A Thousand Purple Stars (JinJi)

Dear Mama

"There's four trees that all have really beautiful fruit," said Jisoo's father over the phone. She was in the bathroom putting on makeup for the Scholars' Gala when he'd suddenly called to catch up and tell her the latest peach farm news.

"But they were right up next to the diseased one and the foreman doesn't know whether or not to we can sell them," he said.

"Did you clear the diseased ones already?" Jisoo said, putting her phone on speaker and setting it down as she put on mascara. "What was it? Brown rot again?"

"Leaf curl, actually," he said.

"Hmm. Tricky."

"You'd know what to do," he said over the phone, laughing. "Well, I guess you'll be home soon anyway, with graduation coming up? You excited to finally be back home?"

Jisoo put down the mascara wand and felt her heart pound away at her chest. She had been hoping to bring this subject up with him at a later time, but then she supposed that now was as good as ever. She closed her eyes and leaned against the sink for support.

"Actually, Appa," she said, bringing her voice up an octave the way she did whenever she was going to ask him for anything. "I had something to tell you."

He paused on the other line. "Is it bad news?"

"No, actually it's good news!" Jisoo said, laughing a little. "Um. I got a job."

He was quiet again. Jisoo got nervous. What was he thinking?

"I thought you already had a job," he said, his voice sounding concerned. "An internship at a marketing firm, right? Getting some experience, prepping to take over for me."

"Well, actually—I quit that job, Appa," she said carefully. He sounded alarmed.

"What? Why?"

"I got a new job, though!" she said, trying to smooth things over. She picked up her phone and switched it off speaker. She held it to her ear.

"It pays really well, and my supervisor is really nice and so are my coworkers, and there's even a chance for a promotion after a year—,"

"What job is this?" he asked. Jisoo bit the inside of her cheek.

"I'm an Editorial Assistant at this place—it's a magazine, uh, a literary journal called Embrace," she said. "You've heard of it, I read it all the time as a kid. Anyway, I'm helping them out with publishing and they're even going to let me write a few short features—"

"Writing?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm... kind of an assistant writer for them."

She heard her father sigh on the other line and her spirits fell. He was disappointed. Of course.

"Jisoo, I thought we talked about this already," he said. "We had an agreement. We agreed you would get your business degree and then come home and run the family business with me. Writing? Sweetheart, you told me you didn't even want to do that anymore."

"I'm still getting my business degree—"

"Yeah, and then wasting it," he said. He sighed again. She could hear how conflicted he was just by the sound of his breathing. Jisoo felt bad about making him feel this way.

"Jisoo, I love you, you know that," he said. "But being a writer isn't a steady career. What if you never sell any books? What if the competition is too steep and no one takes notice of you? You'll be unemployed."

Please, just trust me, she thought to herself, but she held her tongue. I can do this. Just believe in me.

"Sweetheart, I just don't want to see you get your heart broken if this doesn't work out for you."