What had come over JR? I had felt pretty dumbfounded when he asked me out, out of the blue. I contemplated that perhaps his brains had turned into mush from getting beaten up by the thugs the other night. Or perhaps his angsty teenage hormones are going out of control, making him act unlike his usual self. I suppose someone could have put him up to it too, like a bad joke or a bet. But what if he was actually being serious?

'You ready to go?'

I'm stood outside the school as Ren approaches me. I was supposed to go see halmoni with omma today but she bailed at the last minute due to some unforseen work related emergency. I haven't exactly been looking forward to spending lone time with the blond one as his ever changing mood makes me uncertain of how to act around him. Also, I didn't want to be interrogated about what happened with JR earlier. Though, knowing Ren, he probably feels apathetic towards the whole thing.

'Yeah, where's Baekho?' I ask him whilst looking around for the car.

'Um-- he got caught up in something so he can't take us.' He briefly scratches his head. 'There's a bus that goes directly to the town, nearby.' He walks ahead.

'Oh right.' I mumble, and follow him.

The bus ride is surprisingly longer than I expected. The atmosphere between us isn't amicable either. Everything feels still apart from the low humming of the bus engine.

Ren is sitting about meter away on a single seater. He is facing away, his elbow resting on the edge of the window and his chin on his palm. He has not at looked towards my way, not even once, throughout the whole journey.

He is being cold again.

He is sitting cross legged with his bag resting next to his leg, against the bus. I can barely see his side profile but notice his blond hair is not in it's usual mini ponytail. Instead, it flows down to his nape and the paleness of his skin is only about a shade dark than his own hair. The bus isn't dirty but it is evident that Ren's surrounding does not match his aura and I wonder how someone could look so elegant just sat down, looking out of a freaking bus.

'If you keep staring, you're going to burn a hole in my head.'

His voice startles me and I immediately look away.

'Don't flatter yourself, I wasn't looking.' I say as I feel the crimson rise in my cheeks.

'What did JR have to say?' His question catches me off guard. 

'JR? He-he- uh--' 

'Doesn't matter. We're here.'  He stands up and walks towards the exit without letting me finish.

Once we both step out of the bus, I breathe out my anxiousness from what he just asked and in deeply and stretch a little as I examine the unfamiliar place. We've arrived in a small rural town near the coastline. The sea is dark and stretched out at the horizon, and in contrast the skies are warm orange, telling us the sun is about to set. 

'It's so beautiful here!' I hear myself say.

'Come on, it's getting late. Halmoni will be waiting for us.' Ren sounds as emotionless as ever.

Tsk, how can he not appreciate this magnificent view?

After walking in silence for about 10 minutes, I can see a cosy looking modest house just meters away. From the little door, a small but familiar figure steps out.

'Halmoni!' I shout and run past Ren towards the smiling grandmother. I hug her as soon as I reach her.

'Ahh agassi! You're here finally!' She says whilst hugging me back. 'I'm so happy to see our agassi again!'

Ren sternly expresses his disapproval of halmoni being out in the cold vocally, to which halmoni says 'Don't be silly. I came to greet our agassi!'. We enter the house together, and I can smell the kimchi chigae goodness right away - one of my most favourite dishes.

'Halmoni! You didn't have to do all that!' I sit down with my legs folded under the table. The sight and the aroma makes my stomach gurgle, embarassing me.

'Looks like agassi is hungry. Eat! I made it all for you anyway!' Halmoni serves me a bowl of rice and hands me chopsticks.

'Khamsamida halmoni~ I'll eat it well.' I say with gratitude whilst digging in.

'Halmoni, I'm just going to do some chores around the house okay? I'll be right back.' Ren doesn't bother halmoni to respond and leaves the room.

I am not bothered by his disappearance as I'm too engrossed in the food. Halmoni is smiling approvingly as I scoff down the kimchi chigae and rice.

'Hope my Ren isn't causing too much trouble for you, is he?' She asks, sounding slightly concerned.

'No, not at all! My omma totally loves him.' I reply sincerely.

Well, I can't exactly tell her that her grandson might have seen me in my birthday suit, or that her grandson touched my sanitary pads-- Oh God.

I blush just thinking about the incidents.

'Good, I'm glad.' She says now grinning. 

