The Summer of 97'

The bubbling of the dirty soap water heats the gloves that I’m wearing and warms my hands. I pout. I usually liked it when my hands would prune from being in the water too long, but safety comes first when working with dirty dishes.

“Dear, are you almost done?” I hear halmeoni call, peaking her head through the kitchen door.

I glanced at the pile of dishes beside me then the ones on the floor and give her a reassuring smile. I quickly wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand, and attend to the bowls.

My name is Kim So-Hyun and I’m a twenty-three-year-old Accounting student at H University. I work at this noodle shop run by a  Halmeoni I had gotten to know during first year.

Truthfully, I come from a wealthy background, so I don’t really need this job. My mother owns one of the largest design corporations in all of Korea and my father is the founder of KH private bank in Japan.

Why would a rich student bother working at a ramen store, helping clean dishes for extra pay you ask?

Well, I wanted to. I didn’t like the idea of not having been in some sort of work environment before I graduated and was launched into full time work so I took up the offer. Besides, I had a soft spot for Halmeoni and I wanted to help her out.

I thought that my parents would be against it, but they were more than supportive saying that it would be a good way to teach me ethics about the ‘real world’.

I’m not sure if I was actually learning about the real world, but I'm learning a few things alright. Although Halmeoni’s restaurant looks quaint and old fashioned, we get a variety of people that stop by at different hours to get a whiff of her noodles. Of course the majority are students, but the conversations I hear from the different customers would be enough for me to write a thesis.

Don’t judge me, I don’t intentionally listen in on their conversations. But be warned, there are probably plenty of servers that take interest in your conversations and discuss them with their friends. Like I said, I don’t do that… intentionally.

As I heaved crates of bowls into the sink and cleaned them one by one, my back started to ache and that was when I knew that it was peak time at the restaurant. Doing a simple few stretches I got back to work and clock out the second I’m done.

“Halmeoni, I’m going now!” I called out as soon as I finish with the cleaning, I always tell her whenever I’m leaving the store.

“You’ve worked hard today.” She returned, and I made my way out.

It’s the summer of 97’. I’m in Seoul and I’m thankful for choosing my dungarees this morning as I felt the night breeze cool my legs once I stepped out. I wiggled my legs around a bit welcoming the nice contrast to the hot furnace of the kitchen.

On my way to the bus stop, I spot my beautiful, bright-eyed friend Yoon So-Hee. I let out an inaudible sigh and bite my lips in contemplation.

On some occasions I would probably walk in the other direction choosing to get a different bus rather than to strike up conversation but seeing as we just got off summer break and it has been a while since we last saw each other I walked up to her, deciding not to be petty today.

“Oh, So-Hee-yah!” I called, and my friend turned around, quickly running towards me engulfing me in a hug.

“So-Hyun-ah~ I missed you! How was your summer? What are you doing here? Are you still working in that noodle place?” She asked in one breath not letting me go.

“I can answer if you let me breath.” She immediately let go and I could feel air entering my lungs again. “I didn’t do much, I left the shop for a while, but halmeoni let me come back towards the end of the summer.”

The whole truth is that I’d actually spent half of my summer in LA with my family. This summer break was different from the other ones we had, the gang were all busy and dotted around different parts of the country trying to add more things to their resumes.

We'd all spoken over summer, but by the time the others found time to actually ask of my plans I was already back in Korea, and I didn't feel any need to bring it up.

Don't get me wrong, I don't pretend to be poor or anything like that. My friends have never really paid much attention to that aspect of my life and strictly speaking, they aren’t at the bottom of the food chain either. They’re actually quite well-off, considering how bad our country was hit by the financial crisis this year. It’s just that my parents were a little bit wealthier than the average 'rich' family and I was raised in a way that didn’t make my assets obvious.

Not being born rich meant that I looked and acted pretty ordinary compared to the others. Having gotten used to it now I was trying to maintain the same friendship environment that we always had. 

So-Hee is an Accounting major just like me, so we had a lot more to talk about now than the others did. We were also the first to become friends in elementary school, but despite that I had to keep boundaries with So-Hee for more reasons than one, including the fact that So-Hee likes to be too honest for her own good. I usually always have to play the mediator by apologising on her behalf when she offends others.

She's not a bad person, she just lacks the ability to read the room nor does she care much about what others think.

Regardless of it all, she’s my friend and I would risk my life to save her from a burning building if need be. Same with all of my friends.

We got onto the bus and I listened to what she had to say about her summer working as an office assistant at an IT company. I couldn't help but think about how my original plan for the journey home was to listen to the new Sechskies CD I bought with my CD player.

Upon getting off the bus I also remembered another reason why I kept my distance from So-Hee recently. It wasn’t so much as a thing this time, it was more of a who.

He stood outside the bus stop with hands buried deep in his jean pockets like he usually does. A 5ft 9, athletically built, dark haired beauty.

Yoo Seung-Ho.  

As beautiful as he was, it was also known implicitly amongst our group that him and So-Hee have had something going on for a long time now. I didn’t bother to calculate the length or even ask. It was never spoken about, but, apparently everyone just ‘knew’.  

Everyone besides me of course.

And as naïve as I was, I let my heart fester feelings for him, a man that was unattainable for me. I had almost made the mistake of sharing my feelings to So-Hee, if it wasn’t for Bo-Ra being my saviour and mentioning it to me. I felt embarrassed but trusted her enough to not tell anyone else about it.

I can't pinpoint exactly when it started but one thing I’m sure of is that it wasn’t particularly hard to fall for him.

It was like a switch was in my heart and the love I never knew existed sprung to life. Was it love? It felt a lot like it.

Yoo Seung-Ho- a man that knew how to do the right things. Every little thing about him seemed special, his nonchalance, his voice and even the way his dimples would make an appearance whenever I had the opportunity to see him smile.

At first, I denied my feelings for him, thinking that they weren’t real. You see, I went through a period in high-school where my love cells were malfunctioning. I would think that I liked someone but then would realise shortly after that I didn’t.

With Seung-Ho I hadn’t gotten to the stage where I didn’t like him yet.

That’s how I knew he was different.

His eyes lit up when he saw us, but I knew they weren’t at the sight of me. Seung-Ho was not a man of many words, so his eyes did all the speaking. I’ve spent more than ten years with the guy and I thought I knew each and every one of his expressions, but these days I’m not so sure.

I mustered up a smile and excused myself, leaving the two of them indifferent. I turned around one last time to see them making their way in the opposite direction and it felt bittersweet. I should be happy for them, at least right? They were my friends after all.

When I got to my dorm I threw my bags to the side and flung onto my bed. Today at the shop there were more customers than usual, which meant more dishes for me to wash and inevitably more standing up time for my legs. I considered just sleeping it off, but when it became unbearable I decided to make a visit to our University convenience store to buy some pain relief patches.

On my way out I ran into Myung-Soo standing in front of my door, and I jumped back startled. Staring at the wide-eyed boy in front of me, “Yah, Kim Myung-Soo. What are you doing? You scared me.” My hand was to my chest glaring at him. It was clear that Myung-Soo was flustered too, almost looking scared. I guess we both weren’t expecting to find each other like this.

“Oh, s