Page 202 of Paradox
I look my mother dead in the eye. "You barely spoke English when you moved here, now you're practically running a company. Are you not allowed to be proud of yourself?"
"This isn't about me."
"Why not?"
"Because it's about how you dropped out of college, disappeared for months on end, then, when you show up, it's in the arms of your brother's thirty-four year old best friend."
"Which one of those things is worse?"
"I'm done playing your games. You're coming with me now." She grabs my arm again but I tear it away.
"Which is it, Mom? What do you hate more? That I dropped out of college, or that I'm gay?"
"You're not gay."
"I've always been gay."
"You've had girlfriends."
"And so has he." I throw my hand in Eden's direction and my mother steps closer, like she just remembered we're in public.
"He's not gay either, Jintae. He's a man that's far too old for you who doesn't know what the hell he wants. Just like you don't."
"I can't believe that after all this, you still won't listen to me."
"There's nothing to listen to. He's never welcome back in my house, and you're never leaving it."
I square up to my mother and inch closer. "If he's not welcome, consider me a stranger."
"Are you really willing to disown yourself?"
"I think the real question is; areyouwilling to forgo any relationship with your son because he doesn't want to followyourpath?"
"But we gave you a choice."
"I didn't want any of them. I don't want to be a doctor or an engineer, either."
"But you're so smart."
"Bakers are allowed to be smart, too."
Her face contorts. "Bakers?"
"Yeah." I stand up the straightest I have all day and look back at Eden. "I wanna go to culinary school."
"You know nothing about baking, or cooking, or even turning on a damn stove."
"I've watched you and Halmae for years, and… you'd be surprised what I can do for myself now."
I watch my mother's eyes flicker from mine and over to Eden. "I suppose you had something to do with this?"
"I'm hearing about it for the first time, too, Minjee."
"I told you not to call me that."
"I'm not gonna stop."
"This level of betrayal shows you have no respect for me."
