Seoul-Strings (Haitus)

Chapter 3

Important Korean words: Mwoheyo? = What are you doing?
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Yu-Jin made her way back to the tea shop with the letter weighing in her bag and on her mind. What could it be about? She hoped that Eun-Min would stop by today. They had a lot of catching up to do. Maybe she knew what the letter might be about.

Eun-Min was her best friend and she honestly hadn't seen much of her since she got married. She did snag a good one though. Eun-Min got married to her childhood friend Min-Ho only two months earlier. Yu-Jin thought of how happy they must be and her selfish desires melted away. She wanted it to be like the old days, but she knew that wasn't gonna happen.

Eun-Min's happy ever after made Yu-Jin wonder about her own. She was older than the age most girls got married but she wasn't past the marrying age. No doubt her parents would arrange her marriage soon with a family friend. Secretly she had hoped for it to be Joo-Hyuk but there was no way they wanted her living so far away in the countryside. She sighed. What had life come to? She wouldn't lie to herself, she did want to get married and have a family and if she didn't get married soon, the harder it would be to find someone young and reputable. The last thing she wanted was to get married to a old bozo who would die before seeing his children turn five.

She walked slowly to the tea shop, pondering her future. The crisp air flowed through her dress, making it wave behind her. The pale purple skirt matched the light pink top, it was Yu-Jin's favorite dress. She had wanted to be a seamstress when she was younger but that dream came and went by the time she realized that being a writer was much more interesting.

Looking down at her bag, she let her hand rest on her brushes. They brought her comfort. Why? She wasn't sure. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she could write beautiful stories that would never happen, or that it seemed to provided an escape from her own destiny.

With her mind on what she would write while at the shop, she continued on her way.

"Eomma!" She called as she opened the door. "I'm back." No one answered. Yu-Jin set her bag down and looked around the empty shop. "Eomma?" She called again with confusion. Her mom would never leave the shop unattended.

Suddenly she was tackled from behind. "Gotcha!" A sharp voice said. Yu-Jin turned around in surprise and smiled from ear to ear.

"Eun-Min!" She cried. "I was hoping you'd stop by today."

"Eun-Min? Who's that?" Her best friend replied with a disapproving look.

Yu-Jin laughed and took her hand. "Sorry, my bad, Minny." Yu-Jin looked at her friends glowing face and gave her a proper hug. She squeezed her tight for a moment before Minny squeaked for her to loosen the hug.

"Whoops! Sorry." Yu-Jin said sheepishly. She loved her friends and always had a tendency to suffocate them with her hugs. Smiling, Yu-Jin lead Minny behind the register and sat down. She donned a huge smile.

"Soooooo, how's everything?" She eagerly asked Minny.

"Good, good! Married life is good, especially with Min-Ho." She cracked a smiled as she said this. It still brought butterflies to her stomach when she said his name. She adored him.

Yu-Jin was happy to see her friend happy. "You sure you're not still in the honeymoon phase?" She teased, poking her friend in the shoulder.

Minny laughed. "We are, and will always be."

"How long are you staying?" Yu-Jin felt obliged to ask. She didn't want to waste her friends time with useless chitter chat that she probably heard on a daily basis. Deep things, she wanted to talk about deep things once again.