Chapter 23
As Channing, Minjae, and I ate dinner with the children that Thursday night, I found my thoughts wandering toward the picture Kent had offered me.
All the Korean families in East End together in his house floated in my mind’s eye.
His party was the next night. I had not imagined I’d still be in town, but since I was, why couldn’t I go?
The crisis between Channing and Minjae seemed to be over.
I could relax. Though I suspected that Kent was still preoccupied with my cousin enough to say she could come earlier with the children and though I couldn’t dismiss his attempt at covering up his eagerness for her attendance with his weird laughter, this was not a private dinner he was offering as he had in the past. He was inviting the whole Korean community and some major leaders who weren’t necessarily Korean.
I’d get to see Paul and Ames and maybe even Alice and Jesse and their baby again. Harabeoji could be with his friends.
I waited for a chance to ask Channing about Kent’s party. Even if she decided not to go, I could bring the children. I knew Kent would not be as happy as he’d be if Channing showed up. Still, I’d tell him I tried.
It didn’t occur to me that he hadn’t invited me specifically. He’d requested that I ask Channing to attend. I’d overlooked that fact. I guess I heard what I wanted to hear. I wanted to be part of this large gathering, the kind Channing’s parents had hosted before my aunt had died.
I looked for a private moment to talk with my cousin. Even when we settled ourselves in the living room where Minjae had been challenged to a video game by Edison, Channing sat beside him. I curled up in an armchair near her.
“Harabeoji has such a community here,” I began as the children shouted at the action on the screen. “He hasn’t made the same kind of friends in Boston.”
“He loves East End,” Channing said.
I continued, “I didn’t think we’d be here nearly a whole week.” She reached out and patted my leg, giving me a grateful smile. “I’m so glad you stayed this long.”
“Of course.” I paused and then went ahead. “So you know how Harabeoji and I were going to leave tomorrow but I ran into Kent recently, and he said he’s throwing a housewarming tomorrow night.”
Channing withdrew her hand and looked crestfallen. Immediately, I regretted bringing up Kent’s party.
Minjae put his arm around her and said to me, “Yeah, I heard about it. It’s really good timing for me. I’m planning to go. Way to keep up my contacts so I can come back.” Then he kissed Channing on the lips.
Austin scooted away from them, saying, “Eeew.”
“Hey, your turn,” Edison told his brother and motioned to the screen.
“You mean after your contract is up in a few months?” I asked Minjae as his attention diverted to the game.
He looked confused at my words and lifted his eyebrows at Channing.
“I’m going to tell her, I promise,” she said to him. “Let me tell her later.”
“Tell us what?” Austin asked, saying exactly what came to my mind in that moment.
Minjae pointed to the large screen in front of us. “Watch out!” he warned as his avatar swerved into Austin’s.
I told Channing later that she didn’t have to worry about Kent.
She hardly seemed concerned and helped me take my clothes out of the dryer.
“You should wash the kids’ stuff now,” I told her, and she said she’d do it in the morning, that the machines were surprisingly loud and would wake the children.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, scrutinizing the ceiling of the laundry room.
It was adjacent to the boys’ bedrooms, so the noise might have woken them, she was correct.
Otherwise, I didn’t know what there was to notice.
With the AC at such a low temperature, there wasn’t a single mosquito.
She shook her head as if talking to herself.
“I’ve done a thorough sweep of the place, but sometimes it feels like Kent knows things he shouldn’t know. ” Her voice was low.
“You mean like he’s bugged the house?” I replied in my normal speaking voice.
She raised her fingers to her lips. “I haven’t found anything, but, yeah, it just seems that way to me.”
I carried the basket with my clean clothes out to the hallway, and we walked to Mrs. Ahn’s study.
In a quieter tone, I said, “I know you don’t like Kent, but now you just sound paranoid.
Really. You said it yourself and Harabeoji said it, too; Kent knows everyone, that’s why he’s everywhere.
Listen, at his party, we can just say hi and leave. We don’t have to stay.”
She stood in the doorway and waited until I’d put my clothes away.
Then she waved me toward her, and I followed her down the stairs.
In the kitchen she turned on an episode of Chunhyang, raising the volume just enough so that it couldn’t be heard from upstairs.
After a meticulous inspection of a small room off the kitchen, she invited me in and closed the door.
I didn’t believe Kent had bugged the house, but it was clear she didn’t feel comfortable talking unless she felt safe.
“Minjae wanted to end the engagement in person when he goes to Seoul next month. There’s a slowdown then, and he’d already told the team he’ll be gone for a couple of weeks. It’s Chuseok so they understood.
“I wanted him to tell her sooner because that just seemed so long, and after I’m done here, I want him to visit me in Boston and—anyway, I told him I couldn’t see him until he told her.”
