Page 20 of Rules for Rule Breaking
Winter crouched down next to her grandmother, and theylooked at each other for a moment. Halmeoni’s eyes seemed tired, but not because it was six a.m. and she was fully dressed, fed, and halfway through her day. She appeared worn down in a way Winter had never noticed before. She supposed Halmeoni was aging, and because Winter herself had been getting older so quickly, she failed to notice they’d been doing it together.
Winter stuck her hand into the freshly laid mulch and scooped out one pristine red petunia in honor of Nai Nai. Red had some negative connotations in Korea, but in China it was lucky. Nai Nai complimented Winter whenever she wore the color.
Winter liked how the dirt felt on her hands. Being a bookworm, it wasn’t something she felt often. But it reminded her of when she was younger and she and Halmeoni would grow fruits and vegetables in the backyard of the house she and Harabeoji used to live in together. She would grow lettuce and peppers, but her favorite was hobak. They would pick the Korean squash and then fry it up and eat it with sauce or turn it into something delicious, like soup or pancakes. Those were some of Winter’s happiest memories. She was sad when Halmeoni couldn’t maintain the house anymore and had to sell it. But it was a blessing in disguise because she lived so much closer now.
Halmeoni scooped up a white petunia, and the two of them walked back to her apartment as fast as they could, giggling like they were both teenagers. Winter grabbed the flower box off the patio floor and put it on the table. They each took a finger and made a little hole in the dirt and deposited the roots of their flowers inside. They covered them up and stood back to admire their work. The long flower box looked a little silly with only two flowers in it, but Winter liked it. To her, they represented Nai Nai and Harabeoji. She took a picture of it with her grandmother in the background giving a thumbs-up with her dirt-covered hands.
When they were done, Halmeoni opened the door to her apartment. The smell of fresh, hot rice and the garlicky, spicy, vinegary aroma of kimchi of meals past hung in the air like an afterimage. Winter breathed in deeply and smiled. Halmeoni’s apartment always smelled the same.
Winter kicked off her shoes, washed the dirt off her hands, and threw herself onto the couch. It was hard and very unlike her grandmother because it came with the apartment, but it did smell like her signature perfume. Halmeoni busied herself in the kitchen and came back with a Yakult. Winter stabbed a hole in the top of the red foil lid with her fingernail and downed the entire yogurt drink in a single gulp. It tasted like her childhood. Except when she was younger, she would freeze them and then crush up the tiny plastic bottle with her teeth trying to get the frozen drink out of the small opening. She would always cut her mouth, but it was the only way to enjoy them, in her opinion. It was all part of the experience.
Winter’s phone buzzed, interrupting her peaceful morning. It was Bobby Bae.
I’ll be at your house in ten minutes,the text said.
“Crap!” Winter yelled.
“What did you say, Soon-hee?” Halmeoni asked from the next room.
“Nothing, Halmeoni. But I have to go.” Winter ran into her grandmother’s bedroom, where she was fixing her hair in the dresser mirror, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I promise I’ll call you from the road.”
“Don’t worry yourself. Have fun.”
“Saranghaeyo, Halmeoni!” Winter yelled as she tore out of there in the direction of home. Bobby considered timeliness next to godliness. They hadn’t even left yet, and he was already going to kill her.
Bobby Bae
8. WE WILL NOT HAVE MUTUAL FRIENDS WITHIN TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION
Bobby planned out his morning so that he would arrive at Winter’s house at exactly 6:30 a.m. He put everything in the car, programmed all their stops in the GPS, and had his father do a twenty-one-point check on the car the night before.
He was wearing his most comfortable but respectable outfit because he knew that he would have to talk to Winter’s parents for a considerable amount of time before they would be allowed to leave. He allotted exactly thirty minutes in the schedule for this purpose. What he did not plan for was for his parents to follow him in their own car so that they could see him off. Kai was also in that car because he had fallen asleep with his vegan burrito on his chest the night prior, and Bobby hadn’t had the heart to wake him and send him home.
As Bobby pulled into the Park’s driveway, Winter came running up to the window, panting and sweating. She laid her hand against his car to catch her breath.
“Jesus,” Bobby said as he rolled down the window. “Are you going to vomit?”
“Maybe. If. I. Keep. Looking. At. You,” Winter said between gasps for air.
“Nice one,” he replied dryly, getting out of the car and flickingthe hair from his face. “Are you ready? We need to try to make our goodbyes brief.”
Bobby was annoyed Winter wasn’t paying attention to him. She was distracted by his parents and Kai, who were walking over from where they parked across the street.
“Uh... your parents are here,” she said. “We only allotted thirty minutes for parents. Mine. Not yours.”
“I didn’t anticipate them wanting to come.”
Kai was waving at Winter, a goofy smile splashed across his face. He ran up and picked her up off the ground, locking her in a tight hug. He placed her back down, and she was once again a full foot shorter than he was.
“How has your summer been?” Winter asked.
“Good. Can’t complain. But I prefer winter.”
Winter covered her smile with her hands.
Bobby appreciated the amount of effort Kai put into forming unique relationships with everyone he met. It was part of the reason Bobby loved Kai so much, but it was also one of the main pain points in their relationship because Kai knew absolutely everyone and Bobby often felt anxious every time they had to do a stop-and-chat. This was one such instance, and it was worse because it was Winter.
“How’s work? I heard you got a job at the bookstore,” Winter said.
