Ignite

Chapter 17

On Saturday, I spend most of my time at Emmy's. Her little sister, Eunji, is having friends over for her birthday and Aleisha and I help their family make plate after plate of hoeddeok, party pies, japchae and fairy bread in a unique Australian-Korean fusion.

Back home, I'd done very little cooking that involved more than throwing frozen food into a microwave, and Mrs Chang soon takes pity on me. I stand there, somewhat sheepishly, as she shows me the correct way to grate carrots, dice onions and mix a marinade.

Her movements are sharp and exact, hypnotising in their efficiency, and I'm ridiculously proud of myself when I mimic her and she nods in approval.

After a while, Emmy sidles up next to me and throws her arms around my waist.

"I'm bored," she huffs in my ear.

"Do you want to help grate carrots?"

"No."

"Ah!" Mrs Chang slaps a washcloth against Emmy's side. "Let her go, Emmy. Eunji's friends will arrive soon."

Emmy sighs, disentangles herself, and walks back over to her party-pie-station.

"Yes, mama."

Mrs Chang tuts.

"The amount of touching you girls do. When your father moved us here, I thought all young girls were dongseong-aeja."

I smile at Mrs Chang politely, unsure what she's just said, but out of the corner of my eye I see Emmy tense, and suddenly, I have bit more of an idea.

Aleisha looks up, glancing between Emmy and Mrs Chang, and I raise an eyebrow at her, but she just shakes her head and turns back to her pancakes. And for the rest of the time we're in the kitchen, I can't tell if the tension that has appeared is something I've imagined or not.

...

Once Eunji's friends arrive, Emmy, Aleisha and I retreat to Emmy's room and put on Gossip Girl. Her bed is enormous, taking up almost all the available floor space, and the three of us lie side by side, heads propped in hands as we watch Serena and Blair get into another argument.

After a while, Emmy gets up and goes to the toilet and Aleisha and I lie there in comfortable silence, listening to Eunji and her friends downstairs.

"How's Jake going?" Aleisha asks after a while. "I haven't seen much of him since the party."

The question makes me grimace, because if I was being honest, I didn't know how Jake was. Not in the ways that mattered, at least. I knew he was enjoying soccer. I knew that he'd been hanging out with Lewis and Harper more.

But I also knew that often he was in a mood that felt impenetrable. That left his face blank and his answers disinterested. A mood that made my heart race with a panic I couldn't completely define.

"He's alright," I say. "About as good as expected."

Aleisha seems to notice my discomfort, and she watches me. It makes me feel like a terrible sister, like I should have more to tell her, and I blurt out a random question to change the subject.

"What did that word mean? The one Mrs Chang said earlier in the kitchen?"

Aleisha tenses and glances at the door. For a moment, she's unsure whether to tell me; I can see it on her face. But then she sighs.

"Dongseong-aeja. It means gay. I only know because Mrs Chang has mentioned it before."

"Often?"

"No, not super often, but enough."

Aleisha is frowning, looking down at her hands, and my mind flashes back to Emmy's reaction when Mrs Chang said it, to the slight disdain in her mum's voice. Now it's my turn to glance at the door, checking we're alone.

"Are, um..." I pause, unsure how to phrase my next sentence. "Are Emmy's parents not supportive of that?"

"No."

We share a meaningful glance and sympathy rises within me.

I couldn't be completely certain that Emmy was interested in Heather, not without her confirming it. But Harper had come to the same conclusion as me, and Aleisha clearly had too. That seemed significant to me.

"Poor Emmy."

Aleisha nods and then Emmy bounds back into the room, jumping onto the bed and wiggling her way in between us.

"What did I miss?" she asks. "Has Chuck kissed anyone else yet?"

"No," Aleisha says, her face flattening into a neutral expression like we hadn't been talking at all. "But Nate has."

Emmy's eyes widen. "Shut up. Who?"

I glance at her and for the first time, I don't roll my eyes at her dramatics. After all, it must be nice to distract yourself from the thought that your parents might not accept who you are. 

...

Next chapter out in a week :)

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- Skylar xx