Lee Ha Na dropped her luggage on the front step of the little white picket fence surrounding a quaint little house.  She smiled as the soft breeze whipped the hanging sign labled “Welcome to Eden Cottage” back and forth as it hung suspended from a wooden post. Oh, how she had missed this warm paradise.

The front door opened and a small lady with black hair in a bun came out carrying a basket of fruits.  She looked up and, seeing the person standing just inside the gate, dropped open.

“Auntie!” Ha Na waved and started walking towards the older lady. 

Yang Chae Hee smiled warmly. She had missed this girl so much

“Ah! Ha Na!”

Ha Na threw her arms around the little lady that had become something akin to a mother for her.

“Why didn’t you call us?  We could’ve sent out a driver for you!”

Ha Na grinned and patted Auntie’s shoulder.  “Its ok, I wanted to surprise you!”

“Go grab your luggage, dear.  You must be hungry; I have some yummy congee warming on the stove.”

Ha Na laughingly went to retrieve her luggage.  So funny how no matter where she went, this place had become home for her.  This was her third summer helping out the ladies and leaving to return to school became harder and harder.

*****

“I have a major concert in a week.  How the heck am I going to get strep throat now?!” 

Manager Yoo Dujoon couldn’t believe it either.  Standing up, he walked over to his friend and client Yang Yoseob, the most adored singer in Seoul, and placed his hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

“The doctor says you need to lay off your throat for at least a month or else you could end up ruining your singing voice forever. I am going to have to pull you out of this concert and the next few live performances for the next month or so.”

Yoseob closed his eyes.  He’d been looking forward to this concert for months.  It was supposed to be a major comeback for him after an 8 month hiatus.  He’d written all the songs on his new album and he had been eager to give the crowd a taste of his musical talents.  Apparently God had decided that he needed to be on hiatus longer.

“Well, what am I going to do for the next month? Sit and twiddle my thumbs idly?”

Manager Dujoon studied his friend closely.  The last couple of months that Yoseob had supposedly been enjoying vacation, he had actually been working diligently on his music.  Yoseob was a musical prodigy with a heavenly voice … but he worked too damn hard and was losing the compassion inside him.  Right now there were dark circles under his friend’s eyes that seemed to intensify each time they saw one another.

“I have a suggestion.”

Yoseob looked up expectantly.  His manager was the man of ideas.  They regarded their relationship as a close friendship more than a business one.

“Go home.”  Dujoon answered.

Yoseob wrinkled his brows. “I am home.”

 Dujoon sighed.  He gestured to the bench against the wall of the studio and waited for Yoseob to sit before he settled down next to him.

“No. I mean go home. Not Seoul.  Not this recording studio you practically live in.  Not the music room you compose in. Home.  Your mother. Return to that little village, return to Eden.  I hear that it’s prospering pretty well.”

Yoseob looked at his friend blankly.  Then he turned to look at his clasped fingers.  Home. He was already home, wasn’t he? 

He loved his mother. He sent her money every month and always made sure that someone looked in on her from time to time.  He talked to her on the phone once a month.  But to go back home…a home he’d not gone back to for 3 years…maybe it was time.