눈치 | Nunchi - Lee Dong-wook

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"YOU WOUND ME," she says, a mock-hurt expression on her face. Her mother sits across the bed, a disapproving look on her face. Oh, Madeleine knows how much her umma distrusts her. In a harmless, careless way, of course— but it's distrust nonetheless and it irks her to no end.

"Silly girl, when was the last time you went to Seoul? Almost ten years have passed, and your memory is muddled with your movie scripts and rehearsed interviews for you to remember street names," her umma sighs in Korean, watching her daughter pack the last of her belongings.

"I will remember. I'm not that forgetful, and I'm not as old as you," Madeleine replies, stuffing the carry-on with her most important possessions: a spare hoodie, her essentials, and her passport, along with the rest of the things she needs to get through the airport.

"Seunhi. Do you even know the way to your cousins' house?" Her umma asks in Korean, her face serious.

"Uhmuni," Madeline says, staring straight at her mother. "I've been living in London by myself for the past eight years without you or Father. We barely visited London back then, remember? And yet people still think I'm a real Londoner. I'm half-Korean. I'll survive in Seoul."

"Besides, I won't stay with Se-won and Yu-na and Samchon for too long. Abella and I are going to knock out at Park Hyatt so we're more in the city. Namoo Actors is close by, so it's better if we stay there."

"Well. You seem prepared," her mother relents, though reluctantly.

"I am. Why can't you make time to visit?"

"Who says I can't?" her mother retorts, an exasperated look on her face. "I can't come anytime soon because your father trusts you too much and doesn't want me to go. He says I will only hover— well, he's never around anyway!"

"Umma, don't be like that. Father's always around— you just get annoyed easily. And you do hover, okay? It's fine if you don't come with me now or anytime soon. I'll live," Madeleine sighs, a smile on her face. She appreciates her mother's thinly veiled concern.

Madeleine finds it a little funny that her mother almost always reverts to Korean when she gets the least bit upset. It's like a warning signal, telling her to back off, or egging her on to further irritate her mother.

"You need to go already," her mother warns her, glancing at the clock on Madeleine's wall.

"I don't know why you aren't bringing most of your things. You're staying there for almost eight months!"

Madeleine glances at her mother. "I'm mostly going to be staying at luxury hotels, and I'm going to be spending the sane part of my day on set."

"The schedule is unhealthy."

"Of course it is, that's why we get paid so much," Madeleine cracks a grin at her umma.

Her mother is just a little shorter than her five-five stature. They share the same, lightly tanned skin, toothy grin, and not-so-deeply set eyes, but the similarities end there.

Her mother has jet black hair and perfect, mono-lidded eyes. She looks oddly young for her age, but people aren't that surprised when they recognize the golden tint of her skin and the foreign name: Moon Seo-Yun.

Sometimes, Madeleine envies her mother. She envies the way her mother is so easily recognized as Asian, even Korean. She envies her mother's unabashed pride in being Korean. Why, if only it was that easy for her!

But other Koreans aren't too fond of her, and her far more Caucasian counterparts have balked at her. "Korean? I thought you were Spanish or Italian or something— just not Asian!" She's heard enough of that for a lifetime.