These next few chapters may be my favorite in the story.

Chapter 18

They stepped off of the plane and Onew cricked his back before suddenly shooting forward with a sudden sneeze. 

He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and then popped his neck. 

There were no direct flights from Korea to Portland, Oregon, where Lex was from.  They had to change planes twice, once in Tokyo and again in San Francisco before finally getting in to Portland arriving almost a full 24 hours after they had first taken off.

“That was ridiculous.”

She rolled her eyes, “We’ll I’m sorry that I don’t live in a massive city.  Besides,” she added with a slight shrug, “I’ve had it take a lot longer than that before.” 

She reached out and pulled on his wrist, silently pointing him in the direction opposite from where he had been heading.

All of this was caught by one of the two cameraman that the show had sent along with them.

It was Thanksgiving in America, and they were capturing the holiday for a Korean audience.  And a part of Thanksgiving was traveling to see your family.

“So, this is basically like Chuseuk, right?” Onew had asked, thinking of the Korean holiday.

She had smiled and nodded, “Very much like Chuseuk, except it’s only one day.”

Onew had been looking forward to it, wanting to meet her family and see where it was that she was coming from.  But the flight, even though Onew was used to flying, had been a mess of transfers and layovers and uncomfortable seats considering that first class had somehow got overbooked on the way from Tokyo to San Francisco and they had been bumped down – Lex and one cameraman in business class and Onew and the other cameraman in coach.  And Lex and Onew had fought over who was to be in business, both saying that the other should take the seat.  The cameramen had smiled and just filmed the scene, thinking that they really looked like a real married couple at that moment. 

He shook his head, at least it was over…for a couple of days anyway until they had to fly back again.

Making their way through immigration at San Francisco had been fun.  Since they were transferring to a domestic flight, they had to go through immigration and get their passports stamped and everything before they actually reached their final airport.  To complicate matters, Onew and the cameramen had to go to a different line than Lex as they were foreigners to America.  She had ended up cooling her heels for almost an hour waiting for the three to clear.  They had to bolt through the airport to make check in and manage to board their connection flight on time.

As though she knew what he was thinking of, she smirked as she s out her hand to snatch up Onew’s suitcase from the conveyer as it went by.  Her eyes darted around the belt as she said, “We have longer layovers on the way back – no mad dashes for the gate I should think.” 

Onew just shook his head, “Your family needs to move to a bigger city.” 

She just started laughing, spotting her bag and grabbing it off.  “Onew, my family doesn’t even live in Portland.  They’re in a suburb – and my mom thinks that is too big.”

*****

Onew watched out the window as they glided through the streets of Portland. 

“There’s my university,” she said suddenly pointing out the window.  “The University of Portland.”

Onew thought it looked terribly impressive.  Suddenly he was reminded that for as smart as the media and variety shows liked to make him out to be, he still only had a high school education.  Lex had graduated from university, and she had aspirations of a Masters degree or even a Doctorate one day.  Here she had studied to become an elementary school teacher and earned herself the degree that had allowed her to move overseas to teach English in Korea.  Without any of that, she wouldn’t have been in Korea to be cast in that reality show in the first place.  Without that casting she wouldn’t have joined the entertainment industry in Korea.  And without that, they never would have met.   

With all of that running through his mind, “Looks nice,” was all he said. 

Onew didn’t know what he was expecting, but when they finally pulled up alongside the street in front of the home that she had grown up in…but well, he wasn’t exactly impressed.  It was another cookie-cutter split-level house, just like all the others on the street.  The only difference was that the siding on her home was a pale yellow when most of the other houses were white or grey or light shades of green or blue.  A rectangle patch of grass lay brown and flat in the chilly air.  A dark blue mini-van and plain black generic sedan sat in the driveway.  There was nothing about it that stood out – except the Welcome Home banner that was displayed inside the wide picture window facing out towards the street.

They stepped out from the car, and Onew heard a shout from inside the house. 

