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Suddenly, Hunter's face came to mind.
Unstoppable, confident, and strong.
'Can I do it?'
Jiyu gripped the plush, soft, high-end duvet patterned with small flowers and sobbed one last time, like a heartbroken child.
The second week of May.
The house was finally sold. The price was much lower than what Ae-jeong had initially suggested. Although it was higher than the original purchase price, there wasn't much room for negotiation since it was a fire sale.
With the new owner's move-in date set for September 1st, Jiyu and Ae-jeong had to vacate the house by the end of August.
Since the money would enter their bank account in August, they didn't have the funds to move elsewhere before then anyway.
After paying the real estate agent and legal consultation fees, the amount left after paying off debts was about ten thousand dollars. It was a pittance, nowhere near enough to find a place in Manhattan.
In mid-June, the three-month summer break began.
As always, Hunter's family spent two weeks at their villa in the South of France before leaving for their Hamptons estate. Chloe went to her grandparents' house as soon as the break started, claiming she needed to prepare for the SAT at a famous Korean academy.
Both said they wouldn't return to Manhattan until late August. By the time they returned, Jiyu would have already moved to another area.
Hunter, Jinx, and the treehouse—they would all remain as childhood memories.
Thinking about it that way, even the memories that hadn't been particularly pleasant felt quite nostalgic. The time to truly say goodbye to childhood was slipping away, like sand falling through an hourglass.
✾ ✾ ✾
[Hey, Ollie!]
A man standing in front of a bookstore with a sign that read 'Paper Crane' waved at Jiyu. Jiyu, who had been looking around while holding her phone with the address displayed, quickened her pace toward him.
[Hi, Josh!]
Joshua Yoon. A friend she had made last semester.
During the fierce 'Sienna Persecution Period,' Jiyu had spent most of her time hiding in the Great Library, where she had casually become acquainted with him, a fellow regular of the library.
She wasn't the type to easily make friends with strangers, but at the time, she was in an extreme situation where she intentionally kept even Chloe at a distance.
She hadn't even overcome the grief of suddenly losing Alan, yet she had been cast out alone onto frozen ground, stripped bare. Enduring total isolation, hostile glares, and various forms of bullying, all she could do was stubbornly persevere, hoping that time would simply pass.
The Great Library was a small igloo that willingly sheltered her.
The familiar scent of books, the quiet peace of mind brought by the rustling sound of turning pages. Only when reading books inside could she let down her guard a little.
Joshua was an outsider just like her. He said he had transferred from Boston during the fall semester of 10th grade, which was an off-year.
At Alton School and Aster School, where students attended from preschool through 12th grade, the enrollment numbers increased significantly during 5th grade (the start of middle school) and 9th grade (the start of high school).
Because of this, children who entered at the same time tended to band together and form tight-knit relationships. Consequently, children who entered during an off-year often struggled to make friends.
An academic Asian boy wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses like Joshua would have undoubtedly been categorized as a 'nerd' or 'geek' the moment he transferred.
However, he was somewhat ambiguous, making it awkward for him to fit into the existing nerd or geek cliques.
He was good at studying, but he didn't cling to his grades as if his life depended on them.
While he was a quiet model student at school, on weekends, he would hang out with his college-aged cousins at downtown bars, drinking enough to suffer from terrible hangovers.
On nice days, he enjoyed sitting at an open-air cafe near his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ordering a black coffee in a cup as large as a soup bowl and reading classic sci-fi novels.
Joshua, who had been glancing at Jiyu as she took refuge in the Great Library during recess to finish her homework and start reading Isaac Asimov's sci-fi classic Foundation, eventually approached her as if he couldn't stand it any longer and pulled out a chair to sit in front of her.
[Hey, sorry to ask this out of the blue, but is that Foundation you're reading? How is it? Is it good?]
Frozen, Jiyu only nodded silently.
But Joshua took that as a signal; his eyes sparkled behind his horn-rimmed glasses as he began to passionately discourse on how great the Foundation series was.