“His fiancée?” I asked.
She nodded, wincing at the word. “But then this thing happened with his job.” She moved her bangs off her forehead. The room we were in was chillier than I expected, and the air around us was damp.
“That’s what your fight was about?” I asked.
She nodded again. “So Minjae thought about it and called her. And then her mother called his mother, and it was a rough night for him.”
I didn’t have patience for this. “He’s thirty-one years old, so what’s the big deal?” I said.
She nodded slowly, as if her head weighed a thousand pounds. “I get it, it’s just him and his mom.”
“So what’s up with his job?” I said.
“That’s the thing. They suddenly fired him without giving him a reason, and they’ve revoked his work visa.
He’d normally have some time to get another company to sponsor him, but no one will return his calls or emails.
” She ran her hands through her hair. I turned the doorknob.
I hated this room. Like a prison, it didn’t have a window, and my claustrophobia was increasing.
“Minjae will get a job. Or not. Maybe he can get one in Boston near you. You’re not here for much longer. Now that his fiancée thing is straightened out, you two can be together in Boston. How much time does he have to get another job?”
She shook her head in misery. “Normally it’s sixty days, but in this political climate who knows. He could be deported any time. Technically, he’s now here illegally.”
Legal matters scared me. There was no reason to take such risks. “Harabeoji or Mr. Yun will know of another company he can work for that will sponsor him so he can stay here, right? And Kent’s party. He can ask people there. Minjae said that tonight, that’s what he meant?”
“Yeah, he thinks so.” She sniffed as if to stifle tears.
“Let’s back up those episodes we’re missing. And—” I opened the door and felt a wave of relief at the bright lights of the kitchen, even the music and dialogue coming from the laptop with the K-drama playing on it. “You don’t have to go to Kent’s party. I can bring the boys.”
“Wait, Dahee, there’s one more thing, come back, close the door for one sec,” Channing said.
I didn’t want to, but she was insistent. I turned off the show and closed the laptop to delay going back to that room.
“If Minjae doesn’t get a job here, he wants me to go with him to Seoul,” my cousin said.
“Just like for a trip?” I asked.
“He wants me to meet his mom. I could get a job there. You know you can stay in Korea for up to a year without any paperwork?”
“Would you live with him?” I asked in confusion and then followed with a barrage of questions that she answered with “Minjae and I will figure it out.”
“But what about Harabeoji?” I couldn’t believe I even had to ask.
She looked down at her hands that she was twisting together. “I’ll fly back and forth.”
I offered to heat up water for tea. The Ahns kept the house air-conditioning on so high. It was freezing in here, too. Moving to places scared me. I’d done too much of it as a child. I wanted the familiar; I wanted to return to a time and place that was gone.
I couldn’t imagine her in Korea somehow. What was happening? Everyone I loved was leaving. My parents were in another country, and now Channing would be, too.
“You’re sure this is what you want?” I said, returning to the little room. I kept the door open.
“Definitely. We both suffered being apart, and it was only two days. It’s never going to happen again, we’re going to make sure of it,” she said.
I rubbed my shoulders. “Aren’t you cold?
” I said, and left her once more. Channing had been right about the trouble with the AC in the house.
I’d failed as she had to raise the thermostat.
I didn’t understand how it could be blowing into this unfinished nook of a room.
I checked the thermostat again on the wall of the kitchen.
It showed it was sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit.
To me, it felt like fifty. I raised the flame beneath the kettle before stepping into that little side room again.
It couldn’t heat up fast enough. How could Harabeoji and I look out for Channing if she were on the other side of the world?
What if Harabeoji and my uncle moved to Korea, too? I’d be left alone.
“Dahee, please understand,” Channing said. She touched my arm. Her hand was warm.
“Did you renew your passport?” I asked.
A couple of years ago, she’d told me her passport had expired.
It had come up in a conversation somehow.
She’d let it lapse when she lost one of her jobs, saying she had no need for it.
The fees were too high to keep it current.
Harabeoji wasn’t traveling to Korea anymore, and she couldn’t afford to go on any overseas trips.
She said it was a waste of money to spend it on her passport when she needed that money for bills.
My question startled her. Clearly, she hadn’t thought of her passport. “What can I do, Dahee?” she asked now, panicked.
I went right to work on my phone to see how to expedite her documents.
An internet search showed a renewal was shorter than a new application.
The government website cautioned that due to volume, the process could take as long as a month or more.
She couldn’t start the process until she had her expired passport in hand.
“I could drive to Boston and bring it back for you,” I offered.
“Minjae has to get a job until your passport is ready. Or worse case he’ll go to Korea and then you’ll follow.
A few months apart won’t hurt you if you love each other. ”