by Sarah Suk
His eyes shifted over to Pauline and he smiled, smoothing out his hair only to make it stick up more in the back. “Hey, Pauline. How’s it going?”
“Hey, Charlie,” she said. “I was actually hoping to talk to you about something, but…” She suppressed a smile as he tried, unsuccessfully, to fix his hair. “Maybe next time.”
“Next time? Why? I was meaning to talk to you, too, actually,” he said.
She shook her head. “I should get going.”
“You’re leaving? Right now?” Charlie looked devastated. “What about our talk?”
“I feel like now is probably not the right time.”
He sighed. “It’s never the right time. I don’t understand why people always have to leave so suddenly.” To my shock, his eyes began to grow misty. He looked up at the ceiling, furiously trying to blink back tears.
“Are you okay?” Pauline asked gently as he covered his eyes with his hands.
“Yeah, no, I’m totally fine,” he said, his voice an octave higher than usual. “Um, maybe you’re right. You should just go.”
Pauline glanced at him, his eyes still covered, and then at me. I shot her a bewildered look, but she simply smiled a small smile and shrugged like she wasn’t surprised by this at all.
“Okay. Bye, Charlie,” she said. She turned to me. “Make sure he doesn’t drive, okay? And text me what you wanted to tell me about Valerie.”
She waved and headed out the door. Charlie waited for a moment and then he said, “Is she gone?”
“Yes,” I said.
He lowered his hands, revealing teary red eyes. “She didn’t see me crying, did she?”
Considering the fact that she’d been standing right in front of him, I was pretty sure she knew exactly what was happening. But there was no need to upset him more than he already was. “No, I don’t think she did.”
“I don’t believe you,” he sighed. He paused and gave me a long, steady look, his eyes still watery. “Can I tell you a secret, Wes?”
Was he going to confide in me about Pauline? I nodded slowly. “Sure. Go ahead.”
“To be honest, I don’t give a damn about K-beauty,” he said instead, surprising me. “I really don’t. But to Valerie, that business is her life. That’s why I help her with it, because I know how much it means to her. I know you’ve got your own business thing going on, but I meant it when I said you’ll be in trouble if you give her a hard time. Don’t take V&C away from her. Okay? Just don’t.” His voice cracked at the end, and he rolled his eyes up to the ceiling again, pressing his hands against his face. “Damn it.”
I opened my mouth, unsure what to say. Before I could think of anything, JL came over, patting Charlie on the back.
“Always the life of the party until he drinks too much and cries,” JL sighed. He glanced at me. “You all right, Wes?”
“Yeah,” I said, surprised he knew my name. We didn’t have any classes together. “You’re JL, right?”
“Yeah. Jason Leonard, but everyone calls me JL.” He gave me a friendly palm slap. “I’ve heard about your business. Song Song here told me about it.”
Song Song? “I’m guessing that’s Charlie?”
He grinned. “Yeah, we all have nicknames on the basketball team. Hey, you got some height. You should think about joining.”
“Thanks. Maybe,” I said, smiling, though I knew I probably wouldn’t. Sports were fun, but playing competitively wasn’t really my thing. Besides, with this new bet against Valerie, one competition was more than enough for me.
“Ugh, what’s wrong with me?” Charlie said, still trying to blink back tears. One escaped and rolled down his face.
I turned to Jason, lowering my voice. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Who, Song Song? Don’t worry. He does this every time. Put a little alcohol in him and his feelings start spilling out everywhere. I’ll drive him home.” He guided Charlie toward the door. “Come on, buddy, let’s go.”
I watched them as they disappeared through the door, feeling a bit wistful at the inside jokes and nicknames everyone seemed to share. It was probably time I headed home too. I had a lot to think about.
* * *
That night, I sat at my computer with my headphones on, listening to my Best of Louis Armstrong playlist and staring at the spreadsheet on my screen. I’d had one going to track my sales and income even before Valerie had suggested it. After my most recent sale this week, I had officially logged $375 earned, after Pauline’s cut. It wasn’t enough to repad my saxophone, but Pauline had generously loaned me the difference after she saw me stressing about it. “I’ll just take the amount you owe me out of our next sale on top of my cut,” she’d said when I tried to refuse. “It’s more urgent for you than it is for me.”
