“Those shoulders...”
“And he’s got the ab thing going on...”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Julia took the hair tie around her wrist and wrapped her hair up into a bun. It was getting hot.
“One thing is for sure. Date number three does not stand a chance,” Sonia said.
Julia thought about what her friends were saying. Julia was attracted to Tae, yes. And if she could pick one person to spendtime with, it would be him. But there was just so much going on for the both of them. It could never work.
Right?
Just like her fears for Starlight, what if she went for it and it failed?
One thing was for sure: it was a risk Julia wasn’t sure she was willing to take yet.
“Halmoni, you’re supposed to tie the gown over here on the side,” Julia said, as she bent to help her grandma close the flimsy piece of worn-out material before the entire nurses’ station got a glimpse of her breasts in all their glory.
“It doesn’t matter, Julia. The tie would offer some modesty if my boobs were still where they were supposed to be. Now that they’re down by my waist, this thing will fly open when I sit down anyways.”
Julia just shook her head at her grandma and laughed. She wasn’t wrong.
She was glad to have some levity in an otherwise-terrifying moment. Halmoni was way more composed than Julia was, and it was her body.
They sat in the waiting area of the radiology department next to a couple other very nervous-looking women. Turns out whenthey found something, it was something irregular in her first scan. Which, ironically, was supposed to be the last mammogram Halmoni would ever be recommended to take at her age. So now they were back for a full 3-D scan. And apparently, since the hospital only had one 3-D mammogram machine, appointments were hard to come by. Julia had to remember to send Jisoo some more product to thank her for getting them this appointment sooner than later.
“Yul Min Song?”
“Yes, over here,” Julia answered.
The tech looked between Julia and her grandmother. “I’m here to interpret,” Julia explained. Julia didn’t technically speakKorean, but she spoke Halmoni, and for some reason, that always seemed to help.
“Oh, okay, great. Well, we’re going to do a 3-D scan of her right breast today. We’ll have the doctor look at the results immediately, and she’ll determine whether the next step of an ultrasound will be required. If so, Ms. Song will have that done today as well. It could take up to a couple of hours, depending.”
Julia swallowed back her fear of the worst-case scenario and nodded. “Grandma, they’re going to take a 3-D scan of your right breast.”
“Okay, I understand,” her grandmother said.
See? Sometimes interpreting just meantthe exact same words beingsaid by someone you trust in a way that isn’t intimidating.
“It will all be okay. And when the doctor talks to you about it, I’ll be there,” Julia said.
“I’ll let you know if I need you,” her grandmother responded. She stood up from the chair and followed the technician to the exam room. She looked so small and in this moment, quite frail. Tears welled in Julia’s eyes. “You wait here.”
“No, I’m going in with you,” Julia insisted.
“Julia, wait here. This is my body. I get to decide how I want the news,” she said.
Julia hated her grandmother going into a cold exam room with a huge machine all alone. She hated it, but she had to respect it. So she nodded and sat back down.
And she waited.
The news couldn’t be good. It had been over an hour. Halmoni had chosen to wait in the exam room. She was avoiding Julia, she knew it.
Which meant it was bad.
Julia couldn’t handle this. Her grandmother was everything to her. She still had a whole life to live. Julia hadn’t even givenher any grandchildren to hold in her arms. Julia had failed her so many times over.
The door of the exam room opened, and Julia jumped out of her spiraling thoughts and onto her feet.
