"Is there anything you can tell me about Ji Hoo?"
Eri looked at Kyu Lee over the mug in her hand. She had called the OB when she had been experiencing some cramping since her new doctor hadn't been available. After verifying that it was due to dehydration again, Kyu Lee had hooked her up to an IV drip and made tea. They were sitting in her living room at the moment.
In the last few weeks, Kyu Lee had taken time to get to know her former patient and colleague. She had already known Eri was like the others at the hospital, that she was quiet, well-mannered, highly intelligent and very perceptive. But she had started to find out that the woman was very expressive even if it didn't show on her face. Her hands and eyes told everything she was feeling even if she didn't move her body. She was very adept at reading people and filing it away for later.
She had found out about the woman's past just by listening to conversations and making inferences. She had asked when she was curious and had found that Eri was very honest. Apparently she had lived her life without lying and hadn't cared what others thought about that. It's how she became so good at what she did.
Kyu Lee had taken for granted things like family and friends. She had had them all her life; loving parents who doted on her and friends she could go out with and cause a ruckus. She had had a very normal childhood, so seeing the effects of what not having those things had on a person opened her eyes. Eri wasn't stuck up; she just didn't form attachments to anything she didn't deem as necessary. It shamed her to know it had taken her this long to understand that, especially when she thought back to all the rumors she had heard and believed.
When she had first started coming around, Woo Bin had been very wary. He had stayed home a few times to prevent an argument. When nothing of the sort erupted, he had loosened up and allowed her to be around his girlfriend without so much as an argument.
There wasn't as much tension as there used to be. She could comfortably sit and have a conversation without fear of being tossed out or yelled at.
"What do you want to know?" Eri asked, pulling her feet up on the couch.
"Is he always that stubborn?"
"It depends on the situation. He'll normally stand his ground if he believes it's the right thing. He'll admit when he's wrong though. At least he does that with me. I don't know about the others. He's the biggest worry wart I have ever known sometimes I want to smack him. Actually I do sometimes."
Kyu Lee couldn't see Ji Hoo letting anyone smack him. He was too prideful for that. But the man she had seen the other night hadn't been prideful. He'd been lost.
"Do you know about his past?" Eri nodded, retreating back into her stoic resolve. "Is it something you can tell me?"
"You would have seen it on the news. His parents died in a car accident when he was little. He hates closed in spaces, such as cars, because of it. He lived alone for so long it's amazing he knows how to socialize. Sometimes I think he's worse than me."
"No one's worse than you." Kyu Lee couldn't stop that comment even if her life depended on it. Glancing at Eri, she couldn't tell if it had upset the woman or if it had just slid off her shoulders.
"You'll have to ask him for the rest."
There was no arguing with the steadfastness in which she said those words. She wasn't going to get anything more from Eri.
The doorbell rang, sending red lights into a flurry of flashing. Kyu Lee was nervous because she had never seen it before.
"It's to let me know when someone rings my doorbell. Most of the time I don't have my hearing aids in when I'm home so these are here in place of those," the woman explained.
Kyu Lee put a hand out to keep her from getting up. "I'll get it for you. You shouldn't be moving around too much."
She got up and headed for the door. Not even bothering with the screen, she pushed it open. An older gentleman with white hair stood on the other side with a large suitcase. He looked like he could keel over at any time so she helped him in even though she couldn't understand hm.
"Grandpere!" Eri called from the couch.
The older man fast walked over to the couch where he collapsed and hugged Eri. They fell into a conversation in rapid fire French that she couldn't understand. But by the look on his face the older man was way too happy to care that he was in a foreign country.
He leaned back and took Eri's face in his hands. "My sweet, sweet petit fille. Are you fine?"
Eri placed her hands over his. "Grandpere, why are you here?"
"Your mama told me that you hadn't been home in months. I haven't seen my sweet petit fille in so long." His hands dropped away from her face as he surveyed her. He took in her condition with a mixture of shock and happiness. "A bebe? Your grandmere would be so happy if she were with us still. A arriere petit enfant."
Kyu Lee watched with rapt fascination as Eri talked with her grandfather. That was the only French word she had really picked up since they had been speaking so quickly. The atmosphere had eased since the older man's arrival. Eri seemed at peace as they sat together on the couch.
When the drip was all gone, she removed the needle from the expectant mother's wrist and tossed it along with the bag. She checked Eri's vitals one last time before giving her the all clear.
"Can you call Ji Hoo and ask him to meet us at Yi Jeong's studio? It's easy to ride in a taxi than taking the bus," Eri recommended.
"Should I stop on the way and get snacks and beverages? I'm sure everyone will ask questions," she thought.