The rest of the conversation is mostly her enquiring about mother's health and me enquiring about hers, etcetera. She tells me she's doing much better now that she's on a break after working for so long. Again, I feel guilty and selfish that we let her continue working, because we weren't willing to let her go just yet. She tells me about how she's enjoying watching all the dramas on the TV and that every weekend, her and her other friends meet up for karaoke! I can't help but smile at how excited and full of life she looks as she is telling me all these little stories. I had missed her. Afterall, she has been one of the few constants in my life for a while. I fill her in about Jinpyo ajhussi ('I knew there was something fishy about that overly friendly man, I was never fond of him.' She frowned whilst shaking her head disapprovingly), and Baekho ('Oh yes, he's a good boy! A very good friend to Ren.' She was back to smiling again. 'A very handsome young man too' She added cheekily and I laughed.)  By the time we finished catching up, I had eaten everything on my plate and was feeling full and happy. I helped halmoni take the dishes outside to the water pump as she explained that it was easier to do dishes there but stopped me from doing them and called out to Ren. I felt bad for making him do them but halmoni wouldn't let me offer a hand at all ('You're a guest here!' She reasoned.)

She insists on giving me a tour of the house, to distract me from further offering any help. I apologetically nod towards Ren before I am dragged away by halmoni. 

'Sorry agassi, there really isn't much compared to...' 

'Halmoni, you know I don't care about that! I want to see where my halmoni has been living, so show me, okay?' I tell her earnestly which makes her smile.

The first room she directs me into is a small bedroom. The room itself doesn't contain much; the walls are white and bare with bedding folded neatly and placed in the corner, there is a bookcase full of manga on the other side and a small reading table that rests against it with a miniature lamp on it. 

'This is our Ren's room.' Halmoni tells me. 'He doesn't like mess much and keeps as less as possible.' 

Of course. This room is the epitome of Ren.

The next room we go into seems to be Halmoni's. She too has her bedding folded neatly in the corner however, in contrast to Ren's bare walls, hers have framed pictures. The first one is of her and Ren and I'm surprised to see him smiling warmly at the camera with halmoni. 

He looks so much more human here.

The next one is of Ren, again smiling brightly with his blond hair slightly wet. He seems to be wearing a P.E. uniform and is holding out a gold medal.

I never knew he was into sports. Woah.

Finally, the the last picture looks like a family portrait. Except this one has more than just halmoni and Ren. I notice that it looks slightly older than the first two. I immediately recognise halmoni with darker hair, sitting next to an elder man who I assume is halapoji. The two of them are surrounded by people I don't know apart from Ren, whose hair, like halmoni's is dark. His pale little is face grinning innocently at the camera.

'Halmoni, who are they?' I ask her.

'This is my daughter, her husband and my grandson, the one you know, Ren.' She says calmly pointing at the family stood behind her.

'And this is my son, his wife and my other grandson, that you don't know.' She says pointing at the family stood behind her husband, except this time her voice is quieter with a hint of sadness.

I look up at her to see her eyes water.

'Halmoni, what's wrong?' I ask feeling concerned.

'I probably shouldn't tell you this as it shouldn't be any of your concern.' I can hear it in her voice that she was holding back her tears so I pat her back gently to say it's okay.

'My husband was a good father and tried his best for both of his children. My daughter was sick when she was young so my husband always had a softer spot for her; she was his little princess, and would do anything for her. My son grew rebellious and did everything to get his father's attention but his attempts were futile. I think this led him to believe his father never loved him as much.  When my husband passed away due to his heart problems, we found out that my son was the sole successor to my husband's publishing company. My son not only fired my daughter's husband but abandoned us completely. He took away everything, and left us nothing. My daughter and my son-in-law were forced out of our company and onto the streets. He even separated Ren from his bestfriend, his cousin, who was more like a brother. It was awful, agassi.'

She doesn't hold back any longer as tears fall from her eyes.

'Oh halmoni!' I embrace her and can't help but feel hurt for her. 'What happened to Ren's parents?'

'Aigoo, our poor Ren. My poor, poor Ren. He lost his parents to a fire that burnt down the factory they were working in. He absolutely hates his uncle but what to do agassi, I still love my son despite what he did.' I feel her tears soak through my shirt and seeing her cry is making me want to cry too.

'I'm so sorry, halmoni'

I'm so sorry, Ren.

'Don't worry about it, agassi. What's in the past is in the past now. Plus, I wouldn't have met you if the circumstance were any different.' She says as she lets go and quickly wipes her tears away. She smiles except it doesn't reach her eyes.

'My daughter-in-law secretly writes to me sometimes though. She sent me a picture of their family portrait recently, would you like to see?' She asks, already walking towards her dresser.

'Of course, halmoni.' I was genuinely curious to see how a son who caused his own mother so much grief would appear in a picture. 

Halmoni reaches into a drawer, pulls out a picture and hands it to me.

I carefully scan the picture and see a very well dressed couple sat down, hands resting on each other's. The man has glasses on with visible forehead wrinkles and a stern smile meanwhile the woman has her hair in a bun staring at the lens with a warm gaze. Standing behind them is a boy with a very cocky expression. His stare is familiar and makes me uncomfortable when I realise--

JR is her other grandson?!