Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter Nine

Nae Chingu (My Friends) 

Chapter Nine

Two Years Earlier...

It was Jong Hwa's special night and I wanted to look appropriate so Mae Ri was helping me get dressed or rather, she was dressing me completely since I mostly had nothing but jeans or sweatpants in my wardrobe for when I wasn't in school--none of which was particularly appropriate for tonight's events. Jong Hwa would be receiving an award for his exemplary math skills during the National Math Olympia wherein he won first place. That's how I found myself at this god awful clothing store that held absolutely no clothes I would buy if it wasn't for these special circumstances. It was also the night I would meet Jong Hwa's parent's for the first time so I wanted to leave a good impression--unlike the first impression I'd left with Mae Ri's parents. I still shudder when I thought about it and could still see Mae Ri's horrified face in my mind. It was a miracle that her parents had accepted me at all; not only had I walked into their house with my shoes on, huge faux pas number one, but then I'd been completely informal when delivering my introductory speech and then capped it off by holding out my hand for a handshake. At the time I hadn't been able to coherently switch between formal and informal situations in the Korean society but fortunately after Mae Ri frantically explained the situation to them, they'd forgiven me in lieu of my western upbringing. However after that day, I'd made sure that I never made those mistakes again.

    "What's wrong with this," Mae Ri asked while holding up a dress that was completely against everything I believed clothes should look like. First, it was floral; second, it looked like something my grandmother would have worn in the sixties. It was a long-sleeved dress with a crew neck line that had solid black lapels with little flowers embroidered on it--as were the black cuffs at the end of the sleeves. The skirt itself was black and pleated which wasn't so bad if it hadn't been attached to the top. To make matters worse, it was pink floral. I didn't do pink, in fact, I didn't own even one article of clothing that was wholly pink.

    "What isn't wrong with it," I muttered and she pouted as she put it back on the rack.

    "I liked it," she grumbled.

Yeah, and you also like standing out, I though to myself. I kept looking for things that would be appropriate but every item I picked out, she deemed depressing. Granted, most of the pieces I picked out were black but to me black was fashionable--and slimming. I had lost about twenty pounds after coming to Korea but I still hadn't achieved the slimness that most Koreans exhibited which was much to my dismay.

Our shopping continued on like this for another hour before we finally found something that we both could agree on. It was a chocolate brown dress that perfectly matched my dark complexion and hung to my knees which would make it bearable in this August heat. It had half-length sleeves and was surprisingly light despite it's opaque appearance. Mae Ri wasn't satisfied with just the dress and made me buy an orange scarf to add color. I actually liked the swooped neckline of the dress but bought the scarf to shut Mae Ri up. I drew the line at the orange heels she insisted would match the scarf.

    "Absolutely not," I said for the fourth time as the cashier rang up my purchases.

    "But Ril Li," Mae Ri kept insisting and even tried to get the cashier to agree with her--which she did--but I was entirely sure it's because she wanted the sale and not because she actually thought the shoes matched.

    "Ya," I warned her. I loved Mae Ri but she wanted everyone to be as colorful as she was and I just...wasn't.

    "Joh-ah*," she finally put them back and came back with a pair of brown heels instead.

    "What are those," I stared at them as if they'd bite me.

    "The shoes you're wearing tonight," she said snottily and put them on the counter.

    "Mae Ri-ya," I said in my best warning tone.

    "Ril Li," she emphasized my name by slamming her hand on the counter. "They're brown, they match your dress and you're wearing them even if I have to buy them," because I still wasn't as fluent as to catch fast Korean, I didn't understand every word but I did understand one thing, I was wearing them tonight so I grudgingly added them to my pile of purchases. At least they weren't orange, I thought.

We went our separate ways after that to get ready for the ceremony and decided to meet back up at the school later along with Ji Soo. I wasn't much of a make-up girl so I simply applied blush, eyeliner and some lip gloss--fancy way of saying chapstick--and called it a night. Originally I had planned on leaving my hair down but felt it didn't really go with the style of the dress and put it back into a bun instead. I checked the internet for different ways to wear a scarf and settled on letting it hang off one shoulder. Even I had to admit it looked cool.Then I slipped on the surprisingly comfy heels and headed to the bus stop.

Per usual, I arrived earlier than the others but I was okay with that because it allowed me time to find a nice, quiet corner to--

    "Ril Li!" Mae Ri called my name loudly from across the auditorium and it echoed around the room. So much for quiet, I thought as I turned around to greet her.

    "Mae Ri," I smiled at her. She was, after all, my closest friend in Korea. She pulled a not-so-smiling Ji Soo behind her. "Annyeonghaseyo, Lee Ji Soo-ssi," Ji Soo and I weren't very close but since he was Jong Hwa's best friend, I tried to be as friendly as I could be but he mostly treated me indifferently.

    "Eung, Annyeong," Ji Soo nodded in my direction before actively looking elsewhere. I sighed inwardly but didn't say anything else to him and focused on Mae Ri.

    "I like the scarf" Mae Ri adjusted the scarf slightly and gave me a thumbs up.

    "I had to look up how to wear it and this seemed the coolest so--"

    "It goes with the dress," Ji Soo said quietly in my direction before looking over his shoulder again. I would have disregarded his comment except Mae Ri's face broke into a big smile and she nodded excitedly indicating I should say something back to him

    "Geurae? Kamsaham--"

    "I said it went with the dress, not that it was the best ensemble ever," Ji Soo said, cutting me off. "Stop being so formal, I hate formalities. Aren't you older than us?"

I was so taken aback by his harsh demeanor that I didn't think before I said, "It's called being polite, you might want to learn it."

Mae Ri, for once, stayed absolutely quiet and Ji Soo looked at me like he'd never seen me before. Luckily, I was saved from a retort when a woman walked up behind Mae Ri and Ji Soo and said hello. Ji Soo stared at me for another second longer before embracing the newcomer.

When the woman pulled back, she exchanged pleasantries with Ji Soo and Mae Ri for a few minutes during which time I contemplated the different ways I could slip away unseen before the impending introductions that were bound to come my way. Ugh, why did I wear such an eye-catching scarf again? Oh right...Mae R. I glared at the back of her head which was the exact moment that the woman looked at me.

    "Is something wrong," the woman asked me directly. I would have given up my soul to pagens to disappear right then.

    "What? Oh no," I had unconsciously switched back to English and she simply stared at me. "I mean," I quickly thought of the translation, "Ani." Mae Ri grimaced at me and I caught myself and tacked on "eh-yo!" to make it formal. I pretended to be coughing but I don't think she bought it for a second.

    "Ji Soo, who is this," she asked but not like she actually wanted to know the answer.

    "Nae Chingu, Lily," and the best I could do was stare at Ji Soo who smiled at me like we hadn't just had a rude exchange earlier.

    "'Nae...Chingu'?" I stuttered while Mae Ri broke out into a huge smile again.

    "Mulloniji*," Ji Soo chucked me on the shoulder as if introducing me as his friend wasn't a completely surprising turn of events.

I found out later that the woman was Jong Hwa's mother. Ji Soo also confessed to not liking me before that evening because he found me uninteresting and therefore didn't put forth the effort to getting to know me. Luckily for me, that changed when I spoke back to him and we've been friends ever since. Jong Hwa received his high honors that night and his parents treated us all to dinner. After I'd gotten home, I cried and thanked whatever higher power was listening for giving me such good friends in Korea.

***

Present Day...

I could have swore it dropped another ten degrees by the time we reached Jong Hwa's house but he refused to take the jacket back despite the temperature. It only added to my guilt and I swore I'd make this up to him. During the bus ride I had tried to convince Jong Hwa to let me go to Mae Ri's instead but he kept saying it was too late. Granted, nine p.m. wasn't too incredibly late, it was still later than was politely acceptable and plus, Jong Hwa insisted his mother wanted to see that I was ok with her own eyes which sounded like his mother. She was strict and stubborn, more so than she looked, and no one in her family disobeyed her. I wasn't going to be known as the friend Jong Hwa had who disobeyed her either so I kept my mouth shut after that and resigned myself to my fate.

When we reached Jong Hwa's house, the first thing I did was take off my shoes and slip into the slippers that were reserved for guests and followed Jong Hwa into the foyer which lead to the rest of the house. Jong Hwa's house wasn't very extravagant but it was very..homey. My mother would have called the decor warm because it was mostly filled with neutral browns. The living room had a couch but it was pushed against the far wall, when I asked about why it was so far away from..well...anything else in the room, Jong Hwa said it was because they mostly sat on the floor around the table which was in the middle of the room resting on a well worn artisan rug. I knew without looking that there was a memorial under the window that had a picture of a young girl on the stand with a place holder for incense. I knew better than to ask who it was for but I gathered from the strong resemblance to Jong Hwa's mother that it was her daughter, whether it was Jong Hwa's older or younger sister, I didn't know. I figured if Jong Hwa wanted me to know then he'd tell me on his own and he never had so I left it alone. Jong Hwa asked me to wait while he went to grab his mother and I tried not to feel awkward standing in the living room by myself.

I bowed as soon as they came down the hallway, "Annyeonghaseyo Eomeonim," I said politely. Jong Hwa's mother had always kept her reservations about me but I liked her, I found her no-nonsense attitude to be refreshing and totally belayed her giving nature--I mean, obviously, that's how I ended up here under such circumstances.

    "Annyeong Lily," she nodded at me and gave me a calculating look. "Have you eaten yet," she asked.

    "Ne, Eomeonim," I responded. Truthfully, even if I hadn't eaten earlier, I wouldn't have been able to eat now, not with everything that had happened tonight.

    "Are you lying," Jong Hwa asked me and watched my face intently.

    "No, honestly I--"

    "I'll just make you something small," Jong Hwa's mom cut me off and I knew better than to be upset by it. "It will make me feel better."

And what do you say to that besides, 'yes ma'am'? Nothing, which is how I found myself sitting in Jong Hwa's kitchen eating leftover bean sprout soup. It wasn't my favorite dish but it certainly made me feel better and calmed my stomach down a bit. Jong Hwa was also eating with me though I suspected he was only doing so to make me feel better. We ate in silence for a few minutes before it was broken by Jong Hwa's mother.

    "What happened to your face," she asked abruptly. Like I said, she was no-nonsense but obviously my face was messed up enough that even after an hour later, it was still clearly visible that I'd been hit. I needed to see a mirror as soon as possible.

    "Oma!" Jong Hwa lightly chided his mother.

    "I'm just asking if she's ok" his mother defended herself and look at him briefly before turning back to me. "Are you hurt," she asked me.

    "Aniyo," I tacked on a smile. "Thank you for letting me stay the night," I bowed again for emphasis.

    "Mullon*," she actually waved her hand. "Just one second," she disappeared back into the living room and was gone long enough for Jong Hwa and I to finish our soups.

I washed the bowls while Jong Hwa dried them and put them away along with our silverware.

    "You two look good together," she said easily from the doorway behind us and I nearly choked on my own saliva.

    "Oma!" Jong Hwa turned abruptly and stared at her.

She shrugged lightly but I stared at Jong Hwa's back. He almost sounded outraged that she'd said that. Did he think I'd read into her words and find a secret meaning? Was it so bad that we looked good together? I didn't get a chance to think about it because he was soon turning around and I went back to studiously cleaning out the sink. My heart, which had been fluttering since we left the convenient store, became quiet and felt like a heavy lump in my chest now. Maybe I had been reading into Jong Hwa's actions a little too much without knowing it. Jong Hwa had reacted like any friend would have, there had not been anything special about the way he'd helped me, I told myself. Besides, he likes Mae Ri, don't forget that, I reminded myself.

    "You'll be on the couch tonight," Jong Hwa's mother cut short my depressing revelation.

    "Eung? Ah, thank you," I said and wiped my hands on the towel by the sink.

    "I'm going to bed, don't stay up too late," she pointed at each of us individually before leaving the kitchen.

    "Jalja*" Jong Hwa said before kissing his mother on the cheek.

   "Annyeonghi Jumuseyo*," I said and bowed as she exited the room.

If things weren't already awkward, they sure were now after she'd left. My mood took a drastic downward turn and Jong Hwa wouldn't even look at me. Thinking of anything to break the silence, I remembered Jong Hwa still hadn't given me back my phone.

    "Do you think I could get my phone back," I asked quietly. He nodded and handed me back the phone along with the battery which still hadn't been put back in.

    "Are you going to call your father," he asked me as he watched me replace the battery.

    "No," I answered simply. I didn't feel up to conversing with anyone, especially my father. I didn't think I could feel worse than I did but the more I thought about Jong Hwa's reaction earlier, the worse I felt and now I was stuck in his house for the night. "Actually, I think I'm going to set my alarm and go to bed, I'm really tired."

    "Oh, okay," he walked into the living room and I saw that the couch had been made into a makeshift bed by his mother and further compounded my guilt just by looking at it.

    "That was nice of her, she didn't have too," I said quietly.

    "Lily, are you okay," He asked from behind me.

I didn't have the nerve to turn around, "Yeah, just tired."

    "Okay, because you seem--"

    "I'm just tired," I added a little impatience to my words to get him to leave me alone. Couldn't he see I just wanted to be alone. Luckily he took the hint and left for his bedroom after that.

I laid down on the couch and pulled the blanket over me while I turned my phone back on. I had three voicemails, two of which were my father demanding that I return home and the third was from my mother.

Your father called me. He sounded worried. He said you two had an altercation, whatever that means, and that you had run off. I hope you're safe. *sigh* I know it's tough living with him sometimes but he loves you. I hear you guys are coming home soon, I can't wait to see you. You know, when you're home, you could always come live with me. Anyway, call me when you can and please, call your father. I love you.

I was crying by the time the time I deleted the voicemail. He'd called her but hadn't told her what the 'altercation' was about, he hadn't told her he hit me either. Worried? Yeah, right, I thought. My mother would have been outraged to find out he'd slapped me, no matter how unintentionally and he purposefully left it out. Her voicemail also reminded me that I had to tell her I wasn't going back to America. In my fear of telling my father, I'd forgotten about her. It also reminded me that I hadn't told Jong Hwa either. I couldn't get the tears to stop as one thing compounded the other, god, could this night get any worse?

Aish, don't ask that, Lily, you idiot! It could always get worse, I thought to myself and knocked on the hard food floor beneath the couch to un-jinx myself. Between the fight with Geun Ma earlier, my sore shoulder and then being slapped, today had just gone from bad to worse. With the exception being my acceptance into the program, of course.  I was excited and sad and nervous and, ugh, it was all just too exhausting. I needed to sleep.

I sent my mother a quick text saying I was fine and that I would call her tomorrow and set my alarm for two hours before my usual time. It would give me time to get back to my house and grab my school uniform and backpack and if I was lucky, by then my father would be gone for the day. I pulled the blanket over my head and continued to wipe my tears away. I told myself that tomorrow would be better, it had to be and fell asleep.

***

Jong Hwa...

Maybe she really was tired because by the time I went to check on Lily thirty minutes after saying good night, she was asleep. Of course, I had to pull the blankets back to check because she'd had them over her head but she was in such a deep sleep that she didn't stir at all.. She'd been crying, I could still see the tear streaks on her face, well, that and the pillow was damp. I wanted to wake her up and ask what she'd been crying about but I let that irrational thought go because I knew she needed sleep more than I needed to appease my curiosity.

Her cheek still had the faint hand mark on her face and my anger boiled to the surface again. It had been much brighter when I'd gotten to the store earlier. So bright, in fact, that you could clearly see how big his hand was and could measure it accurately just based off the imprint on her cheek. No matter how she'd broken the news, it could not have been bad enough to merit a slap that hard--or at slap at all. I had to close my eyes and concentrate on breathing normally so as not to wake her up. The last thing I needed was to have her wake up while I was looming over here like a creepy peeping tom. I pulled the blanket back over her and stood up. My phone buzzed in my pocket andI looked at the caller I.D., it was Ji Soo.

    "Eung, Ji Soo," I said quietly as I walked back to my bedroom.

    "She back at your place," he asked.

    "Yeah, she's sleeping on the couch," I shut my bedroom door and went back to the desk where my homework lay unfinished. "Thank you for the help earlier, with the panic attack, I mean."

    "No problem, I'm just glad she's okay. What caused it, do you know?" Ji Soo asked.

    "I know that she broke the news to her dad, about her staying in Korea, and that he didn't take it very--" I took a deep breath and pushed the anger away again. "He hit her, that's all I know." Ji Soo was quiet and let me work through my feelings.

    "Are you ok," He asked after a few moments.

    "I'm angry," I admitted. "And relieved."

    "Relieved?"

    "That she called me," and I was. I was so relieved that she hadn't stopped at trying to call Mae Ri and went home instead. I'm glad that she felt comfortable enough to call me with her problems as well. I'd always been protective of Lily but today was the first time that I realized I couldn't always protect her from everything and it was a hard pill to swallow. I decided I didn't like the feeling.

    "Well, she's safe and that's all that matters. Mae Ri is going to be a bear to handle tomorrow," Ji Soo sighed but not like he was annoyed, in fact, his voice sounded slightly excited. I stifled a chuckle.

    "She's all yours," I said.

    "Don't I know it," he sounded like he was smiling. "Ok, well good night. I'll see you tomorrow!"

    "De*," I said and hung up.

Tomorrow would be interesting. Mae Ri would be a bear but she'd also be upset and feel guilty for missing the events of tonight. At least she could be there for Lily in a way I couldn't be. As long as Lily was ok, I didn't care how awful Mae Ri was tomorrow. I had forgotten to ask about the Lily's discussion with the director and whether or not she'd made it into the program. And if she had, there were a lot of things we'd need to figure out, like how we were going to get her stuff out of the apartment without her father being around to try and stop her. If tonight had proved anything, it was that her father wasn't going to let her stay without a fight and I didn't relish the thought--for Lily's sake. Personally, I was more than happy to go a few rounds with her father except I'd probably get pummeled. I was just some nerdy guy and he was an U.S. Army personnel. I'd most likely get beat into a coma. Either way, we'd all figure it out tomorrow and I went back to doing my homework.

To Be Continued...

***

*Joh-ah: depending on how it's used could mean "Like" or "Fine"--in this instance it's "Fine"

*Mulloniji: "Of course" usually used when trying to convince someone of something.

*Mullon: Same thing, but informal "Of course"

*Jalja: Sounds like Jalga which means good bye but Jalja is the informal version of good night.

*Annyeonghi Jumuseyo: Formal "Good night"