The Sigma Asset 🏳️‍🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022

44: Eomma

The dialogue in this chapter is in Korean, translated into English.

Six a.m. But I wasn't gonna work out. I was sat in the sunroom with my phone propped on the piano's fallboard, sweating into my T-shirt, waiting for Eomma's videocall.

I stacked sheet music  to calm my nerves. Suddenly Eomma was on my screen like an apparition. I was speechless for a moment, watching her while she watched me.

Her hair was in a thick braid, grown out of the chic short cut from her lab days. I recognized her old blouse from when we were kids. She looked thinner, more frail. Her features hadn't changed, but the old traces of hurt and pain and bitterness in her eyes were gone. All I could see reflected in them was...me.

Tears and tears, and then laughter and more tears. It was minutes before we were able to talk.

"Jun-su, you look so well."

"You too, Eomma. It looks nice at the commune."

Eomma was sitting on a tiny bed in a sparse communal bedroom, a tourism magazine photo of rock formations on Jeju Island sellotaped to the wall behind her.

"I like it here. The monks and nuns do good work."

"Did Nuna tell you about the ransom? Not to call anyone?"

"She told me. She told me that..." Eomma's eyes swam with tears, "...there were men."

The cold press of Cal's gun bored into my chest. I shivered despite the rising morning heat in the sunroom.

"They didn't hurt me," I replied, more for me than for Eomma. "I'm better now. My friend saved me."

"William Graz? Can I meet him? I want to thank him."

"He's asleep. I'll send you a photo of him."

"He's a hero."

"Yeah." I pulled hard against the urge to tell Eomma how I'd driven him away. Ruined everything good between us. "He's the best man I know."

It was a new feeling, actually wanting to tell Eomma things. I guess it came with losing her, and then finding her again. There wasn't room for secrets anymore.

"Are you eating well?"

Eomma, already?

"Yes. But I don't eat meat anymore, Eomma."

She giggled at that. "Nor do I. You became Buddhist?"

"No. I cook with Will, and he's vegan."

"You cook?" Eomma's disbelief made me laugh out loud, but I couldn't blame her. I'd been truly fucking useless when I was nineteen. The fact that I'd grown into a reasonably-functioning adult must have been a shock to Eomma, despite her trying not to show it.

"I'll cook for you when I come home, Eomma. Korean and Persian food."

"William Graz is Persian?"

"His mother is. Was. She died. Almost five weeks ago."

"The poor boy. How did she die?"

"A heart attack. She was ill since Will was sixteen. She couldn't talk, or walk, or do anything for herself. Will took care of her alone. He was so sad when she died."

"A wonderful son. Did you take care of him when he was in mourning?"

"Of course, Eomma. I was with him all the time."

I knew how much Eomma would be moved by Will's devotion to Mozhgan, and his loss of her, and was doubly glad that I'd been there for Will. Perhaps that was when things had truly begun between us, the weeks after Mozhgan's funeral slowly and imperceptibly eroding away our boundaries.