Hye-jae: Book 4

Sweet Reunion Part 61

Days glided happily by for the reunited family, sweet moments and memories shared and stored.  The children seamlessly knit their doting Daddy back into their little routines and within hours of returning home, Seon-jae felt as though his busy summer touring the states alone was a figment of his imagination.  It's as though I was never away.  

When Hye-won and Seon-jae explained to the children that they were invited as the 2 Very Important Persons - VIPs - to their parent's American wedding - as they called it - and that this was going to happen in the next week, the kids were squealingly excited and had so many questions, most of them relating to whether they could bring Cara and Chingu, after which they wanted to know if Ciara and Julie would be there too.  When they heard that the occasion would be a celebration of how much their little family loved each other and that meant that of course their godmothers would be there and that the whole occasion would take place outdoors - so of course they could bring their four-legged friends too - their delight doubled.  

As for their parents, the children's excitement built their own and though there was no need for much planning - bar registering to attend the community event - they still found the days before the ceremony busy and hectic.  It was obviously impossible for In-seo and Ji-soo to travel to the states at such short notice but the night before, when the kids were finally tucked up in bed - though their high spirits had meant that instead of their normal story, they just wanted to hear the favourite tale of the Irish wedding again - the 4 friends met for a planned video-call on Hye-won's laptop.  It was so relaxing to chat and catch up on the 2 families' activities.  Hye-won spoke of how much she was enjoying her work and Seon-jae mentioned some high points of the summer tour and both spoke of how much they had enjoyed the Gala Night and their shared break on the west coast, as well as their very special day sailing with Captain Bobby.  Their Korean friends listened kindly, especially enjoying hearing how the children's new friends were integrating into the family, with the antics of the 2 pups giving rise to lots of funny stories.

Seon-jae just had to refer to In-seo's recent efforts - at Hye-won's request - to find the Hanil piano: 'Professor Jo, how, just how, was that possible?'

In-seo smiled cutely, though as always, he underplayed his efforts: 'actually, it wasn't really that hard.  Luckily, it had only been sold a few months before.  I suppose it had sat in your flat, ignored, for years, while tenants came and went.  But even when the diner owner said she had no idea where it had been sold to, I didn't worry too much.  Hye-won told me before you all left Seoul that there was another time that the piano had been sold and then bought back and re-conditioned.'

Seon-jae nodded, with a quick look to Hye-won to acknowledge that this seeming miracle had also been due to his love.  Though you-know-who tried to take credit for it - surprise, surprise.  

'So that was the first place I tried - that dealer does a lot of work for the university, so it was easy to get contact details - and though it had been sold on, the dealer put me in touch with the furniture dealer who had bought it - and when I visited them, there was your Hanil - looking quite forlorn and forgotten, under a layer of dust and a scatter of un-distributed flyers.'

Seon-jae felt this almost as a physical pain and his face showed it and In-seo quickly went on: 'so, once I had found it, the biggest problem was to hide how delighted I was, so the dealer wouldn't fleece me completely with the buy-back price.'

Something about his expression told Seon-jae that whatever price they had agreed on had been well above the market price but he knew better than to probe too deeply, knowing that he had no chance of ever finding out that detail.  Actually, I really don't care how much it cost - I'm just so delighted to have it back in the family.