Beyond Us [Bangchan] [Finished]

Chapter 9

"Should we?" He winked at me and opened the fridge. "Grandma will scold us".

"She's sleeping, just don't wake her up". I muffed my laugh by pressing my lips and sat with him in the living room.

I think grandpa was waiting for me to get done with work to talk to me. He tried to explain to me why grandma was the way she was. She had a very hard time trying to fit in her whole youth. Grandpa was asking me to comprehend and don't take everything she said too much at heart. I always thought she made it with her best intentions though, so there wasn't much to think about it; it was just tiring for me.

He didn't intend for me to keep staying with them though. He said he understood very well I needed my own space and grandma too. Me growing up overseas, and everything that entailed, was something they had to bear with. However, he was happy to be able to spend so much time with me, he told me it was hard for him to see my brother and me grow up and barely be there with us but he felt that moving out from Korea would be too much of a change for them to handle.

The next morning, we got up early and drove to Seoul to meet with the real estate agent I was consulting with. I realized that going with grandpa was the best decision; there were things I didn't know I had to pay attention there. For example, unless I really wanted something cheap, I wouldn't like to rent a rooftop. It was way colder in winter, and way warmer in summer. The agent always told me the size of the apartment in pyong, I had a hard time already converting meters to feet; grandpa converted everything in a matter of seconds. And he knew better about rental contracts and deposits so he would explain things to me as we went on, really... thanks, grandpa!

But finding short-term rent was difficult. After wasting the whole morning, I reluctantly accepted the only way was to rent an Airbnb. So I looked up for something while we headed to a restaurant to grab some lunch.

"Should we grab something for your grandma?" Asked grandpa while looking at the restaurant menu, we had already ordered for us.

"I think she would prefer something else". I said after thinking for a moment; she was an eager fan of tarts. "Let's stop by a cake shop before going back".

"Ah! You're right". He nodded and left the menu aside.

"That's a bus stop and this one is the station, right?" I showed him the map I was looking at on my phone.

"Yes. Are you going to move around there?"

"I'm looking at a studio; I think I'll choose this one".

"Let me have a look".

Grandpa put on his glasses and started to look at the pictures. He was concerned about me don't liking it because it was small. He knew my parents' house and my own apartment in America were big but I didn't want to spend so much money in a bigger place. I preferred to spend it doing things.

I made my decision quickly and booked a small studio apartment in Seongdong-gu. It was 3 minutes from the bus stop and had a big window, that's all I needed.

Grandpa and I had a nice time. After lunch, we went to a shop to buy sleepers and then went to buy a tart for grandma.

"Mister Bang, good afternoon". I answered the phone; the first thing I heard was his laugh. We were leaving the cake shop already.

"Hi. Why Mister?"

"I don't know. It seemed funny". My grandpa was staring at me. "It's a friend". I said to him in Korean.

"Are you with someone?"

"Yeah, with my grandpa".

"Ah, should I call later?" Grandpa pointed at a drugstore we were passing by.