in to deep

 

Woojin was certain he was going to wake up from this dream soon. Actually, he wasn't sure what he was walking into with Liv, but it was happening and he might as well be on a vertigo adventure.

1. He didn't think he was susceptible to this kind of romantic nature. After all, he'd spent most of his life with his head in a book. There was always learning from early lessons to cram school to even more all nighters. Really, he didn't see himself ever coming up for air.

2. He met an American girl. It filled him with laughter right there on the street. He could hardly stammer to say hello, and when he did she turned around to look behind her. "No!" He yelped and then he pointed to her and then himself. Finally, they walked to each other. At least a bus didn't hit them. Just two worlds that collided. And it was a joy that jarred Woojin into wanting to be who she needed.

"You, speak English?" He first said as if they might be going through some tribal custom. She nodded with a "Yah." Of course, he might have been mistaken. Maybe she was German. Of course, they both laughed more. It was intoxication at first sight. 

He told her he taught English at a language school. Of course, he thought for sure she would think he was a liar since he wasn't that good at English. He kept grinning and she kept smiling. Next thing he knew, his hand was in hers, something he'd never done before. Not in his world. They went for coffee and the more they talked the more at ease they were. He helped her find an app on her phone to help her learn Korean, or to translate her words in to Korean. She would laugh. He would listen to it in Korean then ask her to say it in English. 

"I just don't want you to think it's a game," he said a few days later when they met up at the place where Liv liked to buy snacks. "I really like you."

"I like you, too." She smiled at him as if she might be mimicking him. He nodded and so did she. So they did spend some late afternoons together. He found out about her brother's friend Nic.

"I didn't tell him the bad stuff about my brother, just the good stuff," she told him one evening while they were out window shopping. "I want him to think the best of my brother." She sighed. "It's just I can't."

He knew then it was an emotional turmoil of baggage that she'd carried all the way here. Woo nodded. She tried to laugh, but he could see the tears in her eyes too. She raked the back of her forearm in her heavy sweater across her nose. It was running too.

"I can't go back," she told him. "I don't want to. I just..feel it's too late. No matter what I try to do."

He gave her his handkerchief. She thanked him and sighed. "You probably can't even understand a word I'm saying." Tears dripped down her face. And that's when she told him all her troubles with Tristan. It was a story of how her stoic father always gave in. Her brother ruled the roost. She even thought her brother had hit her dad. He'd hurt her on several occasions. Even an incident at school. Tristan was in middle school then and shoved a teacher down. Woo knew Liv had been in a traumatic situation, even if she did try to laugh it off. 

Liv moved in with a friend just to be safe and continued school and later with another friend and his family. 

Woo knew Liv needed someone on her side, and he wanted to do what he could to be there for her.