Page 55 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
“Please come in.”
Jamal apologized and went in first.
Inside the house was almost bare, except for a few corners. A card table stood where a large dining table should have been in the front-facing dining room. She led them down a brief hallway to a living room that looked out over the water. There was a couch and a set of matching chairs. Where a coffee table should have been, there were a few boxes instead.
She motioned them to sit on the couch. “Please forgive me. They left the sofa set since I could prove I bought it with money from my parents, but they took the coffee table.”
“Not at all,” Damian said. He glanced at Jun. Mrs. Bak and Jun were carefully not looking each other full in the face. Jamal and Thomas faded discreetly into the background.
“Lana and Kali are upstairs. I told them to stay there until I called for them.” Mrs. Bak took a seat in one of the chairs facing Jun and Damian on the couch.
There were several beats of uncomfortable silence.
Jun swallowed and raised his head. “Have you decided if you want to stay in the U.S. with the girls?”
Mrs. Bak twisted her skirt in her hand. “I’ve filed for divorce from my husband. My family will take me back when I’m successful. They want nothing to do with the children of a criminal.”
Jun took in a breath.
Mrs. Bak blinked and looked away. She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a handkerchief. “Sahyuk wasn’t interested in keeping anything but business ties with my family after we married. He didn’t like me traveling home. My family doesn’t know the girls. I spoke to them in Korean when he wasn’t around, but Sahyuk did not encourage them to embrace their culture. Lana speaks French and Kali is very good with Spanish. California is their home.”
She took a breath, bracing herself.
“My visa is being revoked. They’re giving me time, but not very long. That’s part of my deal with the courts. If I leave of my own volition, divorce, and return all property to you, then I’ll be eligible for short-term visas to come back in the future, eventually. They’ve agreed to not charge me with criminal activity. Sahyuk did things in my name, but they’re giving me the benefit of the doubt.”
She had to pause to steady her breath again.
“I don’t want Kali and Lana to be ashamed of themselves. If I bring them back with me, even if I find a way after years outside the workforce to provide for the three of us, they’ll be strangers, to their family, to their country. So, I wanted to ask, would you…would you be their guardian? Here, in the States?”
Jun was still as statuary, hands on his knees, staring at Mrs. Bak. His eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t speak.
Mrs. Bak dropped her eyes and fisted her skirt with both hands.
“Do they know?” Jun said, hoarsely.
Mrs. Bak shook her head. “I don’t want them to know you rejected them if you refuse. They’ll experience enough of that in the future, if I take them back. My family will not help me if I return with them.”
No one said anything.
Mrs. Bak broke the silence again. “They’ll have standing, Mr. Gang, as your sisters. With me, they’ll be fatherless and poor, with shameful connections. I don’t want to leave my daughters, Mr. Gang, let alone leave them with a man I don’t know. I’ve done my research on your associates, and on you. You have a moral code, as does your partner, Mr. Sathers, and his friends. This is the best thing I can do for them.”
Jun traded looks with Damian. “I need time,” Jun said hoarsely. “Can we use the yard?”
Mrs. Bak nodded. She stood, slightly unsteady, and showed them to the door. Jamal and Thomas followed, Thomas taking point as they left.
The sunlight was a welcome relief from the air-conditioning inside. Damian walked beside Jun down the sterile sidewalk. Jun was going much further than the yard, but that was his choice. Damian just stayed beside him.
Jun went until they reached a cul-de-sac. He stopped in the middle of the asphalt, hands shoved in his pockets. “I can’t parent teenage girls. Our home is in Chicago.”
“If they came with us, they’d have to move.”
Jun closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I know what kind of school they went to here. From what Armada says, it would be night and day for them.”
“Boarding schools,” Damian murmured. “If you sold the house, it would cover tuition for a couple of years.”
“We’ve already written the house off, if it came to that. They still need their mother. What…” Jun blinked quickly. “Could she get a visa to a different country, like Canada or the UK?”
Damian rocked back on his heels, thinking. “She’s not under any criminal charges. Her record is clean. Yes, most likely.”
