Chapter 15

•  •  •

Just as Yuri was about to put down her magazine and leave she heard the front door shut and the familiar sound of Yoona’s high heels filled the room. Kim and Chi immediately sprang up from their place on the couch and ran towards her, wagging their tails excitedly. Yoona greeted them gleefully. Yuri didn’t get up when Yoona came into the living room and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She walked on to the kitchen and Yuri heard the soft «click» of the refrigerator door and the tapping of Kim’s paws on the linoleum. Chi pushed his head on Yuri’s lap, pleading, but Yuri didn’t have any time for petting.

‘’You’re late again. Troubles?’’

Yoona and Kim came out of the kitchen and flopped onto the couch with a glass of water. She sighed heavily at Yuri’s comment.

‘’Not really. I think this will be one of the last. I’ll be glad when it’s over. The way they look at me!’’ she cried, waving her hands and making a face.

‘’As if I’m the spawn of the devil. They look down their noses like this,’’

Yoona said and lifted her chin ever so slightly, a proud look in her eyes and a very sour little mouth to show that they did, indeed, look at her like that. Yuri had to giggle at the impression despite herself.

‘’I’m sure Seunggi didn’t mind.’’ She said pointedly and shot Yoona a look at which the other girl rolled her eyes.

After being released from the hospital and recovering her health, there was The Situation (as Seunggi’s parents so delicately called it) to take care of. At first Yuri was surprised to hear that an engagement really had so much to take care of but it appeared that many steps had already been taken in accepting Yoona’s into the family. Ergo, her place at Princeton, their cosy home abroad which would be far to large (and expensive, although that wasn’t the problem) for a bachelor to live in. there had been plans for a wedding even, talk of a way to give Yoona’s music some more fame, give this decent but rather dull girl a reputation the family could be proud of. Undoing all this presented itself to be quite a hassle and it was almost enough to make you feel sorry for them, if you are inclined to feeling sorry for wealthy multi-millionaire families with  more power than Yuri could even begin to imagine.

The best reason that they’d managed to come up with for the break-up was simply falling out of love. It was a feeble one but it was the most realistic one and true at least in Yoona’s case. The actual reason was never to see the light of day of course but Yoona failed to grasp why Seunggi didn’t just tell his parents the truth after being so horrid to him. Yuri, being the less daft one, did know. The guy still left her text messages nearly every day. Mysterious bouquets of flowers showed up at her doorstep. Whenever they bumped into each other in the city (which was strangely often, Yuri noticed) he would trail after her with love-sick puppy eyes.

Yuri couldn’t blame him of course, for she, too, was fond of Yoona’s affections. She only wished he didn’t have to be so damned obvious about it.

‘’I don’t know why you have to act so jealous. It’s completely ridiculous, honestly. And it’s not like you can talk, what with Jungah and all.’’ Yoona said matter-of-factly.

It was Yuri’s time to look grumpy now. Yoona had a problem with Jungah, that much was obvious from the way her face worked itself into an ugly grimace every time she heard the name. Yuri wasn’t going to give up on Jungah, however, because they went such a long way back.

It had been Jungah who had welcomed Yuri when she first had stepped into that bar in Itaewon several years ago, nervous and not quite knowing what to do. When she got tired of juggling school and work at her father’s restaurant Jungah was the person she could complain to. She had been the person who had comforted her when she had had her heart broken for the first time. She had, too, been the first person to sleep with Yuri but she felt that detail would be better left a secret. Their relationship, alas, was one of very close friends. It almost resembled a relationship between lovers, if only Jungah wasn’t prone to sleep around with the first cute girl she saw, something which Yuri continued to press to Yoona.

‘’Why are you so obsessed with her? I’ve told you before that it’s nothing. Quit being so jealous, you’re acting like a child.’’

Yoona scoffed at this and put down her glass of water, looking at Yuri with a lot of anger in her eyes. Yuri didn’t say anything but stood up, and making a point by making so much noise as possible getting her things put on her coat. Yoona shouted after her.

‘’You’re going to leave? Great! That’s really going to solve this, you know!’’

Yuri angrily turned around.

‘’I have no time for this. Some people have a job!’’ she shouted and with that she slammed the door shut, making Yoona flinch with the severe impact.

