CHAPTER 75

“By the way, I’m curious about something regarding you, Teacher. Rose keeps calling you ‘Miss Minhee’ instead of ‘Teacher Minhee,’ is that okay? In Korea, we usually don’t call teachers by their first names but Miss Kim or Miss Lee.”

Sung-eun seemed puzzled by Rose’s way of addressing Minhee. However, Minhee found it difficult to grasp the essence of the question and blinked her eyes. Sensing that it might be a sensitive topic related to marital status, gender, or other gender-related matters, Minhee carefully chose her words.

“At Aster School, calling teachers by their first names isn’t allowed. Most schools follow the same protocol. We address teachers with formal titles like Miss or Mister before their last names. Some married female teachers prefer to be addressed as ‘Mrs.’ before their last names, but nowadays, most female teachers use ‘Ms.,’ which can be used regardless of marital status. Male teachers are usually addressed as ‘Mister.'”

Minhee spoke calmly, like when she talked to children at school.

“Regarding gender, teachers who have chosen a gender other than their assigned one or who identify with more than one gender may use different titles. Miss Minnie, for example, is a nickname given to me by the kindergarten children that has stuck, so the primary school children call me that, but the secondary school children call me Miss Seol.”

The moment Minhee finished speaking, the entire table fell silent. Sensing she may have misspoke, Minhee was about to backtrack, when Sung-eun spoke up.

“I didn’t know teachers in America are called ‘Miss Seol’ and such.”

“Yeah, if I was a teacher in America, they’d call me ‘Miss Jeong’.”

Sung-eun and Sung-ah exchanged amazed comments. Then, Sung-ah pointed at Taejun.

“Taejun would be Mister Baek.”

Sung-tae smiled mischievously at his maternal grandmother.

“Grandma, would you like to be Miss Kim or Mrs. Kim?”

“My husband’s gone now, so I’ll just be ‘Miss Kim’.”

A round of laughter swept across the table.

After dinner, the whole family gathered in front of the living room sofa for a group photo. Minhee volunteered to be the photographer, but Sung-tae insisted they use a tripod. Sung-tae’s phone was placed on the extended tripod legs.

Grandma sat in the middle of the long sofa, with Uncle and Auntie sitting on the right side and Taejun on the left. Behind the sofa, Uncle’s children and their spouses stood, while the kids sat huddled under the sofa. Taejun pulled Rose, who was seated next to him, onto his lap, then gestured with his eyes for the hesitant Minhee to sit beside him.

“Come here.”

“Teacher, sit here!”

“Taejun, come here by my side!”

Sung-eun and Sung-ah called out to Minhee in unison. Sung-tae arranged the seating order from the front and set the timer.

“Okay! On ‘one’, say ‘cheese’ American-style!”

Sung-tae swiftly jumped up and stood behind the sofa, counting.

“Five, four, three, two, cheese!”

“Cheeeese!”

* * *

The next day, as Rose wished, she spent the day having a play date with Yoonseo, who skipped kindergarten for a day, at Haeundae. While Taejun finished his work in the morning, Sung-eun suggested to Minhee to take the kids to a kids’ cafe near the hotel.

Minhee had only heard of the place, and she was hooked. It was easy to see why Rose’s tears would stop at the mention of a Korean kids’ café. After two hours of running around, they headed to Haeundae Beach, where the kids squealed as they took off their shoes and dipped their feet into the still-cold water.

In the afternoon, Taejun joined the family for a ‘tour of Busan.’

“Taejun, next year you should come and stay a little longer. My son is too young to walk around much now, so let’s go to the scenic spots next year. There are many interesting places in Busan.”

“Okay.”

Taejun nodded lightly with a faint smile.

Minhee found the traditional market near the port very interesting. She also tried sweet and oily hotteok with seeds inside and dipped soft, white garaetteok in soy sauce.

She stood for a moment, admiring the rack of pants with various colors hanging on it, in front of a cardboard sign that read ‘Refrigerator Pants, Only 5,000 Won.’

“Why are they called refrigerator pants?”

“It’s supposed to feel cool, like a refrigerator. Do you want to try them on?”

Sung-eun bought Minhee a pair of vibrant floral print pants as Minhee waved her hands in refusal.

“Miss Minhee, where is santon?”

As Minhee accepted the refrigerator pants in a black plastic bag from the store owner, Rose grabbed her sleeve.

“Hmm?”

Taejun, who had been following them from behind, was nowhere to be seen. Surprised, Minhee entrusted Rose to Sung-eun and hurried back along the path they had come from. Taejun was standing tall in front of a seafood restaurant on the corner of the alley.

He was looking at a squirming eel writhing in a reddish-purple rubber basin. On the shelf above, an aunt wearing red gloves was peeling off the fish scales and finely chopping the white flesh. Below the ‘XX Fisheries’ sign, a plastic sign hung loosely with ‘Specializing in Anago Sushi’ in handwriting.

