Love Letters

8:Eomma

Momoe's POV
It's our last full day in Seoul, yet I'm still doing nothing. Hoshi is at school (he started back up this week) and Jinyoung is visiting his parents one last time. Honestly, I don't know why he didn't bring me this time. He's already met my parents so I don't see the problem with me meeting his. I've asked him about this, but he says it's because he doesn't want me to see him cry. I actually believe this since Jinyoung hasn't seen them face to face in almost five years.

For once, I don't want a lazy day. I really don't feel like sleeping all day since the two people I usually hang out with can't hang out. Maybe I can look up recipes to make for breakfast... Wait... What's that smell?
My eyebrows scrunch together as the scent of meat reaches my nose. I get off my bed and quietly walk to the kitchen. I poke my head around the corner in caution when I hear someone moving pots and plates around.
"Good morning, my beautiful daughter." My eomma says without looking up from stirring the pot.
"Eomma? You don't have work today?" I walk into the kitchen fully.
"Aniyo. I took it off to spend the day with you." She turns off the stove then faces me, "Now, are you hungry?"

-

The two of us sip our soups in silence. As the warmth of the broth slides down my throat, I close my eyes and smile. I'm so glad to have tasted her homemade food again. I haven't had a home cooked meal since I left Korea. My father is barely home, so most of the time I have to come up with a way to get food. After a while, Jinyoung and the boys found this out and that's why they eat with me whenever they can.
"Eomma... What have you been doing these past two years?" I suddenly ask.
She looks up at me in surprise. I don't think she expected this question to come out of me. She purses her lips and looks up at the ceiling, thinking.
"Well... Not much has happened. Just work and eat and sleep." She shrugs.
"No fights? Dating? I don't know, something?" I blink, shaking my a bit as I talk.
"Oh! Actually, recently I did have a small fight with a woman in the store." She taps her cheek, thinking about it.
"What the...?" My eyes widen and I almost choke on my drink.
"Okay, it's not as bad as it seems!" She shouts, waving her arms around the place.
"Then explain cause it seems like you went off on her or something."
"Kinda..." she pauses, "Before you came, I had to go grocery shopping for food so I asked Hoshi to come along with me, you know to see what people your age like to eat."
"You brought Hoshi with you to the grocery store?" My eyebrows lift up.
"Ne! I needed help so I asked him to tag along. He doesn't do much other than work and school anyways and we've been talking almost every week. About you, actually."
"A-about me?" My cheeks redden.
"Of course. We both missed you and the only way to pass time was to talk about you. We couldn't stop. Especially him."
This makes my heart beat faster. He still talked about me, after all this time?
"Anyways, so we went to the store, right? Well, this woman walks past us as we're looking at the flavors for the instant ramen. She makes this disgusted look at us and I stare at her. I ask her what's the problem and she replies that it's disgusting how a woman so old would go after a handsome young man like him."
I gasp and cover my mouth, dropping the chopsticks in my hand.
"She did what?" My face fumes with anger.
"Don't worry! You don't need to hurt her. Eomma can handle herself." She winks, giggling, "Anyways, I'm pissed obviously and instead of saying he's a family friend, I say he's my son. Like that, she would feel awkward about it!"
We laugh before eating another bite. She finishes the food in her mouth before continuing.
"I start going off about how he's successful and so smart and that he's my shining star. By then the lady is red in embarrassment and walking away in terror. I ran after her, continuing to go on and on about how he likes to dance and is the captain at his college and he's majoring in choreography-"
"Is he really that good? I haven't seen Hoshi dance since high school. He must've improved if he's captain and majoring in it."
"You should go to one of his competitions." She smiles, "Maybe then you'll fall for him."
"Eomma!" I whine.
"I'm just saying! He's sweet and talented and I can already see the cute little babies you two would make!"
"Aish! Honestly..." I mutter, covering my face as I groan.
"Hoshi is a good boy!" Her voice gets higher.
"Ne, eomma. I know. But I'm with Jinyoung. Jinyoung is nice too. He takes care of me and loves me. And I love him. That's final." I stare straight into her eyes.
"You'll see, Momoe. If not now, soon." She shrugs, eating another piece of meat.
"Whatever you say... What happened after you chased the girl?"
"Oh! Well she ran out of the store and the alarm went off since she still had the basket of items still on her arm. She had to pay for it plus more for setting off the alarm." She giggles.
