“Dahee, go to bed,” he said to me as if I were a child. Then he turned to Channing, who had taken another couple of steps away from him. “Tonight you needed my help so I came, and tonight is when I need yoursso you’ll do the same for me,” he began. He wasn’t going to let it go; I could hear it in his voice.
Channing must have understood it, too. She said, “Okay. Dahee can come with us.”
“Dahee said she was tired,” he replied.
“I’ll come,” I said, and hurried after Channing, who was already out the door.
“It’s not necessary, Dahee,” Kent said, remaining in the foyer.
I didn’t know what to do.
Channing looked back from the driveway. “Wait right there by the door,” she said to me as if I were going to disappear. Her words seemed to release a great sigh from him and set him in motion out into the night.
“I’m coming anyway,” I called, and followed them.
The gray clouds were ominously low. I left the door wide open behind us in case we had to dash back in. There wasn’t a moon or stars. Just this wind that was cold, ribbons of it around me eddying now, not as forceful as the one that had accompanied Kent. I kept my distance to appease him. I wanted him to free Channing as soon as possible. Her hair wafted out over her face, and she raised a hand to clear it. Kent’s hand went up, too, toward her brow, and she shrank back.
They stood there for a long while by his car with Kent talking endlessly. My cousin’s shoulders slumped more with each passing minute. She shook her head and moved her arm away when he touched it. I didn’t feel she was in danger, but it was more than an annoyance the way this man wanted her time and attention in exchange for his help that night.
It dragged on, so I finally thought it was appropriate to say something—as if any of this was appropriate. It was confusing to me, but I knew that Channing really needed this job. I walked closer to them and repeated that it was late. Kent turned his head in my direction.
At that moment Channing looped her arm around Kent’s shoulder in ahalf hug and only after that did he open his car door and get in. As soon as the door shut, she turned and sprinted toward me.
“Thanks for saving me from that cop. Sorry you had to call Kent,” I said as we entered the house.
She shuddered. “See what he makes me do?”
Chapter 12
The next morning, Channing seemed dejected, but she wouldn’t tell me why. All she kept saying was how Harabeoji and I were going to leave soon. I told her I wasn’t in a rush to return to New York. We could stay one more day at the very least. This seemed to raise her spirits.
“Have you heard from Minjae?” I asked. The boys had eaten breakfast and run to the living room to play video games. Channing had her laptop open on the kitchen table. The screen showed a woman and a man chasing each other around a field before falling into each other’s arms.
“We should go somewhere fun with the kids today,” I said.
“It’s going to rain,” she replied with her eyes on the K-drama.
The forecast on my phone said no such thing. Through the windows of the house the sky was a clear robin’s egg blue.
I called Harabeoji and passed the phone to Channing, and in seconds he had her agreeing to go to the beach for the whole day. When we told the children, Edison said he hated the sand. Austin said he loved it. They started arguing.
“We’ll go somewhere you both like,” Channing said. I didn’t know how we’d accomplish that, but maybe we’d figure it out as we went along. That was Channing’s style—in the moment, impromptu. We called Harabeoji and told him we were on our way.
When the doorbell rang, I was astonished. Had he been dropped offhere by the Yuns? Was it Kent again? I needn’t have worried. My cousin smiled before she launched out of her chair and sprinted down the hall. The rational part of me told myself to be cautious.
From the sound of her voice and a man’s greeting, I wondered if she knew Minjae was coming, though when I asked her afterward, she swore she didn’t give him her phone number the night of the Yuns’ cookout.
When I walked out to the hallway, the front door was wide open. I went to see how our plans were going to change. Channing and Minjae were sitting on the top step, looking at the street, their shoulders touching. He spoke quietly, leaning into her, and she had her head tilted toward him.
I said hello and he turned his head, squinted his eyes at me, and said, “Hi, Dahee. It’s such a great day. The sky is the bluest I’ve ever seen. Have you ever seen a sky like this?” And then he pointed to some wisps of clouds in the distance to prove his point.
“I don’t know, is it?” Channing teased.
He nodded. “Now it is.”
Channing blushed.
“Are you two coming in or what?” I asked.
