Chapter 45
I didn’t intend to take a year off from my teaching job, but here I was now still in East End well into the school year.
The teacher they’d hired to replace me was working out well, and I was not needed.
My principal was apologetic and promised to offer me a position the following year, since a few teachers at the school were planning to retire or transfer.
After the initial lump of panic in my throat, I found myself excited.
Now I could travel with Channing and Minjae to South Korea.
We’d driven to Boston to retrieve her passport, and she’d been able to renew it faster than we expected after paying an expediting fee.
I went to New York to pack a change of clothes and get my passport, then returned to fly to Seoul from Boston with Channing, Minjae, and Paul.
Early November was a good time to visit.
Paul was going to join us for the first leg of the trip so I wouldn’t be alone with the lovebirds.
To say the flight was long would be an understatement, especially in coach.
Luckily the four of us sat together in the middle row, which meant we didn’t have a window to look out of, but at least we didn’t have to sit with strangers.
We got the first row in the cheap section so we could stretch out our legs.
Watching five and a half movies with Paul also helped.
First stop was Seoul. Minjae wanted Channing to meet his mother and his ex-fiancée.
We stayed in a high-rise hotel in Myeongdong that had the fanciest toilets I’d ever seen and a pair of parachutes under the window in case of fire.
No wonder I felt safe on the fourteenth floor.
Channing had read about the famous night market in that neighborhood—the reason we slept there instead of in Gangnam, where Minjae’s mother’s apartment was located and where he and Paul stayed.
It was fun to have time together, just me and Channing, wandering around the market and eating a variety of food without the boys after such a long flight.
The next morning, we woke early for a special buttery, thick breakfast toast made with bulgogi.
Then the boys came and walked us down the street to the biggest indoor food court I’d ever seen.
Minjae said his ex-fiancée wanted to meet Channing.
I thought we should meet his mother first, but schedules were hard to arrange.
Apparently, his mother was busy in the mornings.
The Lotte food court was twenty times the size of anything that Mai had wanted to build in East End, and I wished she’d come someday to see this.
All kinds of savory and sweet offerings in the displays around us as well as individual restaurants sectioned off.
While we waited for the ex-fiancée to arrive, we witnessed a cluster of teenagers run to a bakery case as fresh-baked squid-ink pastries hit the shelves.
After they left, I went over and bought one for us to taste.
Minjae warned it was heavy, so I bought only one.
He was right. It was a rich, mochi-textured small football of deliciousness with sweet nuts.
We had nearly finished it off when a short woman walked up to us timidly with another young woman in tow.
They were both dressed elegantly in beautiful pastel dresses with full faces of makeup.
Minjae introduced them as Eunsol and her younger sister Eunyoo.
“We’re so glad Minjae found you,” Eunsol said to Channing.
“I knew he wanted to live in the US, and I just couldn’t make myself go. ”
Eunyoo sat close to Paul and pouted at him. “But I want to go to the US,” she said.
“You can come visit,” he said to her.
“Do you think Minjae is with me because he wants to live in America?” Channing asked Eunsol. The tone of her voice was neutral. She was curious about this woman.
I knew she didn’t mean that he loved her because she was American, but I saw Minjae’s face flush as if he was worried Channing didn’t believe he loved her. I waited for a response from him or his ex.
Minjae said quickly to her, “Then I would have fallen in love with someone else—in Boston or in East End before you came back to town.”
“That sounds suspicious,” Channing and the ex said at the same time. They laughed, and I knew everything would be all right. A pair of women walked over just then, leaning over to touch Eunsol on the shoulder as they inspected us. They seemed curious, but then moved on.
“Minjae’s shyer than he lets on. I think he stayed with me because he was too shy to meet other girls,” Eunsol said.
I was surprised by her words. He didn’t seem shy to me at all.
“Minjae’s too nice sometimes for his own good. You have to make him be honest,” she continued, turning to Channing.
“I will,” Channing promised.
“I’m sad,” her sister said. “I wanted Minjae to be my brother-in-law.”
Eunsol made a fake frowny face at Eunyoo, who smiled back, then said to us, “I work upstairs in the store. I love it. Those two who came by work with me. I didn’t want them to sit with us.”
“Do you work here, too?” Channing asked Eunyoo.
“Me?” She looked grateful for the compliment. “I hope to someday. Right now I go to college still.”
Eunsol told her sister and Minjae to buy us some coffee. Then she lowered her voice. “Have you met Minjae’s mom yet?” Paul and I looked at each other. Channing held Eunsol’s gaze.
“What do you mean by that?” my cousin asked.
“She looks soft, but she’s really tough. Don’t be fooled. Stand your ground,” she said.
“I met her at graduation,” Paul said. “She was really sweet.”
“It’ll help that you’re with them,” the ex said to Paul. “You too,” she said to me. She continued, “I got engaged to Minjae in part because I was afraid she wouldn’t let me in her house unless we were official. She only wants the best for her son. She’s fiercely protective of him.”
I began to worry for my cousin.
