Imo = Maternal aunt (mother’s sister)

Gomo = Paternal aunt (father’s sister)

Samchon = Unmarried uncle usually younger than the parent

82.  A MONTH LATER

By the time Byong and Duckie were married for a month, our lives had settled down some, including Heechul and his constant advice to Duckie who really tried to be understanding and not get irritated with him. Things did not change much in our home after the wedding, except for Byong and Duckie becoming discreet with their affections. There were no more kisses in front of everyone to rile up Heechul and Siwon who had taken up semi-permanent residence in our guest room.

On another level, there were major changes in our extended family with Minho announcing that he was officially courting Eunha who he’d bring with him whenever he visited us, which was every Saturday and Sunday or any other evening Minho was in the mood of sitting at our dining table to play with Minx’s triplets. They were teased mercilessly by our shameless children. Minx and Byong taught Irene, Jungkook and Taeyong to call Eunha ‘Granny’. Minho would pretend to be annoyed but his goofy grins would give away his delight at the turn of events. Eunha would turn red and get tongue-tied for some time after each address of “Granny”.

Sunwoo hyung and Hyemi noona were even more delighted when Kiwoo cancelled his departure back to New York and began looking for a job in Korea. He had few promising enquiries from Seoul. According to his parents, Seoul was like one hop away in comparison to New York City. Heechul was very worried because with Kiwoo settling in Seoul, we were faced with Suzy wishing to move away as well. Kibum decided it for us by suggesting we stop hiring outside legal firms and help Kiwoo set up his own firm in Daegu with first two businesses in the form of Jinhee Hagwon and Dragon Security.

Hyemi noona, in her happiness, hugged Kibum for full ten minutes, according to my watch. Kiwoo was not too certain it was the right solution. He had studied law in USA, and couldn’t practice Korean law without completing three years of formal graduation-level law education in South Korea and passing its bar exam. After some brain-storming, a solution was found. Kiwoo decided to open a foreign legal consulting firm as was permitted by Korean laws and hire a junior local lawyer for Jinhee Hagwon’s and Dragon Security’s legal work. He himself would take care of international legal projects. In the meantime, he decided to get a Korean legal degree also. We had no second thoughts about trusting him with the legalities of our franchise business as we knew he would learn all he needed to know about supervising the junior lawyer he’d hire.

Beagle and Jiyeon were not far behind in their preparations of moving their entire family to Daegu. Imo was in seventh heaven. She was finally having her second daughter and all her grandchildren near her. We really were a strange family. Where most people opted to live in Seoul or America, our family members preferred to come home and settle in Daegu.

With everyone moving to Daegu, there were long discussions about how to settle our large families near to each other. Taemin came to our rescue and found us neighboring houses that were large enough to accommodate our individual families. Junsu and Jaejoong dug their heels in and refused to move away from their boyfriends. The two teenage boys in love caused such an uproar on a daily basis that Doc and Soo decided to stay put, but quietly planned to purchase one new six-bedroom house along with the rest of us for whenever the boys did agree to move.

We finally settled on buying five houses, with six bedrooms each, in the same neighborhood for all of us. Heechul and Kiwoo opted to divide theirs into two smaller separate houses with two bedrooms each. Imo wondered why we needed so many bedrooms when there would be only six of us sharing the same house. Soo whispered to her, “Umma, we are leasing out our house till Junsu and Joongie decide we can move next to you. Till then we need two rooms in your house for whenever we decide to sleep over.”

“But, why do you need so many bedrooms with only two boys who might not even stay with you by the time you move near us? Jinki and Puppy have gone crazy to spend so much money on a new house and it seems so have you and Teukkie,” Imo was very attached to the apartment-house she had lived in for the past forty years and not really sure we needed the new houses with their large rooms and gardens.

“Imo, we are selling all the houses we have to purchase the new one,” Puppy began explaining to Imo again. “We are not investing any new money for it. Why are you forgetting Jinki and I have two smaller apartments that we bought when Byong was born? Duckie and Byong do not want to live separately from us. They are already fretting about missing out on eating your cooking for the next one year which they will be spending away from us as Byong goes to different countries for training in personal security. He wants to sell his apartment that we gifted him on his wedding and add his money to ours to buy the new house. You can help Beagle and Ji to buy their house.”

Imo scowled, “They don’t want our help. Beagle is so young but has a good nest egg saved. His father told us yesterday that their house in Seoul is selling for such an enormous sum that they can easily buy a new larger house in Daegu without any worry. I will miss my kitchen.” Puppy placated by agreeing to take all her pots and pans when we moved.

Next Saturday, Minho pouted non-stop, “Why do you have to find new ways to torture me, Jinki? Don’t you know I shifted here to be near to you and Minx? Now you are moving miles away again. I checked and there are no smaller houses in your new neighborhood. The smallest house has five bedrooms and what will I do with so many of them? You are so unfair to me.”

Minx whispered in Jungkook’s ear who repeated it loudly, “Minmin harabeoji, why don’t you quickly marry Granny and give us new imo and samchon?” When both Minho and Eunha blushed and lost their power of speech, Jungkook turned to his mother and asked without pause, “Umma, why do we need a new uncle? We already have so many? I don’t mind more aunts. Sooyoung imo gets upset whenever we call her imo. She wants me to call her noona. And Baekkie hyung stops sharing his candies with us when we call him samchon.”

