Gonna look you right in the eye, tell you what I'm gonna do

 "It was kind of like a date. It was a date," Jared decided when he told Kevin about going to the No Kings Protest.

"Why? Why didn't you call me?" Kevin looked at him as if he might have missed something. He was seasoning the steaks so they could grill. It might have been turning nippy in late October.

"Well, it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing," Jared reached for a Lite Beer in the fridge. It was just the two of them tonight. 

Kevin couldn't get Mel to come over so they couldn't make it a dinner party. Of course, he didn't want to talk about it, but he let it slip anyway. "I wish Mel would want to go out more. I don't know what's wrong with her."

"Maybe you're in the friend's zone," Jared looked at him.

"The friend's zone?" He sighed as if he didn't want to talk about comedy reruns. 

"Well, tell her that you like her and you..you want to be more than friends." Jared made it sound so simple, but Mel was complicated. He didn't know how to win her over, exactly.

He went out back and put the steaks on the grill. 

It wasn't long until he noticed Mel was there.

"You didn't say there would be steak?" Her voice startled him.

"I did too." He hadn't meant to sound angry. "Why don't we call Nori, and the four of us can eat together?"

"All right." She shrugged as if she might be up for that. She went in to tell Jared to call Nori. Jared tested her instead.

"Oh Mel, when are you going to start dating Kevy, for real?" Jared looked at her blankly.

"Kevy?" 

"You know he likes you, he likes you a lot." Jared nodded as he took a sip of beer.

Mel smiled.  Unsure how to respond to Jared's comment. About then, Kevin came in to check on the baked potatoes in the air fryer.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kevin wanted to know.

"Wondering when the next No Kings Protest will be," Jared smiled and held up his beer as if it might be for a cheer.

On and on, on and on, on and on

 

Sammy held her baby, who nursed at her breast. Her arms were tired, but little Kai slept on while Gabe showered in the hospital suite where the birth had taken place about twenty-four hours or so.  She leaned back on her pillow, exhausted, but this was no time to rest. She looked out the big darkened window at the city from her bed and remained calm. 

The door opened. It was Carmen. Sammy was surprised. She was afraid Gabe's mom might be back. She hoped the woman was resting from all the excitement.

"Oh, I can't believe no one called me before now," Carmen smiled. She'd brought the baby presents and Sammy some things too. "You had him in an hour?" Carmen looked at her as if she needed an award.

Sammy smiled with a nod. This wasn't exactly true. She'd had labor pains the night before that went on most of the day, but she waited until Gabe got home from work before they went to the hospital. Actually, Sammy was too exhausted to explain this to Carmen.

"I'm glad everything went OK."

Carmen watched the baby but didn't want to hold him, which Sammy was certain she wouldn't have let her. She and Gabe were the only ones to hold him. Of course, Kai was smaller than Sammy imagined, but still a good weight. He was a bit on the short side, which she thought maybe he took after her. She could see her eyes in him. It wasn't until now that she wished her father were here. It was a faint thought. 

Carmen talked about her search for an engagement ring. She asked Sammy if she'd had an engagement ring.

"Oh, you don't have to have one," Sammy assured her.

Carmen nodded. She confessed that Trish was making a big deal about it. That's when Sammy asked if Carmen had told her real mother about the engagement.

"I don't want to." Carmen frowned. "I know I should, but she's in Vegas and she hasn't called me once, so..so.."

Sammy nodded. "I didn't mean to bring up" Immediately, she thought of her dad. The tears watered her eyes, just for a second. She smiled. 

"It's OK," Carmen smiled and took her hand and held it if they were both strong-willed. 

The bathroom door opened and Gabe was just in his jogging pants. He closed the door and stayed in the bathroom until he was dressed. The girls both laughed.

The protest

 You guys actually went to the NO KINGS protest?

Jared: Well, I didn't know (Jared looks surprised, sitting on the interview couch). I mean, she was driving. (he  looks a little nervous to talk about it.)

Nori: It wasn't something I could tell people at work. (Nori shrugs) But..but I haven't been to a protest since the Black Lives Matter one, and you know, that was practically a high school pep rally around here.

Jared: I didn't even know what it was about, but you know, it was really family-friendly at this lovely park. People were dancing in costumes, and there was live music. There was this duck (he chuckles) that was the cutest duck outfit ever. (he puts his hand over his mouth as he laughs softly.)

Nori: We parked at a friend's house and walked.

Jared: We must have walked a mile or more.

Nori: Well, it was a crowd. A big crowd. It's great to see that many people, and it wasn't a bad protest. It wasn't. We had a good time. It was so good to see that many united together, you know.

Jared: The speeches were, you know, good. Nothing crazy or anything, really. It was nice, but Nori told me not to talk about it at work. 

Nori: Yeah, I don't want to make a big deal about it, or have somebody telling me how wrong I am about it. It's just that I felt we need to be a part of this unity. I mean, a lot of families are suffering right now. And it felt like the right thing to do.

There's so much that we share

 

When Liv heard from Sunny about Jun's friend, she invited them over for dinner. Of course, it helped that Louie did the cooking. She was happy to have someone to talk to from the States. Actually, she didn't think she would miss it until now. 

There was always Jade to chat with, even if it was via FaceTime. Still, to have someone new to talk to was good too. Many at the language school were from other countries, and she was home with Oliver these days. 

True, she was a young mother, and she was devoted to Oliver, but to have someone from the States to talk to was almost like going home without traveling.

Lately, all her mother could talk about in her phone calls was how bad this marriage would be for Carmen. She didn't think it would last.

Of course, she didn't want to get into it with her mother about Carmen. A part of her kept thinking she should just call Carmen and tell her not to listen to (their) her mother and just do what she wanted. If only her mother didn't have to make a big deal about everything. Naturally, her mother was worried about Tristan, too. Perhaps he was dating again, but she wasn't sure.

