YOU

III

"Nina! Omo! Look at you! How are you?! It's been so long!" Never one to hold back, my uncle's wife rushed to hug me as my uncle followed her along with a big smile on his face as well. He ruffled my hair just like how he used to since I was a little girl.

"Yah! Don't ruin her hair! She's not a little girl anymore." My Aunty tutted at my uncle. "She must have spent a long time fixing her hair for you to just ruffle it. Aiiissh! How frustrating!"

My ever calm uncle just raised his hands in defeat and I gave him a reassuring smile. "It's ok. I knew he would do that so I didn't really style my hair today."

She pulled me into another hug and motioned my uncle to grab my suitcase and gently prodded me to their car as we exited the hotel lobby. Holding me close to her as we walked out until we are safely inside the car.

"I'm so glad to see you again Nina. This pandemic is the worst. I'm glad we get to see each other before we go to America."

"I know. I'm glad to be back too. How is Chung Hee? Is he settling alright there?"

"Yes he is, but he can't come visit us because of work so he asked us to go visit him instead. He asked about you too and I said you'll be here just before we leave."

"I haven't seen him in ages! Niko and Aera met up with him a few months ago. I picked them up from the airport and the first thing Niko said was that Chung Hee hates me for convincing them to migrate there instead of America where he lives." I laughed as I imagined my cousin's puffed up annoyed face learning that his two best fiends chose me over him. But to be honest what they chose was the healthcare system rather than me so it wasn't really personal.

"Really? He must be really expecting them to move to America."

"So are you planning to move there too?"

"No we're not," my uncle piped in as he got in the driver's seat after lugging my suitcase in the boot. "He needs to come back here after he achieves whatever he wants to achieve there. He's our only son and I don't plan on uprooting our life here."

My uncle can be stern sometimes but I always appreciated that about him especially when he took on the father's role when they took my brother and I in their home when both my parents passed suddenly. He didn't give us special treatment out of pity because we were orphaned at a young age. He disciplined us and I truly believe that if my uncle was the same as the other adults in our life at the time who seemed to let us do what we wanted because they felt sorry for us, we wouldn't have grown up to be the responsible adults that we are now. Couple that with our aunt's loving ways, we were blessed to have been in their family and I will always be grateful to them.

The drive to their home was not that long. I remember the convenience store at the corner of the street, the uphill climb, the light posts along the way until we get to the house. We haven't always lived here in Seoul. Our family is originally from Busan, but since having two more mouths to feed, my uncle got a job at a bigger company that paid more. He is still with that company after so many years and still living in Seoul, a testament to my uncle's defiance to change unless necessary, which is what he did back then, moving his family from his hometown to Seoul.

We pulled in to the garage and as expected nothing has changed. From the way the boxes were stacked, the pathway leading to the house, and the wind chime by the front door. The only thing that's changed was that shrubs by the front yard have grown bushier and the trees taller.

As soon as we got inside the house I started to unpack what I got for them while my aunt busied herself to prepare a meal for us. My uncle going back and forth to the garage and only on his fourth trip back did I notice that he was putting away some stuff from my old room. I went up inside to check out what's keeping him busy. I made my way past the kitchen along the short hallway of 3 doors on one side and 1 on the other. My old room was the middle door in between the bathroom/toilet we all shared and my brother and cousin's shared room. The tiny room looked the same except that it had more stuff in it now. The single bed and desk is still there with the single wardrobe that fit all my clothes at one time but eventually overflowed and had to get under bed storage. I used to study on that desk facing the window, looking out the wooden fence covered with climbing vines. That's how i started to get interested in photography. The contrast of the dark wood against the lush greenery and it's dainty flowers took my attention away from my books. Instead of solving math problems I tried to look at angles to showcase a different perspective of that one flower or that one leaf that caught my eye. When the rain falls, I'd watch the raindrops on my glass window against the background of the blurred greenery and in winter how the white snow stood out against the dark sill of window. I took a deep breathe remembering how I felt during those times feeling like I caught something so surreal that I had to capture it. We didn't have fancy camera phones back then but it was enough for me to be fascinated how the lens captures a moment in different lights and angles.