The smallest things hurt me

 

"How do you do it?" Jun still couldn't get over how Rennie could adapt so well in Seoul. She was holding her own at the hotel and even had her own place. Things he didn't know how to do on his own. Honestly, he felt so helpless. He just wished he were good enough for her. Maybe that was why he hadn't been as receptive as he wanted to be with Rennie being here.

"What are you talking about?" She laughed at him when they met up where she worked for lunch in the restaurant in the hotel.

She told him she'd spent a lot of nights at the hotel back in St. Joe. "It's not nearly as fancy as it is here. I mean, I'm not saying it's a dive or anything, but you know, a place for businessmen and families. We just had a room for breakfast. Most of it was brought in from somewhere else, but you could make your own waffles."

Rennie finally confessed. She didn't know if they would hire her or not, but it had been much easier than she had expected. She had an app to help her with Korean phrases. "I don't know if I'll ever learn Korean completely. Don't ask me to write anything in Korean."

She made it sound as if he was one step up from her, since he was a native speaker.

"But..but you have a certain finesse," Jun told her after they ordered burgers and fries.

"Hey, it's a lot of trial and error too," Rennie said she'd been working since she was fifteen. It was only fast food, but she kept wanting to learn.

"I don't think I want to learn," Jun finally confessed. "I would have learned a lot by now if-"

She clasped his hand over his fist on the table. "You just don't have the confidence, that's all." Rennie looked him in the eye with hope. "Do you know how much I always waited to hear from you?" She sighed. "I feel I've known you for a long time. I know you're smart. I know you can do anything, if you put your mind to it."

Jun sighed. If only he could put his mind to it.