by Linda Verji
“Stop changing the subject,” he said, searching through the book on his bookshelf. “Where is it?”
“Why did you bail on your date with Robin?” Yoon-ah countered.
“Because I met someone else.” Before his mother could get a word in, Orion added, “And before you ask. Yes, she’s a Tiger.”
“Really!” Yoon-ah exclaimed in excitement. “Are you telling the truth?”
“Why would I lie?” He turned to survey the office, looking for any nooks and crannies he might have missed in his search. “Now, tell me, where’s the bujeok you left here?”
“Is she pretty? Is she nice? Wait. Wait. That doesn’t matter.” His mother screeched in excitement. “I can’t believe you found one on your own.”
“Yes, all on my own,” he responded with barely restrained sarcasm. “Now, where is it?”
His mother ignored his question to ask her own. “What’s her name?”
“Alvina,” he answered just as his eyes settled on the table-top water-dispenser at the corner of the room. She couldn’t have put it there, could she? The dispenser was quite heavy and she would’ve had to lift it. But then again… this was his mother. She’d been known to do more difficult – and stranger – things to ‘protect’ him and Julian. He strode towards the water dispenser.
“Alvina. Nice, strong name.” His mother asked, “Did you set up a date? I know how you can be. Please tell me you took her number and set a date.”
“I took her number and set a date,” he confirmed. “We’re meeting on Tuesday.”
“Good, good, good. I always knew you were smart,” Yoon-ah complimented.
“Thanks.” His breath hitched as he tipped the dispenser with the hand that wasn’t holding the phone. And wouldn’t you know it – there was a yellow parchment underneath it. He grinned triumphantly. “Found it.”
“Found what?” his mother asked.
“Nothing. Bye mom.”
“Ri-on-a,” His mother called out before he could end the call. “Wait.”
“What?”
“Where are you meeting Vina? What are you planning for the date?”
“So you can pop in randomly?” Orion chuckled. “I don’t think so. Bye.”
And before his mother could saying anything more, he ended the call. Chuckling, he shoved his phone into his pocket then lifted the dispenser off the table so he could remove the talisman. Yoon-ah was getting more creative, wasn’t she? Where would she put her talismans next time? The roof? This woman. Shaking his head, he crumpled the paper into a ball then tossed it into a bin.
Vina might think that she was hitting the jackpot with him, but she hadn’t met his crazy mother yet.
Speaking of Vina… he settled down in front of his computer and keyed in the word ‘barre-asana’ into the search engine. A whole list of results came up and he leant forward to read them. Ten minutes later, he was slack-jawed.
What the hell had he gotten himself into?
CHAPTER 6
By the following Monday, Orion was oscillating between excitement and anxiety. The excitement was because he was finally getting to see Vina again. During the past few days, she was all he could think about, and the prospect of spending more time with her was quite appealing. However, he wasn’t sure that she was worth an afternoon of an activity that purported to be exercise but was actually just contorting and stretching.
“Come on, let’s do something different,” he cajoled over the phone.
“No way,” Vina insisted stubbornly. “The trainer is from out of town and who knows when she’ll back again.”
“Then download a video,” he suggested. “I think I saw something on YouTube with her in it.”
“It’s not the same thing as an in-person class.” Vina’s voice took on a wheedling note. “Come on Orion, we made a deal. I get to do what I want on the dates I organize, and you get to do what you want on the dates you organize…”
“But barre-asana isn’t even real exercise,” he whined
“Of course it is!”
“Real exercise requires running, lifting or hitting something. Your thing is just basically stretching.” He suggested, “Look why don’t we do a cross-fit class or maybe kickbox-”
“Orion, please. You promised,” she cajoled. “I’ll do whatever you want to do on our next date.”
He wanted to insist on a change of date, but when she begged like that how was a man supposed to resist. With a weary sigh, he surrendered. “All right. A deal is a deal.”
“Thank you,” she said, her glee evident in her chirpy tone.
