fixture in this neighborhood, a woman hovering around the century mark who still ran her medicinal wine shop across the street from Jihoon’s old apartment. She sat on the wooden deck outside of her shop, an umbrella perched to protect her from the sun and an electric fan blowing from the open doorway. Rain or shine, hot or cold, you could depend on Hwang Halmeoni to be on her perch watching the neighborhood.
Somin turned back to the boy, but he was gone. Just as suddenly as the old man. Strange. Was the heat affecting her somehow?
“Did you see that boy?” Somin asked Hwang Halmeoni, walking over to the medicinal wine store.
“Which one? That cute Junu that keeps hanging around here?” Hwang Halmeoni wiggled her brows. “He’s sure been a treat for my eyes lately.”
Somin didn’t want to talk about Junu, so instead she asked, “Should you be sitting outside in this heat?”
Hwang Halmeoni waved away Somin’s concern with the giant fan in her hand. “Inside. Outside. It’s hot no matter where I sit. At least this way I can see the goings-on in the neighborhood.”
Somin laughed and nodded.
“Moving day?” Hwang Halmeoni asked, her eyes sad as they focused on Jihoon’s apartment.
“Yeah,” Somin said. “We’re packing everything up today.”
“Mrs. Nam had been in this building for over forty years. It won’t be the same without her, even if I did tell her she made her kimchi jjigae too spicy.”
Somin laughed at that. Leave it to Hwang Halmeoni to be brutally honest. “I’m sad you and I won’t be able to have our talks anymore.”
“Well, you should still come visit me. One thing is for sure, I’ll never leave.”
“Why not?” Somin asked. She knew that Hwang Halmeoni had a daughter who’d moved south around Busan a while ago, but still Hwang Halmeoni had stayed.
“When I was younger, we were forced to leave our home. Not out of a desire to see the country, but out of a desire to survive.”
Somin knew Hwang Halmeoni was old enough to remember a unified Korea, and how it was broken in two, but she realized she’d never heard the woman talk about it.
“We weren’t able to come back for years, and when we did, everything seemed different to me. Perhaps when you’re forced out of your home like that, you’re willing to hold on to it with all you’ve got when you get it back. I’m sorry Jihoon wasn’t allowed to hold on to his.”
The way Hwang Halmeoni looked at Somin made her self-conscious, like the old woman was looking into Somin’s soul. Like she could see the secret desire that Somin had never told anyone—that sometimes she wished she could just leave. To go and be anywhere but here. But she knew it was a pipe dream. Where would she even go? And where would she get the money for it? She should just take a lesson from Hwang Halmeoni’s words and appreciate what she had: a good family, good friends, a place to call home.
Somin’s mother stepped out of the apartment and lifted her hand to her brow as if scanning the terrain, stopping when she zeroed in on Somin below.
“Your mother should find someone,” Hwang Halmeoni said. “Such a pretty woman like that, a shame for her to be alone.”
“She’s not alone,” Somin said. “She has me.”
“Of course she does.” Hwang Halmeoni patted Somin’s hand.
“Somin-ah,” her mother said, jogging across the street to join them. “Hello, Hwang Halmeoni.” She dipped into a bow.
“Moon Soohyun, you look like you could be Sominie’s sister instead of her mother.”
Somin’s mother blushed. It was true, Somin thought. Her mother always had such a youthful glow about her. Despite the things she’d been through—getting pregnant right after high school, losing her husband when Somin was still so young—she was ever the optimist. Somin wondered why she hadn’t inherited any of that positivity.
“Somin-ah, I’m going to go buy some drinks for the movers. They’re working so hard, and it’s so hot, you could bake an egg in there. Can you keep everything in order here?”
“Sure,” Somin said. She was used to her mother trusting her to take charge of things. It had been that way since she was a little girl. Her mother used to say she was so serious about everything she did, wanting it all to be absolutely perfect. I’m so lucky to have a daughter like you, her mother always said. I had no idea what I was doing, but you made it so easy for