I arrived at the Loft half past 2 in the afternoon. It's been a long week, but even though I got remote work done, I still enjoyed the provincial life. I wish I can just stay on the farm and retire in there. Which remind me, it's only 3 more weeks before the Easter Holidays. My sister decided to spend 3 weeks holiday in the Philippines, and I also managed to ask for extra week of holiday for Marcus. I cannot wait. That's the problem when you got a taste of relaxation. You will feel idle and lazy.
I called Soo-ah to inform that I am back. She updated me about the news while I was gone. Jae-yin is still the acting CEO of Namshin, as expected. Namesis got a Japanese project, so that's why he was busy. Congressman Park is planning to run for mayor, and it seemed that he had a misunderstanding with Namshin, since he became too vocal about not supporting the supposed engagement of Nam Jae-woo to a foreign woman. Most of the article are looking at it as being bitter since, Jae-woo turned down his daughter.
I got a sms from Han-nah as well, I was invited to Soo-ah's bachelorette party next Friday night. Soo-ah is getting married in 2 weeks. Time flies when you're busy here. I met with Chris and Simon, we finally have to end our team, although the contract will be terminated in a month, and there's still week left for it, I think we don't need to meet up as often anymore. I am a bit relieve that I found my circle here in just 2 months. I am hesitating to call him. So, I sent him a message instead. I'm back in Seoul. If you're up for a chat.
I fell asleep and woke up late. It was past 8 in the evening. I went on the treadmill for an hour and do some yoga for half an hour when I decided to fix something for dinner. I'm in Japan, I will be back Saturday, he replied. Wow. Our relationship after the confession was being reduced to messages.
The Namdo team welcomed me back. It has been 2 weeks since the welcome party and I have not really talked with them on the event either. They are still their usual inquisitiveness. More so that they found out a lot of new and interesting stuff about me.
"So, will you be our boss soon?" someone asked.
"I doubt that." I smiled.
"Oh yeah, you'll be back in Copenhagen after 4 months…" someone else declared.
Of course. I am going back to Copenhagen. Who would expect I'm going to stay in Seoul? I'm loving the atmosphere here, but I wouldn't say I will live in here. Which remind me, we never really talked about this kind of things in our relationship yet. No future talks, not even other personal talk. The commercial ended by 4 in the afternoon. I never thought that this kind of shoot will take hours to shoot. I went home by 5 and received a call from Lydia.
"This is Ara…"
"Ara, it's ok, I'm inviting some of the gang, tomorrow right? There are still 3 of us left in here."
"Of course. The more, the merrier right?"
"You can come after 7 in the evening, although I'm not closing until past 3 am."
"Ok. I'll be there after 7…."
The outline of my thesis is progressing. I had a notice from the University about my requests on Easter Holiday and it seemed that I can only have a week, so including my suppose meeting in Copenhagen I can only take 2 weeks of holiday. This means that for this month of March I won't be meeting Claus for my supervisory consultation. I finalize my outline and my rough draft for the concept papers and methodology and sent it to him and Professor Kim.
I located the tiny eatery of Lydia; it was a typical bar grill place. The smell of Filipino barbecue is coming from the smoke. I took a cab to come to this place. I don't really want to make an entrance. I was wearing a simple black denim pants and tucked in mustard chiffon long sleeve polo and a Vans platform loafer. I covered myself in an HM dark brown trench coat and a pashmina scarf. I used my Mirta bucket bag to put my phone, my wallet, make-up kit, wet wipes and my Notepad.
I met Lydia by the cashier, with her daughter. She looked like she is in her late 50s and her daughter is in her late 20s. I greeted them, and she ushered me to a group of 2 older women and an older man.
"She's Ara, she was Ronie's eldest from the Philippines…" she introduced me to them in Tagalog.
"Good evening po…" I greeted.
"Good evening hija." It's the old man who talked informally.
"Ronie has really good genes huh," the chubbier woman commented, her name Elsa.
"We heard from Lydia, you talked with Edward already?" the other woman, Marian, is much older than both Lydia and Elsa started.
"So, what are you really curious about?" They all seem to be willing to talk.
"First of all, thank you po for meeting me. I knew it had been almost 30 years. I'm sorry if I have to relive that past, but I am just really curious about the incident that led to my father's deportation and if you still have news about the woman and her children."
"Are you in Seoul to work?" the old man seemed to want to ease up the conversation.
"Sort of. I'm a PhD fellow at SNU, until probably end of June or early days of July depends on my research."
"Wow. Big time ah…we heard about your father's passing, our condolences…."
"That was almost 20 years ago, thanks…"
"The first time we found out about Ronnie having a family in the Philippines was shocking…we felt bad about Ma'am Sha-na, she was so desperate to know any news before…"
The night got more and more comfortable while we got more alcohol. I opted to drink the soju without any beer. At least they got more comfortable sharing their stories. Uncle Joseph is the one who have been closed to both my dad and Uncle Edward. He also knew about my dad having a family in the Philippines. He is the one who told me about Sha-na marrying a farmer on the countryside. Unfortunately, they haven't had any news about her after the incident as well.