Unu remained silent, waiting for Joseph to indicate that the conversation had ended. Casey resembled her father around the mouth. She looked miserable right now. He wanted to put his arm around her, stroke her hair, but that wouldn’t fly with this crowd.
The front door of Mr. Chan’s burst open; a large party came in. Tina smiled at the young man, a head taller than his family. Chul was here.
In the foyer, everyone bowed uncomfortably. Casey and Leah were still holding the shopping bags. Mr. Chan ushered them to their private banquet room.
Once they had been seated, the senior waiters brought out the cold appetizers in an instant. Chul stared at Tina silently, his nervous expression barely concealed. He wanted her to rescue him, but Tina was lost herself. Though the couple was seated at opposite ends of the table, their eyes formed a straight path toward each other. Chul stared at Tina with both awe and need. He wanted to make love to her all the time. Tina felt his pull keenly and tried not to think about them being together.
His sisters were chattering loudly. They were smart looking, Casey thought, trying to recall everyone’s names. The introductions had been made so quickly near the door—Heidi, Kathryn, Rose, and their respective husbands, Jun-hi, Clark, and Dean. Casey couldn’t keep straight the children’s names: Max or Alex—names with x’s in them. The boys were the eldest daughter’s sons—neither very well behaved.
“Game Boy in a minute,” Heidi promised them.
Tina felt sorry for her mother, who appeared terrified by Chul’s mother, Anna, who kept trying to hold Leah’s hand.
“Leah, you must. You must call me Anna. Please,” Chul’s mother insisted in English. She had a tendency to touch you when she spoke, and Leah was confused by Anna Baek’s overly familiar gestures. She even touched Joseph when she talked to him, holding on to his forearm when she complimented his necktie. He was repulsed by her. The unkind word he thought of was yuh-oo—a fox.
“And I’ll call you Leah. Such a pretty name,” Anna said. She brushed a speck of lint from Leah’s shoulder.
Leah nodded at the handsome woman with the knobby cheekbones. Anna Baek’s complexion was uneven, but her makeup was applied well. Leah had put on light pink lipstick herself, but much of it had already faded.
When everyone at the table had been served, Joseph and Leah bent their heads in prayer. Tina, Chul, and Casey bowed their heads. So did Unu. Except for Chul and Heidi, the Baek family weren’t Christians. After the amens, the guests ate with great concentration.
Chul was adorable, Casey thought—a foot taller than Tina, thick black hair, nut brown eyes, and an open smile. He had his mother’s best features, but with a great deal more kindness in his face. Chul looked like someone who’d have four or five kids and wear his simple navy suits for a dozen years, never losing his focus or good temperament.
Kathryn, the second born, a former gymnast with a fireplug body and shoulder-length hair, acted like the leader of the pack. She’d been the one who’d introduced everyone in the foyer.
“So how long have you and Unu been dating?” she asked Casey.
Unu glanced up from his plate.
“A while,” Casey answered. It wasn’t the question so much as the way she’d asked it that felt aggressive. Casey sat straighter.
“How long?” Heidi asked, smiling. She thought it was safe to ask this but felt a little self-conscious that everyone was waiting for Casey’s answer to her question.
“Four happy months,” Unu piped up. He beamed at Casey. “She’s just terrific.” It wasn’t the Korean way to be so expressive, but it was obvious that the Baeks preferred the American ways.
Leah smiled at him.
“And will you two be getting married soon?” Kathryn asked. She’d gotten engaged after meeting her husband, Clark, in about that time.
The little boys giggled, making faces. “Like Uncle Chul!” the older one shouted.
Casey shouldn’t have been surprised. Koreans could sometimes ask the most personal things, but she hadn’t expected it from someone not far from her generation. Kathryn was maybe ten years older than her.
Tina smiled at Casey, hoping Kathryn hadn’t upset her. Chul said even his parents were a little afraid of Kathryn, who was unconscious of her bullying ways. In the few times Tina had met them, all three lawyer sisters had been relentless in their lines of questioning.
“Will that be the next wedding? Hmm?” Kathryn raised her eyebrows as though she had amused herself.
This time Unu didn’t look up. Casey knew where he stood on this and said nothing. No one there would understand that Unu didn’t believe in marriage or that Casey didn’t understand love lately. Only the innocent would rush to marry.