New Beginnings (working title)

By Rita H. Chen

Jungsu was 15 years old when his older sister said to him, “We should find someone for father.”

He immediately frowned, not liking the idea of any woman taking the place of their beloved mother who had passed away three years prior.  “Why?”

“Because he’s lonely, can’t you tell?”

“No, he isn’t.  He’s got you and I.”

His sister sighed.  “Yes, he does have us.  But that’s not enough, Jungsu-ah.  You and I have been doing my best to look after this house but I’m starting university this year and in a few years, you will too.  He’s going to need a companion eventually…someone his own age who he can talk to about his worries and his dreams, someone to take care of him, someone he can grow old with.  We can’t give him that.”

“We can,” Jungsu said with determined eyes.  “I can.  I can be his companion and he can talk to me about his worries and dreams.  I’ll understand.  And if there are things I don’t understand yet, I’ll learn.  If there’s no one to cook for him, then I’ll learn how to cook.  He doesn’t need somebody new to do that for him.  I’ll do it all.”

His sister gave him a long measuring look before she finally said, “I see it’s too early to be talking about this now,” and she waved Jungsu off when he asked her what she meant by that.

* * *

A few days after the conversation with his sister, Jungsu told his father over breakfast that he would like to go out and do something with him.

His sister stilled in her movements, her rice-laden chopsticks inches from her mouth, as she stared at him.  Their father also looked up from the sales report that he was reading during breakfast in surprise.  While Jungsu was an obedient boy who did his homework and rarely complained about anything, his son hadn’t requested to spend time with him in years.  Wondering what had brought on this request, he asked, “Well, what would you like to do then, Jungsu-ah?”

Jungsu shrugged and gave him a small smile, dimples flashing in his cheeks.  “Whatever you want, Father.  I know you’re busy so you choose.”

The elder man realized that it had been awhile since he had looked – really looked – at his son and he realized that he was turning into a handsome and bright-eyed young man.  He had previously thought him too young but perhaps this was a good time to start making plans for the future, to start training Jungsu for when he eventually took over his food import-export business.  He leaned forward with a smile.  “What do you think about taking Chinese lessons together?”

* * *

“Chinese lessons?” Jungsu’s best friend, Chungho, had exclaimed as they shared a quick lunch at a small eatery together.

“Yeah,” Jungsu picked up a slice of pickled radish with his chopsticks and stuffed it in his mouth.  After breaking the morsel apart with his teeth in a few quick bites, he swallowed and continued, “He says that knowing Chinese will be useful for when I take over the business.  Most of the vegetables in Korea come out of China, you know.”

Chungho eyes flicked skyward in exasperation before he scowled and said, “Well, thanks for thinking so highly of my intelligence, old friend of mine.  I obviously knew that already.  My surprise was actually from the fact that he wants to go to school with you.  I don’t think most fathers would suggest that.  Most fathers would say something like, ‘Let’s go hiking in the mountains’ or something that would take less…” he paused as he searched for the right word.

“Time?” Jungsu supplied helpfully.

“Commitment, really.  But yeah, time too.”  He shovelled some rice into his rice into his mouth, a thoughtful expression crossing his face as he chewed.  “What’s gonna happen if you’re better at Chinese than he is?”

Jungsu frowned.  Instinct told him that it shouldn’t matter if he turned out to be better than his father.  After all, everyone had their own talents and strengths.  However, his mind and social upbringing balked at that idea.  His father was older and thus expected to be better than him at everything.  To surpass his father, particularly in public settings, could bring embarrassment to his father. “Pretend I suck, of course,” he replied with a shrug.  “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

A frown unconsciously crossed Chungho’s face as he considered his friend’s words but he nodded in agreement.

TO BE CONTINUED

Rita’s Musings: Okay…the title is awful, I know.  It was a tentative title I just threw together but upon careful consideration, it’s definitely not a title I want to continue using as I don’t think it successfully captures the spirit of this story.  At any rate, this is an excerpt of something that I’ve been working on.

I’m still debating whether or not to continue this for several reasons: The main one being I’m not a teenage boy and the other one being I’m not Korean.  Though I have a plot for this story tentatively planned in my head, I am not sure if I can give this story the sense of realism that it needs.  I’ll keep mulling this over and will keep building on it as inspired but am just not entirely sure this should be something I continue working on…