•  •  •

‘’No, this meat is too dry and it’s way too salty. We can’t eat this.’’ The man complained. He was a rather nasty figure, Yuri thought, but who else would be eating in this tent so late in the night? His chubby sausage fingers roughly shoved the plate across the table towards her. Yuri felt angry. It was very late but still very hot, it being 34 degrees today and she was more than tired. The sweat was still damp on her back, her uniform of the apron and paper hat only making it more uncomfortable in the heat. Work had been more miserable than usual. Mostly groups of men, which meant a lot of testosterone and a lot of liquor, which was never a good combination. They had kicked out two groups already. This client was quieter but even more annoying, as if to make up for the lack of noise. It was the third time this client had given back his food after eating almost all of it, and then suddenly recognizing there was something wrong with it. On top of that, he had treated all of the staff like a bunch of dogs, ordering them around. Even her father had been shouted at. And she didn’t like his look. It was enough for her to lose her temper. She snatched the plate from the table and put a piece of meat in . It was chicken, obviously. Perfectly cooked and seasoned lovingly by her mother, who had spent hours in that boiling hot kitchen already.

‘’Excuse me?’’ the client shouted, waving his hands in front of Yuri’s face. ‘’Are we going to get some service around here?’’

Yuri shot him an angry look.

‘’Sir, do you know how much we make in this restaurant?’’ the man opened his mouth to speak but Yuri didn’t allow him to reply.

‘’I can tell you it’s not much. So it doesn’t help us, you understand, if we have some parasite,’’ she spat the words and pointed at him, ‘’like you here, eating and eating and not paying! The nerve! Who the hell do you think you a-‘’

‘’Hold on, hold on! What’s going on here?’’ her brother grabbed her arm and looked at her, irritated.

The man had gone completely red with anger and sweat was appearing on his bald head. He hit the table with his fist and converted his complaining to her brother.

‘’Your sister is being completely out of terms! She is not only disrespecting her elders but also not giving us the service we’re paying for!’’

‘’You’re not paying!’’ Yuri shouted and got herself another look for that remark. Her brother pushed her arm down and grabbed the plate from her other hand.

‘’I’m ever so sorry sir, we’ll get you whatever you ordered and a free bottle of soju, yes?’’

The man seemed appeased now, and waved him away with his hand, grumbling some more complaints. Her brother then bowed at the man and dragged Yuri to the kitchen. He threw the chicken away and put the plate down. Then he turned around to look at her. There was a scowl on his face.

‘’What the hell was that?’’ he hissed. Yuri hotly gestured to the restaurant.

‘’He wasn’t paying! He’s just getting as much for free as possible and when he leaves he’ll probably only pay for his drinks!’’

‘’So what!’’ he exclaimed. Yuri took a step back, startled by his loud voice. He sighed, mumbled an apology and shook his head. Yuri crossed her legs.

‘’So?’’ she said, ‘’what will you do with him?’’

‘’I’ll fix this! I can fix this. See, this is why I’ll work in the restaurant and you go to uni.’’ her brother insisted. He looked at her. She looked back, leaning on the counter. Suddenly he burst out in laughing. She felt a grin come over her own face.

‘’What?’’ she giggled.

Her brother’s face had gone red from laughing and he put his hand in front of his mouth to muffle the noise. He put his hand on her shoulder, leaning.

‘’I can’t believe you called him a parasite! Did you see the look on his face? I thought he was about to explode!’’

Yuri joined in with his laughter and pulled his hand off of her shoulder. She had seen the man’s face. It was like a pig being roasted on an open fire. His eyes were about to pop out of his head, surely.

‘’What? He is a parasite! A total parasite!’’

Still laughing, her brother wiped his eyes, now filled with tears and wiped his hand on his apron. Leaning down, he took the paper hat off of her head.

‘’I think it’s better if you stop working for today. You’ve worked very long, anyway.’’

She pulled him into a hug and squealed excitedly.

‘’I thought you were never going to say that!’’ her brother squirmed in her embrace, awkwardly placing his hand on her back.

‘’Yeah, yeah, just let me go!’’ she thanked him one more time and loosened her apron. Finally, the torture had come to an end. All she wanted was to take a cool, cool shower and get back to her senses. She could finally read that book she had accidently left in her own room and sleep until the sun (or probably the noise from the street) woke her up. Her brother shouted after her.

‘’Yuri-yah, is there still a train? Father or I can give you a lift to your friend’s house.’’

She waved her hand.

‘’Not necessary. I’m gonna sleep here for the rest of the week.’’

Walking up to her room, she heard her brother shout ‘’Well praise the heavens!’’ and giggled one more time.

