Beyond Us [Bangchan] [Finished]

Chapter 48

My family went back to America without any news a few days later from our trip to Jeju. My father stayed a couple of days more, to visit some friends, I guess, and went back with my grandparents leaving me the task of looking out for the garden at their house.

Plants were not my thing, to be honest, but I promised to do my best.

For Valentine's Day, Chan and I couldn't do much, but we had a fancy dinner at home, and I could see Chan's wry face drinking champagne. And even when I thought about it, just fantasizing, he actually got me roses. Not golden ones, luckily.

Just when I thought my parents were having too much fun to answer my calls, my brother popped up the bubble with a ring.

"What's up" I greeted him quite surprised.

"Hey, can you talk?" He sounded a bit urgent.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have picked up if not. What is it?"

"Well, you know..." He sighed. "Have you talked with Mom or Dad yet?"

"No, not at all. Aren't they busy with our grandpas there?"

"Yeah, they actually are, but..."

"Alex, are you ok?"

"Listen they don't want to tell you this, but I think you should know". I started to worry. "Grandpa has cancer, he's dying soon". I stayed silent processing that piece of information.

"Mia", he called me.

"Don't joke with this, Alex, or I'll kill you".

"It's true. Dad talked with me a few days ago, and I heard Mon and Grandma talking about it yesterday when I dropped by too".

It was hard to believe my ears, but things started to make more sense. The reason Dad looked so anxious while looking at Grandpa when they came, the reason my grandpas came to Seoul so often even though they didn't have much to do here aside from visiting me. But they often didn't tell me they were around, I just got to know they went to Seoul when I saw them on the weekend.

"Are you sure? What did Dad tell you?"

Alex told me what he had talked with Dad and what he had heard from Mom too. We talked for quite a long time.

There was nothing more the medics could do for my grandpa. He was under pain palliative treatment; his head doctor gave him 3 months. Three damn months.

I sat in my living room for a couple of hours thinking about everything and nothing interchangeably. If he went to America to die with his family, or even if it was just to spend time with everyone before he had to come back to Korea to meet his demise, I had to go.

I had to talk to Chan as soon as possible too. I didn't like the idea of leaving yet, I felt I shouldn't, but I had to and I wasn't leaving forever either, nor leaving Chan.

I still had a month at the Airbnb, so I had to contact the owner to tell her I was leaving earlier than expected, I knew I was not going to get any money back, but I had to let her know.

I also had to look for flights, not an easy thing to do with limited time and the clock ticking. I bought a ticket at a reasonable price for a flight for the following week. It had quite a few scales but it was the best I could get.

I was leaving Korea in a week; it didn't feel real at all.

I tried calling Chan a few times but he didn't answer, so I left him a message.

"Hi, something important came up. Can you call me, please?"

I sat down in the apartment the entire afternoon unable to concentrate on anything. When I couldn't bear my anxiety anymore, I grabbed my jacket and went out for a walk.