Thanks to her, I’d been able to drop off my sax for repairs. But it also meant I owed her money. And I had to make enough for applications.
I opened a fresh spreadsheet page to track everything from now until prom. The timeline of the bet. I logged in everything I needed to apply to Toblie School of Music:
$110 by December 1 for the application.
$1,000 for the enrollment deposit by May 1, along with $500 for the housing deposit.
The rest of the semester’s tuition due by August 1 which was… a lot.
I had time to think about that, though. One hurdle at a time. I just had to win this bet. If I lost, I wouldn’t even be able to jump the May hurdle. Not to mention, the bet began now, which meant that if I earned and spent money on my application fee, I’d technically have to owe that money back to Valerie. I hoped she was okay with taking an IOU.
No. I can’t think like that. I have to believe that I can really win this.
I went onto Google and typed in: Tips for running a small business.
What Would Valerie Do? was a good place to start, but I needed more help. I spent the night reading articles, taking notes, and making sale ideas. Somewhere between trying to stay awake and reading about knowing your audience and social-media platforms, I ended up on V&C K-BEAUTY’s Instagram page.
It was well curated, full of high-quality close-ups of beauty products and even some quick tutorials of Valerie demonstrating the order of products to use for a nighttime skin-care routine.
My stomach sank. When it came to Instagram, there was definitely no way I could compete against Valerie. My own personal account only had two photos: one of my saxophone with my reflection caught weirdly in the frame, and another of a sunset that I thought looked nice, creatively captioned with the hashtag #sunset.
I really hope Pauline is better at this stuff than I am.
I scrolled through V&C K-BEAUTY’s follower list and paused on the handle @vkwonishere. Valerie’s personal account? I tapped on it.
It was private.
The only thing I could see was her profile picture: her smiling next to someone who had to be her grandma, her arms wrapped around the old woman’s shoulders. I couldn’t help but grin slightly at that photo.
I knew she’d have a pretty smile.
It was strange. Valerie had been at this school for years, but from the way her classmates talked about her, I got the feeling that she might be on the outside of a lot of things, just like me. My finger hovered over the request-to-follow button. But no. I shouldn’t. I shook my head and turned off my phone. What I should do is stop thinking about this and go to bed. Tomorrow I’d talk business with Pauline and go pick up my saxophone.
For now I slept, my dreams full of music, spreadsheets, and Korean drinking games.
CHAPTER NINE VALERIE
Sunday / November 17
I woke up the next morning to a series of texts from Charlie, each one more urgent than the last.
Charlie: So yesterday’s conversation with Pauline was a disaster. I’m pretty sure she saw me cry. How do I fix this?!
Charlie: Scratch that. There’s no fixing this, is there? It’s over for me.
Charlie: Hello? Are you awake? Where’d you
go yesterday anyway? Maybe if you stuck around you would have stopped me from making a total FOOL of myself.
Charlie: Valerie??
Charlie: I’m going to church today. Mom needs a ride and also since you’re not answering, maybe I’ll try talking to Jesus.
Charlie: TEXT ME.
I rolled out of bed and got dressed, feeling more than a little guilty about ditching Charlie at the party last night. How was I supposed to know that his talk with Pauline would end up in an epic fail if I wasn’t there to supervise him? Well, okay. Maybe I should’ve known. I’d make it up to him and go meet him in person at True Vine Presbyterian Church.
Sunhee Eemo is a pretty devout Christian, and she goes to a local Korean church whenever she isn’t working at the soondubu restaurant, which isn’t very often. She almost always works Sundays. But whenever she does go, Charlie drives her and attends the English Ministry youth service while he’s there. I’d been a couple times with them for Easter and Christmas.
I arrived at church just as the service was ending. People were mingling and chatting over bags of chips and cheese-caramel popcorn mix. I spotted Charlie standing at the snack table, talking to a guy in a gray beanie who looked vaguely familiar.
“Yo, Valerie!” Charlie said, catching my eye and waving me over. “Look who I found! Remember Taemin Park?”
“Oh, hey,” I said “Whoa. It’s been forever.”
