Nowhere in the world are there to be found people richer than the Korean.
IBN BATUTA (FOURTEEN CENTURY)
•
NEW YORK, 2015
"You sure about this?" JungKook asked again, drinking softly from the surface of he's cup of banana milk. They were sitting at their usual window table at Tea & Sympathy, and TaeHyung had just invited him to spend the summer with him in Asia.
"JungKook, I'd love it if you came," TaeHyung reassured him. "You weren't planning to work at your studio this summer, so what's the worry? Think you won't be able to handle the heat and humanity?"
"No, that's not it. I know you're going to be busy with all your best-man duties, and I wouldn't want to distract you," JungKook said.
"What distraction? NamJoon's wedding is only going to take up the first week in Seoul, and then we can spend the rest of the summer just bumming around Asia. Come on, let me show you where I grew up. I want to take you to all my favorite haunts."
"Bro, will you show me the sacred cave where you lost your virginity?" JungKook teased, arching an eyebrow playfully. Hitting softly the arm of he's boyfriend with his fist.
"Definitely! We can even stage a reenactment!" TaeHyung laughed, slathering jam and clotted cream into a scone still warm from the oven. "And doesn't a good friend of yours live in Seoul?"
"Yes, Min Yoongi, my best friend from High School," JungKook said. "He's been trying to get me back there for years."
"All the more reason. JungKook, you're going to love it, and I just know you're going to flip out over the food! You realize Korea is one of the most food-obsessed countries in the planet?"
"Well, just watching the way you fawn over everything you eat, I figured it's pretty much the national sport."
"Remember Calvin Trillin's New Yorker piece on Seoul street foods? I'll take you to all the local dives even he doesn't know about." TaeHyung took another bite of his fluffy scone and continued with mouth full. "I know how much you love these scones. Just wait till you taste my Ah Ma's-"
"Your Ah Ma bakes scones?" JungKook tried to imagine a traditional Korean grandmother preparing this quintessential English confection.
"Well, she doesn't exactly bake them herself, but she has the best scones in the world-you'll see," TaeHyung said, turning around reflexively to make sure no one in the cozy little spot had overheard him. He didn't want to become persona non grata at his favorite café for carelessly pledging allegiance to another scone, even if it was his grandmother's.
At a neighborhood table, the girl huddled behind a three-tiered stand piled high with finger sandwiches was getting increasingly excited by the conversation she was overhearing. She suspected it might be him, but now she had absolute confirmation. It was Kim TaeHyung. Even though she was fifteen at the time, Celine Lim never forgot the day TaeHyung strolled past their table al Pulau Club* and flashed that devastating grin of his at her sister Charlotte.
"Is that one of the Park brothers?" their mother had asked.
"No, that's Kim TaeHyung, a cousin of the Park's," Charlotte replied.
"Kim Jun-Myeon's boy? Aiyah, when did he shoot up like that? He's so handsome now!" Mrs. Lim exclaimed.
"He's just back from Oxford. Double-majored in history and law," Charlotte added, anticipating her mother's next question.
YOU ARE READING
Crazy Rich Asians
Fiksi PenggemarWhen the New Yorker Jeon JungKook agrees to spend the summer in Seoul with his boyfriend, Kim TaeHyung, he envisions a humble family home and quilty time with the man he hopes to marry. But TaeHyung has failed to give his boyfriend a few details. On...
