For the Love of Kimchee (Book 1)

35

Chloe

The September breeze rolled past Chloe, combing through her hair and leaving a chill behind.

Chloe felt giddy as she bounded down the steep hill that lead to main road. Her phone rang and pulled it out of her pocket. She looked at the name and her face screwed up in confusion.

"Simone?" Chloe said out loud shocked.

It had to be almost 3am back home, what was she doing up?

"Hello?" Chloe said answering the phone. Anxiety pooled in Chloe's stomach. Was something wrong? Was her father okay? But if there was an issue with her father, wouldn't the aide call?"

"Chloe?" Simone's soft voice washed over the receiver. The lack of urgency in her voice had Chloe, calming down.

"Is everything alright? Isn't it late?" Chloe walked to the subway. Her train coming in 5 minutes. She held the phone close to her ear waiting for Simone's reply.

"Don't worry, everything is fine. I just woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, and you were the only person who I knew would be awake at this time." Simone replied, her voice stronger than before.

"Sooo, you're basically just using me to help you fall back asleep?" Chloe chuckled.

"Yup!" Simone's perky voice answered. "So anything new going on?"

Chloe bounded down the stairs into the subway, scanning her card as she lightly jogged through the station. Her train would be there in 2 minutes. Chloe thought for a minute. She had already told Simone about her and Daniel finally doing the horizontal tangle. That they texted all day, everyday and spent every minute they could with one another. Chloe barely spent anytime with other foreigners and was with Daniel any chance she could get. But it wasn't like she had many friends in Korea anyway. She barely any friends, if she was being honest. She hadn't talked to Natalia in months and hadn't gone to another Black women meet up too. Although, she was sure she could hit up Natalia at a moments notice and that girl would be down for whatever.

She also hadn't had any run-ins with her bitchy Korean co-workers either. Life was good.

Daniel was slowly and surely becoming the center of her world. He was sometimes all she could think about throughout the day. She loved him and she was sure he knew it, even though they never talked about it, and she was sure Daniel loved her too. He was everything she always wanted in a man. Caring, smart, funny, accepting, confident, and vulnerable when needed. Chloe racked her brain for new things to tell Simone about but couldn't find anything new going on in her life.

"Uhh, nothing much." Chloe huffed into the phone. "I'm actually headed to my therapy session right now, and then I might be popping up on Daniel at his job later to see if he would like to get some food."

"Hold up, Hold Up, Hold Up." Simone said as if Chloe has said the craziest thing in the world. "You're about to do what?"

"Go to therapy." Chloe said, knowing full and well that, that wasn't what Simone was talking about.

"Hmmhmm, and after that?" Simone was clearly unamused.

"Umm, you know. Just pop up at Daniel's job and see if he wants to grab something to eat." Chloe tried to make her statement sound as casual as possible.

A jingle sounded in the train station, alerting Chloe that the train was coming. The train bounded down the track, slowing to a stop. The doors whooshed open and an ajumma raced past Chloe, nearly knocking her off her feet.

Chloe rolled her eyes as she glared at the lady and gracefully walked into the train. The train had a good amount of people with all the seats taken. Chloe found herself standing right next to the door, turned away from the random stares.