Yes, It's Another Cliché Love Story

Six

“Grandma, we’re back,” Liza shouted from the door. I followed behind with the grocery bags.

“Still in the kitchen, honey,” she shouted back.

“Let me help you with that,” a familiar voice said when I walked into the kitchen. I almost dropped the bags when I saw Lee Young’s face.

“Who’s this?” Liza asked

“He’s your dad’s work friend,” mom told her.

“Wh…what are you doing here?” I asked.

“I invited him,”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Lee Young said placing the bags on the counter.

“Why would he mind?”

“Hi, I’m Liza Joe but you can just call me Liza like everyone else,”

“Nice to meet you Liza, I’m Lee Young but you can call me Ahjussi. It means mister or uncle in my native language,”

“Nice to meet you Ahju…”

“Ahjussi,”

“Aju-c,”

“You’ve got beautiful kids, Joe,” he said turning to me, his dimpled smile already on his handsome face. Handsome? Did I say handsome? I meant regular face.

Memories of what he’d done a few hours prior came back and I wondered if he even remembered doing it. Was he like that with everyone else while drank? I could feel myself getting upset.

“Uhmm…thanks you…I mean thank you,”

“Liza, did you get everything on the list?” mom asked diverting the attention.

“Yes we did but we didn’t get everything from your favorite store so we had to go to the other street. Mrs. Ali says hi,”

“I should find some time next week and go see her. Anyway, thank you so much baby girl,” she said planting a kiss on her forehead, “You know the rules, no dirty hands on my dining table, especially you JJ,”

“But I’m clean,”

“I just saw you patting Timon before he ran outside,” I said.

“What are the dogs’ names?” Lee Young asked.

“Timon and Pumba,” Liza said sitting down.

“Timon is the Rottweiler and Pumba is the German-Shepherd,” I added.

“Who came up with the names?”

“Yours truly,” I said placing the last dish on the table.

“Look at you, taking someone else’s credit,” mom said.

“You asked me to pick between Timon and Pumba or Milli and Vanili,”

“Who’re Milli and Vanili or what are they?”

“A pop duo from the eighties that got tangled up in some sort of controversy,”

“How do you know that? You weren’t born yet,”

“Neither was my mom but she loves the songs they apparently came out with,” The conversation switched to football then Lee Young promised to come back and make something from his home country with JJ’s help.

Dinner went smoothly then we watched a movie before the kids got ready for bed. It was always beautiful to watch my mom and kids singing along to whatever animation we were watching.

“Baby boy, why don’t you take Lee Young home?” mom said as I came down from tucking in the kids.

“That won’t be necessary ma’am. I can easily call for a taxi,”