"How did Hoshi-ah react?"
"He kept pouting. He was like 'Eomma! Hajima!' But I wouldn't stop. He IS like my son, so I had to brag." She makes a face.
"Okay, eomma." I laugh.
"Oh and speaking of dating... I did try to date like three times."
"Jinjja?!" My eyes widen.
"Ne. They all ended bad though. One was messy and not just because he kept the clothes all over the place. He was so unorganized with everything and showed up late for every date. Aish, that man was a pain! He gave me migraines!"
"Ew. It's a good thing he's not with you anymore."
"I agree. I don't think I'd be able to take that for a long time. The second one was odd. He just was.. distant. He didn't want to hold my hand in public and stayed on his phone a lot when we went on dates. Don't ever have a man like that, you hear? I'll personally hurt you, not him."
"A-arasseo..." I gulp.
"And the last one... Well, he cheated on me." She sighs and places her cheek in palm of her hand with a pout appearing, "He was the best one too. So caring and treated me as if I was his top priority. Obviously, I wasn't." She rolls her eyes.
"What's this guy's name? I'll personally show him what he deserves, eomma."
"Aniyo. Though he deserves it, it was in the past. Maybe six months ago? But that's when Hoshi began to talk to me so then I wasn't lonely. I missed having him around the house every holiday. Now that you're back, I get to see you two running around here like you used to." She smiles at me.
"I missed it, honestly. The more that I think about it, the more I remember how close we were. I guess life got in the way..." I purse my lips, looking down at my now finished bowl.
"Now it's your turn. I know you didn't tell me everything you did the last two years." She stares at me with wonder.
So I tell her about how I met the girls. I didn't tell her before cause she'd yell at me for the score I got. Aaaand she does.
"Wait- You got what?!"
"I know it sounds bad, but I promise I do better than that every other time."
"You better, otherwise you're moving here for education."
"Aniyo~" I whine.
"Then get your grades up!"
"I am I am! Jackson-ah is helping me with my Chinese too. I understand a lot to the point where we only speak in Chinese around the boys."
"Jinjja? That's impressive. You've been working hard to learn more languages, haven't you?"
"Ne! Speaking of Jackson, did I tell you about the time Jia and he tried to fight over the spot of being my best friend while I was sick?" I giggle.
"Aniyo? They fought while you were sick?" She raises an eyebrow, "Where was Jinyoung?"
"Oh, he was there too. Actually, he was lying in the bed with me while the two ran around to get me medicine or something to drink or eat. The funniest part was when I started sneezing a lot and they told me they'd throw away my snot rags but they heard just how sick I was and decided not to. That's when they started arguing that the other is the best friend. That's when Jinyoung got annoyed and just threw them away for me. At that point, he was my favorite." I laugh.
"Anything else?"
"Did I tell you about Helga?"
"Helga?"
"She makes me wanna pull my hair out, eomma! She's been trying to sabotage me ever since I became captain of the gymnastics team as a freshman."
"Sounds like she's jealous."
"Of course she is. She was a 4th year and I was a freshman in college. You know she failed an educational class the past two years to try to take the spot away from me?"
"What the hell?" She says in English.
I snicker and she shakes her head.
"I will personally beat her ass if she tries to get you hurt."
"She has multiple times, even during competitions! At practice I almost broke my arm when she screamed at the top of her lungs while I was on the uneven bars."
"What's her name again?" Her teeth are clenched now.
"Aniyo, don't. Like this guy you dated, she deserves it but she doesn't need it. She may be too jealous but I'm too nice."
"You are too nice, Momoe." She strokes my cheek softly and smiles, "That's what people love about you."
"Gomawo." I smile, grabbing her hand that's on my cheek.
"Hoshi loves how nice you are." She smirks.
"Eomma! Why do you keep talking about Hoshi? That's so weird."
"I used to tease you all the time about him! Do you remember when you used to like-"
"That was a long time ago. Those feelings are long gone."
"But they can always come back." She winks.
I'm about to say something when I hear loud voices from outside. My eyebrows scrunch together when I notice the unfamiliar voices sound younger, around my age maybe. I walk over to the window and peak behind the curtain to see two boys at Hoshi's house, shouting at each other.
"I told you he wasn't gonna be home!"
The taller one with brown hair yells.
"Aniyo! You said he'd be here before he goes to work! Obviously he's not here." Another boy with black hair argues back.
