Just as MinSeo had predicted, the next couple of days went by pretty easily. I can say I learnt at a pretty decent pace, so all the usual matters around the kitchen, the counters, etc., were no longer such a problem for me. I still had to learn every name and term in Korean so a problem such as the one I had the previous day wouldn’t repeat itself. Mr Park hadn’t mentioned the incident again; in fact, he would always act very encouraging towards me, which was obviously a good sign. Life seemed to be moving on nicely and I was quite satisfied with it, except for the relationship with my grandparents.

That weekend I was able to hop on a train and visit them in their house, which was in a smallish town two hours away from Seoul. They both came to pick me up at the station, which was actually the best case scenario, as I had never been there on my own and I would have probably end up lost. As it was expected, Grandpa was happy to see me and seemed very excited about it. He offered himself to carry my bag, despite the fact it wasn’t heavy at all, as it only contained a couple pieces of clothing and the toiletries I needed to spend the night. Grandma instead, just greeted me with a quick hug and remained silent the whole way to their home while I answered Grandpa’s questions as well as I could, in the complicated mixture of Korean and English we used to communicate with each other.

When we reached the nice two floors house at the suburbs of the town they lived in, my grandfather took me and my bag to the room I occupied the two or three times I had visited with my mom when I was a kid.

“I think you will be comfortable here. It’s quite the same room you may remember, but last summer I painted the walls yellow because you always wanted everything yellow when you were little. Your grandmother got a bit mad at me at the time, don’t really know why…”

“It’s great, Grandpa, I still like yellow and I love it on the walls,” I answered with a smile.

“The bed, we haven’t really changed it since you two stopped coming here. You’ve grown a lot; I hope you can still fit properly.” He looked apologetic saying this.

“Don’t worry, Pa, I’m only going to be here for a night and I’m sure I will be as comfortable as always here.” I hugged him gratefully.

“Okay, I will leave you here to unpack and shower if you want. We are going to be having dinner in the garden today; it’s a very fine evening.”

I did just as he told me to and took a short shower in the bathroom next to my room. Reality is, I only had a few memories of this house and it looked much bigger and brighter in my head, but the little details in yellow my grandfather had managed to scatter around the house in the years after I stopped coming here (the walls in the room, the towels, the shower curtains) actually made my day. Living so far from each other and not being tremendously wealthy had made my relationship with my grandparents much distant than we would have liked it to. I only remember being in this house three times, the first one when my father was still alive and everything seemed to be okay in the world, the second time when me and my mom came here from the USA to have my father buried in his home town and the last time, a couple years later, when my grandmother and mother finally had the big fight that made everything come to an end. My grandmother had never been a specially cheery or loving woman, at least to my knowledge, but I could see my dad’s face in hers when she smiles. Sadly, she didn’t seem to smile much since my father died.

“So, Grace,” finally my grandmother spoke when she was finishing dinner and my grandpa and I just waited in the kitchen. “Apart from all the happy-go-lucky stuff you’ve been telling your grandfather, what else there is to know?”

“Well, not much else. I am trying to learn more Korean and I’m starting to feel at ease at my job…”

“Yes, but I believe that’s not exactly what you dreamt about, is it?” As I didn’t answer, she directly asked. “Are you still determined to do that modelling thing of yours? Have you actually started looking for any of that?”

“Well, yes, I’m still determined and I’ve been looking for it. I just haven’t been lucky enough to find anything yet, that’s why I wanted to get some other job.”

“And you are not going to be. I told you this when we first talked about it when you moved here on your own. You look just like your mother, which may be very beautiful in America or wherever, but not here.” This was not the first time she told me all this, so I just endured. “Do you think us two are going to live forever? Because we’re not. And what are you going to do then? We are still paying half of your rent every month.”

“YeSeo, don’t say such things. We’re still very young…” Grandpa tried to get her to calm down.

“So was your only kid when he died,” retorted her leaving Grandpa staring at the floor.

“Listen, I am really sorry and so grateful for everything you’re doing after mom passed away. You’ve taken me in in a country which isn’t mine and have made things easier for me to find a life of my own. I’m really trying to get by and do the best I can. I have found this job, which is not much, but I have to gain experience somewhere.” She was still staring at me furiously. “I’m still trying to find a job as a model. I was able to get some at home and that’s how it’s going to be here as well.”

“You’ll never amount to anything that way,” Grandma said leaning back into the counter and crossing her arms. “You Americans always think the world is at your feet just because your passport says you’re from your country.”

I sighed deeply before saying:

“Okay, what do you suggest me to do then?”

“Try to use the fact that you’re part Korean to your advantage. Find a good guy and marry him. Go on working if that’s what you want, but let him be the one to support for you. That’s the way it’s always been done and it’s that way for a reason.”

“We’re not in the 50s anymore, Grandmother. I won’t be marrying anyone for their money, and I do not intend for anyone to provide for me.”

“That’s what your mother used to say, and she took our kid away from us and had you without even being married.”

“Mom raised me as well as she could. She lost dad very soon and was left alone with a eight year old child.” Grandmother was not one to support my parent’s relationship, but she had never been so vocal about it, at least to my knowledge. “And I don’t really want to go on talking about this. I just need some more time to make things work and as soon as I get there, I’ll give back to you everything you’ve given me.”

I then took the plates and silverware to prepare the table for dinner and went out of the room. Dinner was very awkward, as my Grandma and I didn’t even look at each other and all there was to listen to was my grandfather playfully chatting about his plant’s gardening work and what was new on TV.

The next day, she didn’t want to come with us to the station, so Grandpa drove me there on his own.