“Do you want me to pick you up from home?”
“Are you kidding me?” Vina snorted. “If you come within one hundred feet of my house, my grandmother will insist on meeting you and you’re not ready to meet her.”
“Is she that bad?”
“Oh, Orion, Orion, Orion.” She chuckled, leaving him with the impression that he had no idea what he’d gotten himself into. Before he could ask for further information, she suggested, “Why don’t we just meet at the studio? I can wait for you outside.”
“Okay.” Once the phone call was over, he turned back to his computer where an email from a potential client was waiting. The client was interested in converting their garage into a rental unit and wanted estimates. Orion was in the middle of sending back an email when a brief knock on the door interrupted him. A second later, his brother swept in.
“The prodigal brother returns.” Orion looked up. “Where have you been?”
“Making money,” Grinning, Julian slumped into the seat opposite him. “Did you miss me?”
“No.” Orion turned back to email. His fingers flying over the keys, he said, “But Eric did. Something about the marketing strategy you two were working on?”
“I just dropped in on him,” Julian said. “I’ll go help him out once I’m done here.”
“What’s up?” Orion looked up to meet the younger man’s eyes. “Money for your trip?”
Julian smiled. “Nah. I’m good. I already found a way to earn the money for it.”
Orion shot him a questioning look. “Please tell me you’re not selling t-shirts in school again.”
“Nah! T-shirts are dead.” Julian waggled his eyebrows. “I have a new business.”
“What’s the business?”
“Spying on you.”
Orion blinked. “What?”
Julian grinned. “Spying. On you.”
This time Orion’s voice was even louder. “What?”
“Mom’s hired me to spy on you and make sure you’re not lying about your Tiger.” Julian stared up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “I’m thinking of calling the business Orion Intelligence.”
“And you agreed to it?” Orion stared at his brother in slack-jawed surprise. His mother spying on him was no surprise – in fact it would’ve been stranger if she didn’t. But for his brother to be colluding with her. “You money-hungry punk.”
“Correction, entrepreneurial punk.” Sans remorse, Julian pointed out, “Hey, if I didn’t agree, someone else would have - someone who wouldn’t give you a heads-up.”
“Do you hear that?” Orion glared at his brother. “That’s the sound of our brotherhood breaking up. I’m disowning you.”
“You were never a good brother anyway,” Julian teased. “Good riddance to bad brothers.”
After brief thought, Orion offered, “I’ll pay you not to spy on me.”
Julian chuckled. “Hyeong, you can’t afford me.”.
“I’ll pay you to be a double-agent,” Orion revised his offer.
“No thanks.” Julian guffawed. “I have some ethics you know.”
“Ethics. You?” Orion’s eyebrows shot up. “The boy who said that when he grew up he wanted to be a crook?”
“Even crooks have lines they won’t cross,” his brother retorted.. “Anyway I thought I should let you know because of our previous relationship as brothers.”
“So now it’s previous relat
ionship as brothers? Huh!” Orion narrowed his eyes as he threatened, “Well, if you don’t drop this espionage thing our relationship as employer and employee will also become previous.”
Julian’s laughter rang loudly in the office. Grinning, he taunted, “That threat would be more effective if you actually paid me.”
He was right of course. Orion kissed his teeth as he pointed towards the door. “Get out of my office.”
“Sure.” Julian obediently stood up. But before he left, he threatened ominously, “But just know… I’m watching you.”
Long after the traitor, formerly known as his brother, left his office, Orion glared at the door. His mother couldn’t have picked a better person to be her agent. For all his slacker ways while working at Virgo, Julian could be quite industrious where money was involved. That the little betrayer would do everything to earn the money Yoon-ah was paying him including tailing Orion, taking picture, maybe even rooting through his trash.
Damn! He and Vina would have to be careful if they didn’t want to get busted.
