He laughed. “God, yes.”
“Okay.” My mind scrambled for some nonsense to talk about, some minutiae that had nothing to do with whatever was going.
“Tell me about Australia,” I said eventually. “Were you born there?”
“No,” he answered, sounding a little surprised at the question. “I moved there when I was four or five.”
“Why?” I prompted.
Tae laughed. “I don’t know what I expected from this conversation, but a bio wasn’t it.”
“What’s wrong with asking where you’re from? I didn’t think it was a secret. You sound like Crocodile Dundee, so if subtle was the plan, you’ve failed.”
He laughed again, loudly, and there was another sound, like the flumping noise a person makes when they sit down heavily on a sofa.
“It’s not that, but just so we’re clear, he was from the Northern Territories, I’m from Sydney. Not many crocs in the city.”
I made a dismissive sound but I couldn’t help smiling.
He continued. “Nah, it’s just weird being asked something like that, because usually people already know. I can’t remember the last time someone asked me about where I come from because they didn’t know, or just asked about me, actually.”
I couldn’t explain it, but I felt like I could see him frowning as he considered.
“Well, tell me now. I don’t know a damn thing about you.”
He laughed again, and this time I joined in. Just a little.
“Okay, well, I was born in Seoul, but my mum and I moved to Sydney when I was a little kid.”
“Why?” I repeated.
“So nosy,” he said in a teasing voice.
“Friends know this kind of shit about each other, so spill. Friend.”
Tae chuckled, and it was beginning to feel like a default for him.
“Sure, yeah. Okay. My folks divorced when I was little, and mum and I went to live with my aunt in Oz. Dad stayed in Seoul.”
Yikes. I’d been ribbing him as a kind of joke. Now I felt like an arsehole.
“Tae, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Don’t worry about it Ky it’s public knowledge. That’s what I mean though. Everyone I speak to already knows this stuff, or just doesn’t care about my life before Sol8. You don’t know shit. It’s refreshing, honestly.”
I could understand that.
“Did you miss Korea when you moved?”
He made a humming noise and took his time before answering.
“I don’t think so. I don’t really have a lot of family. Dad and his parents are in Korea, but all my aunts, uncles and a couple of cousins are in Oz, so moving over there made more sense, and I was so young. It’s not like I had a ton of friends to leave behind. The hardest thing was learning English.” He chuckled. “Even though we moved to, like, this little pocket of the city where all the families were Korean, it was hard, because my mum wanted us to speak English only.”
“Wow,” I exclaimed, sympathetic to the little boy he’d been. “That must have sucked.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but I think when you’re younger it’s easier.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Tell me about it. I’m twenty-three and I’m struggling trying to remember the difference between nouns and vowel endings in Korean.”