“Listen, I know your grandmother can be a bit too intense sometimes when she is convinced about something, but try to understand. It was really hard for her to lose our son that soon. Besides, the only thing that could remind her a bit about him is you, and she hasn’t seen you for years. She loves you and wants you to have the best life possible because she knows everything’s been already hard for you,” he explained. “But I think you remind her too much of your mother, rather than your father,” he chuckled.

“How’s that?”

“You’re stubborn. You have a mind of your own. You look exactly like her when your parents met. She’s trying, but it is just too much at times.”

“I can understand that, but she has to understand as well. I came to live here because you two were the only family left to me, but I’m not a kid anymore,” I sighed. “I should have some freedom to make choices of my own.”

“And commit mistakes, if necessary. I know all that, she knows and you know too. Just be careful. But know that if you ever need any kind of help, we will be at your disposal in any moment.” He hugged me tightly for a moment and kissed my forehead. “Now go, you can’t miss the train.”

“Thank you very much for taking me and for the talk, Pa.”

“I know. I love you. Now, leave,” he said waving at me.

I hopped on the train and spent part of the trip thinking whether I had been too hard on my grandmother, but I couldn’t spend a lot of time on that matter, as I fell asleep just when I got used to the vibration of the train. As Grandpa was probably thinking when he mentioned it, my legs had been hanging out of my childhood bed all night long.

******

When I came into the shop on Monday morning, MinSeo was already there and waiting for me in the kitchen, where every worker would come in the morning to take their aprons to wear.

“Hey,” she greeted. “How was the weekend with the family?”

“It was nice,” I simply answered. I had virtually just met this girl; I thought she was nice and we had potential to become good friends, but I could really not tell her all my life story right in the first week of meeting her, right?

“You were missed around here on Saturday afternoon,” she said with a cheeky smile.

“Why is that?”

“Well, I don’t really like to be in the bubble counter whenever you’re not working,” she started, still wearing the same smile. “But that’s not the point. Your least favourite customer was here. And he asked me about you.”

Of course, my mind directly darted to that Sehun guy who was giving me problems last week, but I decided to play fool.

“Who?”

“Sehun, of course! Who else would it be? Have you had quarrels with other customers already?” she questioned, blowing her fringe off her face in annoyance.

“Okay, okay, I haven’t.” I raised my hand in an attempt to defend myself. “But it was a legit question. Why would he even ask about me? We didn’t make a particularly good start.”

“Don’t know. He just asked where you were and mentioned you had quite a temper, which I agree on. I think he just wanted to check you’re still working here,” she said with a pensive look on her face. “Did you look him up? Like, on the Internet and stuff?”

“Yup, I made all my investigations. And then I the TV and he was there. And then I opened a magazine and he was there as well. Probably if I went out right now and looked attentively at the billboards I could see his face as well. Maybe I’d look up in the sky and see his name written between the clouds too. Those guys are everywhere.”

“Well, they are really really famous here,” she said after laughing at my exaggeration. “I was surprised when you told me you’d never seen or heard about him. So, do you have any opinion at all about them?”

“As a first impression, their music is not really my style. But it’s clear to see that they all in general have a way with dancing, especially him. The kid’s got moves. He doesn’t seem to sing much, though? But there are so many people…” With the mention of her boyfriend the other day, I supposed she would be much more knowledgeable in that matter than myself.

“Well, he doesn’t have the greatest voice in the group. He’s one of the main dancers and he sometimes raps as well,” she explained. “But there’s something else that makes him kind of attractive, don’t you think?”

“Dunno. He just seems quite moody to me all the time,” I shrugged.

“Talking of the devil…” she said casting a glance through the glass and smirking. “Looks like there are customers waiting for you.” She took the apron I was holding in my hands and tied it around my waist as she pushed me towards the door. She opened the door and with one last shove she said “good luck,” then went back to the kitchen closing the door behind her.

After the initial shock, I fixed my clothes and turned around to walk up to the counter, and of course, there he was, wearing the same coat but a different pair of equally expensive looking sunglasses.

“Good morning,” I greeted in Korean. “How can I help you?”

“I see you’re back here again…”

“Well, I work here,” I simply answered. “So, is it going to be your usual order?”

“No, just coffee and one of those bagels of that counter over there,” he said pointing at the further side of the room at the pastries desk that was attended by one of my co-workers.

“My place of work is here at the bubble tea and fruit counter, I think you should head over there and ask that other waitress if that’s what you want today.”

“I’m aware.” He lifted his sunglasses and placed them at the top of his head. “But I want you to be the one serving me, if you don’t mind.”

Remembering Mr Park’s advice, I just breathed in and went to turn the coffee maker on and grab his bagel.

“Will you be taking these here or are they take away?”

“Take away, sadly,” he said pouting. When had we gotten to that phase? “It’s an early morning and I have rehearsal, so I’ve got to leave soon.”

“Well, it’s 8:30 already.”

“And so?” he asked mockingly.

“It’s not that early.”

“That depends on the time you’ve gone to bed, don’t you think?”

I shrugged it off as I wrote his name in the plastic cup in the finest calligraphy I could manage.

“Nice,” he said looking at his name when I handed the cup to him. “What about yours?” he asked placing a bill on the top of the counter.

“Mine? Mine what?”

“Your name, dummy.” We had barely spoken and he was already teasing me. Too full of himself.

“Jeong,” I answered as I handed him the change.

“Jeong? Your name is Jeong? You don’t look like a Jeong,” he went on, ignoring my laid out hand.

“My first name is Grace. But you can just call me Jeong by now,” I told him, moving my hand up and down in an attempt for him to notice it.

“Just keep it.” He stared at me as he took a sip of his cup. “Okay, Grace, I’ll be seeing you around then.”

I made my best effort to hide my rolling eyes by bowing a little, but I don’t really think I managed to do so.