She was a bit surprised, but also happy. She was sincerely glad that someone had spoken to her first and that they could have a normal conversation about books.
'If you consider a passionate lecture on the influence of the Foundation series on modern sci-fi novels to be a normal conversation.'
The fact that Joshua was also Korean helped her open up. Once he realized Jiyu was proficient in Korean, he often mixed Korean words into his English in clever and paradoxical ways. It felt similar to Chloe, making her feel comfortable around him.
They often sat in a corner of the Great Library and talked about the books they had read. Since both loved sci-fi, they hit it off well.
Joshua also had a general idea of the situation she was in.
Once, with a quite serious expression, he scribbled a few words in a notebook. He circled them and connected them, providing a lengthy analysis of Jiyu's situation and reaching a clear conclusion.
[I believe that bullying you just because your father worked at a company involved in a Ponzi scheme falls under the 'Fallacy of Guilt by Association.' When 'collective intelligence' devolves into 'collective ignorance,' an atmosphere is created where people can't say 'no' even when they know something is wrong. It's an error committed without hesitation in a state of 'Collective Illusion,' where they believe such behavior is permissible. These aren't my words, but a quote from a book by Todd Rose, a Harvard professor. Therefore, this is clearly their fault. You've done nothing wrong.]
[...Ah.]
It was Joshua's own way of offering comfort.
During a joint class on Alton School and community relations, they worked together to plan volunteer activities targeting the Asian community. They decided to prepare to put that plan into concrete action during the summer break.
[Josh, you're not wearing your glasses today?]
When Jiyu tilted her head in curiosity, Joshua laughed bashfully, running his fingers through his hair. If not for that messy, torn-apart hairstyle, she might have passed him by, thinking he was a stranger.
Without the horn-rimmed glasses that covered half his face, his gentle eyes looked larger and deeper than usual. His nose was also quite high and straight.
Dressed in a comfortable T-shirt and denim pants, he seemed to have grown taller since she last saw him.
Both Hunter and Josh.
It was as if boys had some hidden secret; they always seemed to shoot up in height during summer break.
[Are you wearing contacts?]
[Yeah. They feel like there's something stuck in my eye. I can't do this a second time.]
He blinked his eyes comically. When Jiyu chuckled, he nodded toward the bookstore with an awkward expression.
[Let's go in.]
Paper Crane was an independent bookstore opened by Joshua's mother, Yeo-jin Min, who worked as an editor-in-chief at a publishing house. The bookstore, which primarily sold original and translated Asian literature, was located in a secluded alley in the East Village.
Yeo-jin was looking for a morning part-timer to look after the store while a weekday employee went on a three-week summer vacation. Joshua had recommended Jiyu, and she had come for an interview to be a part-time employee and the host of a weekly Korean children's storytime.
As they entered the store, a middle-aged woman with short hair and horn-rimmed glasses, standing behind the counter, gestured with a bright face.
"Come on in!"
At the sudden sound of Korean, Jiyu also greeted her politely in Korean.
"Hello."
"Mom, this is—"
Before Joshua could finish, Yeo-jin came around the counter and grabbed Jiyu's hand.
"So you're Olivia! I've heard so much about you from Min-hyung. You're just as I heard. You're so beautiful."
"Ah... thank you."
Jiyu bowed her head, flustered.
"Mom, seriously!"
Joshua, his ears turning bright red, made a gesture for Yeo-jin to zip her lips. Yeo-jin, wearing horn-rimmed glasses similar to the ones Joshua usually wore, laughed out loud, her intellectual eyes sparkling mischievously.
"Why, did I say something wrong? He bragged so much about the first friend he made after coming to New York. You have no idea how curious his father and I were. That she loves sci-fi, writes well, is kind, smart, and beautiful. I've heard praises until my ears bled throughout the last semester. Especially the part about her loving sci-fi—maybe about two hundred and eighty times?"
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