•  •  •

Yuri was here. She had done it. Her outfit was modern but perfect to move in, perfect for her dancing. They were on in five minutes. Hyunah was standing next to her, smiling at her. They gave each other a high five. Suddenly she stepped closer to Yuri and began to pull on her arm. Startled, Yuri tried to push her off but found herself unable to.

‘’Yuri! Yuri! Wake up! Ah, you’re awake.’’ Yuri peered through her eyes grumpily. She found it had not been Hyunah but her father who had been pulling her arm. He was sitting on her bed, fully dressed and smiling kindly at her. She moaned and lifted her head up slowly, looking at her father.

‘’Appa. I was having a nice dream.’’ She mumbled and pushed the sheets off of her. Her father petted her head and let out a low chuckle.

‘’Is that so? Good. It’s already 1 AM, you must wake up. Your mother made breakfast this morning. It’s in the freezer and there should still be some rice if your brother hasn’t eaten it all by now.’’

She sighed heavily and let her head fall back onto the pillow. She didn’t want to wake up. The light was much too bright for her to fully open her eyes.

‘’Get up!’’ her father shouted from down the hallway and she replied with a much softer ‘yes!’.

Slowly she opened her eyes, adjusting to the lights. Outside she could already hear the cars and people with their never-ending noise. She turned over and picked up her watch from her bedside table. It was indeed 1 AM. She must have been tired last night. The dream had been nice but she couldn’t remember what it had been. What was she going to do today? She didn’t have to help in the restaurant today but she didn’t have anything planned. Then her mind switched to Yoona, making her stomach turn.

Immediately she sprung up and looked at her cell phone. Of course, there were messages. She felt awful for not telling her she would be sleeping at home but yesterday she had been so angry that it had been the only logical option. The bickering really needed to stop soon. It was exhausting. Perhaps it had been naïve to think that just because she and Yoona were now together it wasn’t going to be different from before. Living together always makes peoples’ relationships ghastly. Still, she expected there to be less fighting with Yoona. They never fought before, never. Now they seemed to get irritated at every little thing the other person did wrong. And then they would be sorry and make up once again. It was all very silly, Yuri thought.

She should go over to Yoona now and apologise, she knew, but she felt too ashamed. What was she going to say? Surely they would have another fight. A text would be pathetic. ‘Hello I’m not dead; I slept over at my parents’ house’? No.

She pushed away the thoughts of Yoona and got up from her bed. Tying her hair up, she grabbed some clothes out of her dresser and walked towards the bathroom.

When she came down to eat (in the restaurant, they always had breakfast in the restaurant) she was greeted by her father who was checking the cash register. She grabbed her mother’s kimchi jjigae and some rice and sat down at one of the tables close to her father.

‘’I say, did you or your brother take a 10 000 won note out of here?’’ he said. There was a frown on his face. Yuri shook her head, full of rice.

‘’I didn’t and I don’t think Hyukjoon did either. If he did he didn’t tell me.’’

She could hear her father sigh.

‘’Well either way I’m missing some money. We should be more careful with who we employ for the part-time jobs, I don’t trust that Jihoon guy.’’

She finished her breakfast while listening to the soft sounds that her father made moving around the restaurant, cleaning the tables, organizing the fridge, testing the stoves in the kitchen. She was surprised when he came to sit with her, a bottle of soju and two glasses in his hand.

‘’What’s this?’’ she wondered and her father smiled a little awkwardly. He put his small hand on hers and gave her a cheeky wink.

‘’I want to have a heart-to-heart with my only daughter. Guys always do this with alcohol, I don’t know.’’

Yuri chuckled and raised the glass he poured her. It was endearing.

‘’Well it’s a bit early but one drink can’t hurt can it? Let’s do a love shot!’’ she said excitedly and stretched out her arm. Her father looked at her questioning, holding his drink up with a puzzled look on his face.

‘’I don’t know how to do that.’’ He confessed and Yuri smiled. Her father had always been old fashioned. It’s why he wanted the restaurant to be like this, small and cosy. A street restaurant like the ones he had known as a younger man. That he didn’t know the customs for drinking, she wasn’t surprised. Her father liked a drink but only at its time. Indulging too much makes the good things loose their magic, he would say. She showed her father how to do it without the glasses and they did it with their soju then. Her father held his hands up in the air proudly.

‘’Without spilling even! You think I can go along with you youngsters now?’’ he said and Yuri smiled warmly at him. She stood up to get a bottle of water.