"Good idea. We'll meet you there."
Kyu Lee watched the two fuss as they left the house. She grabbed her bag and followed after them, instead taking to the sidewalk. She hit the convenience store first then caught a taxi to Yi Jeong's studio even though she didn't know the name. The driver did so it made it easier.
When she walked in, everyone was already there and Eri's grandfather was sitting at the pottery wheel. He kept a steady hand on the wet clay as he spoke and spun the wheel. It was so rhythmic it seemed he put everyone in a trance. Even Yi Jeong was mesmerized.
"I taught my petit fille's mother all about this wheel and clay, and how together the two can make beautiful pieces of life." His hands swept up and out, and the clay flared with passion. "My Francesca can make beautiful pieces of art but she had to start somewhere. If she wasn't careful this would happen." He put pressure on the top and it folded in on itself. "This clay is just like life. The harder you are, the more you crumble. The gentler you are, the more you climb. And if you're sharp, you can make the most interesting designs." Using a tool beside him, he carefully etched a design in the clay. "When you are done, you have made something only those you trust can destroy."
Yi Jeong licked his lips. "You have one of the most amazing ways of explaining things."
"I taught all of this to my fille, my petit fille, and my petit –fils. I tried to teach it to my gendre, but he wouldn't listen. Science was his way of life. I was blessed to have a grandchild who understood both worlds."
"What was Eri like as a child?" Jan Di asked.
There was so much love in his gaze as he looked at the woman. "She was vibrant for the first few years. No one could get her to sit still. Even her teachers said she was too wild, but that all changed the night of the car wreck. My petit-fille changed overnight. The only way I could tell what she was feeling was through this."
"It's still the same. She comes here to relieve the stress she can't express," Yi Jeong explained.
"I can tell. It does an old heart good to see my petit-fille have such good friends to keep her grounded. But I need to address one thing." They all waited in anticipation. "Who is the young man that did this?"
The tone of his voice changed immediately. Without any hesitation, everyone pointed at Woo Bin. Looking like a fish out of water, the man's mouth worked but no sound came out. Finally he just hung his head.
"It was me, grandpere," he muttered.
The older man got up from his work and walked over to Woo Bin, picking his face up with his clay covered fingers. He forced Woo Bin to look him in the face, searching for something. Then he looked back at his granddaughter.
"Is he a good man, ma petit-fille?" he asked.
"Grandpere, he stood up to papa when no one else can. They all did," Eri answered.
He looked back at Woo Bin. "She's my only granddaughter. Hurt her and I will come after you. Marry her."
"Grandpere!" Eri exclaimed just as Woo Bin said, "We're not at that stage. Grandpere, you are well aware of her issues with emotions. I'm not trying to push anything."
He looked back at his granddaughter. "I like him, better than the thing Francesco has traipsing around your mother's villa. Speaking of your mother, have you talked to your parents?"
The warmth in Eri's eyes suddenly hardened into solid gold as she turned away. Yi Jeong wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side. Everyone shuffled uneasily. Kyu Lee didn't understand any of it, but the whole group didn't like Eri's parents in the least.
"Ma petit-fille, what are you going to do when it is time to have your child?" he pushed.
"She has all of us to be beside her," Ji Hoo answered. "Sir, I grew up without any parents, or grandparents. Eri had everything I longed for, or so I thought. But seeing the way your daughter and son-in-law treated her, I realized I didn't want it if that is what parents do to their children. So we all decided a long time ago that if someone needs us, we'd be the family and support that person needed."
Kyu Lee heard the pain and desire in his voice. So that's what Eri had kept from her. That must have been what cemented their relationship, bonding over lack of parental figures. It had nothing to with romance. They had needed each other at that time.
Ji Hoo glanced over at Kyu Lee as Francois, Eri's grandfather, launched into another story about her childhood. She was absorbing everything, but something seemed off. He worried that she was focusing on something stupid.
While he was on the subject, he thought it was a little too absurd. There was no way the woman was focusing on something so dumb as his past. She should just worry about what was going on in her life instead of his.
That thought irritated him because he had seen her making amends to his friends over the last few weeks. She had stepped up and apologized to Eri and Woo Bin and had asked Yi Jeong to show her pottery. The latter had been more reserved because he believed not everyone could make art, but he had done it to save face. Now they were on good terms as well even if it was thin.
She had helped him though. He now had an ultrasound machine and she had taken on his pregnant patients, including the Shinhwa student. Things were going great, but he had the nagging feeling he was missing something about her. And that irked him because it meant she stayed on his mind constantly. The last person who had done that had married his best friend. How was he going to work with this one?