“I can’t believe Kent stole the money and then wanted to marry you and live in the exact replica of your old house. So weird.” I shuddered and tossed that clamshell far into the waves.
“It’s disgusting.” Channing started walking again.
“Twisted. Guilt can do that,” I said, running up to her.
“And get you caught.”
“The confusing part was I thought Minjae would try to reach me through Signal, but he thought Kent had found a way into my phone so he didn’t dare. He suspected we were being surveilled, too. It’s probably how Kent knew we were at Jutting Rock that day. So, Minjae didn’t want to risk it. Poor Minjae thought by staying away he was keeping me safe.”
“I’m glad Mrs. Ku was talking to his mother. Why didn’t he get a message through her to us?”
Channing shook her head. “Too much of a risk. Mrs. Ku is better friends with Kent’s family. Anyway, didn’t matter. Mai told him everything when she picked him up at the airport. He would have stayed in Boston and found some way.Shewas going to carry paper messages between us.”
I laughed with tears pricking my eyes. “More love notes?” I’d admitted to her about reading his letter and a page or two of her journal when I gave them back to her.
“She’s so sweet. We’re going to take her and her husband out on the town before we leave.”
“I love that.”
“You and Paul, too. You should come.”
“We should buy the Yuns a real gift, and I’ll give Paul something or we’ll host him when I’m back in New York. He said he’s applying to schools there,” I said.
She stopped walking and touched my arm. “Oh really? The only person he knows in New York is you.”
“I might be able to get him a job after he finishes school, that’s all it is,” I said, but I was glad he’d be around.
“If you say so. You’ll be like Alice and Jesse, finding each other in New York.”
I shook my head. “Not so fast.”
“Just promise you’ll give him a chance.”
“It takes a lot to be as hopeful as you are,” I said.
“I have the best example in Harabeoji. He was lucky in love. It had to be true for me, too—and for you,” she said.
“I miss him.”
“Yeah, me too. Though I feel him with me. Breaking into Kent’s security was hard, but I felt Harabeoji was with me the whole way.”
At that moment, a voice called from the direction of the water. Minjae was standing in the surf and waving at Channing to join him. “Race you,” he shouted.
“Guess the volleyball game is over,” she said.
“Go,” I replied. She hugged me and took off. I watched Channing and Minjae dive cleanly into the surf and swim, their arms in synchronized motion, striking out for the horizon.
Chapter 45
I didn’t intend to take a year off from my teaching job, but here I was now still in East End well into the school year. The teacher they’d hired to replace me was working out well, and I was not needed. My principal was apologetic and promised to offer me a position the following year, since a few teachers at the school were planning to retire or transfer. After the initial lump of panic in my throat, I found myself excited. Now I could travel with Channing and Minjae to South Korea. We’d driven to Boston to retrieve her passport, and she’d been able to renew it faster than we expected after paying an expediting fee. I went to New York to pack a change of clothes and get my passport, then returned to fly to Seoul from Boston with Channing, Minjae, and Paul.
Early November was a good time to visit. Paul was going to join us for the first leg of the trip so I wouldn’t be alone with the lovebirds. To say the flight was long would be an understatement, especially in coach. Luckily the four of us sat together in the middle row, which meant we didn’t have a window to look out of, but at least we didn’t have to sit with strangers. We got the first row in the cheap section so we could stretch out our legs. Watching five and a half movies with Paul also helped.
First stop was Seoul. Minjae wanted Channing to meet his mother and his ex-fiancée. We stayed in a high-rise hotel in Myeongdong that had the fanciest toilets I’d ever seen and a pair of parachutes under the window incase of fire. No wonder I felt safe on the fourteenth floor. Channing had read about the famous night market in that neighborhood—the reason we slept there instead of in Gangnam, where Minjae’s mother’s apartment was located and where he and Paul stayed. It was fun to have time together, just me and Channing, wandering around the market and eating a variety of food without the boys after such a long flight. The next morning, we woke early for a special buttery, thick breakfast toast made with bulgogi. Then the boys came and walked us down the street to the biggest indoor food court I’d ever seen.
Minjae said his ex-fiancée wanted to meet Channing. I thought we should meet his mother first, but schedules were hard to arrange. Apparently, his mother was busy in the mornings. The Lotte food court was twenty times the size of anything that Mai had wanted to build in East End, and I wished she’d come someday to see this. All kinds of savory and sweet offerings in the displays around us as well as individual restaurants sectioned off.
While we waited for the ex-fiancée to arrive, we witnessed a cluster of teenagers run to a bakery case as fresh-baked squid-ink pastries hit the shelves. After they left, I went over and bought one for us to taste. Minjae warned it was heavy, so I bought only one. He was right. It was a rich, mochi-textured small football of deliciousness with sweet nuts.
