Jisoo shrieked and jumped behind Julia, dropping the phone.
Julia bent down, scrambling to pick it up.
“Yes, hello, Mr. Lim? As I was saying...” She was huffing and puffing. And what was it she was saying? Julia took a deep breath to steady herself. “Mr. Lim, please excuse my earlier word vomit. I mistook you for someone my mother was trying to set me up on a date with, and though I am now officially mortified, I do not want to miss out on the opportunity to meet and discuss Starlight with you. If you wouldn’t mind erasing everything that happened today from your memory and just sending over the time and place to meet, I would be most appreciative.”
His chuckle didn’t completely erase Julia’s embarrassment, but it helped a tiny bit. “I’m an unmarried man in my thirties with my own Korean mother, Julia. I get it.”
Thank God.
“I actually only have a minute, so let me get right to it. I wanted to see if we could meet sometime in the next few weeks. I’ll be coming over from Korea to visit family in California, so it just so happens that I’ll be in town. I was hoping we could begin discussions about investment. I thought an in-person meeting would be nice. If your schedule allows—”
“It allows, yes. And thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Great. I’ll email over a calendar invite.”
“Great, thank you.”
Julia dropped her phone and collapsed onto the plush carpet.
“Your life is a real-life K-drama rom-com, Julia,” Jisoo said, coming to sit down beside her on the carpet.
Julia turned her head to face her. “On a scale of one to ten, how emb—”
“There is not a number high enough.”
Julia closed her eyes and groaned.
Great. Just great.
10
Little Brother
Tae
“Taehyung-ah, take these tangerines home to your parents. The vitamin C is good for you. And here is some kimchi I made last week. It should be just ripe enough to eat.”
“Thank you,” Tae said. He bowed to Mrs. Chung, whose husband had died unexpectedly last year. She was about the same age as Tae’s halmoni would have been if she were still alive, and Tae had a soft spot for her. He agreed to do any and all work she needed done and always prioritized fixing things around her house. He even made it a point to check in on her if he hadn’t heard from her in a few days.
“And,” she said, dropping her voice even though it was just the two of them in the house, “this is for you.” She passed him an envelope, and Tae received it with both hands and a bow.
“Thank you. I’ll be going now. Let me know if you need anything else, anytime.”
“Thank you, Tae. You are such a good boy,” she said as she walked him to his car then went inside.
Tae opened the envelope to find twenty dollars. His gas to her home would cost more than that. But he never talked money with the people he helped. Some paid him a lot, even more thanwhat was fair. And others didn’t. He knew that they’d given what they could afford.
It had been a long day. Tae sat in his car and rubbed his eyes when his phone rang.
“Hello?”
“My mom didn’t even warn me,” Julia said. “She didn’t tell me she’d found someone, and just out of the blue he called me.”
“Who called you?”
“Michael Lee from Fullerton. And Jisoo heard it all. Oh God.” Julia sounded miserable.
“Jules, who is Michael Lee from Fullerton?”
