wonyoung sighed, fingering the old love letters.
"Don't get all weepy on us, Jang Wonyoung." San warned, then sneezed. "Ugh, we need to dust this stuff off."
"Okay. We'll do that in a minute. Now, does everybody have their roles straight?" asked Wooyoung, pacing back and forth and rubbing his hands together.
"You and I are the narrators, and San and Wolyoung are the slick behind-the-scenes directors," Wonyoung droned. They had been over all this a million times.
"Right," said Wooyoung. He glanced at his watch nervously. "It's already ten o'clock. Do you think we should go?"
"We've probably got almost another hour," said San.
"Okay, let's do a quick run-through," suggested Wooyoung. "The Choi's arrive tomorrow night at seven, and San brings them into the screening room."
"And All You Need Is Love is playing on the stereo," said Wolyoung. "The memorabilia and souvenirs from their honeymoon are displayed on the coffee table."
"Right. Then we say something like, Welcome to your wedding, or We're taking you on a trip down memory lane." said Wooyoung.
"Then San and Wolyoung projected the pictures of their wedding and honeymoon on the screen," Wonyoung said.
"Right. And while they project, we provide the narration," said Wooyoung. "We say something like, It's a beautiful July day, and Siwon and Jessie are at the altar. And Siwon and Jessie at the reception, Siwon and Jessie in Paris."
"I don't know," San said, shaking his head. "Don't you think this is too much?"
"San, it's our only option at this point," Wonyoung reminded him.
"I hope you two know what you're doing," he said skeptically.
"Then we end with home movies, the ones of when you were a baby," said Wooyoung to San.
"Yeah, back when you were still cute, before they regretted having you," Wonyoung said sardonically. She pretended to cower as San started to hover over her menacingly.
"Yeah, but I can't find our old movie projector anywhere. Maybe Dad got rid of it," San said. "I thought he had transferred all these movies to video, but if he did, I can't find them, either."
"I can rent a movie projector tomorrow. From the video in Bridgewater." Wolyoung said.
"Great idea," said Wooyoung. "So we show the home movies, and then Siwon grabs Jessie in her arms and says, I love you, Jessie."
"And Jessie says, Oh, Siwon, I love you, too," said Wonyoung.
"And everything ends happily ever after," finished Wooyoung.
"I hope you're right," San grumbled, his head in his hands.