Page 70 of The Secret Of Us

“I do. I spoke to Halabeoji about it already. I think I can make it work if I fly straight from France to Korea. It’ll be a short trip, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Have you asked Appa?”

“Yeah, he said he was okay with it.”

She nods, placing more chicken on our plates.

“Then so am I. We can look at flights later. What’s the trip for?”

A relieved sigh escapes me before I explain the details to her. Mum tilts her head to the side as I speak, watching me with an emotion in her eyes that I can’t read. She stacks chicken, ssamjjang, garlic, and rice on top of a lettuce leaf before folding it together and leaning over the table. I open my mouth and she feeds it to me, smiling gently as she watches me eat.

“Eomma, make one for me,” Mina says, and I glare at her. Eomma gives in immediately, though, making another wrap and feeding it to her, too.

Once we’ve finished eating, Eomma says that Mina has to help with cleaning because I helped with the cooking, so I retreat to my room. Right as I enter, my phone pings.

Izzy

How’s it going?

I sit on the edge of my bed and call her. She answers on the first ring.

“Hi,” she says. Her voice brings a smile to my face instantly.

“Hey.”

“How are you?” she asks, and the first thing I want to say is that I miss her.

“I’m good,” is what I settle for instead. “You?”

“Me too,” Izzy says, but I think she’s hiding a secret just like I am. “Did you speak to your parents?”

“Yep, and I’m going to France.” I lie down, stretching one arm above my head before tucking it underneath as a makeshift pillow.

“That’s great!” Izzy sounds genuinely excited for me, and I can’t help but smile.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to France before.”

“Really? But it’s so close.”

I stare at the ceiling and try to imagine how Izzy looks in her room right now. I have no idea what her bedroom at home looks like, so I can only picture her in her dorm. I wonder if she’s sitting on the edge of her bed, or lying down like I am. I wonder what that bed looks like, if it’s got pale pink sheets dotted with hearts like at school. I imagine photos lining her walls, all the happy memories she shares with her friends and family documented forever. I wonder if she thinks of me while she’s there as much as I think of her.

“I usually go to Korea whenever there’s a break, so I haven’t travelled to a lot of other places.

“That makes sense. I’ve been to Paris a few times. Isaac and Violet even took me a few months ago. It was their graduation trip, but I kind of gatecrashed it.”

I struggle to hold back my laugh but then I hear Izzy laughing too, light and airy, and a balm to my soul.

“Would you go back again?” I ask her, my mind once again going to places it shouldn’t. I can’t let myself imagine sitting by the Eiffel Tower with her, strolling down the narrow streets, sitting in cafes and people watching.

“Probably? There’s a couple of other places I want to see, so I think I want to travel a bit more before going back.”

“Is that what you’re going to do before uni?”

She’s silent for a moment, and I realise I’ve said the wrong thing. She’s already told me before that she doesn’t want to go to university, and that it was a decision she struggled with.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I apologise. I wish we were having this conversation face to face so I could comfort her, hold her hand to show that I’m here for her.

“No, it’s okay. I know it’s the normal thing for people to do.”

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