“How so?” she wondered.
“Because I’m constantly surrounded by XY chromosomes, so I understand what it must be like for him,” I stated, and Bae smiled at me sheepishly.
“Wynter would love that,” Bae empathized. “To have someone to understand that part of him…well any part of him—he’s a little odd but that’s okay!”
“Oh!” Sydney gasped at Bae’s forwardness. “You’re incredibly forthcoming aren’t you?”
“Oh, you have no idea, this is her being tame!” Jiwon gestured for us to follow her upstairs. “Don’t worry you’ll get used to it, now come on!”
Sydney and I turned to give each other the same knowing look, her saying that we would get used to it, insinuating that they intended to keep us around to find out. And that, that feeling of knowing that you werewanted, the feeling of knowing that you were being considered. It was new, and it was lovely. And so we followed Jiwon and Bae up the winding staircase into the hallway to their bedrooms. Bae’s room was wide open and carried the strong scent of paint fumes—they told us to avoid it for now. There were four bedrooms upstairs, just the rightnumber for their family. Almost as if this house was made for them right from the very start.
“This is my humble abode, come in come in!” Jiwon insisted. The furniture was all over the place and she had a giant bookshelf in the corner lined up with everything from classic literature to romantic Japanese mangas. “I have very diverse taste.”
“A refined palate if you will,” I added and she giggled.
“See? You get it,” she said, “reading Charles Dickens by day and unspeakable animated love triangles by night.”
“Ah the intricacies of womanhood!” Sydney marvelled, “I too readLittle Womenby day and boyband fanfiction on the internet after hours, it’s rather thrilling, actually very invigorating for the mind."
“I have found my people!” Jiwon mused. “Thank God.”
“You must read a lot…” I noticed the typewriter on her desk too. “And write.”
“Ah yes, delusion is my true calling, I’ve known that for a long time,” Jiwon tells us as I help her move her desk into place and Sydney helps alphabetically organize her bookshelf, as one does, of course.
“I just like making things up. People seem to think I’m really good at it too.”
And as she spoke about books and words and fantasy, there was a glimmer in her eye that I hadn’t quite spotted before—perhaps it was only ignited by that which truly fueled her soul. She was beautiful when she was talking, I wanted her to talk to me more about anything and everything. All I knew is that I would listen. Jiwon Kwon was easy to listen to, and effortlessly interesting.
“So where are you guys moving here from, what brings you to Monterey?” Sydney questioned.
“The accent wasn’t a dead giveaway, huh? I would’ve thought a Union Jack would’ve been hovering over my head like a Sim the minute I spoke,” she joked and we laughed. “We grew up in Nottingham, but we move a lot, usually we just go wherever Wynter takes us.”
“Nottingham, huh? Fancy,” Sydney marvelled, “do you miss it there, miss your friends and family I mean?”
“Our family lives in Seoul, and as for friends we usually tend to not get too close when we make those, considering the fact that we are such transient creatures in every place we move to,” Jiwon explained as we pushed her bed frame into place as well. “Bae and Wynter are more so the social butterflies than Beck and I, we tend to live in our worlds.”
“Ah you’re half Korean!” Syd realized a little too late. “And your other half?”
“English. My dad met my mom in university,” Jiwon told us, “a story far better than any on my shelves that’s for sure.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Your room is really pretty, you’ve got lots of cool stuff in here.” I glanced at the boxes full of assorted trinkets.
“Thanks, it’s a mess right now as you can tell, but I’ll get things in order soon once we settle in,” she promised.
Just then we heard the front door open and conversation downstairs. “Ah! Jiwon beamed. “Beck and Wynter are back from the bakery, they’ll come up to say hi soon.”
I don’t know why the mention of saying hi to Wynter Kwon, a boy I barely knew a damn thing about at the time, made my stomach do flips like it did. I was far more nervous than I ever was before any recital, and I had come to the conclusion that I had to have been losing my mind. I was acting entirely beside myself.
“Jiwon where’s my hair curler, I know you have it!” Beck stormed upstairs, pushing open the door, frustration evident in her expression. “Oh.”
“I don’t even curl my hair, I don’t have it,” Jiwon refuted.
“Hi!" Sydney beamed, waving excitedly. “I’m Syd, I live next door and this is Yesoh, so does she.”
“Uh huh…cool,” Beck acknowledged absentmindedly. “You’re the girls our dad’s insisting we hang out with?”
“Well yes,” I answered, and she shook her head slowly.
