"The Nation's Son-in-Law, Park Bogum, has announced a temporary hiatus after a wildly successful but busy year. In just this past year alone, he has release two movies, a drama, hosted multiple awards shows, and participated as a guest on several variety programs. Park Bogum proves to the country once more that his Bogum-magic has only gotten stronger, with every appearance he makes on screen setting record viewership. While we may be disappointed that we won't be seeing him as much during his break, we should also be grateful to our Park Bogum for bringing us so much entertainment. As a nation, let us be understanding of his personal needs and respect his desire for a break at this time. Park Bogum's agency stated that he has already left the country for some solo travel for a few weeks. Let's all wish our dear Park Bogum a safe and happy time off!"

"Wahhhhhhhhh," my mom exclaimed from the corner of the couch where she lounged, "he's really accomplished a lot hasn't he?"

"Umma, you're watching trashy entertainment gossip again?" I shouted from the kitchen. As per the family's usually Saturday morning routine, my mom was watching Korean news with the volume turned up to the level of a nuclear blast.

"Anything more advanced than that you're umma doesn't understand, don't you know?" Dad shouted back from the dining table, where he sat reading a physical newspaper in old school fashion.

"YAH!" Mom screeched in response, "If you keep saying things like that, our kids won't have any respect for their hardworking umma!"

"Was there anything to respect in the first place? You have to earn it, darling..." Dad retorted without skipping a beat.

I laughed. My parents still argue like teenagers in their first relationship. It may seem immature or shocking to more traditional families, but I was glad for this kind of relaxed family dynamic that many of my friends did not have. Even though they bickered a lot, we all knew without a doubt that their love for each other was stronger than ever, even after so many decades of marriage.

"Appa, is Jun still sleeping?" I asked as I set the finished plate of scrambled eggs on the dining table. I was on breakfast duty and the wonderful smell of food made my stomach growl in desire. There was zero desire to save any of it for my younger sibling if he slept his way through the entire morning.

"Aish, you know that kid. He probably stayed up until 5am playing video games again. The boy just completely loses sense of his biological clock when summer break rolls around," my dad grumbled, "Let's just eat. I'll make something else for him later if we don't end up with enough leftovers for him."

"Lee Sol-ah," my mom said as she lowered the TV volume and made her way over to the dining table, "how are auditions going these days? You know it's so hard to get a role in the US because you're Asian. There's a big thriving entertainment scene in Korea, you should really consider trying things out there."

"Don't worry, umma," I reassured her, "I have a couple auditions that I'm moving on to second round for. And there are some smaller commercial gigs I'm doing. We've already talked about this - I'll keep trying here for another year and if it makes sense after that, I can consider moving to Korea instead."

My mom nodded. I could tell she wanted to say more, but didn't out of consideration for me. My parents were more worried than anyone about my future, but they always supported me in achieving my dreams of becoming an actress. My friend's Korean parents forced them to study things like business and medicine in school, but when I got into UCLA and announced my intent to major in film, I received nothing but excitement as a reaction from my family. 'Being in LA is good for a film major', my mom had thoughtfully commented, 'this is a good idea - you're taking advantage of having grown up in the entertainment capital of the world. Our daughter is going to be famous!'

Even so, all my parents' friends and our family would express concern regularly regarding my career. It was almost the default conversation for whenever people met up with my family - to discuss and lament over my uncertain future. But without fail my parents would always respond politely to say that they believed I can do it. 

"Oh!" Dad exclaimed suddenly after shoving a bite of food into his mouth, "this breakfast is delicious! Our Lee Sol is growing up to be such a wonderful chef!"

I smiled, thinking I must have been a saint in my last life to have parents as wonderful as mine.

***

"Thank you for visiting!" I shouted after the sound of the door bell, as what I believed to be the last customer of the day exited the cafe.

It was 4: