62

“Don’t be nervous. They’ll be shocked at first, but I didn’t want to tell them beforehand and get mom worked up on the flight home. It’s better for her to be calm at all times.” Jyeon is pacing the Livingroom of the house that used to be my home as I sit on the long beige couch. The entire place seems to have been redone and updated in the last two years and looks even more like a cold, uninviting show home. It’s familiar, yet not, and surreal to be sitting here again.

I’m silently pensive and watch him trying to stay chill, even though he’s very uptight. He’s more wound up about this than I am, which I’m not sure about why. In contrast, I’m emotionally blank from being back here and trying to take in all manner of feelings about it in a detached kind of way. Greta is home sulking because I told her I wanted to do this alone.

&l