Because I was beginning to understand that loving someone did not automatically give me permission to stand inside every decision they made.
When I returned, Joon and Emily were sitting at opposite ends of the couch.
Joon looked exhausted.
“I asked the company for two more days to decide.”
Emily watched him.
“They wouldn’t give me the time, so I turned the offer down.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“I know.”
He leaned forward.
“But I wasn’t going to force you into a deadline you never agreed to. And I still need to be honest—I don’t know whether I can spend the rest of my life here.”
Emily nodded slowly.
“I don’t want to leave yet. My career is finally becoming what I worked for. I need to see where this goes.”
“I understand.”
“And wanting something different isn’t the betrayal, Joon.”
He looked at her.
“Making decisions about my life before telling me was.”
“I know.”
She took a breath.
“But we can talk about everything. If we stay here, that doesn’t mean you have to work for your father. You can leave the family business. We can decide what comes next together.”
Joon nodded.
The morning I flew home, Emily helped me close my suitcase.
It was noticeably lighter.
She held up a box of crackers.
“You’re taking these back.”
“Absolutely not.”
She laughed.
Then she picked up my phone.
“I fixed the settings on your Korean app.”
“You went through my phone?”
“You handed it to me.”
“Fine. What else did you discover?”
“That your pronunciation is terrible.”
I laughed.
At the airport, Emily hugged me longer than usual.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“I know you weren’t intentionally trying to pull me away from my life.”
My throat tightened.
“I was trying to pull you closer to mine. I didn’t realize how controlling that could become.”
“I know.”
“I’m learning the difference.”
She squeezed my hand.
“And I’m learning that missing you doesn’t mean I made the wrong choice.”
That one hurt.
