"It’s the Korean translation of the love letter I recited to you earlier." He pulled the folded letter out of his pocket. "I’m planning to put this on a frame."
“Could you not just remind me? Please. I feel like an idiot earlier. I can't believe I agreed to pretend to be your girlfriend.”
"Lover," he corrected. “Lover. And what’s so embarrassing about that? Why? The outcome was good. We have ginseng tea and love cookies that warm our love, they said.”
"Eeeeeww!"
“What’s with that reaction? Aren’t you the one who kept on hugging me?”
She slapped his shoulder. “I was just pretending so they wouldn’t notice that we just gate-crashed their event. How embarrassing that we even had to pretend to be lovers just so we can eat for free.”
“But the experience was worth it. You suddenly have a lover. And it’s free. I won't ask for an extra charge for all the hugging.”
“And I don't have to pay for someone to hug me. I'm not that sad,” she said and hugged herself. They were at an elevated place and the blowing wind was so cold her teeth felt seemed like its clattering. She rubbed her palms together and blew on them. “Damn! It’s so cold here. Aren’t you cold?”
He took out a pink glove from his pocket and put it on her hands. “These are Eun Young’s but you can use it for a while since you didn’t bring your gloves.”
"I wasn’t able to buy,” she whispered. “Thank you. Aren't you cold?”
"I'm used to it," he said and pulled on her gloves to fit in her hands.
“Do you like it here in Korea?”
"Umma and Eun Young need me."
"I mean, is this the life you want?"
He put another glove on her other hand. “I prefer life in the Philippines. It's simple there, the cost of living is cheaper. But you probably know that I can’t just leave Eun Young and umma. And my father didn’t want to sell our farm in the province. I can't force him to sell it even if I will own it in the future anyway. It was a big slap to him that umma had left him for another man. And taking his property from him that he worked for all his life would be too much. He hasn't talked to me much since I came here to Korea.”
There was hurt in his voice. It was never easy for a child to be torn between his parents who were separated. Someone will get hurt. Someone will be left behind. This time, Carter had chosen his mother and step-sister’s lives here in Korea. And his father felt betrayed.
"Why not just sell your house here, to pay your family’s debt to Park Gung, and then go back to the Philippines?” she asked him.
He took a deep breath. “Mom prefers to be here in Seoul. She was still hoping that my stepfather will come back and change for the better, for her and Eun Young.”
"And do you think he'll come back?"
He laughed and looked up. "He won’t. Unless maybe he has run out of money. He went with a woman who was younger than my mother. I really don't know why she has to settle with a man who also left her after hurting her.”
“Maybe because she was hoping she could still bring back those good memories. Hoping to continue what had been broken. That maybe she could stand up about her decision before making it right. Or maybe she still loves him even though he had hurt her before. There are people like her, you know. People who still hope even when there was nothing there anymore.”
“Is that how you are to the man you love? You cannot forget him even though he's been gone for a long time?” Carter asked.
She swung her legs underneath her. “Doc Darryl is close to perfection. He is handsome, tall, has a beautiful smile, a doctor of children with cancer, does not look on the outside appearance of a woman.”
Carter moaned. “Close to perfection. Really? You’re looking for someone perfect?”
"As if you men don’t look for perfect women.”
"I don’t.”
“Just beautiful and sexy, right?” Cheska retorted.
“Great! Do you think I'm that narrow?”
“If Min Ji is beautiful and sexy and that’s what you like about her, you don’t have to explain anything. Because the eye sees differently and so does the heart. They don't understand how we feel,” she whispered sadly. "Sometimes it seems offensive or feels like being strangled."
"People around you don't like that you still can't move on with your Doc Darryl?"
Her eyes rolled. "Every week they look for someone to date me."
"You didn't like even one?"