Irene climbed into Eunha’s lap and kissed her cheek before entreating, “I want one imo now and one next year.” Eunha’s embarrassment made no difference to the little one, “Granny, will you let me name her?” Imo took pity on Eunha and handed food to the little pumpkins to silence them.

But by then Ren and Chen had climbed on Minho and began chanting “imo” with all the lung power their two-year-old bodies possessed. Junsu and Jaejoong tried to explain that any daughter of Minho and Eunha will technically not be an aunt to them and even if she were to be, she should be called “gomo” by them as she would be related to them through their father’s side. When Ren and Chen gave wide-eyed and blank-faced stares, the teens threw their hands up in the air and stopped their explanations.

Changmin muttered, “I like the western way of calling everyone by name or aunt and uncle. Korean way is too complex. Why must I call Joongie ‘hyung’ when he is so undeserving of the honorific?” Jaejoong pinched Changmin’s arm in retaliation and Yunho had to pull him away to stop them beginning a battle. In the aftermath of his Jeju’s proposal, Yunho had become sort of a semi-permanent fixture in our home with his younger brother and their neighbor Yoochun.

Soo constantly berated Jaejoong to be more sedate like Junsu and not create problems by following Taemin and Kibum’s footsteps. But all admonishments fell on deaf ears because Jaejoong was not be deterred from showing publically how much he loved Yunho. Looking at Junsu and Yoochun, no one would guess they were dating. However, Jaejoong and Yunho were totally opposite in their behavior. Jaejoong was forever trying to sit in Yunho’s lap until his parents or grandfather pulled him up to sit on the chair or couch, next to his boyfriend. Both Jaejoong and Yunho would pout for a long time as if they were sitting miles apart. Even when sitting next to each other, they would constantly touch each other and rub hands over the other’s arms, thighs, chest or back. Nothing worked on the two - not Teukkie’s frowns, Uncles glares or Amber’s gun-pulling. Our head-strong nephew had an equally stubborn boyfriend.

Their antics reminded me of Minseok’s sixteen-year-old son who had begun pestering Duckie for Jae-Mizui’s phone number and New York address. Kibum was shocked by his nephew’s insistence on courting a much older girl, and I often heard him muttering about it in the office. Heechul always laughed when Kibum began grumbling, “Key, just turn his attention towards Ashe and Carmen. If he likes women older than him, you can do nothing about it. Just make sure he pursues a woman who will settle best with your conservative family.”

As expected, Kibum would bristle, “Hee hyung, don’t talk rot. He cannot go after older girls like this. A year or two age difference is okay. But seven or ten years? No way!”

“Beagle married our Ji who is older than him.”

“Beagle is a genius who is mature beyond his years. My nephew is not.”

“Amber is older than Kai.”

“Hee hyung, there is less than two years difference between their ages.”

And their debate on merits and demerits of loving an older woman would continue till work distracted them, much to my relief. What both of them forgot was that Donghae would shoot anyone who’d dare to look at his twin nieces. If he was protective of Amber, so to speak, he could only be called over-protective of Ashe and Carmen. And both girls positively basked in it as it allowed them to put all their energies into building up their business and fulfill their dreams.

Puppy was practically jumping in excitement since our return from Jeju. His off-work hours were filled with video conferences with his business partners. We had purchased the property next to JinHee Hagwon headquarters, for Dragon Security to set up its base. With ChanYeol and Yesung tendering their resignations, things were almost set up. Puppy’s partnership in the business was kept under wraps because he still had a few months to go before his retirement. Yesung and Beagle were running liaison till Puppy could publically join the business as a full partner. Puppy put his contacts to good use and gathered more business for their firm.

In the past two weeks, Byong, Jeysee and Eunha were kept busy hiring more staff for Dragon Security. Puppy, Siwon and Donghae would sit in all the interviews. Hagwon mother’s club became busy in silent publicity, and without advertising there were applications from retired KNPA officers and other personnel. A reliable staff was gradually hired. It was clear that Dragon Security would begin servicing its clients by mid-April.

On their part, international partners of Dragon Security were equally busy with work. Since Yifan and Luhan had not taken on any local partners, Puppy and Siwon were sending some of their hired staff to help them temporarily. My father began urging Amber to join Puppy and Beagle in their firm. Though it put Amber and Kai under lot of stress, they successfully resisted all attempts from father to make any changes in Amber’s career choice.

In another week Duckie and Byong were leaving for Seoul to begin first phase of Byong’s training for his role in his father’s business. Puppy and I couldn’t decide whether to be happy about his finally gaining an ambition or to be sad that we wouldn’t see them for most part of the year. Imo wanted to pack a lot of food for them till we reminded her that both would be staying with Heechul’s father in Seoul.

We knew that though mature in many ways, Byong was still a boy. All the trainings he had planned and the countries he and Duckie would stay in till their return home next year, would turn our boy into a man. A man capable of standing tall next to his father and shouldering his share of responsibility in the business. That thought alone was enough to wipe away any sadness we felt about a year of separation.

Our children were embarking on a journey to adulthood.