Eric stayed in to clean up, because Meng was too drunk to function. He put all of the leftovers in the fridge, grabbed a beer, and sat at the garden bench, where he and Sana formally reunited.
"Hey bud, mind if I sit here?" It was Rufus. Before Eric could respond, the older man already sat beside him.
"How're you holding up?"
Eric's answer was another swig at the bottle.
"Must admit, this is a pretty sucky way of celebrating Christmas," Rufus chuckled and took a sip. Eric nodded as he stared at the moon.
"Well, we all knew this was bound to happen, one way or another. At the end of the day, she'll be going back to Japan, right?"
"Korea, she lives there now."
"Right. Korea. At least she's not at the other side of the world. She's..." Rufus took out his phone to look something up. "...just a little over four hours away."
Eric was getting irritated, wanting to be left alone. "What are you getting at?"
"What I'm getting at is this: haven't you ever thought about going after her?"
Eric scoffed at this; it was like a broken record at this point. "I wish it was that simple-just drop everything and go."
"Well, it isn't. Do you think I just dropped everything in the States just to be with your mom? Shit no! I had to make sure my two businesses still ran."
Rufus finally caught Eric's attention, as the latter listened intently.
"Then, how'd you know that you're okay moving here?"
Rufus laughed before answering. "I'm not trying to replace your dad-bless his soul-but let me give you some fatherly advice: you'll never know if you're ready until you actually go through with it. All the planning in the world will never give you a full view of what's to happen. Things may or may not work. You're young, you're qualified, so what's stopping you?"
"What if...it doesn't pan out?"
"But what if it does? See, that's the beauty of youth-you can still fuck up today and bounce back the next day. Imagine not doing anything because of your fear of failure: sure you might be living safely, but you'll be spending the remainder of your days asking 'what if'. What if I went to Korea? What if I worked there? What if, how do you kids say it, I shoot my shot with Sana? Get what I mean?"
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"It makes complete sense! Wait, is YOLO still a thing?"
"Uh...I think it kinda died a few years back."
"Whatever-it's still true today, Eric. Look, don't tell your mom I told you this but, she's actually wishing you'd branch out. Get a better life. Go for something, or someone, you're really passionate about. If you fail, which I hope you don't, at least you can say you tried and know that you can always come back to us."
Eric shook his head as he smiled. "Thanks, uh...dad."
"Okay, let's not get too cheesy, bud. How about this?" Rufus raised his bottle towards Eric.
"Yeah, cheers."