The white front door was wrenched open and people poured form the house.  A teenage boy, Lex’s younger brother Andy used his long legs to lead the pack and crashed into Lex, smothering her in a hug.

“Sis!”

Lex squealed and wrapped her arms around the taller boy.  “Andy!!!!”  Onew could see the muscles in her arms tighten as she held him close to her.  He was at the right angle to see she face.  The sudden calm on her face, the easing of lines that Onew hadn’t even been aware were there, at being with her brother was lovely.  Onew’s smile tugged at his lips seeing her so at ease.

For the first time Onew was aware of just how intense the separation from her family was.  Onew may not be with his family all the time, but they were a couple of hours away at best.  The long plane flight popped into Onew’s mind again, thinking of how hard it would be for Lex to see if her family when she wanted to. 

“My baby…” a small, fragile sounding voice announced.

Lex pulled back from her brother and wiped at a tear that had escaped from her eye.  “Mommy…” she pulled a short woman, who could tuck in under Lex’s chin, towards her.  Her mother’s hair was cut short, barely even grazing the top of her ears.  It was mostly grey with a little bit of a worn out brown still coming through with a few strands.  She looked like a woman who had worked hard her entire life and her body seemed to show it.  Lex was patting her mother’s hair with a delicate hand, as though trying to ensure that the woman wouldn’t break.

Onew was struck by the lack of resemblance.  She had the shape of her mother’s face, but other than that, she really didn’t look like the slight woman at all.  She must look like her father, Onew thought idly.

Lex didn’t talk about her family much, though she would answer questions when asked.  Onew had never pressed her though.  If she didn’t want to share that information on her own then he wasn’t going to make her.  He was kind of hoping though that being here, surrounded by all of her family, might loosen her tongue a bit on the topic.   

The next few hours were a whirl of relatives and new names that sat wrong on his tongue.  Everyone was nice enough, but Onew could feel the jetlag starting to creep in.  A headache that had started somewhere over the Pacific was still there, and the pressure was continuing to build in his head and sinuses.   

As they ate dinner, delivery pizza from Lex’s favorite family-run pizzeria, Onew could feel his eyelids starting to get heavy and hoped that no one was noticing his long blinks. 

Cool fingers touched his temple and Onew relished that feeling for a moment until his foggy mind processed that someone was actually touching him.  Lex’s mother, who was sitting next to him at the table, gave him a gentle smile, one that Onew recognized because it was the same one that he loved to see from Lex, only older and causing more wrinkles to form in the woman’s face.  There was the family resemblance.   

“I’ll show you the shower and where you’re sleeping.” She said softly, pulling him away.  Onew was glad that he understood some English because it would have been terrifying trying to handle this all on his own if he didn’t. 

She opened a small closet at the top of the stairs and pulled out a big fluffy bath towel for Onew to use.  The next door on that side of the hall was partially opened.  She pushed the door all the way open and revealed a small office with a futon against the wall.  The futon was pulled out and was almost the size of a double bed.  There were already sheets and blankets on it. 

“You’ll sleep here,” she said simply.

Light feet took to the stairs and suddenly Lex’s face was peeking around the doorway.  “Everything alright?” she asked in Korean.

In English, Onew answered, “Your mom is showing me my room.”

Lex smiled at her mother with a little laughter in her eyes.  “Thanks mom,” she whispered.

She turned back to Onew, “Do you want to shower tonight or in the morning?”

“Um,” Onew stuttered out a yawn, “t-t-t-tonight would be nice…” finished with another yawn and a slight sniffle.

She laughed at him, “I got it mom, they just brought out the ice cream if you want to go and grab some.”

The whole conversation was held in rather hushed speech, and though the words and information being shared was utterly ordinary, the moment felt overwhelmingly intimate between these two women. 

Her mother nodded and gently patted Onew’s elbow before bumping past Lex to head down stairs once more.  “Sleep well you two.”

She stopped in the doorway though and turned around to look at the pair, “You two look good.”  She said simply.  And with that she slipped away.