The inevitability of it all was not lost to her, of course.

                Seasons are meant to change. Soon enough, the leaves are going to fall off the trees lining Jeollanam-do’s streets, the crops will change, and the soft breeze of autumn will clothe the whole town. Fall is coming, she can feel it in her bones.

                It started with a letter.

                They were hanging out at Henry’s. It was a Saturday, so they had a day off and have opted to spend it at his couch while watching some Spanish soap opera that Henry’s T.V. had picked up. An innocent white envelope lay upon their nondescript coffee table, the logo at the upper right corner catching Amber’s eye. She held it between her fingers as she examined it, the institution’s name jumping right at her.

                “School’s about to start again, huh?”

                Henry’s eyes remained focused at the screen as he answered. “Yes. In about two weeks?”

                “You never told me what you’re majoring in.”

                “Music. Isn’t it obvious with my piano skills?” he answered, wiggling his eyebrows at her direction. She answered him with a crinkle of her nose, and he laughed.

                “Honestly though, I’m learning music so that I could teach it to others properly.”

                “You want to be a music teacher?”

                “Maybe, or something along those lines. I haven’t really figured it out.” He answered as his arms looped around her shoulders.

                “Growing up, my sister and I had it a little rough. We lost both our parents in a car accident back in Toronto. I was barely 15 at the time, and my sister was even younger. And we were there without anyone. Our parents were first generation immigrants, so we didn’t have any relatives back there. For some godforsaken reason, the closest relative that they could trace was back here in Jeollanam-do. My grandmother on my father’s side who had a cabbage farm.

                “It was that or the system. So my sister and I picked Korea. We had a hard time coping; it was a totally different environment, we barely knew the language, everything was so new. Thankfully, most of the residents here were Chinese, so at least we could get by with that. But it wasn’t enough. And really, it was a hard time for both of us.

                “The house next door” -he jerked his head towards the window, to a white house with a picket fence- “The previous owner was our middle school english teacher. Maybe he saw that I was struggling, or something like that. One day, he just invited me inside and showed me all these instruments in his living room: a grand piano, his guitars, his violin; everything. And every day he would teach me something, or let me play several notes or even one whole song.

                “Thinking back, that was probably the only thing that got me through everything: losing my parents, practically raising my sister, this whole foreign land that I was suddenly thrown into. Music, it had that power. And I vowed then, that I would let music be that for someone else, the way it was a saving grace for me.”

                His eyes were sparkling at the end of his words, the wonder and dream evident in his lenses. Amber stared at him the whole time, fascinated at the way his face lit up with every word of his story. She said nothing, just smiled and took his free hand in hers.

                “That’s a wonderful dream, Henry. I can’t wait until it comes true.” She mumbled.

                That night, at the confines of her room, Amber thought about it.

A dream; a goal. Something to look forward to. Something that you knew at the depths of your heart that you’d want to happen, or to become. Something so strong that it pulls at your every being, an inerasable thought and feeling that consumes every part of you. And you know, that that is what you’re meant to do.

She thought, as she lay sleepless on the flower-printed linen, does she have that?

She thought about L.A., and what is waiting for her there. Her family, the uptight community that they circulate in, the gossip that seem to follow her wherever. Her expulsion.

Summer is almost over, what is she going to do now? Stay here in Korea? And then what? Come back to her L.A. and continue living haphazardly? And then what? A million questions went off inside her head, rendering her awake until the lights of the rising sun filtered through the curtains. But really, there was the only thing worth being asked.

Amber Liu, what now?

--

                The next evening, after a long conversation with Auntie Rose, she dialed her house hold number for the first time since god knows when. One of their helpers answered, and after a short pause, the voice of her mother rang through the electromagnetic waves.

                “Hi mom”

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