Chapter Seven

We Meet Again

[Tiffany Hwang]

“Oh you’re finally here, Fany-ah.”

Tiffany greeted her grandma with a sweet smile as the older woman welcomed her home.

“How did your all your exam went?”

She smiled once again at her aunt who had a slight worried expression in her face.

“What do you think, Halmoni? Of course I passed and topped all of even!”

She placed her bags on top of the table and sat across her grandmother. Tiffany took a clean towel and began drying some utensil, helping her aunt as they talk about her school.

“Don’t be such an air head, Tiffany. Remember that you should always be humble at all time, my child.”

“I know, Halmoni. I’m just teasing you.”

Tiffany smiled at her again and continues on her helping task.

“Don’t you have any assignment to work on? You can go finish them now, I can do these on my own.”

Tiffany stopped her grandmother from taking the towel out of her hands. She knew how her older woman doesn’t like the idea of her helping around the Kim’s household.

She always told her that she’s not one of the helpers in the house so she shouldn’t do any house chores in there. But she always refuses not to help. She just always argues back at her aunt that it was her she’s helping so she can have an early rest.

“I don’t have any, Halmoni. The mid-terms just ended, so no assignments for us till we go back to school after the sem-break. But I do need to research on some topics for my classes for the next sem. But I can still do that till later, so no worries, okay?”

She heard her grandmother let out a small sigh.

“I knew it, you’re such a hard worker when it comes to studying. Fany-ah, don’t push yourself too much okay? You don’t need to graduate on top of you class and give more medals than you already did. I just want you to get through school in one piece. When I say one piece, I mean you healthy and strong.”

Tiffany cut off her grandmother before she can continue on nagging her.

“Hey’ I’m perfectly healthy!”

“You’re too drown in your studies. I rarely saw you go out to hang out with any of your friends. All you did is study and study.”

“Of course Halmoni, I need to study hard. So I can have good grades, that will be my credential once I began applying for companies in Seoul. I heard that huge companies out there base their hiring of new employees according to their scholastic records and of course if the applicant is pretty and witty just like me!”

She began winking at her grandmother which made the older woman giggle in laughter. She’s glad that her joke worked on her.

“But Fany-ah, you’re losing too much weigh already at this rate I'm afraid if you'll still make it your graduation. And I really don’t understand why you’re so bent in finding a job at Seoul once you graduated. There’s also some good companies out here in Jeonju.”

“Because companies at Seoul are much bigger and much more establish than those companies here in Jeonju and the salary are also much better than here. And don't worry too much Halmoni, just one more year and it will all be over and we will start to live a better life!”

“You don’t need to earn that much. And you going to Seoul means you’ll be away from me.”

“Of course I do. I want to give you and Haraboji a good life once I graduated and began working. I’m going to give you a very comfortable life, Halmoni. And who told you that I’ll leave you two in here? Of course I’m taking both of you with me! I’m going to make you stop being a house helper and I will start pampering the two of you with all the nice things. Just like how much you always pamper me with things I really don’t need. I just want to my one and only grandparents in the world happy. Is that bad? ”

“Okay okay! Fine! You go study hard and give that comfy life you promise but you better make sure that I won’t see a sick Tiffany one of these days.”

Tiffany grinned at her aunt once she saw that the woman finally let go of the matter.

“I will, Halmoni. And…”

“What is it, Fany-ah?”

“Thank you for everything, aunty.”

“Aigoo, this child! Let’s finish this so we can start preparing for dinner.

“Roger that!”

Park Seomin watched her granddaughter working with a smile on her face. She could still remember the first time the six year old Tiffany arrives here in Jeonju after her mother’s death.

Hwang Seokjun, Tiffany’s father decided to move back to Korea after his wife’s sudden death in the states. He took little Tiffany back in his hometown and asked her to take care of her while he works in the city. As he makes a promise to her and the little girl to come home every weekend to them.

Since she and her husband don’t have a child of her own, she was actually delighted with the idea of taking care of Tiffany. So most of the time Tiffany was with her at the Kim’s house while she does her work at the Kim’s household. It’s really not that much since the whole family only comes back at the ranch during vacation time of just a short visit to check on things out here.

All she does is take care of the house and make sure that everything won’t be covered with dust from time to time.

But life was a bit harsh on her little Tiffany. Just when the girl has finally adapted to her new life living in a foreign land and began gaining her usual bubbly self another tragedy happened to her once again.

Tiffany’s father met a car accident on his way home. A truck lost its break and crashed into his car, giving him a fatal injury in the accident.

At the young age of fifteen, Tiffany lost both her parents, leaving the young girl under her care. They asked the children’s social service if she and her husband could be the one to take care of Tiffany, since the child has been left under her care all this time while her father was away for work.