"Grandmother, your shoelace is untied again."
Ji-pyeong sighed as he bent down on one knee to pick up both ends of the worn laces.
"Why won't you let me take you shopping? They are frayed at the ends. It's ridiculous."
He looped them around one another and tied the knot twice. As he finished, Grandmother huffed and pushed at his shoulder.
"If you're just going to start with that nonsense again I am going to leave. I have work to do."
His heart stuttered in his chest. Ji-pyeong desperately seized a weathered hand.
"Please don't go."
Her exasperation melted away in an instant. Then Grandmother smiled and closed her other hand over his.
"Then stop your grousing and sit down and just talk with me."
Ji-pyeong let out a breath of relief and sat on the bench by her side.
The river was calm today — a placid gray expanse offering a measure of serenity in the city. He wondered why they were back here when she was no longer running the stand but decided it better not to annoy her further with questions.
"I got married, Grandmother."
Wait, how can this be? Ji-pyeong tilted his head at the strangeness of the conversation. If he was married then how was it that she was here?
Grandmother let out a dramatic exclamation of relief as she clapped her hands together.
"Oh thank goodness! I was about to give up. You're almost forty!"
Ji-pyeong closed his eyes in annoyance but then could not help but chuckle.
"I'm not forty yet. But yes, you can stop your worrying now."
He thought of Mi-rae looking radiant in a red dress on the day that she became his wife. Ji-pyeong leaned closer to confide in Grandmother.
"She was worth the wait. She's amazing."
Grandmother smiled. The breeze tugged at loose strands of her gray hair until they were freed from the bun fastened at the nape of her neck. Her face was now turned up towards the sun.
"What do you love most about her?"
Ji-pyeong shifted as he furrowed his brow. He was at a rare loss for words. How could he choose what he most loved about Kim Mi-rae?
"She is so brave, Grandmother. And kind and god she is so smart... and loving ... and she makes me feel like ... gosh I don't even know how to explain it. Like anything is possible with her? I've never felt anything like it."
He turned back to look at Grandmother. A sly smile was playing on her lips. Ji-pyeong lowered his elbow onto the back of the bench. He narrowed his eyes awaiting her assessment.
"What?"
Grandmother's smirk broadened.
"Wow, listen to you!" She let out a low whistle. "You sure are head over heels, Good Boy!"
Ji-pyeong scoffed. But then he leaned his head onto his hand and sighed happily. He had no interest in denying it.
"Yeah, I am. You will love her. She always tells me exactly what she thinks. Just like you."
