It had been years since he walked down this cobblestone garden path. It was just as he remembered it; the cabbages and carrots had been planted and grown in neat little rows. Potted plants lined the entryway to the mainhouse. He had spent many a summer day here planting and resting in the warm sun. Just as he was walking on, a small frame came from behind a screen door, and his eyes widened as he recognized the tiny woman.

"Eomma!" The man raced up to the front door and pulled the woman into a tight embrace. The elderly woman in turned look up at him in confusion and bewilderment.

"Eomma, naya, (its me), Min Soo. It's me, your son Min Soo!"

Suddenly, a spark of recognition shone in the woman's eyes. For a moment, a smile passed from her lips, but only to be replaced with a look of sorrow and concern.

"Min Soo?" she reached out and touched her son's face. " Are you really my Min Soo? But what are you doing here? You can't be here, we can't let her see you---" Suddenly she was interrupted by the sound of a screen door sliding, and out stepped Eun Kyo, her long braids tied up into a bun.  "Halmeoni, I think we are out of milk again, and rice too, and---- Ahjussi!" When the girl saw the man who had helped her and Dong Hoon two nights before, she ran to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked smiling up at him, "oh, and you found our money box!" She took the wooden box from his hand.  "Where was it? I  was looking for it everywhere." Halmeoni was taken aback.

"Child, do you know this man?" the 73 year old asked, pointing at him.

"Of course! He's Dong Hoon's new boss! We met him just the other day; he fixed the moped. Dong Hoon's gonna start working in his auto shop tomorrow."  The grandmother let out a silent sigh of relief. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a few 1000 won notes. Handing them to her granddaughter, she said, "Run down to the fish market and buy some salmon for dinner tonight, and on the way pick up some more milk, and whatever else we need."

"Yes, maam." Eun Kyo nodded and waved goodbye to Min Soo before going back inside to get her shoes.

"What a sweet girl," Min Soo murmured, "Who is she, your new helper? We don't get many foreign exchange students this far in the city."

"She's not an exchange student," his mother breathed, "does she look familiar to you?"

Min Soo shook his head. "No."

"Look closer." 

The biker watched her carefully, as she put her shoes on outside and walked out of the garden gate. She waved again and smile back at Min Soo before heading down the road into town. The way her eyes crinkled up when she smiled, the light bounce in her step, her hair, her skin, it all came rushing back to him. 

"She, she--"

"Eun Kyo is you and Lorinda's daughter, yes."

The 40 year old looked at his mother in disbelief, but before he ask any more questions, she went on, "Lorinda had decided to keep the child, and I agreed with her. You had already left, so without telling you, Lorinda gave birth and moved in with me. She suddenly grew ill and passed away. I knew you didn't want anything to do with the child, so I decided to raise her quietly by myself," she paused to look into her son's eyes, which seemed to be pleading with her for forgiveness, as he remembered the way he had mistreated his girlfriend. Min Soo turn to follow Eun Kyo,but the grandmother placed one hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I still love you, Min Soo," she said, wiping one tear from his cheek. "You will always be welcome here, you know that. But for Eun Kyo's sake, she can never find out that you're her father. It would just be too painful. I have watched that girl grow up, and I had never seen her smile genuinely, never. But in the past few months, I have seen it. And I want to keep on seeing it. She's found a slice of happiness, and I can't let it be snatched away from her."

"Eomma!"

"And don't call me that when she's around. Just call me ahjumma, or miss, but don't ever tell her who you are. That's one kind thing you can do as her father. Do you understand?"

He nodded. More tears poured down his face, hanging unto the stiff stubble on chin. Here he was, back in his hometown, not only to reunite with his mother, but to find that he himself was a father, but he would never be able to acknowledge that fact in public. It would only lead to talk and gossip among the people of the neighborhood, which was the very thing he had wanted to run away from back then. But funny enough, being there and knowing all of this, he suddenly didn't care what anyone thought. He just wanted a family, his family, back. The elderly woman must have known how he was feeling, because she wrapped her arms around him,pulling his face to hers, as they cried together. Suddenly, Min Soo felt lonelier than he had ever felt in 17 years.