Authors: Ong Xiong
Defeated, she
answered him. “You’re a…” She paused for a second to steady her voice. “…you’re
a mistake,” she whispered before her eyes blurred.
CHAPTER
9
South Korea, 2001
Sue sat on a
bench, sketch pad in hand and began to sketch. She hadn’t plan on sketching
when she came to the park, but then again she hadn’t planned on coming to the
park at all. It was Saturday and she had been elated about having a weekend
off. No studying, no work, just free time to explore. Sue and her cousin,
Angela, had agreed to spend the weekend exploring the city, doing something
other than visiting shopping malls. But like many weekends before, Angela and
some new friends had gone shopping and Sue had ended up at the park, alone.
They had been in
Seoul for four months and in that time Sue had seen little of the beautiful
country. She was not in the mood to see another shopping mall Angela had
discovered. The excitement of the outdoor market and the brightly neon lit city
only lasted for a month.
When they first
arrived in Seoul, they spent their every free time exploring the areas around
the university. They tried surrounding local cuisines and cheap street foods.
They went to tourist spots but only close to the university.
But she felt
there was something missing. She wanted to see the natural beauty of South Korea
and Angela didn’t. Somehow, Angela usually convinced Sue that going shopping
was much better than seeing the palaces and the pagodas.
They had been in
Seoul since January. It was late May now and all she had been doing was
studying and staying within the city limits with the exception of a weekend
trip to Incheon. Her course load would be lighter for the next couple of months
and she intended to do the things she had planned on her list before she left
South Korea.
She held her
picture up then held it out, turning it from side to side. “Well, maybe with
some more practice the tree will look more like a tree.” She sighed. “You
really need to stop talking to yourself, Sue. It’s not healthy,” she added with
a chuckle.
She was deep in
concentration and didn’t notice the clapping and cheering at first. The noise
of entertained spectators eventually grabbed her attention as she made up her
mind to leave. She heard it very suddenly, as if the universe heard her request
for some kind of entertainment.
Curious, Sue
packed her supplies back into a plastic bag and followed the sound of music.
She recognized the music as Korean hip-hop, the kind that Angela liked to
listen to, but Sue couldn’t make out what the song was about. It was too fast
for her to catch the lyrics. She made her way through the crowd and watched the
performance. She assumed a group was performing by the sound of the music, but
it was just one person. A young man, maybe in his early twenties was dancing.
Sue couldn’t
decide what type of dancing he was doing or whom he reminded her of. Michael
Jackson? But Sue didn’t remember Michael Jackson doing break dancing the way
this young man was doing. It reminded her of the hip-hop dancing she’d seen in
music videos Angela often showed her. Whatever the movements were called, it
was entertaining. He had stamina, too. He danced several songs, took a request
and invited several audience members to dance with him. She lost track of time
and by the time she thought to glance at her watch, it was close to dinner
time.
The performance
ended and people clapped, tossing money into a guitar case before leaving. Sue
noticed a guitar perched by a bench as she walked away and assumed it belonged
to him.
“
Ahn-nyung
haseyo
(Hello).” Sue greeted the young man. She had practiced her survival
phrases, picking up new words during her time in Seoul, but she still needed
more practice. She could understand more of the language than she could speak
it. She managed to introduce herself and asked his name in Korean. At least she
intended to introduce herself and asked him his name.
The young man
gave her a polite smile but didn’t answer.
“I speak
English,” she told him in English. Then in Korean, she asked if he spoke
English.
No answer. He was
still smiling. That was a good sign.
Heck. Let’s
try another approach
, Sue thought. “My…name…is…Sue…and…your… name…is…?” she
asked slowly in English, pronouncing every syllable, enunciating every word.
She even pointed to him when she asked for his name. She was about to repeat
even more slowly but caught herself. She gave a nervous chuckle as she
apologized for speaking to him in such a manner. She started talking about how
absurd it was for her to repeat herself more slowly for it made no difference
if he couldn’t understand her in the first place. She even went on to say she
herself was annoyed when people thought she didn’t understand English and spoke
to her as if she was incompetent. She finally finished her long apology and
said “sorry” in Korean for treating him in a manner she herself loathed.
