Pride buried in the Hudson River

Is it as mature as it hurts?

Before marriage I matured whenever I was dumped and hurt by men. Rather than being distressed and sad, I came to my senses and became clear and comfortable.

A long time ago, my boyfriend and I went to a hotel night to console my girlfriend who had been dumped. We danced together. And we were not allowed to go home because of a curfew. Three went to the hotel. My boyfriend went into the room saying he was tired. My drunken girlfriend was following behind him! Leaving the man and woman in the hotel room, I was wandering the Chungmu-ro of dawn and came home.

Mom waited all night for me, and my father was so angry that he was determined to break my leg. "What happened? Where did you sleep?" the phone rang. I ran quickly to answer the phone.

It was from my boyfriend who left it in the hotel room. As soon as I got the phone, I heard a grunt saying, "How could you do that?" Since you don't like me, even if two men and women walked into the room, and you didn't stop them. I hung up on him, saying I am sorry. That was his last call with me.

"I'm a crazy bitch. Alcohol is my enemy. Enemy," the girlfriend came home and apologized. Our friendship stayed the same after that, never mentioning it again. Then the friend made up with the man he had broken up with and set a wedding date.

11 a.m. on a sunny spring day, I smelled oil on my way to the wedding hall in Chungmu-ro. Because I hurriedly took and wore the clothes that I left at the dry cleaner's the day before. I approached happy friend in wedding dress and said, "Congratulations." "Hey! What's that smell? You smell like gasoline and I’m going crazy." My friend wanted me to go far, waving her hands back and forth. I was at a loss what to do. But my friend said that she would give me a bouquet, so I couldn't be too far away. I followed her around with a determination to get married after receiving her bouquet. My friend threw a bouquet at me and got into the car. She got into the car to go on my honeymoon with a look of coolness.

Looking at the car as it was going away, my friends were marrying one by one, and I walked alone on Chungmu-ro with mixed feeling that which man I should marry. It's said that when I get a bouquet, I'll get married soon. Time went by without any man to meet.

"Isn't anyone calling you these days? Are you seeing anyone?" My father began to worry. Then one day, my father smiled brightly and said, "Take the phone. It's a man," he said excitedly. The father, who was watching from the side until the moment I hung up, said, "Who is that? But how old is that voice? Are you meeting old man?" "He is a professor at school."

My father comforted me by hiding his disappointment. "Why don't you go to the United States to study more? No one knows if there will be anyone waiting for you in the United States. If you can’t get married even if you go there, just live free by yourself."

As my father told me, I came to New York and found a man. However, two years after we met, he was not asking to get married at all the time.  I buried my pride in the Hudson River and bought two rings. I got the man in a yellow taxi and took to the city hall and married him, relieving his mother and father's worries.

However, parents' worries persisted without end. My father said, "he wakes up at night and can't sleep if he imagines me that suddenly gets divorced and standing at his door." I'm sure my pride won't be able to rise above the Hudson until my father dies. Sometimes I push my pride in again and again every time it comes up. If I could please my old father, my pride is nothing.