Mr. Wu Paces

The key made a lot of noise as Sun Mei tried to unlock the front door quietly.

Why did keys tend to do that?

Sun Mei cursed under her breath as she finally got the door to open by balancing her shopping bags on her other hand.

The relief she felt was quickly replaced by horror when she walked in and almost ran into Mr. Wu.

"Ah!" Sun Mei almost fainted from fright. "Mr. Wu, what are you doing here?" she asked angrily.

"I… I was pacing."

When she took a better look at him, she realized that he was in his pajamas. His hair looked kind of dishevelled, as if he had been running his hands through it for hours, and he seemed to be upset.

"Why?" was all she could think to ask.

"I need to apologize to you, Sun Mei," he said seriously.

"What for?" she asked. "For hurting my feelings and stomping all over my heart?" she added in her mind.

"What you saw today was…" As he spoke, Sun Mei felt her heart stop. "It was completely inappropriate," he concluded decisively.

"What do you mean?" she asked in confusion.

"You did not sign up to take care of Lily while Jenny and I make out on a leather armchair in the same room. It was disgusting and I am sorry that you had to see it. I can't even imagine what your family would think if they knew you worked under such conditions. They might think that Chinese immigrants are corrupting their innocent daughter… "

Sun Mei's mind span as she heard this.

"Mr. Wu, stop!"

Mr. Wu, who could tell that she was clearly annoyed but did not understand why, immediately stopped talking.

"I am not a baby. I have seen people kiss before. Some of my favorite movies include people kissing nonstop." She blushed a little as she said that. "I know that this was part of your agreement with Jenny and thus part of your job. It would have been no different if you were an actor and I was watching Lily on the set of your movies."

"I suppose…" he murmured.

"You don't need to apologize to me. You wouldn't need to apologize to me even if you were kissing your ex-wife for real right in this house. This is your family, so what you do is your business."

Sun Mei realized that she was saying all this so that she would also hear it out loud herself and accept it.

"I consider you a part of the family, Sun Mei," Mr. Wu said softly.

"Not the part I want to be…" she thought bitterly as she tried to put on a smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Wu," she said mechanically. "Have a good night."

As she walked to her room, Sun Mei replayed their conversation in her mind.

Mr. Wu really thought of her as a baby that could be corrupted by images of kissing couples. He had no idea that the thoughts she had been having about him were anything but innocent. The man was completely oblivious.

"Well, on the upside, he did say that kissing Jenny was disgusting…"

She tried to focus on that positive thought as she went to bed.