*
ORION WAS LATE. Vina turned her wrist to check the time. Ten minutes late to be precise. Impatiently, she paced in front of Killion Fitness. Where was he? She scanned the parking lot to make sure she hadn’t missed him or his car. Nope. No Orion. He hadn’t forgotten that today was supposed to be their first date, had he? Or had he chickened out? She immediately stiffened and her grip on the strap of her duffel bag tightened. He’d seemed a little hesitant when they’d last spoken so there was a very real possibility that he’d gotten cold feet.
Oh no. What was she going to tell her family? They’d probably assume that she’d been dumped again and start scouring the city for more dates for her. Nooo, not again. She was so damn tired of meeting up with men she wasn’t in the least bit interested in.
A sudden thought struck her. There was a way to salvage this. Her family had never met Orion so they didn’t know what he looked like. She could take advantage of that and hire someone to call themselves Orion. The more she thought about it, the more the idea made sense. Where did one hire Korean men to act as fake boyfriends these days? Craigslist? No! She’s heard that only weirdos hang out there. eBay? Wasn’t that supposed to be for electronics and-
“Vina,” a deep voice called out behind her
Startled, she turned only to come face to face with Orion. The relief she felt when she saw him was indescribable. Her smile was as instinctive as it was wide. “You came.”
“I came.” He smiled back at her and she could’ve sworn that her heart stuttered in its path. She really needed to tell him to stop doing that otherwise one of these days she’d end up falling for him.
“For a moment there I thought you’d ditched me,” she confessed as she gave him a quick onceover. He hadn’t taken her advice to come in tights but he looked quite sporty and masculine in his sleeveless tee, joggers and sneakers.
“I would never ditch you.” From behind him, he pulled out a bouquet of flowers. “These are for you.”
Immediate surprise shot through her. She staggered backwards with her hands in front of her to ward off the flowers. She made a face. “What are those?”
“Flowers.” He kept smiling. Was it just her or was that smile weirdly stiff like he was faking it?
“Why would you get me flow-” She never got the chance to finish her sentence because Orion suddenly moved forward and lowered his head as if he was about to kiss her. Vina immediately moved back but before she could get away from him, his arm came around her waist and hauled her closer to him.
“Orion!” she exclaimed, craning her head backwards to keep him from kissing her. “What the-”
“Ssh,” he ordered, his mouth hovering just inches from hers. “We’re being watched.”
Though he spoke, she barely heard his words. All she could hear was the rush of blood in her ears as she stared into his eyes. He was close, too damn close. All she could feel was that strong arm around her waist, and the heat of his body mingling with hers. All she could smell was his enticing, spicy yet masculine scent. Whatever cologne he was wearing – she was a huge fan of it.
Somehow, she managed to croak, “Wh-what?”
“We’re being watched,” Orion repeated with that same weird smile. He held out the flowers again. “Act like you’re happy to see me.”
She blinked. “I don’t-what?”
Unfazed by her utter confusion, Orion shoved the flowers into her hand and with expert ease spun her around so they were facing the doors of the studios. Before Vina knew it, he was walking her into the building with a firm hand around her waist. It was only once they were in the foyer and he dropped his arm that she came to her senses.
She quickly scrambled further away from him. “What the hell was that?”
“Close, that’s what it was. Too close.” Orion blew out a deep breath. “My brother was tailing me. I tried to lose him, but the little bastard is unshakeable.”
“I’m sorry, your brother was what?” Vina frowned.
“I told you that my mother would check up on my story, right?” Orion said. When Vina nodded, he continued, “Well she hired my brother to spy on me, and he was tailing me on my way here. I even saw him with a camera, so I needed to make it seem like we were really on a date.”
“Ah! That’s what this is?” She held up the flowers. When Orion nodded, she sighed in relief. A moment later, she started laughing.
Soon Orion joined her too. Chuckling, he said, “I scared you, didn’t I?”
“You have no idea.” Vina clasped her hand over her throat. “God, I thought you’d gone mad for a second there.”