"Well, what're we gonna do now? We can't just go to his work and give it to him, that's weird. Plus I don't like going there much nowadays. I don't understand how he can still work there." He sighs.
"Well, this wouldn't be happening if you listened to me when I said he wasn't going to be here!"
"Aish!" They continue to yell at each other.
"Is it some of Hoshi's friends?" Eomma asks, peering around my shoulder.
"I assume so. They're at his house."
"Go see what they're doing. Maybe you can make more friends here." She smiles.
"But they look younger."
"Obviously not too much younger if Hoshi is associated with them." She pokes my head before going to the table and picking up the dishes.
"Alright..."
I take a deep breath before I open the front door. Neither of the boys notice me staring at them when I walk outside. The boys continue to bicker and I shake my head, a small smirk on my face. I cross my arms and lean against the doorframe before shouting to them.
"Yah! Why're you making such a ruckus? I'm sure all the neighbors can hear you."
They finally stop bickering and jump when they hear my voice. When they finally get a good look at me, their eyes widen. The boy with black hair stares at me with a sparkle in his eyes while the brown haired boy stares at me in confusion. It's quiet as they keep staring, not making the slightest movement. I sigh and stand up, slowly walking down the front stairs to get closer to them.
"He won't be back till late tonight, if that's what you're wondering." I say, as I walk up to them.
"Who are you?" The brown haired boy asks.
"Who are you is the question." I raise an eyebrow once I stop in front of them.
"I asked first."
"Whoa. She's pretty~" the black haired boy stares at me in a daze.
"Stop being a dumbass." The brown haired boy hits his arm, "Mianhe, we haven't talked to girls as pretty as you in almost half a year by now." He scratches the back of his neck nervously, "Um... I'm Hansol."
"Hansol? You're Korean but there's something else in you, I can't tell." I stare at him in shock.
"Oh, I'm part American."
"Me too! I actually live in Los Angeles. I'm just visiting my mom." I reply in English with a smile.
He stares at me in shock at how perfect my English accent is.
"You don't even sound like you have an accent when you speak either language." He continues in English.
"Yeah~ I've been speaking Korean, Japanese, and English my whole life so I've learned how to speak without having an accent." I inform him.
The black haired boy chuckles a little, both of us turning to him.
"She's pretty and smart. Can we keep her, hyung?" He pouts at Hansol.
"Oh yeah. What's your name?" Hansol asks me, returning to Korean.
"Yoon Momoe." I smile widely.
"Annyeonghaseyo, Momoe noona! My name is Lee Chan! Let's be friends!" The black haired boy runs up to me and grabs my hands in excitement.
"Okay." I laugh, smiling at him as I grip his hands tightly.
"O-okay." His cheeks turn red and he scoots back to Hansol.
"So what did you need from Hoshi-ah?"
"Is this Hoshi you're speaking of Soonyoung hyung?"
"Oh, mianhe. I keep forgetting nobody else calls him Hoshi... Ne, it's Soonyoung."
"We brought hyung his homework! He skipped a class today to go to work on the choreography for the upcoming competition." Chan says.
"Jinjja? That sounds like something he'd do." I sigh, "Alright, I can give it to him when he comes by later."
"Wait, how do you know hyung?" Hansol asks.
I smile bright, bigger than before. Whenever someone asks that, I love telling them the relationship between us. We're best friends. Inseparable, even if we haven't talked in years.
"I'm his best friend and neighbor. We've known each other since we were five."
"If I knew hyung's best friend was this pretty, I'd be over all the time." I hear Chan whisper to himself.
I giggle and pat his head.
"Gomawo, Chan-ah. You're very sweet." I smile.
His face turns red again, most likely in embarrassment since I heard what he said.
"Well, here's the homework. Mianhe, we didn't mean to be so loud." Hansol bows in apology after handing me the folder.
"Don't be. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have met two cool friends of Soonyoung."
This time, Hansol's cheeks redden, making me laugh.
"Can we get your number, noona? You said you don't live here, right? We won't see you for a while!" Chan pouts.
"Oh! I forgot I leave back to the states tomorrow morning." I purse my lips but shake my head and smile, "You can have my number! I'm coming back for winter break, so maybe we can meet up then."
"Yay!"
After we exchange numbers, they say bye, Hansol having to pull Chan away from me after I gave him a hug. Once they're gone, I go back inside my house.
"I'm guessing they were nice?" My eomma asks from the couch.
"Ne. Chan was like a child, it was cute. And Hansol is also American, eomma."
"Jinjja? That's cool! You can talk to each other without Hoshi understanding." She laughs.
"Yeah... we can." I smile.

-

And we end up back in California. Back to reality.