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“Yeah… maybe not his best moment.” Lily’s voice was nostalgic as she dropped her spoon on the stove and wrapped her husband up in her arms, resting her chin on his chest. “Daddy did always have a way of putting his foot in his mouth, but he loves you now.”
“He does,” the man snorted. “Thirty years and one very good grandson later.”
They seemed to be in a world of their own as they chuckled together and it was quickly becoming obvious why their son was as affectionate as he was.
Wiz cleared his throat, seemingly reminding the pair that they were, in fact, not alone in the kitchen.
“Dad,” Wiz came around the counter and put his hands on my shoulders. “This is Ciara Callaghan, Ciara, this is my dad Min-Jun Park.”
I held a hand out to Min-Jun and the man clasped mine in both of his. His smile was kind, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he spoke again. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ciara, and it’s nice to see that these heathens haven’t scared you off yet.”
“We’re not heathens, Min-Jun, you know you love us!” someone shouted from the living room, making the older man smile.
“I do try and keep that a secret,” he mock-whispered to me. “You’re going to love Lily’s spaghetti, it’s her specialty.”
“More like the only thing she can cook,” Wiz muttered from behind me.
“What was that?” Lily asked, putting a hand up to her ear.
“Nothing!” Wiz’s voice was full of sweetness as he gave my shoulders a squeeze. “What can we do to help?”
“That is exactly the correct answer, my son,” Min-Jun said, giving his wife’s lips one last peck.
Then Lily got to work giving us our marching orders. “We’ve got to put dinner on for almost twenty-five people in less than an hour, chop-chop!”
Three hours later and I was sitting on the edges of bedlam as Wiz’s family played a very loud, very rousing game of charades.
Wiz and his mom were on a team after I’d waved them off, having reached the limit of my social battery nearly an hour ago and they were in complete sync as Wiz acted and Lily guessed.
“Heartbeat!” Lily shouted as Wiz patted a hand to his heart.
Getting up, I made my way to the back door to get some fresh air. Wiz’s eyes seemed to follow me and ask if I was okay and I nodded, waving a hand at him before slipping out onto the back porch.
It was a blissfully cool night, the warm front from earlier in the week completely gone now as a summer storm rolled into Seattle.
“It got to be too much for you too, huh?” a voice from behind me nearly made me jump clean out of my skin.
“You scared me.” I pressed a hand to my chest, whirling around to find Min-Jun sitting on the porch swing.
The man smiled softly. “Come, sit, soak in the nice night with me until the wild things inside calm down.”
Once I’d settled in next to him, we began to swing, listening to the shouts coming from inside the house.
After a while, Min-Jun glanced over at me. “I know I said I don’t hide, but even thirty years later I always seem to slip away from these things. The McDonald family loves loud and they love hard, but it can be overwhelming, right?”
I nodded. “I thought my family was loud, but they’ve got nothing on them.”
Min-Jun’s laugh was sharp as he leaned back on the swing and stared out into the dark yard.
His expression shifted from amused to something more serious. “Has Jae-Sun told you anything about me?”
“Just that you were born in Korea,” I said with a shrug. “And that as soon as your wife met you she fell in love at first sight.”
“Well, both of those things are correct, but not the full truth.” The man sighed and clasped his hands on his stomach. “Both of my parents died when I was only two years old. I was raised by my grandmother until she died when I was fifteen. My existence until Lily stumbled into the convenience store where I worked was an exceedingly lonely one.”
I shifted uncomfortably and Min-Jun’s smile was sad as he watched me. “I could tell we were alike as soon as I met you today. Does Jae-Sun know about your loneliness?”
I shrugged. “Some, but not all.”
