I quickly wiped my eyes and opened the gate. I rang the doorbell of the house below and waited for a response. A middle aged lady opened the door. I remembered her. She looked so different but so much like the same person I left five years ago. Ajhumma. I looked at her and watched as slowly she began to recognize me.

“Kari-ah?” She asked and I nodded grinning. She let out a gasp and grabbed me for a hug.

“How have you been? Come in. Come in.” she motioned for me to come in and then noticed Chanyeol-shi.

“Who is this?” she asked and looked at me.

“He’s my friend. He helped me find this place again and helped me out a lot today.” I said, realizing for the first time that I had only met him today. Being with him, I felt as if I had known him forever.

“Hello. My name is Chanyeol” he said bowing and she did the same. We took off our shoes and walked into the house. It wasn’t huge or spacious but it was comfortable. We sat down and she brought water for both of us. Then she sat down and began talking again.

“So tell me how you’ve been? It’s been so long. You should have contacted us. You never called and neither did your mother. Where is she? Is she still back in England?” She paused to drink water and waited for my response. I was quiet for a few minutes, thinking about my mom.

“We’ve been fine. It’s just been really tough. I always wanted to come back here and just stay but mom said that wasn’t possible. So we have been in England for all this time. I decided that I missed Korea so I packed my bags and came right over. How have you been? I missed both of you so much. Speaking of which, where is Hye Mi? I don’t see her around?” I looked around for Hye Mi. She was my vivacious friend who I spent all my time in Korea with. I remember going around the neighborhood with her laughing and joking around. She caused so much trouble.

“Hye Mi? She went to get some more cabbage. We are almost out of kimchi so we were going to make it tomorrow.” She said and looked towards the door. “I wonder what’s taking her so long. She should have been back by now. She probably stopped to buy something else.” She laughed and then looked at me again.

“Anyways, where are you staying? It doesn’t matter where you are staying because from today you’ll be staying with us. No doubt about it. We still have the rooftop house open. We didn’t rent it out after your mom and you left so just go back there. I think some of your stuff may still be in there.” She said and got up. She looked around a few drawers and finally pulled out a key.

“Here. Take this.” She said forcing the key into my hands. I got up and hugged her.

“Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me. Thank you.” I pulled away and just as I was about to sit down again, the door opened.

“Omma. Look what I got. Halmoni gave me sweet potatoes for half the price. I got a bunch for us. Look.” Hye Mi came bursting through the door with her hands full or bags. She dropped dead in her tracks and looked at me. She just stared for a good minute. Then she screamed,

“KARI-AH!!” and the bags slipped from her hands. Out of no where, Chanyeol-shi sprang up and caught them just before they hit the floor. I was amazed at how graceful he was. Hye Mi paid no attention and ran across the room. She grabbed me into a hug and screamed again, this time in my ear.

“KARI-AH! When did you come?” She broke off the hug and hit my arm.

“How could you stop calling me. You barely responded to any of my emails and never talked to me.” She said and pouted.

“I’m sorry. I just got really busy and it became really hard to find time to do anything really. But I’m here because I missed you and ajhumma and Korea. I’m here to stay. With you.” I said and grabbed her for another hug. After another few seconds of squealing she stopped and looked over at Chanyeol-shi. He was still holding the bags and looked at her, confused.

“Who is that?” She asked and walked over to him. She got up really close to his face and just looked.

“You seem familiar. Do I know you?” she asked as he backed away.

“That is Chanyeol-shi. I met him just today. He helped me out.”

“Chanyeol? Chanyeol? You mean EXO Chanyeol?” She asked, surprised. EXO? Who was EXO?

How is Kari going to react to finding out Chanyeol's true identity?