Liv found it all frustrating, but she kept quiet and let her mother rant, at least once a week. 

So it was good to have company, and Rennie was quite the life of the party. She'd already found a place where she could stay. "They let me work at the front office during the day." Even her words sounded as if she was hinting for Jun to get a job there too. 

She was pleasant and happy to meet Liv and her family. "Maybe we should visit a bathhouse someday," she giggled.

Liv was certain she'd want Woo to go with her for such an occasion.

"Oh, just a girls' day out. Maybe it could be a spa retreat. Sunny could come to help with translating, don't you think?"

Liv burst into laughter; she couldn't think of timid Sunny being their guide, but perhaps it would be fun.

"Yeah, a spa day, that's what it could be," Liv smiled back, thinking it would be great to have Rennie around.

They ate Louie's one-pot meal, which was a meaty soup with rice and kempshi on the side. Later, Rennie told Liv she was from St. Joe, Missouri.

"Really?" Liv smiled. She remembered going through there on her way to Kansas City. She then told her she was from Omaha.

"Oh my God, I have family who live there." Rennie laughed. Oh, it felt like a small world, after all.

It's not the end of the world

 "What did she say?" Justin was busy cutting veg for a stir-fry when Carmen got home, while Jared and Randy were watching old episodes of EMERGENCY.

"Oh, you don't want to know," she shrugged. He could see she was tired. He told her to wash up and put on her pajamas. He could handle dinner. The rice was already on.

Of course, she didn't look any happier when she got back to the kitchen so he had a cup of caffeine-free mint tea waiting.

"I don't have an engagement ring," she said, her voice sounding dead tired. And he knew who had tired her out.

"A ring?" This baffled him. He then sighed, and of course, Jared got word of it, and he had to come in and give his brother a shoulder pinch, which was no help. It only made Justin tense.

"Yes, you need a ring!" Jared made Justin feel like the most unromantic guy in the world.

"Oh."

He returned to the sizzling meat in the skillet and added the vegetables, then scraped the skillet with the spatula. 

"Well..well, we'd better get one." He looked back and pointed the spatula at Carmen, who was sitting at the kitchen table sipping her tea.

"We can't afford that," she winced. "We'll be doing good if we can get those rubber couple bands."

"Yeah, I think you can get those at Dollar General. Or is that General Dollar?" Jared shrugged and took a seat across from Carmen.

Justin shook his head, no. He didn't want to be that cheap. "I'm sure we could-"

"Go thrifting," Carmen looked at him seriously. "Thriftworld. We need to go to Thriftworld."

"I don't know, she--she isn't even your mother." Justin fumed, but he got back to the stirfry. It wasn't long until they were all at the table eating.

He took her hand. "I just want it to be special, you know."

"Let's not worry about it. We'll look around, and if we don't find anything. It's OK." She gently squeezed his hand back. Her smile made him smile.

I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb

 "We're getting married," Carmen announced to Trish when she got to the gift shop at the zoo where Trish worked from ten til two. 

"What?" Trish looked at her as if Carmen wasn't supposed to be telling her stuff like this at work. "Where is he? Who?" 

Trish hoped Carmen had come to her senses as she and Rico were back together.

Carmen shook with laughter. "You know, Justin is at work."

Next thing she looked at Carmen's fingers. She had doubts the girl would even know what finger and engagement ring would go on. "Where's the ring? Where's your engagement ring?" She was getting frantic. "You deserve an engagement ring!"

Carmen looked around. It was quiet on a Wednesday afternoon. "There isn't one!" Trish gasped. "Why not?"

"I don't know." 

"Well then," Trish acted as if she couldn't believe they were engaged.

Carmen shook her head, no, and practically rolled her eyes. "We were hoping you would-"

"What?"

"Never mind." Carmen shrugged. "We'll just have a quiet ceremony, somewhere."

"You are going to have a wedding," she snapped. 

"Are you sure?" Carmen squinted. "We don't want anything big."

Trish swelled a frown.

"You get an engagement ring first, and then we'll talk." Trish was serious.

Carmen nodded. She knew she should have kept quiet about this. Of course, she might have to find her own engagement ring off Amazon.

How's it gonna be

 "She look like a man," Jun's grandmother's broken English took him by surprise. If only he could have collapsed then, but he didn't. Still, he felt as if he might crumble any second in Rennie's presence. A part of him knew even then they were powerful women. Much stronger than he would ever be.

Naturally, he acted as if he didn't hear her. The visit was short. His granny wouldn't even look at her, and of course, Rennie said she wasn't surprised.

"Well, why did you even want to see her if you know that?" Jun asked on the way out.

"Because I wanted her to know who was in your life." She gave him the eye that he had better listen. 

A lump of emotion lodged in his throat. What exactly was happening? What did she mean by that?

Well, she might have been right. He later came to realize that she was the only person he had really confided in. She knew his fears. She knew he felt incapable of a lot of things, and here she was all on her own just to see him. Surely she could see just what a failure he was.

But she was in for the long haul. "I'm staying," she told him on their lift back to Sunny and Louie's.

"What?" He'd been sleeping on the couch while she was staying in his room. He winced as if he couldn't sleep on the couch much longer.

"I'll get a hotel suite." She could get a discount. After all, one of her jobs was working at the front desk at a hotel, and there were hotels here from the same chain. She'd checked into it. She might be a couple of blocks away, but she'd manage her way around Seoul. 

"You need me," she informed him. "You're in a slump and you shouldn't be. You've got skills, Jun. I don't know what's wrong with you."

He nodded as if he understood. But he didn't think he was that good at gaming and his writing. Well, he hadn't written anything in a very long time. Still, he could see she was determined to get him back on track.