“I love you, Binnie-yah!”

I chuckled, relishing the feel of the strong arms that rocked me as she said those words. My mother didn’t believe in scrimping when it comes to displays of affection. As children, my sister and I were often embarrassed by her exuberant praises and the numerous kisses she gave us even in the company of our friends or surrounded by complete strangers.

“Beautiful flowers don’t grow without sunlight. And my love for you and Sua is the sunlight.” She would always say. And then she would punctuate that with, “Oh. I do have the most beautiful children!” To which my sister and I would roll our eyes but be secretly pleased that she thought so highly of us.

And that hadn’t changed even as we grew into adults.

I tried unlatching her arms around my waist even as I murmured lovingly onto the full head of hair several inches below my face. “Eomma, I really should get going. I’m going to be late for my first day.”

“No. I don't want to.” She giggled stubbornly into my chest, clasping her child-like fingers behind me tighter. “You’ve only been back two days and now you’re going away again.”

“Geez.” I started swaying us around the driveway in a clumsy attempt at a waltz. “Most parents kick their children out of the house once they come of age.”

She looked up at me so I can gaze into the same brown eyes that I see on my face every time I peered into a mirror. At 63, her face was still unlined and retained that girl-like quality a lot of women her age would pay handsomely to get at the cosmetic surgeons. “Most parents don’t spend two years away from their first-born son either.”

“Oi! You two. Get a room!” My sister playfully called out while backing up her Range Rover from our driveway. “Oppa! Come on!”

“Eomma…I have to go.” I started pulling away from her, hitching my backpack higher up my shoulders.

Reluctantly she obliged, releasing me and then fussing with my clothes. She pulled the grey knit cap lower on my head and brushing off imaginary lint from the goose down coat she bought for me as a homecoming present. “I don’t care what those people at the company say. Eat when it’s time to eat and rest when you’re tired.”

I sighed. It was just easier to agree with her. “Yes, eomma. Now, I really have to go.” I crossed the driveway and got into the passenger side of Sua’s car.

Eomma sniffed dramatically. “My baby boy is leaving me again.”

“Yeobo.” My father’s stern voice rang out into the front yard. He was leaning against the main door, his head barely clearing the stoop. He was folding the newspaper that he had been reading at breakfast under his arm. “They’re going to be back for dinner. Now, come back inside and feed me.”

“There goes your other baby boy.” Sua called out. We both laughed when our mother stuck her tongue out at us. “See you later, ma!”

I rolled the window down and yelled. “Eomma! If you prepare samgyeupsal for dinner, I promise to get back home before dawn!” Laughing as she waved her fists at us.

I settled back into my seat as my sister turned left away from our street. I looked at her sideways feeling her eyes on my face.

“What?”

She shrugged. “I’m just glad you’re back, oppa. Mom and dad. Well, they wouldn’t say it but they worried a lot about you when you were gone. We all did.” She bounced in her seat, even as her head turned back on to the road. It was a nervous tick she acquired when we were both trainees – an indication that she was apprehensive of how I was going to react to what she just said.

I bowed my head. It still wasn’t easy for me to think about the reasons why I left Korea two years ago. The years away from home were not enough to allow me to forget what had happened, but at least the time away deadened much of the pain.

I shifted in my seat, brushing away the brown hair that fell on the right side of my sister’s face. “Well, I’m back and I’m fine. So there’s no need to get your fake nose wrinkled in worry.”

An angry fist landed on my chest just as I managed to flick playfully at the tip of her nose that was so much like mine.

“You, ! My nose is just like yours, idiot!”

I clutched at my chest. “You still hit like a girl.”

She turned in her seat, muttering angrily. “You wait until I get this car parked and then I’m going to kick your scrawny ! Don’t think that just because you’re older that I won’t wal