“I told you my mother is crazy.” Frowning, he asked, “Are you sure you still want to do this?”
“Don’t worry.” She chuckled. “I won’t ditch you just because you come from a family of stalkers.”
“Harsh!” Orion winced but his eyes danced with mirth.
“But true,” she retorted.
He looked away from her to take in their location. Killion Fitness was more of a health-club than a gym. Branching off the foyer were several offices and shops selling services related to health, beauty fitness. Judging by the number of sportily-clad people streaming up the stairs, it was obvious that the gyms and studios were upstairs.
Orion sighed. “So this is the venue of my torture?”
Vina laughed. “It’s barre-asana. Not torture.”
“Same difference.” He made a face. “Do we really have to do this?”
“You promised.” She gestured for him to follow her up the stairs. “Come on, the studio is this way.”
The studio was already packed – packed with women. Save for one lone man, everyone else was of the female persuasion. In fact if it wasn’t for the skimpy workout wear, one would’ve thought that this was the venue for a women’s conference.
One glance at Orion’s and she could tell that he was intimidated by the lack of testosterone in the room. His face had turned a sickly shade of grey, his back was as stiff and as straight as a board, and his gaze kept darting to the door. She had the impression that he was calculating how many steps it would take to get to the door and out of here.
It was then that Vina realized that it might have been a little cruel to bring him here. When she’d chosen the date, she’d been working under the assumption that now she could spend her time doing whatever she wanted. But looking at his pale face, it was obvious that that was really selfish and inconsiderate of her. Orion didn’t even want to do the fake-relationship thing, and here she was forcing him to do stuff that he wouldn’t do in a million years. If she wasn’t careful, he’d end up backing out of their arrangement.
She touched his arm. “Orion.”
“Yeah?” He looked away from the throng of females to meet her eyes.
“We don’t have to do this,” she offered. “We can do something else. What do you want to spend the day doing?”
“No. No.” He shook his head and pulled in
a deep breath. “We’re here and we made a deal. Let’s just do it.”
“Really, we don’t have to. Let’s just-”
“No. Let’s do this.” His lips quirked as his eyes locked with hers. “That way when it’s my turn to choose what we’re doing, you won’t complain.”
She frowned. “Why does that sound like a threat?”
His grin widened. “Because it is.”
Then like a soldier going to war, he took a step deeper into the room.
CHAPTER 7
The class was in sync, moving easily from flow to flow to the rhythm of the instructor’s sily, smooth and calming voice. Stretches, leg lifts, deep breaths… it all seemed so easy, and everyone looked like they were having a great time. Everyone expect Orion.
Oh God, he was dying. His muscles hurt – no, they burned. Each successive pose seemed to heighten the burn until it felt like someone very strong was pulling at his muscles. Every time the instructor told them to breathe in deeply, Orion wanted to curse out loud because his burning lungs weren’t capable of doing something so ridiculous. Breathe in deeply? Hah!
Until today, he’d thought he was fit. He went to the gym at least three days a week and that should’ve counted for something. It didn’t. The first thing he’d learned today was that he’d severely overestimated his flexibility. Steel rods were more flexible than him.
His rhythm wasn’t that awe-inspiring either – unless one counted its absence. When the rest of the class went right, he somehow ended up on the left. When they went down, he found himself standing. He was a disaster. Whichever idiot had said that real sports required running or hitting something had no idea what they were talking about. Oh wait – that idiot was him.
“Four. Three… Press to the ceiling. Long lines from your shoulders to your fingertips,” the red-haired tormentor a.k.a. their trainer instructed. “Keep breathing.”
Keep breathing? This lady was kidding, right? How the hell was he supposed to remember to breathe when he could barely keep from falling? The pose looked easy. Legs apart, front leg bent slightly, arms up in the air. And yet it was so hard to maintain. The muscles in Orion’s thighs trembled more with every second until just keeping still was a Herculean task.
