“Wanna hear something hilarious? I feel like maybe only you will get how cringe this was,” Tae offered.
“Uh, absolutely I wanna hear it,” Julia said.
“Well, Kari told my mom she couldn’t eat her cooking.”
Julia’s jaw dropped. “Oh God. What, allergies?”
“Keto,” Tae answered.
“You brought a keto Korean to your mom’s dinner table? Tae Kim, you know better.”
He laughed. “Maybe we should introduce her to Michael Lee and his brown rice.”
Julia’s eyes danced as she shook her head and laughed.
Tae held her gaze, matching smiles on their faces.
Julia dipped her head, breaking their eye contact. Her hands itched to touch him, to explore all the parts of him she’d never known. Instead, she tried to distract herself walking up to the old dresser lined with framed pictures across the top. Familyphotos from years of love. She traced her fingers along the frames as she took in the Kims at various stages of their lives.
A photo of four caught her eye. It was Tae, Min, Jisoo, and Julia. She recognized it immediately: the last day of Zion Youth Group summer camp, the one final summer all four of them had returned to be counselors. It was the summer after she’d graduated business school, right before Starlight became an idea in her head. When she still had a life outside of work.
Julia smiled and shook her head. She lifted the picture up to Tae. “Our last church camp together, remember?”
He looked at Julia and then at the photo in her hand and smiled. He walked over and stood next to her. Close. So close she thought she could hear his heartbeat. Was it beating as fast as hers? She leaned in, trying not to be obvious, but if she could just get some contact with Tae’s body... just to check...
“That was the night you felt me up,” he said.
Julia jumped back as far away from him as she possibly could.
“Excuse me, what did you just accuse me of?”
“You couldn’t keep your hands off of me,” he said with a wicked smile.
“What are you talking about? You’ve got me confused with someone else.” The only other girl there that night was Jisoo, and Julia didnotwant to think about Jisoo anywhere near Tae.
“Julia, please. You took one look at my abs and you couldn’t control yourself.”
Julia mouth opened in shock. “Oh my God, that was so innocent. I mean that T-shirt was too small for you, and every time you moved your arms, you flashed us your abs. You kept bragging that you had an eight-pack. I needed to verify that that was even possible.”
“Uh-huh.” Tae couldn’t control his laugh.
Julia grabbed the picture from Tae’s hand. “Look, that shirt is tiny on you. And honestly, your abs weren’t that great. Sheesh.” Julia rolled her eyes. In fact, in her memories, his abswere incredible. No skinny nineteen-year-old had any business having abs that ripped.
“Not that great? What? You’re offending me, Julia. I have spectacular abs.”
“Well, you donow.” Julia slapped her hand over her mouth. She had not been sneaking peeks at Tae’s body whatever chance she got. Nope, she wasn’t.
“Oh, do I? And what do you know about my abs?” he teased. He reached his hand down to grab the bottom of his T-shirt. Slowly, he began to lift it, centimeter by whatever-is-smaller-than-a-centimeter.
Julia’s eyes were fixed on the small slip of skin that showed. Too slow. Too slow.
Tae dropped his T-shirt and shook his head. “Older women,” he said and tsked.
“What?Older women? I’m not sixty, Tae. I’m only five years older than you. How dare?”
Tae stepped right up to Julia, so close she had to pull her head back to look into his face. He grabbed her hands and wrapped them around his waist. He placed one hand behind her head, cradling it while the other raked through her hair. Tae leaned in, looking down at her, eyes on fire.
“Exactly, Julia,” he whispered. “You’re only a few years older than me.” He drew himself closer, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips. “So stop using that as an excuse.”
