EPILOGUE

TWENTY-SIX YEARS LATER

Kwon Jiyong watches as his wife of twenty years tallies up the day’s receipts. Business was good at Youngwoon’s Auto Body, which they bought when he got out of the service. Even during the slow years they’d gotten by just fine. His wife always appreciated the simple things in life, even when they could afford more. Hell, hiking made her smile more than anything else—that hike had become a weekly ritual for them.

Now skiing or snowboarding, that was another thing altogether. Jiyong took Dara and their kids to the resorts in the winter, but he watched from a distance as Dara taught all three of their girls to ski, then snowboard. They especially liked it when their uncle Seungri came along, because he was the only Kwon brother who was crazy enough to race them down the blackdiamond slopes.

Jiyong wipes his hands on a shop cloth after changing the oil on his old friend Ed’s car.

“Dara, we gotta talk about this kid your dad coerced me into letting stay with us.”

“He’s not a bad kid,” Dara says, looking up at her husband and giving him a reassuring smile. “He just needs some guidance, and a home. He reminds me of you a little bit.”

“Are you kiddin’? Did you see how many piercings that delinquent has? I bet he’s got ’em in places I don’t even want to know about.”

As if on cue, their oldest daughter, Ji Eun, drives up to the garage door with the delinquent in the passenger seat beside her.

“His hair is dyed in pink. He