I woke up the next morning, and still nothing from Panda. I tried Youngbae’s phone and got nothing from him either. I thought about seeing if Dakota had heard from TOP but figured that the boys were working and I should just calm down. After we got dressed and ate, Dakota and I hit the road. It was almost time for Christmas break, but we had to go back and report to our advisors before school let out. Since we had a five hour drive (four with the way we drove), we left early enough to get back, go to the school, and head to my mom’s house instead of staying on campus.

I hooked my iPod up to the car’s speakers and it seemed as though the time flew. We got to the school in record time, and pulled into the closest space in the Humanities parking lot. I got out and stretched, my legs feeling extra cramped from the ride. We grabbed our folders with all the paperwork and went up stairs. The secretary seemed to be waiting for us. She took our paperwork while we went to talk to Mr. Drummond, the head of the department.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he said when he saw me.

That wasn’t subtle at all. Not to mention a little rude, I thought as he motioned for us to sit.

“It seems as though you have some interesting things to tell me,” he said laughing. “But first, let me tell you what I know. President Yang spoke very highly of you when we spoke on the phone during your stay.”

“Really?” Dakota asked, and I had to agree. Whenever we saw Papa YG it was always because we were in trouble.

“Are you surprised? He praised you both on your hard work and attention to detail. He also said you took on an extra task of babysitting some of his artists and did not disappoint him. There was even mention of offering you both positions in the company following your graduation.”

“Papa YG- I mean, President Yang actually said all of that?” I asked. “He never said anything like that to us.”

“He told me that he didn’t. He prefers to say the good things in private to others, because the bad things are what make you work harder.”

“That’s Papa YG alright,” Dakota said in Korean.

“He’s such a troll it’s ridiculous,” I said.

“Well it seems as though your language skills are definitely up to par,” Mr. Drummond said with a laugh.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “We’ve been switching back and forth a lot lately.”

“It’s no problem. It’s proof that you learned something on your travels.”

“It’s hard not to learn when the people you’re with refuse to speak English to you,” Dakota said.

“Excuse me?”

“The guys we were staying with refused to speak English to us for a while when we first got there,” I explained. “So it was either learn quickly or continue to let them talk about us, so we learned.”

“You speak fondly of these boys.”

“We’re fond of them,” I replied.

“That seems evident,” he said. He looked at some papers on his desk. “It’s not very often that we send students abroad and they come back in your condition, Ms. McDaniel.”

“You say that as if we’re all supposed to come back this way,” I said.

“It’s not that. It’s just a surprise is all.”

“Is there anything else you need from us? We’re still kind of adjusting back to the time change,” Dakota interrupted.

“Uh…no. If you’ve turned all your paperwork into the secretary, then we should be all set,” Mr. Drummond said.

“Thank you. We’ll be going then,” Dakota said. She got up and left and I followed behind her. She didn’t speak again until we got back to the car. “I don’t like the way he was talking to you,” she said.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”

“I don’t care what he meant. He didn’t have the right to comment on anything that wasn’t related to school, so he should mind his damn business.”

I chuckled to myself. “If you say so Kota. Now, take me to get my truck so we can turn this rental in.”

Dakota kept mumbling as we put our stuff in our apartment and I got my truck. I followed her to the rental place, and then we both went to my mom’s house which was only a short drive from the school. She was on the couch in the living room watching Family Feud when we got there.

“We’re here mommy!” I said, coming through the door.

She turned around, startled to have company. “Are you sure you’re my daughter? You don’t look like the same girl who left here a year ago.”

“It’s me mom.”

“Hello Dakota. Come here, both of you. Let me take a good look at you.”

“Why are you talking like an old woman?” I asked, going to hug her. “You’re not that old.”

“You’re right, I can’t retire so I’m not old enough,” she said back. “So where’s this Panda boy I have yet to meet?”

“He’s in Korea mom,” and not answering his damn phone I added mentally. “We may have left, but they still had to work. You’ll meet him eventually.”

“I’m gonna knock him upside his head when I meet him too,” she said. “Gonna get my child pregnant and didn’t even have the audacity to marry her first…”

“Leah, you didn’t tell your mom?” Dakota asked.

“Tell me what?”

“SeungRi proposed to me. I swore I called you when it happened,” I said.

“No you did not call me. I’m not old enough to forget something like that,” my mom huffed. “Where’s your ring? How are you supposed to get married and he’s in another country? Not to mention the fact that you have school and you’re about to have a child.”

“One thing at a time mom,” I said. I showed her the ring and she shook her head. “What?”

“You always did like silver jewelry,” she commented. “Now what about the rest of it?”

“Well, that part hasn’t really been figured out,” I admitted. “Please don’t start about it mama. I can’t deal with it.”

“I’m not gonna say anything. Have you talked to your father?” she asked.

“He knows I’m home.”

“Does he know anything else?”

“He knows I’m home,” I repeated.

She shook her head. “You’ll have to tell him eventually.”

“I will…when Hana is born and I send him the pictures,” I replied.

“You always have to be difficult, don’t you?” Dakota asked.

“I just don’t want to deal with him,” I said. “You heard the conversation when I changed my major to English. Do you think he’s going to react well to me being pregnant? Oh, and not just pregnant, but hooked up with a musician. Nah, I can wait to have that talk.”

“You’re going to have to have a baby shower,” Dakota said.

“That’s true,” my mother agreed. “You’re going to need brand new everything. Not to mention that we should probably start cleaning out that other room to turn it into Hana’s room.”

“What kind of baby stuff do you like? I was thinking Precious Moments but…”

I tuned Dakota and my mother out to check on my phone. Still no Panda, and nothing from Youngbae either. I knew Papa YG tended to work the boys hard when they were preparing for something, but they usually got a couple breaks to rest. I should have heard something by now. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down.

“Kota, have you heard from TOP or any of the others?”

Dakota paused mid-rant to think. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t,” she said.

“What’s going on?” my mom asked.

“We haven’t heard from the guys we were staying with since we got back home. They won’t call, or text back.”

“Didn’t you say they were starting back on promotions? They’re probably just working,” my mom said.

I shook my head. “Panda wouldn’t ignore me like this. Something’s up.”

“Leah’s right Ms. Lisa. No matter how tired they are, or how late it is, they should have contacted us by now.”

“I’m going to call the house phone,” I told Dakota. I left the room we were in and went to the kitchen. After a little bit frustration involving the phone company, I got through to the landline in the hostel that no one but Papa YG called. If the boys didn’t answer, then I knew something was wrong. Six times the phone rang before I hung up, close to tears. Where the hell are they? I’m going to kill them all if I don’t hear from them by the end of the week.

I walked back into the living room, and Dakota could tell by the look on my face that I wasn’t bearing good news. She tried to comfort me, but I waved her off. I wasn’t going to worry about it. For one, I was not JiYong, and secondly, the last time I stressed too hard there were disastrous results (of which my mother was not aware of) that I wanted to avoid this time around.

“We still have work to do in the morning Kota, we should probably get going,” I said. It was totally not a big deal for us to stay with my mom for the night, but I really just wanted to get away just in case I did break down. She nodded and we headed for the door.

“Come see me tomorrow so we can go register you somewhere,” my mom said, standing in the doorway. “Be careful.”

“Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow,” I said. I got in the car and backed out, heading to campus. We were starting to get tired, and I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything to eat at home so we stopped by a Chinese restaurant for some take out before we went in for the night. I took my food into my room and closed the door behind me before Dakota could try to get me to talk to her. In solitude I ate my food, and when I said my prayers that night, I prayed fervently for some kind of sign that everything was still okay.