“Quit it with the puppy dog eyes. You’re too old for that.” Dahye covered her friend’s eyes with her hand, and Bora grabbed her and began wrestling her toward the ground. The sound of their scuffle drew the man’s attention. He looked at them curiously and smiled. His face was very tan. His teeth were sparkling white.
“Is everything alright?” he asked. His voice was deep and velvety smooth. “Do I need to keep you away from each other?”
Caught off guard, Dahye and Bora stared at him. Bora found her voice first. “My friend wants to ask you something,” she squeaked. She jabbed Dahye again with her elbow.
“Ow!”
“Ask him,” Bora hissed between her teeth.
“Shewants to know if we can borrow a cigarette.” Another sharp jab. Dahye ignored it.
“I don’t know about borrowing,” the man drawled, clearly entertained. “You can just have one.” He held his half-burned cigarette loosely at the corner of his mouth as he riffled through his coat pocket. Removing two cigarettes from the carton, he extended the smokes out to them. The cigarettes were American-made, Dahye noticed. Not the slim Esse brand that was ubiquitous in Seoul, but Marlboros, with their unmistakable red-and-white package.
“We just need one,” Dahye said weakly. “I don’t smoke.”
“Take both. Think of it as insurance.”
Dahye accepted them. “Thank you.” Suddenly, she felt shy. The man’s eyes searched her face with an intensity that both frightened her and drew her in. Bora, oblivious to the moment passing between them, sang loudly: “Thank you, kind stranger!”
Dahye and the man laughed. The tension was broken.
“Do you watch American movies?” he asked.
“Sometimes,” Dahye said.
“You remind me of an actress. Amanda Seyfried.” He said her name perfectly, without a hint of an accent.So he’s American, Dahye thought.Or maybe he went to school in America.“Do you know who that is?” he asked.
Dahye blushed. “Of course. She’s beautiful.”
He took a long drag and looked right into her eyes. “So are you.”
+
Bora chain-smoked both cigarettes, and then the two of them had staggered back into their karaoke room. Their university friends, Suah and Chaewon, had hardly noticed their absence.Both women were hopping up and down on the vinyl couches, screaming, tambourines clanging in their hands. Bora jumped right in, but Dahye, distant, had stared at the door. Her mind wandered. The man outside had called her beautiful. When had anybody ever said that about her?
They emerged twenty minutes later, and Dahye’s eyes were instantly pulled to the spot where the man had been standing. He was gone. She felt a brief sting of regret, then thought that he probably wasn’t interested. If he was, he would have asked for her number. Still, she lagged behind her friends.
While Dahye was looking away, Bora went tumbling to the concrete, taking Suah and Chaewon down with her. Even though the three of them were screaming with laughter, Dahye rushed to help. “Come on, you drunks,” she said, wrenching them to their feet. She stuffed them into the back seat of the taxi that had just arrived, being careful not to close the door on Chaewon’s legs.
“Hey! Amanda!”
Dahye turned. It was him. The man gestured from the doorway of the karaoke bar with a careless flick of his wrist. Chaewon and Suah were slumped over, but Bora perked up. She watched through the taxi’s rear window, eyes narrowed, as Dahye pointed to herself.
“Me?” Dahye asked. Feeling silly, she let her hand fall to her side. She wondered what the man was going to say. Perhaps he was making fun of her by comparing her to a famous person. In the bathroom, Dahye had looked up pictures of the blonde, green-eyed actress and confirmed they looked nothing alike.
If not that, then perhaps he was going to ask her to pay for the cigarettes? Dahye touched the cash in her pocket. All she had were two crumpled one thousand won bills.
Dahye glided over to him apprehensively. He was stylishly dressed in a plaid flannel shirt, dark slacks, and expensive-looking lace-up boots, but beyond that, he had a quiet self-confidence about him, a sense of ease that made him even more attractive beyond his good looks.
“Yes?” Dahye asked softly.
“Is it crazy for me to say I’ve been thinking about you this whole time?”
She blinked, at a loss for words. He continued to speak.
“If it’s not too forward of me, I’d really like to get to know you better. Perhaps we could have dinner together sometime?”
+