‘’I’m sure you could! But let’s drink this for now. What did you want to talk about?’’ she asked, sitting down again. Now her father’s expression became a bit more serious. He clasped his hands together. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a talker exactly; rather he only spoke when absolutely necessary. Yuri liked it.

When she was a little girl, she would always beg her father to read her stories. With his voice, every story seemed to be played out in front of her eyes. But he didn’t read often, often being tired from his work. So when he did, Yuri would stare at him and savour every sound, every word. Every softly said line seemed to be like the wind, gently being wrapped around her. Her father’s voice was weaker now, creakier through old age, but it still carried that same comfort which Yuri could so vividly remember.

‘’It’s not easy for me to say this but lately your mother and I have been worried. We’re worried about your healthy, Yuri. We fear you might not be happy. Are you happy?’’

Yuri blinked. She had no idea what had triggered this. Was she unhappy? No. Was she displeased with some aspects of her life? Yes. But she never told her father, or anyone except Jungah, about those matters. She had been tired at the end of work in the restaurant but surely that wasn’t so bad? Her brother was too. So she asked:

‘’Why are you asking that? I’m quite content with the way things are going, sure.’’

Her father sighed and shifted in his seat. He looked up from under his eyebrows and awkwardly put his hands in his lap.

‘’You must understand your mother put me up to this,’’ he confided, ‘’but she’s worried. See, you’re in your twenties now.’’ He paused meaningfully there. Yuri titled her head, not quite understanding what her father meant.

‘’So?’’

‘’So… you’re mother is thinking…’’ he went on, ‘’she was wondering if you had someone special in your life.’’

Ah. So that was it. Suddenly it all clicked into place. That was why her brother had been asking her all those odd questions! Put up to it by her mother. Well, it was typical. Mother had always been the one to take care of matters of the heart in their household. Her father would have turned a blind eye even if she had not been married at the age of forty.

‘’I do have someone special, yes.’’ She said and blushed. Her father’s smile practically beamed at that. He clutched her hands in the middle of the table.

‘’Your mother will be glad. Do we know him?’’

Great. It was going to be more difficult now. What should she do? Say yes? They had seen Yoona, she had worked in the restaurant once and she’d been over more often. But she couldn’t say that it was her. Could she? If she said no her mother would demand a meeting would take place soon. There was no right option, just two wrongs. Stick to the truth, then.

‘’Yes.’’ She said. There was silence for some time, her father looking into her eyes. He leaned forward a bit, sitting on the edge of his seat, when she didn’t say anything.

‘’Well?’’ he asked.

‘’Um. Do I have to tell you now? Only, we’ve not been dating for that long…’’

Her father sat back down with a soft ‘ah’, letting go of her hands. He was still smiling at her. She looked down at her lap nervously. He continued.

‘’You know, you can tell me anything. I won’t tell your mother. Say you don’t have one.’’

She looked up, confused. Her father never hid anything from her mother, much less lie. So why now? Surely her father didn’t care about her relationship?

‘’We know this person… yes? And you have known this person for some time?’’

She could only nod, no idea where her father was going with this. He sighed and put his head in his hands for a moment. When he looked up, there was even more warmth in his smile than Yuri remembered. He stood up and walked towards her. He patted her head.

‘’It’s as I thought then.’’

He said and Yuri felt a cold chill go through her body. What was he implying…? Surely, not that! I couldn’t be. How could he possible have known? Was he going to throw her out? On the streets, right now, just like that. Goodbye, see how you manage. No money, no home. And she couldn’t go to Yoona, not with the way things were right now! And how angry would her mother be? She had a ert for a daughter. She must be heartbroken. Once her brother knew she wouldn’t be able to walk the streets of course. What if they ruined Yoona’s reputation as well? Would everyone look at them and think them disgusting?

She didn’t notice she was shaking until she could hear her father comforting her (‘’It’s okay Yuri, it’s okay.’’), holding her hands. He was holding her. He wasn’t pushing her away. He wasn’t hitting her. Why wasn’t he hitting her? What was he doing? She felt herself being pulled against his chest, her father cradling her, one hand on her hair. He slowly shifted them from side to side. Her father chuckled.

‘’I’m glad she’s as pretty as you.’’ He said and wiped away the tears she didn’t realize were streaming on her cheeks.

‘’How did you know?’’ she sobbed. Her father pulled her onto his chest again; seemingly even closer this time and she could feel the heat from his arms like a blanket wrapped around her.

‘’A father always knows.’’