Welcome to Underland

Dinner

"Do you like Korean food?" Nox asks a few minutes into our walk. I look up from the ground surprised that he's starting a conversation. "Um yeah I'm good with most food, I just don't eat large portions" I reply before stumbling over my feet. Don catches me before I can fall helping me gain my stability before letting go. "You ok?" the two of them look me over with concern. "Oh yeah, I um don't usually walk with others so I'm not used to not obsessively looking at the ground as I walk. I just didn't look where I was putting my cane" I shrug as I answer. Nox frowns before walking to my other side so I was sandwiched between the two.

"Why don't you usually walk around with people?" Don questions as we wait to cross the road. Its only 8 in the evening so the roads are busy and full of people, my cane bringing unwanted attention to me. I shake my head to rid myself of the thoughts of people focusing on my cane before thinking on Dons question. "Well when I was younger I did, but then school finished and then I got you know sick, so people stopped calling. Then college happened and I made a few friends but I only ever hung with them in the bar so I was already there or walked in alone, we lost contact after college though. Work well, most of my friends I only see online or we sit in an office together for hours without really moving, but then I moved company, multiple times. Now I'm here and haven't really put in the effort to meet people it gets tiring" I shrug once more as Nox opens the door to a small hole-in-the-wall style restaurant.

Sitting down at the table we're directed to, it takes everything in me not to sigh in satisfaction from the relief my body feels. I look over the menu and smile at the wide variety of food and the fact that the menu is purely Korean. "Oh shit, they only gave us two of the English menus, here you can have mine I know what I want already," Don says flustered. "I can understand Korean don't worry" I say glancing over the menu again. I hear something drop and look over at the two men sitting opposite me. "You can speak Korean?" Nox asks. "Yeah, I'm half Korean, my Grandparents taught me when I was younger, I, unlike any other family members, kept up my Korean so I'm fluent" I shrug before deciding on kalguksu - if they make this well this will be my new favourite place.

Just as Nox opens his mouth to say something a waitress comes over. She smiles at us all and her eyes lock in on me. "Hi what can I get you?" she asks us still looking straight at me. "I'll take a kimchi-jjigae and a water please" Nox answers first before Dan follows on. "I'll have the same please," the waitress nods writing it down before looking at me again. "I'll have kalguksu please, do you do eolkeunyi kalguksu?" I ask as I look over the drink selection. "No Sir, we only do dak kalguksu and haemul kalguksu" she answers looking embarrassed. "That's fine no worries, I'll have the dak kalguksu but can I get a large side of kimchi, please? I'll have boricha too please" I smile and hand her back the menus. "Would you like any appetisers" we all shake our heads before she walks off.

"So back to our previous conversation" Nox prompts. "What were we talking about again?" I fake confusion. "Well to be fair you had finished your train of thought, but what he was probably going to ask was; What about your family?" Don continues. "I feel like these conversations have been very me focused" I raise my eyebrows at them. "We're just curious! We can talk about whatever you wish after this conversation" Nox prompts making me roll my eyes.

"So family, as I mentioned I'm half Korean, my Mam is Scottish and Irish, she won't decide which since she spent an equal amount of time in each country as a child, my Dad is Korean. My Dad died when I was like 10, my Mam married like 2 years later to Mark my Step-Dad, he's half Vietnamese and half Japanese. We've lived in America since I was 10 before then we jumped between Ireland and Scotland occasionally visiting Korea. I've two brothers and two sisters, technically one brother and sister are my half-siblings but I don't care about that shit, I'm the second oldest. I don't see any of them really anymore, when my problems started I was about 12, was accused of faking didn't get a diagnosis until I was 18. When I did get a diagnosis some family were still convinced I was lying so I moved out as soon as I could. Did college in LA for five years. Ended up all over the country for two years, I lived in Korea for a year with my Korean family, and lived in Australia for a year too again with my Korean family. Then came back a year ago, then moved here recently. I don't see my family much because I move around so much but when I do see them I don't use braces or aids because they still just harass me, I wore them when they visited Australia because my family there said they would be fine but they weren't so i took them off, my Korean family would've been ripped into if I didn't take them off and just nod along when they said I was being dramatic. I left Australia like two weeks later" I ramble off giving a shortened abridged version of that part of my life, they don't need to know it all.