Chapter 2

"I'm not ready to leave you now," Young Hee, my brother's girlfriend whined, ok screeched to him from the passenger's seat of the car.

"I know, but we have to get home soon."

On hearing that, she flipped her long hair and turned around to face me sitting in the back seat. "Su Jin ah," she started in a saccharin sweet voice, "can Oppa drop you off first?"

I frowned. Up till about five to six months ago, even though Young Hee and I had practically attended the same schools since kindergarten, we'd barely spoken to each other because she had her gang of supposedly cute girls and I had my gang of very intelligent and cool friends. And as we all knew, in high school, never the two shall meet. However, since she'd started dating my brother, she never ceased to say hello to me in school, come over and talk to me at lunch and even invite me to hang out with her and her friends. It was like dating my brother had made her realize that she was my long lost sister and she wanted to make up for lost time. But the annoying thing was that even if she was kissing my ass for my brother's sake, couldn't she have at least looked up the word 'subtle' in the dictionary first? I looked away from her heavily mascaraed dark eyes and out of the window.

"What do you say?" she asked hopefully.

I shook my head. "Sorry," I lied.

"Come on, Su Jin, the sooner you get home, the sooner you can talk to Min Ki oppa, right?"

And if she and my brother had been a little patient earlier at school, I would have been able to see him for a bit after returning to class from the football field. But because of them, I had to head straight home. "And what am I supposed to say when my father asks me why I came home alone?

She smiled sweetly. "I'm sure you can make something up."

I shook my head. "Sorry, but I don't lie to my parents." I quickly spun my face away so she wouldn't see me stick my tongue out.



***



"How was school?" my father asked shortly after I walked into the living room. Even though he'd been home for almost three weeks, it still felt strange seeing him sitting on the couch watching television. My brother ran past me and up the stairs.

I shrugged as I walked past him and into the kitchen. Leaving school had sucked but I knew it was the last thing he wanted to hear. He'd decided that we were moving away and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. It didn't matter to him that he was pulling us out of school and taking my mother away from the career she'd built with almost no help from him. All he cared about was that he was the head of the house and what he said went.

"Did you hear what I just said?" my father barked just as I was about to reach for the fridge handle.

I dropped my hand down. "Yes, Abonim," I replied without looking at him.

"Then why didn't you answer me? If I ask you a question, I expect a response."

I sighed. Wasn't the shrug enough? "School was fine." When he didn't say anything else, I opened the fridge and reached for the blue jug.

I glanced at him as I filled my glass with water. Apparently, I took after him because we were both short and thin but I definitely didn't have his attitude. I opened the cupboard and looked for a snack but as usual, all we had were peanuts.

As I opened the car, I glanced at the living room and wondered why I hadn't been born to a different man. For all sixteen years of my life, if I were to add up all the time I'd spent with him, I doubted it would even come up to a year.

My father was a diplomat who'd worked at different consulates and embassies all across the world and even though I was proud that he was representing Korea abroad, it didn't change the fact that I barely really knew him. No, scratch that. We barely knew him.

Of course, his job afforded us the chance to visit places like Pretoria and Vienna but even when we visited him over the holidays, most of the time was spent sightseeing while he was away at work which worked for us because outside of greetings and discussions of school, my brother and I didn't have much to say to him. I was well aware that our relationship never really scratched the surface because whenever it was time for us to 'get real' and past the grace period of constant niceness and politeness, it was usually either time for him to return to whatever country he worked in or for us to return home.

It was certainly not a perfect relationship but I was used to it and pretty fine with keeping it that way but no, as soon as he got posted to Washington D.C., he decided he was sick and tired of living away from his family and suddenly wanted us to be closer.

And if that wasn't bad enough, because he'd taken time off to help with the relocation, he was home all the time and for some reason, or maybe it was the loneliness messing with his brain, whatever it was, he now felt the need to play the strict disciplinarian. My mother scolding me felt natural because it was part of who and what she was but from him, it was almost like a stranger had barged into our house, held us captive and started giving us orders. It neither felt good nor normal and it only angered me that now that we were moving with him, it would become permanent. Wasn't getting older all about gaining freedom and getting to do what you wanted? Why was it the opposite for us? I'd already planned to fill all my afternoons in America with classes like basket weaving and quilt making just so that I'd have a good excuse to spend less time at home.

I readjusted my bag on my back, picked up my almost full glass of water and headed towards my room.

"Are you coming back to watch some television?" my father asked.

"No. I have home…" I started to say, using my standard excuse of the previous weeks. Just to show how little he really cared, he didn't even seem to find it weird that I had homework despite having finished my exams but since he didn't ask, I kept saying it. But now that school was over.... "There's a book I'm reading," I mumbled before I picked up my steps and climbed onto the stairs.


***


I'd only just shut the door behind me when my phone rang. I dropped my glass on the dresser and picked up my phone.

A smile crept onto my face as I plugged my ear piece into it and jumped on my bed.

"Guess who?"

"Hey," I purred into the phone.

"Are you home yet?" Min Ki asked in a deep baritone.

I giggled. I always loved it when he tried to be Barry White. "So what's going on?"

"Nothing. Did you get your report card?"

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Yeah. Didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. How are your grades?"

"Good enough." I gave him a detailed report. I was pretty pleased with them since I didn't end the year with any Cs. "You?"

"The usual," he said, which I assumed meant he'd done well enough. "So what are you doing this evening?"

I sighed. "Staring at the wall and hoping my father disappears. Are you going to see the new Superman movie tonight?"

As a way to commemorate the end of the school year, a bunch of kids from school were going to see the movie together and I was sure that it was going to end up in a party that was so good, I'd hate hearing about it.

"I thought we agreed that it'd be okay for me to go."

"I know," I said, sulking. "It just sucks that I can't go with you guys– especially since my mother already said it would be okay." I growled. "That man really pisses me off! And with the way he grills me every time I want to step out of the house, I doubt I'll be able to see you much before we leave." My heart started to hurt as the words escaped my lips. "I HATE MY LIFE!!!!"

I'd expected my boyfriend to at least try to console me by saying some sweet words but instead, he laughed.

"What's so funny?" Insensitivity was okay sometimes but certainly, this wasn't one of them!

"You," he said simply.

"What's funny about me? Are you happy that you don't have to see me again?"

"Hey, stop staying sh.it like that, okay? And don't worry about your dad."

"Whatever."

"I'm serious! We're going to spend so much time together that you'll be sick of me by the time you leave."

"Sure."

"I'm serious."

And from his tone, I could tell that he was. "Oppa." I paused for a few moments as my heartbeats picked up pace. "What are you talking about? I already told you that I can't tell my father about us." As far as that man was concerned, I was to 'face my books' till I graduated from college so if he knew anything Min Ki, there was no way I wouldn't end up at the mortuary.

He chuckled. "I know. That's not what this is about - I'll tell you all about it when I see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, tomorrow."