Page 115 of Six Years
Grey pulls out his phone from his pocket, ready to call his parents, I guess?
“You’recallingthem? I thought I was going to meet them in person.”
He nods. “I’m calling my mom, asking her to come here. I’m not going to let you meet them at the same time because if that happens, my mother won’t have an opinion.”
That’s… a whole lot of fucked up. If my father tried to silence my mother, she would slap him and put him in his place.
“Mom,” Grey says, his voice filled with nerves. “If Dad’s with you right now, pretend I’m not calling, okay? If he asks, say I’m Moon.”
What? Now that’s even more fucked up.
“I’m in the library. Can you come here?” He pauses for a second, then adds, “Without Dad.” Shortly after, he hangs up the phone. “I hope he’s going to let her leave.”
“I hope you all know thatthisis so wrong. Your mother shouldn’t fear your dad.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said this. Their family problems aren’t my problems. I’m in no position to judge them and how they choose to live their lives.
“She doesn’t fear him,” Grey speaks quietly, and bobs his head softly. I’m not sure this nod is to agree with me anyway or tells me to fuck off. Probably a tad of both.
Then we can hear the doors open as a voice about an octave deeper than Sun’s says, “Grey?”
Grey grasps my hand, pulls me back down that aisle before we round the corner. And there she stands, Grey’s mother. She has the same black hair as he does, the same eyes. Sun has theexactsame face. She’s a lot smaller than Grey is, but most mothers are smaller than their sons. Mrs. Han wears a long sage green dress, it looks like it’s satin but I’m not sure. The short arms of the dress are poofy.
Who wears a formal dress like this when they’re at home?
But what’s more shocking to me, Mrs. Han looks like she’s maybe thirty, but she’s not, that I know. I want to look that young in my late forties.
Grey lets go of my hand, then closes the gap between his mother and him, pulling her into his embrace. I hear them speak, but I don’t understand a single word.
When they pull apart, Grey turns to face me again. He inhales deeply, then leads his mother that tiny bit closer to me before he says, “Mom, this is Luan. My boyfriend.”
Mrs. Han smiles at me and holds out her hand. I take it.
“Mrs. Han,” I say but she shakes her head immediately, confusing me. I swear Grey told me that’s her last name.
“Call me Eun.”
Oh. Okay, yeah I did not expect that to happen.
I look at Grey to find him smiling. And when Eun sees it, she gasps and covers her mouth with one hand.
“You’re smiling.” Eun brings a hand to her son’s face, drawing her thumb over the smile-lines by his mouth as if to make sure she’s not seeing things. Is this the first time she sees him smile in alongtime?
She then looks at me. “You’re making him smile?”
“Yeah, I happen to think I’m the funniest person on earth, Grey disagrees though. But, still he smiles and laughs a whole lot more these days,” I answer. “At least once a day.”
“Laughs?” She says it like that’s something Grey is incapable of doing. When she looks back at Grey, she says something in Korean. I think it’s a question because Grey nods in response.
“Yes, Mom,” he confirms, “Luan makes me happy.”
I make him happy.
I, as in me, Luan Hayes, makes Grey Davishappy.
I noticed that he smiles more often, or that he talks more than when we first met. But I didn’t think that wasbecauseof me. I thought he’s just showing me the side he’s been showing his friends for years.
Eun is smiling, until she isn’t and her face pales. “You’re not here to tell your father, are you?”
Grey was wrong. Thereisfear in his mother. Fear of her husband and what he’ll do to Grey when this man finds out about me.