“Taejun!”

Taejun whipped his head around at the sound of Minhee’s voice.

“What were you looking at?”

“……Anago.”

As the sharp knife lightly descended with a tap, the wriggling eel’s head was partially cut off. The eel, its head skewered on a wooden cutting board, was still wriggling, but the knife sliced through its body smoothly. Watching the scene, Minhee instinctively closed her eyes.

“Ugh…”

As the daughter of a sushi chef, she was used to seeing fish preparation, but the most popular items at her family’s rural American sushi restaurant were usually frozen salmon or tuna. Witnessing the live fish being filleted right in front of her was a rare occurrence.

Taejun placed a hand on Minhee’s shoulder, pulling her towards him. His broad shoulders blocked the sight of the eel being prepared. Gently pushing her, he guided Minhee back toward where Sung-eun was waiting.

“I was worried when you disappeared! …I mean, Rose was.”

“Sorry. I had something I was curious about.”

As they rounded the corner of the alley, they saw Sung-eun standing there, holding the children’s hands.

“Are there things you don’t know, Taejun?”

“Not anymore.”

Taejun looked down at her and chuckled playfully. As always when he smiled, Minhee was captivated, staring at him in a daze. Their gazes locked intensely. Minhee squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head slightly, trying to snap out of it.

‘Get a grip, Minhee.’

“Your cousin is watching.”

Taejun withdrew his gaze from Minhee. As they walked side by side, Sung-eun looked at them alternately with meaningful eyes.

“Grandma’s nagging won’t last long.”

Sung-eun muttered to herself.

“Taejun, bring Rose here more often, okay?”

“Yes, Grandma.”

As they bid farewell at the entrance, Grandmother grabbed Taejun’s hand and made several promises. Then, from her bosom, she took out something and handed it to Taejun. It was a white envelope. Taejun tried to return it to her, but wrinkled hands pushed the envelope into Taejun’s jacket pocket.

“Grandma, I can’t accept this—”

His maternal uncle tapped him on the shoulder.

“Taejun, it’s grandma’s pocket money for her grandson. Just say thank you and take it. Our son always takes it eagerly when grandma hands him an envelope.”

“…Thank you.”

“It’s not much but buy something tasty on the train carts, Taejun.”

“Mother, these days there’s no ‘train carts’ on trains. There is a separate dining car now.”

“Just in case, I packed some rice cakes and tangerines. Youngdo!”

“Grandma, it’s really okay—”

“It’s okay, Youngdo!”

Youngdo stepped forward and offered a hefty bag of snacks. Taejun accepted the bag.

“Mom, they might be late for the train. I’ll escort them to the train station and come back.”

“Okay. Be careful on the train. Call us when you arrive.”

Taejun waved goodbye to his maternal grandmother.

“……Thank you, and take care, Grandma. Rose, say bye to your great-grandmother.”

“Goodbye, Great-grandma. See you again!”

“Take care, elder. May you be healthy!”

“Oh, my babies, when will I see you again? Huh…”

After the farewells of the three, the maternal grandmother finally burst into tears and covered her eyes with her handkerchief.

“Alright, let’s go Taejun. We’ll be here all day with the goodbyes. Mom, we’ll be going!”

His uncle drove with the urgency of a car with wings but got stuck in traffic near the station. They arrived at Busan Station just barely before the train’s departure. His uncle climbed on board, helped Taejun organize their luggage, and got down on the platform just before the announcement was made that the train was leaving.

The train slowly began to move. The three waved their hands towards the uncle. He smiled and waved back vigorously with both hands. His smiling mouth somehow resembled Taejun’s.

Even after leaving the station, Taejun couldn’t take his eyes off the window for a while. His Adam’s apple visibly bobbed up and down at times. When he turned his head, the skin around his eyes looked redder than usual. Minhee swallowed the welling tears and tightly gripped Taejun’s hand hidden under his jacket. Startled for a moment, Taejun’s stiff shoulders relaxed, and he firmly held Minhee’s hand back.

Before long, Rose, who had been playing with the toy Sung-eun gave her, raised her head and giggled softly.

“Rose is hungry.”

“Want some tangerine?”

“Yes! Rose loves tangerines. So yummy!”

Minhee took out a few tangerines from the bag and peeled them. The soft, fragrant smell of the Korean tangerines she remembered hit her nostrils and lingered on her fingertips.

She handed one to Rose and neatly peeled one for Taejun. Smiling, he accepted the tangerine. Lifting the tangerine and inhaling its fragrance, he swallowed hard and looked at Minhee.

In his gaze, Minhee saw a deep thirst, and beyond that, an even deeper, subtly burning emotion was unmistakably revealed. In that moment, Minhee was sure.

‘This man loves me too.’