“I’ll get more. It’s in Little Brookton now, forty-five minutes to get out there—a nice drive,” Minjae said.
“That place brings up so many memories. I loved Little Brookton. We used to go when I was a kid,” she said to him.
“A lighthouse all the way out on the end,” he replied, and they smiled at each other again.
“Such a cute harbor.”
People in love could be so boring.
“That’s good, but you should lie down so you can pick up the kids later,” I said. “You know Harabeoji and I are leaving tomorrow.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t go today then?” Minjae said, and reached for her hand. She opened her palm and laced his fingers through her own.
“More reason for us to go today. I don’t want to take all your supply,” she said to him. “Let me grab a sweater and we could go?” She stood up. She looked at me and said, “You could come if you want, we can take the SUV.”
I shook my head. “You two go without me,” I said. I didn’t want to listen to their sugary conversation all morning.
When she left the kitchen, I told Minjae I wanted to talk with him again. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He looked at me over the tops of his eyes. “Sure, let’s do it,” he replied.
“Why aren’t you working today?” I asked.
He straightened his posture and tilted his head at me. “I know it looks like I don’t have a job, but I do. A lot of what I do is research online, so I make my own hours.”
“What do you do exactly?” I asked. I knew I sounded harsh.
“I basically analyze data for projects in the area.”
“So you do what Channing does,” I said.
At the sound of her name, clear joy spread across his face. He grinned as he said, “Similar enough, but the majority of my work is different.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have attempted to understand, but this time it was important. What was the status of his job? Did he make money?
“For who? Who do you study the data for?”
“East End Land Trust and a few others that work with the town,” he replied.
“How involved is Kent in those projects?” I asked, and saw the implication dawn on his face.
“Kent can’t fire me. I don’t work for him, though he wants everyone to think he’s making all the deals. He’s not. But yeah, I know him. The first time I met him we were kids; he was way older and wanted to play with us instead of the teenagers his age. That was weird.”
A new worry popped into my mind. “Are you saying he was fixated on younger kids?”
He looked startled and shook his head. “No, nothing like that. More like he wanted to be our leader. But we didn’t let him. He thought he could beat us at video games or football, which he should have, he was so much bigger than us. But Channing was better than him, better than all of us. At everything. She crushed me in chess.” His face brightened as he said her name.
I let out a sigh of relief. “I remember a lot of kids in Channing’s room playing video games,” I said.
“Yeah, Ames and Byeol, Seoyun, Gillian—” Minjae gazed off into the distance.
“I bet you were in love with all the girls,” I said, looking around for my cousin. I expected her to return anytime now.
Minjae let out a laugh. “Me? Back then? Chased a girl once and didn’t know what to do when I got her.”
“What’s special about Channing then?” I asked.
He lowered his chin and looked shyly at me. “Everything.”
“You met her when you were kids, so why not stay in touch if she meant so much to you?”