Remembering her
reason for approaching him, Sue gestured toward his guitar. “It’s beautiful,”
she said in Korean. “May I?” she asked in English. He gave her a lazy, curious
grin, if there was such a thing, and he nodded. “Yes!” she mentally cheered.
She finally received a response other than charming grin and that gave her more
encouragement.
However, she was
not sure if he had nodded in response to her compliment that his guitar was
beautiful or if he had nodded to give her permission to touch the guitar. She
decided it didn’t matter.
Sue examined the
guitar, admiring it as if it was a piece of priceless art before tracing the
curvy body with her finger. “It’s a Gibson,” she said with awe. She recognized
the distinctive crown design on the neck right away. She was so excited; she
sat on the bench next to the guitar and picked it up without asking further
permission. She could always plead ignorance. Besides, she had already made a
fool of herself, she thought.
She strummed the
strings and unconsciously smiled at him. “You have a beautiful guitar. Do you
play it?” Still smiling, not waiting for him to answer, she said, “Of course
you do, it’s your guitar, isn’t it?”
“Thank you. My
guitar appreciates your compliment,” he answered in perfect English, complete
with a British accent.
Sue immediately
turned her eyes to him. She hadn’t notice how tall he was until he was standing
next to her on the bench. She tilted her head all the way back to look at him.
“If you understood me, why did you allow me to make an
arse
of myself?”
“You were so
cute,” he answered, still smiling at her as he sat down beside her on the
bench. He wasn’t a large man, actually a little thin but with his broad
shoulders and his tall frame, but he seemed to take over the bench. Sue
slightly shifted her body away from him to allow room between them.
“Gee, thanks.
I’ll keep that in mind the next time I make a fool of myself,” she replied. She
remembered he hadn’t answered her questions and turned to face him, bringing
her right leg and bending it on the bench to support the guitar before
extending her right hand. “Hi, I’m Sue. And you are?”
“Jae,” he
answered, raising his own hand to shake hers.
“Nice to meet
you, Jay,” she said shaking his hand. “You were very good. How did you learn to
dance like that?” she asked letting go of his hand.
“Practice,” Jae
said as he reached for a towel from his backpack.
“I can see that.
Where did you learn to dance like that?”
He shrugged. “You
play?” He nodded toward the guitar.
“I do. Would you like
to hear?” Before he could give her an answer, she began to play
Remember Me
by Hope Madison. When she was finished, she had a small audience and they
clapped. She blushed, said “Thank you,” and then returned the guitar to Jae.
“Thank you,” she said to him.
“For what?”
“For letting me
play your guitar.”
“Anytime.”
Jae leaned the
guitar next to him and reached into his backpack. He took out a bottle of water
and opened it, took a sip then offered the bottle to her.
Sue took the
bottled water and took a sip, not realizing how thirsty she was until now. “Do
you perform here often?” she asked.
“Sometimes.”
“Meaning?” she
prodded.
“Meaning
sometimes,” he replied, getting another bottled water from his backpack.
“Which would
be…?”
“Are you always
this nosy?” he asked, taking a sip of his water.
“Nosy?” Sue
gasped. She was only curious but didn’t mean to be “nosy.” She had been told
countless times she asked too many questions but she had never been called
“nosy.” To her, nosy meant she was prying, intruding, snooping, and she didn’t
think she was doing that by merely asking him about his dancing. “If a fan were
to ask you where you were performing next, are you going to tell them they are
being
nosy
as well? If so, then I must say, you are in need of a great
PR rep.”
Jae grinned.
“Does that mean you are a fan then?”
“Yes, well, was
anyways,” Sue answered getting up from the bench and brushing her pants.
Jae’s grin
immediately disappeared. “Did I offend you?”
“No, no you
didn’t. I’m still a fan,” she assured him.
