Griffin's Salvation

Chapter 10:Kian

Ju-ri said the dress code was casual, I had asked how they usually dressed to those reunions. I picked my most flattering pair of jeans I had in twos for every color and a fitted turtle-neck sweatshirt. I grabbed my coat when she was ready and flashed in her bedroom. Ju-ri's parents' place in Zermat was heavily warded so I couldn't go follow her there on my own, my magic had gotten stronger over the years but not that strong still.

Her parents had chosen to build their palace home on the foothills of four mountains arranged in a semicircle around their property. It was cold as f**k, the cold air was seeping through my puffy coat. That was the warmest coat I had and I might as well have not worn anything, for all the good it did me. The house was stunning, especially with the backdrop of a snowy mountain range. The house was made with yellow brick, it was a mixture of multiple styles of architecture that blended together to make the most stunning antique-modernist palace. The front door opened the moment our feet touched the steps, I hoped the face with the dead eyes did not belong to anyone in Ju-ri’s family, the man looked like the stereotypical butler in most English movies, I was relieved when he crisply greeted us and told Ju-ri that her family was gathered in the fairy ballroom. I waited until we were out of earshot before grabbing her hand.

-is there more than one ballroom in this house?

-Yes, the fairy one is the largest so I guess everyone was able to make it this time

-You said you had six siblings, are we meeting more than eight people today?

-Yes, I thought you knew that!

-How many Julie

-you only call me Julie when you’re mad!

-I’m not mad I’m nervous, how many?

-Five hundred give or take a hundred.

-Julie!

-What? Three thousand years Kian, Jun, and Songi the two brothers that came after me found their mates when they were two hundred years old, they’ve been popping babies for millennia with absolutely no chill, they’re twins by the way. They have ten times removed great-grandchildren older than their kids!

-Wow.

-So let’s just go in there and see what happens, everyone is anxious to see you.

-Fine. I didn’t let go of her hand the thought of meeting so many people gathered around just because they knew I was going to be there was daunting.

The noise inside the room stopped when we reached the door, I heard someone snickering and a few held their breath. Ju-ri shoved the door open, and sure enough, every eye was turned to us. It was comical so I smiled.

-this must be how celebrities feel, I feel like I should do a cartwheel or something to justify this level of attention.

The room erupted in laughter and a couple dressed conservatively emerged from the crowd. They didn’t look older than thirty, but they had this look about them like they’d seen things.

-hello Kian, we're Ha-eun and Nam-sun, Ju-ri’s parents

-Nice to meet you, I bowed appropriately using the correct polite suffix when I addressed them. They smiled pleased with my attempt at staying true to their culture even though the extent of my knowledge was limited to what I could gather from K-dramas and Ju-ri’s mind. One would have thought she would think about it often but it was so ingrained that most of it came to her naturally.

Next came Jun and Songi with their mate they introduced themselves and waved lazily behind them with the word kids.

-you can call me hyeong kiddo. Jun said one corner of his mouth tilted in an evil grin, he was testing me. Hyeong was a term used for addressing men older than you were.

-Sure, but if we go that route I’m maehyeong not kiddo old man.

-You did your homework.

-I’ve had eleven years to get some of this right

-Does this mean you’re okay with us calling you grandpa? I’m Somin one of Grandpa Songi’s multitude of great-grandchildren

-Sure you can, I’ve always dreamed of being an however how many times removed grandpa at twenty.

-It’s nice to meet you Grandpa Kian

-It’s nice to meet you too kiddo. The room erupted in another round of laughter, Somin, I found out later was four hundred years old

We did a turn around the room meeting everyone, I tried to remember as many of the names as possible. I remember all of Ju-ri’s siblings' names and their significant others. The rest though... it's difficult to remember five hundred names in the span of hours, though I did give it my best effort. We were in the middle of the most delicious dinner when Nam-sun, Ju-ri’s father tapped his glass with a fork to gather everyone’s attention, I guess in a room filled with inhuman creatures one didn’t have to yell.

-while we are very happy to have met Kian, the man whose existence saved our daughter’s life, thank the fates! he said glancing at Ju-ri with contained tears in his eyes. The other reason we called you here is to announce…

-Father! Jung-Han groaned he was Ju-ri’s youngest bother. Please tell us you haven’t knocked Mom up again!

-Why yes, I did! Your mother and I are in love and sometimes we get the urge to bring more life into this world even if said life always turns into ungrateful little shits that interrupt my very rehearsed and thought-out speech, in my own damn house!

-Aren’t you tired? You have great-great-great-great-great grandchildren aren’t you tired already?

-We have an eternity together and we’ll keep fornicating till the day we die!

-Hurgh! Jung-Han sighed throwing his hands up in defeat.

-So as I was saying your mother and I are expecting a new bundle of joy, it’s a girl this time.

His statement was followed by a round of congratulations mixed with clapping and for the rest of the meal the attention thankfully shifted away from me and I was able to relax more and get to know the people around me. Since I was coming into a Korean home, I’d thought the other races would have been a minority if present at all, they weren’t, granted it was mostly Korean but half of those were a mix of something. Nari and Seokjin were both mated interracially, Nari’s mate was an actual Viking and Seokjin’s was Egyptian. And a few black mates down the lineage of every one of Ju-ri’s siblings. That had served to relax my nerves some when we entered the room cause I thought I would stick out like a sore thumb but I was in good company and everyone spoke English so no language barrier. We stayed there mingling until midnight and I got called Grandpa a few more times. Most of them just called me hyeong even though I was the youngest one there. The youngest person on their side was eighty-one years old. I was having so much fun at the pregnancy/gender reveal informal party Ju-ri’s family threw, I was actually sad when we left.

She got us to my dorm room, she had taken the habit of leaving a few things in my room so there was no need for us to swing by her place first. We went through our nighttime routine and settled in for sleep. We drifted off pretty quickly, all that socializing must have tired us out.