Four Months Later, September

Autumn in Seoul is a pleasant time of year for most people. The changing of the trees, the intense desire to eat heavier soups, wear orange and stock up on scarves. This was no different for Luna. After spending the rest of her summer in Japan, she was glad to be back....home. No doubt, The Bronx was her real home, but Seoul was her home by choice and by feel. She moved to Seoul directly after graduating from Columbia and passing her Foreign Service Exam. Luckily for her, someone got home sick and decided to drop out of the service right as she was supposed to be going to Mexico instead.

For this days assignment, Luna had 2 school visits. This was her favorite part of the job. Going into the schools around Seoul's many neighborhoods and talking to the kids about what kind of opportunities they could have in the U.S. if they studied hard enough. That usually only took about 10 minutes of the allotted hour.

She always started her presentations pretending that she didn't know Korean. The looks of shock and surprise when she switch over never got old to her. Then, to become at ease with them, Luna became a walking encyclopedia of dumb jokes. The kids were seldom rude and disrespectful, they were just curious. They would grill her about the cultural differences, foods and such. No, she had never met the President. No, she didn't live near any movie stars. And no, she could not give the boys Beyonce's phone number. The majority of the kids only knew that L.A and New York existed. All that land in between was purely inconsequential.

Her first class was in the morning, so after she finished speaking, she stayed for lunch with the students. She had no set lunch hour and could make her schedule as flexible as she wanted, but she liked eating with the kids. It made her feel like a celebrity that all the kids wanted to take pictures with her and sit near to her while eating. When her second class at a high school wrapped up, she drove back to the embassy in no particular hurry.

Once she stepped foot in the door, Nancy told her to go see Dave, her supervisor. He was on the phone with an annoyed look on his face when she knocked on the door. He waved her in and she took a seat.

“....yes, I know. …..uh huh.....no, that isn't what I want either.....no, Kathy.....Kathy.....KATHY! I'm at work. I'll call you back” and hung up quickly. Luna asked if everything was okay.

“No, not really. My wife swears she found a lump in her . For the third time this year.” Dave rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Luna was used to this bit of drama. Dave's wife, Kathy, thought that the life of a Foreign Service spouse would be far more interesting that it proved to be. All the travel and exotic places......are a pain in the at times, really. For some reason, Kathy just assumed that everyone would speak English no matter where they went. Idiot woman, Luna thought with an eye roll of her own.

“Did she go to the hospital?” Luna asked to be polite, but she knew the coming answer.

“Nope. She says the doctor 'doesn't understand' her. Pfft. Dr. Cha speaks better English than I do. I think she's bored and you know what that means”.

“How long are you going to be gone this time?” she asked with a sigh.

“Depends. I tried to talk her into just going back to the States until I rotate again, but she feels her place is by my side,” Luna responded with an 'uh huh'. “Same deal as last time?”

“I take your place. I do you're paperwork. I attend the boring meetings. I make the staff schedules. I deal with granting special visas. I get all the personnel headaches. I get all that wonderful, extra responsibility and no pay increase.”

“Don't be like that, Lu. I've recommended you for a supervisor position on more than one occasion. You know you're damn good at your job and I'm a mess when you leave to cover the other embassies. But you haven't been in the Service long enough for it to seem 'fair' to some of the people who've worked here longer. It's bureaucratic bull.” she nodded in agreement.

“I know it's not lost on the rest of the team that you're the only other Korean speaker in this place. And the only Japanese speaker until Stacy comes to visit. And your Spanish and French are more than passable. I acknowledge that you are probably more qualified to do my job than I am. Hell, why would you even want my job? You love being out there with the kids.”

“Money, Dave. Money and benefits.” he laughed at her for that one. If there was anyone less money hungry on earth than Luna, that person was likely wearing a saffron robe. Luna grabbed her bag and told Dave to just let h