Page 63 of Lust & Lies
“You want to know why you’re this strong and why you can protect yourself and don’t need a man or anyone else to save you, right?”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Self-defense classes.”
What?“I took self-defense classes?” I asked, skeptical.
“Yes. You took... lots of different classes. That’s why your body knows how to react quickly to danger. You trained for it. Even with memory loss, you haven’t forgotten your training.”
I blinked at him, not buying it. “What made me want that kind of training?”
“Life,” he answered without missing a beat.
Hmmm... “Was my life so bad that I needed to train to survive?”
“No, silly,” he said, leaning in to kiss my forehead. He stared at me for a long time and then sighed.
“What’s the sigh for?” I asked, wondering if he was getting irritated with me.
“I didn’t want to reveal too much about your past before you healed and started remembering things on your own.”
I perked up at that. What was he about to reveal from my past? I was eager to know.
“But, I don’t want you going around thinking you’re some type of deranged killer.” He took another deep breath and released it slowly. “Noe, you’ve been like family to my family for a long time. Since we were kids.”
I’d picked up on that in my conversation with his brother, Ethan.
“And in my family, my grandfather insists on our learning how to protect ourselves. I don’t want to go into all the details. I’ll just say this: my family came here during the Korean War. My great-grandfather brought our family here for a fresh start. But the family was met with a lot of racism and treated badly. My great-grandfather was determined to make a life here for our family. So, he changed our last name from Bak to Park. He worked hard to start a business here, despite the racial slurs thrown at him daily. Because of this, he was determined to instill a sense of pride in us. Yes, he changed our name, but he used Bak when establishing our businesses. That’s why the Park family owns Bak Industries and Bak Hotels and Resorts.”
So that’s the type of business he was part of. I was finally learning more about my husband. And all it had taken was me almost stabbing someone to pull it out of him.
“Though future generations were given American names, all of our hotels are designed with Korean décor and offer Korean cuisine. Yes, we adapted to a more Western way of living, but my family made sure we could speak Korean and write Hangul, the Korean alphabet.”
I listened to him talk about his family, so caught up in his story that I almost forgot why he was revealing this all to me now.
“Our great-grandfather made sure he passed down stories about our country, our heritage, to his children, they passed it to theirs, and so on. Another thing he insisted we do was learn how to protect ourselves. My brothers and I know Taekwondo. We’ve been practicing it since we were kids.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “So have you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.You. When you found out we knew it, you insisted on learning too. And my grandfather signed you up for lessons.”
I wanted to ask why my own parents hadn’t signed me up. But I feared he would stop revealing so much to me if I asked too many questions. So, I remained silent.
“I even chipped in and taught you some special moves,” he added. “We usually spar whenever we get a chance.”
“Wait!Youtaughtmespecial moves?” I asked, staring him up and down.
“Why are you looking at me like that? What, I don’t look like I know special moves or something?”
Shrugging, I said, “I mean, you’re buff and all. But you look more like a pencil pusher.”
“Are you serious?”
Laughing, I added, “You’re ahandsomepencil pusher.”
