Bonding Over a Cow
Country Meets Korean*Key’s POV*
“Oh, it’s adorable!” I exclaimed when I saw the baby cow. “What’s her name?”
“She hasn’t got one,” Sam said, coming to stand next to me. “Do you want to name her?”
I looked at her with wide eyes, “Can I really?!”
“Sure!” she laughed.
I stared at the cow for a minute, trying to decide what it should be called.
*Sam’s POV*
Gosh, he’s so cute when he smiles. Look at him looking at that cow like it’s the coolest thing in the world. Now that I think about it, I kind of like his colored hair. I mean, it’s different, but it’s kind of cool. He really is pretty attractive. All the girls back in Korea must go crazy over him. I wonder if he has a girlfriend…
“Do-,”
“Sarangi.”
“What?” I asked him.
“Sarangi; it means lovely in Korean. That will be the cow’s name.”
I had totally forgotten that he was naming the cow.
“Sarangi,” I repeated. “I like it; it’s really pretty. How do you say pretty?”
“Yeppoyo is the polite casual form,” he answered.
We stood for a few minutes just looking at Sarangi, and listening to the sounds of the night. The only light came from the dim overhead lights above the barn.
“Tell me I’m pretty in Korean,” I finally said, breaking the silence.
“Well how old are you?”
“Nineteen,” I answered.
“Really? You look older for your age.”
“Hey!”
“No, not in a bad way,” he said quickly.
“Oh.”
“To you I could say: Dongsaeng neomu yeppeo. I would call you dongsaeng because you are younger than me. If you were older than me then I would call you noona.”
“That’s kind of confusing,” I complained.
“It’s normal to me.”
“What would I call you?” I asked.
“You would call me oppa because I’m older than you.”
“Oppa…”
*Key’s POV*
She turned back to the cow and whispered the word over and over to herself so as not to forget it. She looked so cute in the dim light. Suddenly I noticed how much the temperature had dropped with nightfall. I took a step closer to her.
She turned and looked up at me, “Oh you look cold. I forgot to warn you that it can get a little chilly at night sometimes.” She took her hands and rubbed up and down on my arms in an effort to warm me up.
“Haha, thanks yebo,” I said. Suddenly I realized I shouldn’t have done that.
“What does yebo mean?” she asked.
“Um, nothing, never mind; let’s go back inside.”
We said good night to Sarangi and headed back toward the house.
That night I lay awake in bed thinking over the events of my first day here in America. Though I hadn’t even been here a full 24 hours, I already liked it here… a lot.
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