House of Cards

Siti refuses to be persuaded by her housemates.

Mizi is not the right man for you, they keep telling her. He is simply a technician; you, a college graduate with a first-class degree in engineering, a soon-to-be high-powered executives, a high-flyer. No matter how you spin it or how you package it-- Siti, your marriage to him will be a house of cards. It is bound to crash; it is destined for the floor. It will not last. You will suffer. This is not some story book fairy tale marriage.

She keeps silent.

The television blares on. Her housemates, all three of them, a group of close friends since their first days of college, a clique, watch on as she fiddles around with the remote, browsing through the many channels. A Korean soap opera about a lovelorn librarian, the house favorite, is about to begin in a few minutes. She puts down the remote and tugs a plush cushion close to her chest. Her housemates sigh in a mix of emotions. The tension eases. One asks for the chocolate tidbits, another picks a nice spot to lie down.

In front of the television, the house begins to heal again. There shall be no rift in our friendship that cannot be cured, no differences that cannot be bridged. We are sisters, you and I, in this Life and the Next.

The theme song plays, charming actor Lee Dong-gun appears from a corner, and the house falls silent in awe at the lovelorn librarian.

This was written in 2006. The names Siti and Mizi are randomly chosen. I just like how they rhyme and how generic and simple they are. There is no such soap opera about a lovelorn librarian starred by Lee Dong-gun. I just made that up. But all the details come together in this story and highlighted the plights of the characters. I particularly like writing this because it is so compact and direct, but packs one hell of a lasting image on the reader's mind.