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By seven-thirty, Min and Diya had already unpacked everything important, leaving them with a bunch of smaller miscellaneous boxes.
Luckily, Shibe had finally calmed down and had taken to lying down nearby on an Ikea rug in the middle of the living room.
Shibe had been pretty disgruntled with the back-and-forth of moving furniture into the new house--snorting, growling and gazing intently as people entered and departed to bring more boxes. But thanks to Diya's parents' help, they finished the moving-in pretty quickly. By three, her parents had finally gone home after they had all sat down to drink something.
Honestly, it was still kinda weird that they were actually helping her and Min with moving into their new place.
If it was five or six years ago, Diya wouldn't have been able to imagine it, but she could see that her parents were making an effort. More than anger or sadness, Diya felt overwhelming loneliness when faced with the disconnect between herself and her parents. She thought that it was on her alone to either somehow bridge the gaps or burn bridges and move forward, but this turned out to be untrue. Still, her parents' presence made her nervous and worried, as if she were waiting for something to go wrong, but in watching them awkwardly reaching out to pet Shibe and witnessing their attempt to converse with Min, her heart felt a fullness she didn't know was possible.
Diya turned back to rip-open another box with her bare hands.
Earlier, she realized that they had somehow accidentally packed the scissors away in a box; they still haven't found them.
Min had offered one of her knives, but, thankfully, Diya could pretty effortlessly tear the boxes open without the use of any tools.
"What should we do about the curtains halmeoni sent us?" Min asked, breaking the relative-silence.
"We could put them up, maybe? This place already has blinds, but it wouldn't hurt to put something on top."
"Yeah. I guess, they're just kinda....frilly. Like those dumb lace things white people put on all their furniture." Min pulled the curtains out of the box she had been opening, unfortunately dragging them on the floor because of how tiny she was.
"...You mean, d-doilies?"
"Who's that?"
"Nevermind. We don't have to have them up at all if you want, though. Maybe we can keep them and just put them up if your grandma ever visits us?"
"Nah, the more I look at them, they're kinda growing on me? We can put them up." Min put the curtains down next to her. "I mean, I like that they're black. When I was a kid, halmeoni made me those pink ones. My parents made me keep them up the entire time I lived under their roof." Min winced somewhat.
"I definitely remember those." She could picture Min's childhood room... garishly pink.
"I could have cut them down with a knife if I wanted to, I guess. But I didn't. It's not like it was halmeoni's fault. She didn't know." Min sighed. "It's just nice, being able to connect with her now without someone butting-in on everything."
"Yeah." Diya squeezed Min's hand. "You know, I still laugh a little when I remember how your grandma reacted to you wearing those jeans when we visited her together last year. She started touching your knees because she was worried you were cold. She's so funny. She even took out her sewing machine because she wanted to fix them."
"I still don't see what the big deal was. I always wear ripped jeans! That's my whole wardrobe. It's not like it's the first time she's seen them, but the last few times I visited with Jun, she's reacted the exact same way." Min sighed again. "I mean, she's always repeated stuff. It's just, now I can't tell if it's only 'cause our Korean isn't good or if something else's going on."
"I guess, it is kinda strange if she's been reacting the exact same way the past few times... Now that I think about it, she did seem to be repetitive-ish? At least from what I could pick-up."
"I dunno. She's getting older. She's always losing stuff lately too." Min shrugged slightly.
Diya took a moment to look more closely at the new curtains and wondered how her grandmother managed to wrestle that much fabric without drowning in its overwhelming weight, despite being even smaller than Min.
Though, it probably just showed how skilled she was at her trade.
"Do you think she even remembers that I introduced you to her and why?" Min asked.
"Hmm, it's hard to say? I've only met her that one time, but I'd like to believe she remembers. I guess we could always ask her or remind her too."
According to Min, neither her nor her grandma were familiar enough with new Korean slang to describe her relationship with Diya or even 'what' she was exactly. And from what Diya could understand, like a lot of languages, Korean was filled with double-entendres.
You could be revealing something just as easily as you could be hiding something in the same sentence, something a lot of Asian parents seemed to have no problem adapting into their everyday interactions with their children.
But maybe the possibility of other meanings is what has allowed them all to survive for so long? Even her and Min right now...
"You know how on our way here, I dropped off a letter for her in the mail? I always end up mostly sending photos 'cause my hangul sucks, but I sent some photos of me and Jun, us, and also the ones of Shibe and the whole gang. I ended up labelling all the photos. It seemed like a lame, nerdy thing to do, labelling pictures... Yuck." Min swiftly used a butterfly knife to tear open another box. "But, I dunno, guess I was just worried. She's my only blood-family, besides Jun of course, who I can even share these things with. It's stupid."
"It's not stupid! I guess, even if she doesn't remember right now, she'll definitely remember when she gets that letter in the mail. It must make her happy that you're sending her photos and sharing your life with her as best as you can."
"...Yeah, you're probably right." Min dropped what she was doing and slid over to hug Diya. "Thank you, Diya. For everything, for existing. I love you."
"I love you too, Min. I'm so glad we found each other again all those years ago."
Diya leaned in to kiss Min, but stopped in her tracks.
...The photos Min sent, the ones of 'Shibe and the whole gang'...
...............She didn't put in that photo, right??
"Wait, Min, please tell me you didn't include the photo of Shibe with that Used Book sticker Akarsha put on his face."
"I mean, 'adopt, don't shop,' right?"
"Well, I guess in some dumb way Akarsha was right. ...It's just not great that Shibe tried to eat the sticker almost immediately after the photo was taken..."
"True, true. But I also included that photo of Noelle trying to scoop the sticker out of his mouth after her attempt to lecture Shibe into dropping it failed. And also the one where he KO'd her with his strength and the sticker landed on her forehead. He's such a smart dog. He's the best. We make great dog parents." Min gave herself a pat on the back.
"...Pfff, that photo was pretty funny. And we do make pretty good dog parents."
Diya scratched behind Shibe's ears and squished his sticker-free cheeks. ...Were they even 'cheeks'?? Honestly, she had no idea.
"Hey Diya... I've been thinking, like I know that it's too soon and all, but now that we're living in a bigger, nicer place, what would you say to maybe, you know, adopting another dog?"
"!!!" Diya's eyes immediately lit up. "Yes! That'd be great. Yes!! Shibe would have a new dog friend. We could take them to the park together and, even when no one else is there, they can play together!"
"Yeah!! I can picture it now, together, with their sheer power and force they'll take over the dog park. They'll be unstoppable."
"And when we're more settled-in, we can send your grandma photos of our new place, decked out with her new curtains. Maybe by then we'll even have a new dog friend living here--" Unfortunately, Diya's thought-process was interrupted by an accusatory grumble in her tummy. "...But for now, it's getting kind of late, so do you maybe want to order-in food tonight?"
"Yeah! That sounds great. Let's finish the night on a high note. When I'm with you and Shibe, even the worst takeout tastes a million--no, a bajillion times better."
"That's sweet, Min, but I really hope the take-out isn't as bad as last time..." Diya kissed Min on the cheek, pushing her overgrown bangs out of the way and behind her ear.
"True, true." Min kissed Diya back.
While their childhood dream of speeding away in a sports car with fifty dogs in goggles now felt mostly distant and very unrealistic with the bills the two of them had to pay, moving into a place that wasn't in complete, utter disrepair was a step forward.
It was nerve-wracking, thinking about all of the uncertainties and difficulties the future would present. Just moving into a new place that wasn't even that far from where they lived before made her anxious, but Diya was glad that she had Min by her side and that this was a step forward they were making together.