Mei Lin, a whip-smart and fiercely independent Korean-American teenager, juggles the chaos of her family's bustling dumpling restaurant, "Kim's Corner," with the demands of high school. Her days are a whirlwind of textbooks, steaming mandu, and navigating the complexities of first-generation immigrant life.
But Mei craves more than the delicious, exhausting loop her life has become. A chance encounter with Alex, a silver-spooned boy from a world as different as kimchi is from caviar, sparks a yearning for something unexpected. As their paths collide across the cultural divide, Mei finds herself caught between the comfort of her familiar world and the allure of a life beyond the steam.
Can Mei bridge the gap between sizzling dumplings and five-star galas? Will she find a way to balance her family's legacy with her own dreams? And most importantly, can love blossom between a girl who fights with spatulas and a boy who lunches with CEOs?
Falling Up is a heart-warming, hilarious, and mouthwatering story about finding your voice, embracing your heritage, and discovering that love, like the perfect dumpling, can come in the most unexpected packages.
Eboni Ames grew up in The Quarters-a tiny, but historic, Black settlement just outside Whitman, Arizona. Her classmate, Ahn Ji-Yeong, grew up in the only Asian family in Whitman and harbored a secret crush on Eboni.
Eventually, they both left their hometown to follow their dreams.
Eboni's vision of a being a celebrity chef faded in California, where the foodie scene was flooded with thousands of other wannabes, and her family soul food recipes weren't enough to catch the eye of foodies seeking flashier fare. Meanwhile, AJ became a K-pop and K-drama megastar, sitting at the top of the Billboard charts and the Netflix top ten.
When Eboni is forced to return home and take a day job while trying to get her soul food catering business off the ground, she finds that AJ has come home too. The bright spotlights of the K-pop industry cast a very dark shadow, and AJ needs a break.
Still carrying a torch for his childhood love, AJ offers his Korean fried chicken recipe to help draw attention to Eboni's business. As their lives become more and more intertwined, the heat turns up outside of the kitchen as well. But when their pasts come back to haunt them, Eboni and AJ will have to make tough choices about what they are and want to be to each other.
Season 1 of My Seoul Man
WARNING: This story contains depictions of racism and mental health crises and references to suicide that may not be suitable for some readers.
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