“My bodyguard/chauffeur and my assistant. Mr. Choi and Ms. Kim. They’re great people, but they report to my mom. They speak excellent English, if you’re wondering. And they really report everything to my mom, right down to when I sneeze.”
Mr. Choi and Ms. Kim smile at Declan.
Declan smiles back, although it doesn’t have its usual sparkle. He looks a bit puzzled. And apprehensive. “Are they driving you?”
“No. You’re driving me.” I angle myself so that Mr. Choi and Ms. Kim can’t see my face. So we can talk, I mouth. “They can follow in another car.”
“Ms. Hae, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Mr. Choi says.
“Declan’s an excellent driver,” I say, although I know what he’s really worried about. He thinks Declan and I might do something inappropriate that will upset Mom.
I feel slightly sorry for Mr. Choi. He’s too late, for one thing. Declan and I already did it. And I’m too old to be chaperoned, and this is the twenty-first century. He really has a thankless job.
The valets bring out Declan’s Lamborghini and a black Mercedes for Mr. Choi and Ms. Kim. I climb into the passenger seat, and Declan takes off.
I let out my first easy breath. It’s just comforting and safe to be around Declan. I adore my mother, but she can be a bit much, especially when something’s bugging her. I just wish I knew what it was so I could figure out the best way of dealing with her.
“So, where are we going? Your place or mine?” he asks.
“Mine,” I say morosely. “Otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it from Mom because Ms. Kim will tell her.” And right now, I’d rather not have a battle with her, especially when I’m going to be seeing him on Monday anyway.
“Is Ms. Kim the one your mom was talking about? The one who’s supposedly going to replace you?”
“Yup. And she isn’t wrong about Ms. Kim being amazing. She’s very thorough.” Which is why I like her even when she’s spying on me. Sloppy assistants are the worst.
“Yeah, but she’s never going to be as amazing as you are.”
I smile. He doesn’t sound too peeved about Mom’s high-handedness. “Thanks. And thanks for being patient at the restaurant. My mother can be very stubborn.”
“She cares about you.”
“Yes, but…” I sigh. “She wasn’t kind about your career. Sorry about that.”
“Does she have some kind of issue with celebrities?”
“It’s not really her, it’s the family. In Korea, high-profile families like mine don’t like celebrities. We value our privacy too much. Media attention is generally undesirable because most of it is just clickbait headlines, which means most stories tend to be negative. We like to control what goes out and what’s said about us. But celebrities are different. Even if you don’t care for it, you need the attention and spotlight. You want people to talk about you and write about you.”
“But that’s Korea. We’re in L.A., and the tabloids aren’t going to be writing about you.”
“Not the American tabloids. But the Korean media is going to be very, very interested.” A slight headache is developing. It always happens when Mom and I discuss the dossiers. “And they won’t be kind to you, because they want sensational headlines. I should’ve thought about that.”
Declan’s life isn’t for public consumption for amusement and advertising money. Just like mine isn’t.
“No, you shouldn’t. You should always do what makes you happy.”
His left hand is clenched around the steering wheel, but he reaches out with his right and takes mine gently, like it’s a flower. He threads his fingers through and squeezes.
The painful ticking at the base of my skull eases. I’m used to people giving lip service to “You should do what makes you happy” and then turning around and wanting me to do something that makes them happy. And Mom’s no exception. She wants me to marry for love, but ideally from the dossiers. When I told her I was dating Declan and I like him, she said he wasn’t from the right level or class.
It’s so ridiculously medieval. I know about all the dirty scandals of the people fr
om the “right” class. I doubt Declan’s done even five percent of their crap.
“It doesn’t feel like anything right now, but it’s going to be a problem as you spend more and more time together,” she said. “He’s never going to fit into our world. He’s never going to understand the restrictions and norms.”
Well, obviously. Chaebol is a world of its own even in Korea. And Declan being a model and actor is a huge deficit. Chaebol people almost never marry a celebrity. Even when they do…
I can’t think of a single chaebol-celebrity union that ended well. And I don’t recall any of them marrying foreigners, either. So a foreign celebrity is exponentially worse.