Page 103 of Show Off

About the same time Lana dumped me. It’s been a day of big news for the Yang brothers.

“An affair.” I can’t believe I’m just finding out. “You and my mother had an affair.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Korain says.

I blink as the other shoe drops. “Wait.” I look from my uncle to my brother. “You’re not saying—” All the blood leaves my brain. “Are you myfather?”

“Christ, no!” Korain looks offended. “We never had sex when we dated. Your mother and I weren’t intimate until six months before she and your father passed.”

“Great,” I say, throwing my hands in the air. “That makes it so much better.”

“Dal.” My brother frowns as our uncle buries his face in his hands.

“I felt so much shame, joka.” Korain’s voice comes out muffled through his fingers. “But a woman has needs. And as my twin brother, your father agreed it made sense that I?—”

“Wait, hold on.” I shake my head a few times to be sure I’m not dreaming. That this isn’t some fucked up nightmare. “My fatherknew?”

“Marriages are complicated.” My uncle peels his hands off his face and looks at me. “Lifeis complicated. Who are we to judge the way someone conducts theirs?”

Jesus.

I look to Ji-Hoon for answers, but he sits there, stoically, like he knows where our uncle’s going with his story. At least one of us does.

“My father gave his blessing.” I still can’t wrap my head around this.

“Yes, joka.” He folds his hands on the table. “An arrangement we reached together—your mother, your father, and me.”

This is completely fucked up. “And Dad didn’t tell you anything about the Parkinson’s. Just—‘hey, my dick’s not working, please service my wife.’”

My uncle regards me like I’ve spit on the floor. “Don’t denigrate your parents’ memory. We were all adults, Dal. We came to a mutual agreement.” He lets out a long, slow breath. “Maybe I should have asked more questions. About the medical cause behind the need? Maybe if I had?—”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Ji-Hoon puts his hand on our uncle’s arm. “I think it’s clear, Dad didn’t want anyone to know.”

No kidding.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I turn back to Korain. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you don’t wish to know this information, correct? It’s uncomfortable, yes?”

“Damn right it is.” I stare at my uncle. He’s not making sense.

“Sometimes,” he says slowly, “people hold back the truth because it hurts more people than it helps.”

“I don’t—” This isn’t the point. “You’re saying you told me this now to hurt me?”

“No, joka.” The kindness in his eyes makes my chest ache. “I’m telling you now so youunderstand. There’s kindness sometimes in controlling a story. In waiting to share it at a time and a place where it does the least damage. Let me ask you something.”

“All right.” I’m too numb to argue at this point.

“If I’d shared this with you in the months, the years, right after your parents’ death, would that have been the right time?”

“Of course not.” Trynever. Never might’ve been the right time.

“What about the years we fought for your brother to walk again?” He nods at Ji-Hoon, who lifts a hand like we’re meeting for drinks. “Would the time have been right to tell you then?”

I see where he’s going with this. “It’s different with Lana. Her mother pressured her to keep the secret.”

“As a kindness to her siblings.” He holds up a hand when I start to argue. “And herself, I’m certain. I don’t doubt there’s some element of selfishness involved. Isn’t there always?”

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