“Then why are you
leaving?”
“It’s getting
late. I need to get back to campus before dinner is over; otherwise, I’ll go
hungry tonight.”
“University?”
“Yes. Well, it
was very nice to meet you Jay. Now, I do hope I’m not being
nosy
, but
may I ask, is that Jay with a Y or an E? I’m guessing it’s an E, but I’m not
quite sure. ”
“E,” Jae
answered. He said nothing more. He acted indifferently, but he was still
watching her with interest.
“Thank you. I was
just curious,” Sue explained as she picked up her plastic bag. “It was nice
meeting you, Jae,” she said again before she turned and started to walk away.
She abruptly stopped and turned back to him. She held up the bottled water.
“Thank you for the water,” she said smiling before she turned and proceeded to
walk away again.
“Sue!” he
hollered after her. She turned back to him. “I’ll be here again tomorrow,
around noon.”
Sue smiled as she
replied, “Maybe I’ll come see you again.”
CHAPTER
10
Oh, why did she
even bother? Making plans with Angela was like making curry noodles. Sometimes
it turned out but most of the time it didn’t. They were supposed to meet at the
park an hour ago so that they could get something to eat before Jae’s
performance.
Like the previous
day, Angela had decided a day at the park to watch street performances was not
as important as another opportunity to meet a Korean guy. Sue was so excited
about her new discovery she had asked Angela to accompany her to the park.
Angela had agreed until an hour ago when she arrived at the park with a guy and
informed Sue they couldn’t stay.
Disappointed, Sue
waited for Jae alone at the park. She glanced at her watch; he was late. She
sat on the bench she had the previous day and searched through her backpack for
the
gim bop
she purchased from a bakery on her way to the park. She took
a bite and started to chew. She was about to swallow when a strong hand slapped
her on her back and a familiar face appeared several inches from her face.
“
Ahn-nyung
,
Shorty.”
Sue started
choking. He started laughing.
“You’re late,”
she said in between coughs. “And its Sue, not Shorty,” she corrected him. She
didn’t notice he was patting her on the back, like how one would automatically
do if another person was choking.
When she stopped
coughing, Jae reached for her right hand and took hold of her wrist. “I’m not
late,” he said, looking at her watch. “And Shorty matches you,” he added with a
smile.
Sue glanced at
her watch. “It’s past noon, you’re late. Then I shall call you Lefty,” she
said, returning a smile.
“I said I’ll be
here around noon, not noon,” he corrected. “Why should you call me Lefty?”
“You’re still
late,” she said, rewrapping her
gim bop
. “With your definition, you’re
still late.
Around
means close to, therefore, since you arrived closer
to one o’clock, you were nowhere
around
noon.” She smiled sweetly. “And
Lefty matches you,” she added casually.
“Uh-huh,” Jae
answered as he unpacked and started setting up his equipment.
He didn’t think
she would come and was surprised to see her waiting for him at the park. After
their meeting the day before, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
She was pretty, especially when she was speaking Korean. He smiled and glanced
at her, watching as she replaced her books in her bag, humming quietly to
herself.
She asked to help
and soon he was instructing her on what to do.
“Anybody ever
tell you you’re quite bossy?” she asked as she sat down on the bench.
“Anyone ever tell
you you ask too many questions?” he replied, getting the Gibson out of its
case.
“All the time.”
“And you talk too
much, anyone ever tell you that?”
Sue frowned and
brought her knees to her chest. She had to think about what he said before she
answered. “No, actually, it’s the opposite.”
Surprise by her
statement, Jae stopped what he was doing and tuned to look up at her. “You mean
you don’t always talk this much?”
“Do I really talk
that much?” she asked looking at him.
He nodded.
“I was under the
impression that I’m the quiet type.”
“Really? And what
gave you that impression?”
“Personal observation.”
She shrugged. “Maybe just with you, I seem to talk a lot. After all, we’ve only
met and there’s lots to ask and tell. Maybe…you are even quieter than I am
and…to you I talk a lot.”