After we said goodbye to the sisters, we bought some sweets from the food hall that Minjae said his mother liked to accompany a lilac-colored shawl in a soft cashmere that Channing had purchased in East End. We took the subway because it was faster than riding in a taxi during the day.
Minjae’s mother opened the door to the modest apartment right away and ushered us in, to my surprise.
There was nothing about her that was formidable at first. She handed us slippers, and we bowed to her and handed over the gifts.
Clearly, she loved Paul, and she fawned over her son.
Her short hair was out of place because she’d been out to lunch with her girlfriends and had rushed back.
Minjae’s ex’s words came back to me as she talked about how she’d never live in America.
“But I can’t leave you here,” Minjae said.
She waved his concerns away. “That’s good. Why should my life change? You’ve been studying and working in the States for years. Come visit often, okay?”
“It’s only for now. We’ll live in a lot of places,” Channing said, and squeezed Minjae’s arm. He seemed to cheer up at her words.
Besides a curious glance now and again, Minjae’s mother seemed more interested in making sure we had train tickets and hotel accommodations in Namwon than learning about her son’s love interest. I wondered about it, but Channing didn’t seem bothered.
“I get a good feeling from her,” she said to me when we were back in our hotel room.
The next day we’d meet the boys at the train station for the ride south to Namwon.
“She didn’t ask you any questions,” I said.
“I feel like she doesn’t want to scare me away,” she replied.
“She was trying really hard. Minjae told me that he was really upset when Kent forced him here weeks ago. She was worried about him. He thought he would never see me again; he had to if he was going to keep me safe. She kept him going. She loves her son.”
“He sounded scared to disappoint her and his fiancée before, why couldn’t he tell her over the phone about you, she seems perfectly reasonable.”
“Minjae needs to take care of people’s feelings, that’s who he is. I love that about him,” she replied.
I was glad the introductions were over. They had stressed me out. Now we could enjoy Korea. We had our plans laid. Tomorrow we’d be in Namwon, the land where Harabeoji, our fathers, and our ancestors had been born.
“And maybe we could go to Busan, too, afterward,” I suggested.
Channing nodded. “We have time. We just have to find the cheapest way to get there.”
We took the express train to Namwon. The news said it was unseasonably warm for November.
More like September, weather forecasters said.
It was a quiet and smooth ride, and everyone seemed more relaxed.
Minjae and Paul joked around. I liked that Minjae and Paul sat behind us and Channing and I sat together.
I kept thinking how now that she was with Minjae, I’d see less and less of my cousin.
In the past, her relationships hadn’t kept her from meeting me and Harabeoji and her dad every few weeks, but now that Minjae’s mother said she would not move from Seoul, I began to worry that Minjae would want to live in Korea permanently, and Channing would yield to moving here.
I admired how quietly Minjae’s mother had asserted herself.
Someone was going to have to give up someone else, I was sure of it.
There’s so much to say about the beauty of this little town that our grandfather used to tell us about.
It wasn’t so little, first of all, but it felt that way.
We took a taxi to the hotel that offered traditional rooms, with bedding rolled up in a closet that you spread on the gleaming wood floor to sleep.
Here again, I was surprised to find that Channing and I would share a room and Paul and Minjae would share another.
It made sense because otherwise Paul and I would have separate rooms, and we’d spend more money all around.
Minjae and Channing were rather shy with each other, holding hands but otherwise not displaying how much they loved each other. We walked around the gardens of Gwanghallu, but the pavilion was cordoned off so we couldn’t enter it.
“This is the place my mother told me about,” Channing said.
“I wish she was here with us,” I said, looking out over the ponds and small colorful buildings scattered over the green land.
“Wait, listen,” she said. We were walking past a long wall of shrubbery, and the crickets that had been loudly chirping all around us suddenly stopped when we neared. And then when we passed, they resumed again.
I laughed. “It’s just like Harabeoji said.”
At sunset Paul asked me to follow him while Minjae led Channing to the Ojakgyo Bridge, a stone walkway that arched over a pond.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“One sec,” he said. And then he gestured with his chin in the direction of the bridge. “Okay, now you can look.” We had the perfect view.
I turned to see fireflies flitting in the air around the couple. They stood in the middle of the stone bridge, on the highest part. Then Minjae bent down on one knee. There can only be one reason for that posture.
Channing’s hands flew to her face. Minjae held open a ring box and Channing extended her hand and he slid a ring on her finger.
She pulled him up to her then, and they kissed in each other’s arms. I looked away.
It was their moment. With the fiery sunset in this place we’d dreamt of, my cousin Channing became officially engaged to her person.
Paul, on the other hand, was taking a video of the whole romantic moment. He nudged me. “Take some photos of them?” He reminded me of his grandfather at that moment. Was that a good thing? I wasn’t sure.
Channing and Minjae were walking off the bridge already, so I leaned over to get a good angle and lost my balance.
Together we fell to the ground, Paul on his back and me facing him as I held out my hands to stop myself.
He cushioned my landing, so I had nothing to complain about.
Before I could apologize, we had a moment when we looked into each other’s eyes up close.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” I said back. I felt a warmth rise from my stomach to my chest and rest there. Channing started laughing, and we joined her as we got to our feet.