Saving a life before dinner

Seung-ho was minding his own business, listening to the flowing conversation between his family members when he felt an elbow poke him in the rib.

"Look! There!" Aera whispered to him. "It's Sun Young-mi and Lee Tae-Hyun."

Seung-ho and Tae-Hyun were good friends who often found themselves involved in the same projects. Their latest collaboration had been the period drama that Tae-Hyun had written several songs for.

"He was at her apartment late at night and now this. What do you think is going on?" Aera asked her brother.

"Maybe they're collaborating," he answered. The handsome actor's great grandmother was of foreign descent and her blood ran noticeably in his deep features.

"Aren't you worried?" Tae-Hyun will steal her from you. "Look, look, they're laughing and joking as if they're old friends."

Aera was chattering endlessly while swallowing her food when a peanut went down the wrong pipe. The young lady began choking on her peanut but was loathe to bother her family so she stood up and began power walking to the washroom.

Luckily for Aera, her path to the washroom went past the table where Tae-Hyun and Ji-ho were sitting. The producer was attending to an important call and that left his companion looking around and noticing the flustered lady who had her hand on her throat and was all but running out of the door.

Ji-ho watched her go and was concerned by what she was seeing. The beautiful woman had looked anything but fine when she'd rushed past their table.

"Excuse me," she mouthed to Tae-Hyun and left her chair. Ji-ho began walking towards the direction where she saw the woman head off. The reason she wanted to check on her was because her cousin had behaved similarly at a wedding when she'd accidentally sucked in a piece of orange fruit down the wrong pipe.

Pushing open the washroom door, Ji-ho saw the woman leaning against the marble washbasin, going blue in the face.

"Ma'am, please don't panic. I'm here to help you," she told the lady.

Aera's vision was going dark from the lack of air and she barely registered what was being told to her. She felt hands under her ribs and the next thing she knew, her unlucky peanut was flying out of her mouth and bouncing off a mirror.

"Oh my god," she said in relief and turned around to hug the person who had saved her life.

"Are you feeling better?" Ji-ho asked her. Now that the woman wasn't in danger of death, Ji-ho began to notice just how elegant and beautiful the lady was. Her clothing, jewellery, skin, hair, everything about her looked expensive.

"Sun Young-mi, it's you!" Aera held her by the arms and wept. "Thank you!"

So the lady knew her. Ji-ho patted her on the back. "There there," she told her. "You're fine now. The next time you end up choking, tell someone. Don't just run off to the bathroom even if you're embarrassed about it. You might not get so lucky again."

Aera nodded, dabbing her wet eyes with a tissue. She was about to thank Young-mi again when her phone went off.

"One second," she told Young-mi.

"Hey," Ji-ho heard the beautiful girl answer her phone. "Nothing. I'll be there in a minute." Pause. "Yeah. Okay."

Aera hung up the phone and smiled at her saviour. "Young-mi, I'm Aera," she told her. Unlike her brother, Aera wasn't a celebrity so she wasn't as well known as Seung-ho.

"Pleased to meet you," Ji-ho replied. It was time she got back to Tae-Hyun so she was hoping that Aera would let her leave soon.

"Young-mi, come meet my family." Aera was holding her hand and earnestly asking.

"Miss Aera, are you sure-"

"Please. You saved my life. Can't you spare a few minutes to meet them?"

Ji-ho could only reluctantly nod. She was sure it wouldn't take more than a minute or two.

_____

The duo went past Tae-Hyun who was confused by what he was seeing - Aera, holding Young-mi's hand and leading her away from him.

"Tae oppa, I'm borrowing Young-mi," she told the man sweetly. "I'll send her back soon."

Ji-ho was led towards another section of the restaurant and when she saw who was sitting at the table where Aera was headed, the young woman felt her legs turn to lead.

Cha Seung-ho?! She was internally screeching. Cha Seung-ho?! No wonder Aera looked a bit familiar to her. She was related to none other than the esteemed prince of the silver screen.

"Grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, brother, meet the person who saved my life," Aera directly introduced her to them. "Sun Young-mi."

The classy and elegant looking mother of the prince smiled at Sun Young-mi but she appeared confused. They all did.

"I was choking on a peanut, mother. I was dying in the washroom!"

Aera's family members all shared looks of shock and concern.

"Aera dear, please sit down," their grandfather told her. "And miss Sun, do join us for dinner. Explain what has happened."

"I really shouldn't-" Ji-ho said to the grandparents but she was manoeuvred by Aera into the seat beside Seung-ho.

Oh my god, she was thinking. What is happening?! Ji-ho had thought Seung-ho to be handsome on-screen but it was incomparable to the reality. He was ridiculously good looking and her mouth was going dry from breathing the same air that he was. When she looked at him, her eyes met his, and she was star struck. My god... She repeated in her head like a broken record player.

"Aera, what happened?" their mother asked.

"My dish has peanuts in them, mom. I inhaled one and it went down the wrong pipe."

"So you ran to the bathroom without telling any of us?" Her father said with mild chastisement in his tone. "That was a foolish thing to do, Aera."

"I know. Young-mi has already made that clear to me, dad."

Aera's mother turned her attention to Ji-ho, the concern on her face melting off into a kind smile. "Miss Young-mi, it seems we owe you a life debt."

Ji-ho would have fallen off her chair if she wasn't so practised at functioning under stressful situations. "It's nothing," she calmly replied, sounding humble, reluctant of being praised. "Aera was very cooperative and she did great getting the foreign matter out of her windpipe."

The young lady was happy to be praised by Sun Young-mi. She beamed at her and then looked at her brother whose gaze was on her saviour.

"How did you know she was choking, dear?" The grandmother asked. "Even we were unaware of it since Aera ran off without a word."

"I just guessed from the way she held her hand to her neck, and well, she looked distressed. I could have been wrong about it but decided that it was worth looking into because if I was right, her life was potentially in danger."

Everyone at the table realised how fortunate they had been tonight. If Sun Young-mi wasn't at the restaurant then they could have lost their Aera to an unlucky peanut. What they didn't know was that the peanut had gotten lodged in Aera's throat because she had been so excited about seeing Young-mi.

"But how did you get the peanut out?" The grandmother asked.

"There's a technique called the Heimlich manoeuvre. I did that for Aera and it helped." It wasn't as big of a deal for Ji-ho who was dying from the amount of attention that the family was giving her. She blushed just a little bit and awkwardly smiled at her grateful audience. Luckily for her, Tae-Hyun had arrived right on time.

"Good evening," his pleasant voice greeted the distinguished family that was holding Ji-ho hostage.

"Tae oppa, I figured you wouldn't have the patience to wait for Young-mi. Why don't you sit with us?" Aera told him.

"We don't want to disrupt your family dinner," Tae-Hyun politely answered.

"Please join us, dear. You're not disrupting anything."

The producer couldn't refuse the genial grandmother. A waiter brought them an extra chair and he found himself seated between Aera and Seung-ho.