Loila’s POV

I put my utensils down and stared at Uncle Rod. “Which one is she?” I said excitedly.

“She’s the one over there. She still owns the place but she only does the cleaning up. Father always respected Mother’s fiery sprit; he gave this place to her when he died, normally someone else looks after it. She doesn’t speak Korean very well so I have to help a lot.” He pointed to a wrinkled lady that was yelling at one of the waiters, while she shoved a bag of groceries into his chest.

“I had to walk the whole way here with these! I was supposed to get someone to help me but she ran off! Stupid pretty girls these days! She dropped cans everywhere and didn’t stay to help me…” She yelled in both Korean and English. The waiter looked so confused, “He must not understand her English!” I thought.

“Looks like I pointed her out at a bad time…”

“I don’t remember her; I didn’t know she owned a restaurant.”

“Of course you don’t know her, it’s been years. She taught me to cook as I taught you to. I guess cooking runs in the family!”

“Should I say hello?” I asked staring at my Grandma with curiosity, even in her old age she looked ready for anything.

“I don’t think so. She is having trouble with her memory lately; she sometimes forgets where she is. I brought her to Korea just to keep an eye on her. She doesn’t even remember which twin brother I am, so she probably won’t remember you.”

“I understand…” I said sadly. I know Uncle Rod wasn’t meaning to hurt me but I still felt a tight knot in my chest. I couldn’t help but stare in wonder towards my Grandma; she must have been at least seventy with her short curls tied up in a loose bun. She was wearing a purple shawl and a pale blue skirt that went passed her ankles. She was still yelling at the poor waiter but no one else seemed to notice.

“Anyway, I don’t want to talk about Mother,” I smiled at how formal Uncle Rod was towards his Mum. “I wanted to tell you about your parents. You’re still not talking to Brian, are you?”

“No.” I shook my head. I’m not one to hold grudges, but maybe Dad is an exception. “I hate him…” I said quietly between mouthfuls. Uncle Rod put down his knife and fork and stared at me.

“Sky, you don’t hate him-”

“I do.” I stared at my food, not feeling hungry anymore. “I do hate him; he blames me for everything, even Mum’s death. He hates me so I’m just returning the favor!” I wasn’t yelling but there I had a particular tone in my voice which made me feel uneasy. Rod laughed, he always seemed to be cheerful.

“You’ve got it all wrong! He’s always bragging about how good his daughter is, usually about how successful and kind she is.”

“Is this a joke?” I said innocently. I’m not very good at picking up peoples lies, especially when they are constantly smiling.

“No, no!” He shook his hands. “I can tell he really wants to see you again. He just doesn’t know how.”

“If he really wanted to speak to me, wouldn’t he just do it?”

“Both people need to speak in order to converse. Apparently you were very cold last time.” I sighed.

“I do stupid things sometimes.” I shook my head. “Most of the time.”

“It’s all part of growing up!” He clapped his hands. “Shall I tell you the story of how I grew up?” I nodded, not knowing what I was really preparing myself for. What was there to tell?

Rod’s POV

“I don’t really know where to start!” I laughed but Sky stayed quiet, waiting for me to speak. “I’ve never really spoken about my childhood. I guess you could say it began when we moved to Melbourne. Brian and I grew up in the country so it was quite a change to go to school near a big city. Of course we were quite scared on our first day of our new high school, but we were lucky enough to have each other. Brian and I were pretty good friends, considering that we are twins!” I took a sip of water. “Now, your Dad was quite good at sport so he was considered the ‘cool’ twin, and was invited instantly to join the sporty people. He seemed reluctant to go but I assured him that it was fine, we needed to fit in. I wasn’t very coordinated so I spent most of my time in the library.” I paused and looked at Sky. “Now, call me what you like, but I was not a typical nerd, I did have friends but I preferred to sit in a comfortable chair reading. So, while Brian became popular with everyone, especially the girls, I was the quiet twin who spent most of his free time alone.”

“That all changed one day in the library, a few months after we started school. I was sitting in my usual spot when a beautiful girl around my age walked in. She was carrying a huge pile of books that obviously was too heavy for her to carry. Sure enough, a few steps later, she tripped and the whole pile went tumbling towards the floor. I helped her pick them up and I got a good look at who had dropped the books, her name was Kate Martin, and she was easily one of the prettiest girls in the school. She was one of the popular kids, which was rare to see in the library. We stacked the books together; most of them were cooking books. I laughed at the situation because Kate seemed like the kind of girl who was out partying every week. We introduced ourselves and she seemed surprised at how friendly I was. She told me I looked exactly like her one of her friends, which made me angry. Once Brian had become popular, he never told anyone about his anti-social brother, I guess that’s why I was anti-social!”

“She came everyday after and I slowly came to look forward to her short visits. I’d show her where to find books and she would tell me about her day. She was different from other girls at our school, she seemed real. I realisedthat I had started to fall for her, she had such a passion for cooking books that it made me want to read every one in the school.” I chuckled. “Believe me Sky, I did try! That’s probably the reason why I first got into cooking; I was trying to impress a girl. Although I seemed like a shy person, I was actually quite friendly and brave, I still am. I decided that I was going to confess to her like any normal boy my age would, I was going to buy her everything! I bought her some jewelry, it was a beautiful necklace in the shape of a cloud, Kate loved the sky. I asked her to meet me at...” I paused and looked at Sky; she still looked interested so I assumed my story telling was going well. “I think it was in front of the school, it was so long ago, I can’t remember very well. She agreed to go but I became sick, stupid stress from all the money I had lost from buying her that gift. Brian, who knew I was going to tell her something important, told me that he would go and tell Kate that I was sick and that I would tell her later.”

“Although it didn’t happen like that, Kate must have thought Brian was me and she kissed him. They ended up dating and she didn’t come to the library ever again. I figured she must have worked out somewhere along the line that Brian wasn’t me but that didn’t change the fact that they dated the whole way through high school. I wasn’t angry though. I tried my best to smile because Kate said that it made me look younger and less scary, which would ultimately help me make friends. I wasn’t mad at Brian either, no matter how hard I tried. He didn’t know what I felt for Kate, so she was anyone’s fair game. Brian usually dated as many girls as her could get his hands on but not with Kate, so I assumed it was for the better. On the last day of high school, Brian was going to give Kate a piece of jewelry; he knew that I was friends with her so he asked what she liked. I told him to go with something blue, like the sky. She always liked the sky,” I stopped talking and Sky looked up impatiently. I swallowed and stared at her. “That’s how you got your name…”