How much did you put in? Five hundred thousand won?”
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you? When you sold me the land, you knew its value would shoot up.”
“Yes, I had a tip from a friend in city planning. They were debating between a lot in Gyeonggi-do Province and ours. The lot in Gyeonggi-do turned out to be tied up in a family inheritance. Our lot would be easier for them to buy. They’re eager to start construction soon.”
“If you knew the lot would increase in value and so soon, why did you still sell it to me? Why didn’t you buy it yourself?”
Gi-yong did not answer at once. “You think businessmen are so cold and calculating, and yes, we are, but when it comes to the heart, we’re sentimental folks. I thought that if I helped you get what you wanted… you would like me.”
“Oh, Mr. Im, I like you tremendously right now,” said Soo-Ja, sidestepping his confession. “This comes at such an opportune time. It has been such a terrible week… Thank you for what you did.”
“Don’t be too thankful. There was, of course, a small chance they’d go with the other lot, in which case ours would probably sit idle and worthless for another thirty years.”
“Thirty years? You said ten, or twenty at most.”
“Never trust a businessman, Soo-Ja. Never.”
Soo-Ja laughed. A guest came into the hotel. Soo-Ja gave him a quick nod, but kept her attention, rapt, on the phone. “I have to go. But one last question: Any chance we can negotiate with the buyers?”
“It’s a tricky line there. The thing is, the government could, if they want, just seize the land. So what they’re doing is a gesture of goodwill, too. It is only an offer, but it’s assumed we’ll all accept it.”
“So everyone who bought lots is selling, too?”
“The ones I spoke to so far, yes.”
“Add my name to the list. And oh, one more thing…”
“What is it?”
“I love you, Mr. Gi-yong Im,” she said, in English.
Gi-yong laughed. Soo-Ja knew he could hear the smile in her voice.
“We’re rich! We’re rich!” Hana began to dance around the room, pretending to hit a wall, then falling on the ground, then getting up again, then hitting the opposite wall. Min, eating his dinner, stewed in his silence, sitting in his usual corner in front of a nong armoire.
“Sit down, Hana, and eat your dinner. You’re going to get hurt,” said Soo-Ja, waving her chopsticks at her daughter.
“How much did he say again?” asked Min.
“Five million won,” said Soo-Ja. She was pretending to be nonchalant, but her heart was doing the same thing Hana was doing, just on the inside.
“Don’t tell your brother it’s that much. He may want a cut of the profits,” said Min. Soo-Ja bit her tongue, nodding. One day she’d have to tell him the truth about the source of the original loan. “But you always had a lot of luck. This kind of thing only happens to you.”
“I’m lucky? Is that why I’ve been working as a hotel clerk for the past six years? And before that, I was basically a maid to your parents,” she said.
Min smiled. “My parents think we’re barely scraping by. Imagine their surprise when they hear this.”
“They like to think we’re barely scraping by. They like the idea that they’re better off than we are.”
Hana, as if feeling neglected, stopped running around the room and landed on her father’s lap, where she barely fit. Right now she was the giddiest twelve-year-old Soo-Ja had ever met.
“What are we going to do with the money?” asked Hana.
“What do you think we should do?” Min asked her, his head buried in her silky black hair.
“I think we should go to America,” she said.
Soo-Ja immediately looked up from her rice bowl. But why was she so surprised, when it seemed like everyone she knew fantasized about immigrating to America? Why should her daughter be any different?
“Who put that idea in your head?” Soo-Ja asked gravely, figuring it was Min.
“Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman,” Hana replied.
“Your America exists only in movies,” said Soo-Ja.
Hana quickly got up and reached into the nong for a cylindrical can of Pringles chips, left behind by some American guests. She’d been saving it. She opened the lid, and pulled out a chip shaped like a wave, admiring it.
“This is America,” she said, before biting into it. “I eat America.”
“Ah, and of course, she can’t travel alone, so you’d have to go with her,” Soo-Ja said, turning to