So that was why he looked familiar. Taemin Park was one of Charlie’s youth-group friends from when they were kids. His dad was the senior pastor for the Korean adults. Taemin had a bit of a reputation for being a rebellious pastor’s kid. Rumor had it that his last escapade had involved crashing his dad’s car into their neighbor’s fence. Supposedly, he was still paying his dad back for the damage. And his neighbor, too.
“What’s up, Valerie?” Taemin said, grinning. His dimples were just as deep as I remembered.
“I was just asking Taemin how he’s been,” Charlie said brightly. It seemed like running into Taemin was distracting him from his woes about Pauline. This was good. Maybe I had less damage control to do than I thought. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him here.”
“Yeah, what’s the devil doing at church?” I asked.
Charlie stepped on my foot and I yelped.
“She didn’t mean that,” he said as I rubbed my foot.
Taemin laughed. “Nah, it’s cool, bro. It really has been a while. I didn’t think anyone would miss me, though.” He put his hand over his heart. “I’m touched.”
I was pretty sure that most people didn’t miss Taemin. From what I knew, he was kind of a lone wolf, but not by choice. A lot of people kept their distance because of his impulsive reputation.
“Anyway, I’m here ’cause Pastor Richard kept calling me up to have bingsu,” he said. “You’ve met PR, right? The new EM youth pastor? He wants to catch up. And, to be honest with you, he’s trying to help me turn over a new leaf. You know, helping others, becoming a better person, all that Jesus stuff.”
“I didn’t realize you were interested in turning over any leaves,” I said.
“Yeah, well, it’s time for a change,” Taemin said. “Besides, my dad said if I don’t get my act together, he’s going to make me work at the church for no pay this summer.” He made a face. “I figure I’d rather be disciplined by PR than by the church ajummas. Could you imagine a whole summer of hearing their jansori? It would be death by nagging.”
“Good for you, man,” Charlie said in admiration. “That’s great.”
“Yeah.” Taemin grinned. “Besides, you know your boy can’t say no to bingsu.”
“You always did love shaved ice,” Charlie said. “We should ball sometime—it’s been a while.”
“That’d be cool,” Taemin said, brightening. “We’ll have to find a time we’re both free! I work a lot.”
“Where do you work?” I asked.
“At Roseman Hotel. I’m a bellboy and I work events.”
“Ritzy,” I said.
“Gotta get that bread.” He grinned toothily. “Charlie was telling me you guys are selling K-beauty products at school. Let me know if you need a hookup with some more beauty products. I know a guy who sells some real good stuff.” He leaned in, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Real fake, that is, but it looks exactly like all the best brands. It’s basically the same thing.”
I made a face. “No thanks. V&C doesn’t do knockoffs. How do you even know someone who deals fake brands of beauty products anyway?”
“The hotel,” he said easily. “Man, the rich folks I meet there. They do all kinds of interesting stuff.”
“And they just tell you all this?”
“Nah. You have no idea how much gossip I hear just standing around or moving bags for people. It’s amazing what you can learn from people just by being near them. They wouldn’t know a spy if they saw one.”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought you were turning over a new leaf.”
“And part of that is helping others, remember? I was offering you assistance.” He nodded at Pastor Richard across the room. “My free bingsu awaits. See you later, guys. Charlie, call me up about basketball. You have my number, yeah?”
They fist-bumped. “Sure thing, bro,” Charlie said. He watched as Taemin walked away, a broad smile on his face. “Man, I missed that guy. Great to see he’s doing well.”
“Yeah,” I said. A sudden idea was forming in my head, turning over what Taemin had said. It’s amazing what you can learn from people just by being around them. They wouldn’t know a spy if they saw one. I pulled a green-apple Hi-Chew out of my bag, my brainstorming flavor, and unwrapped it, thinking carefully. This could be exactly the advantage I needed in my bet against Wes.
“Uh-oh,” Charlie said. “Green apple. What are you thinking about?”
“Can I have Taemin’s phone number?” I asked, watching as he left the building with Pastor Richard. I reached for my phone and popped open a new text message. “You think he would be interested in an unconventional job?”
* * *
Snow Bunny was one of the most popular bingsu cafés in town. Their mascot was a bunny skiing down a bowl of shaved ice, and one wall of the shop had a giant mural of said bunny wearing ski goggles and hitting the slopes. Taemin had asked me to meet him here after his meeting with Pastor Richard. I spotted him sitting in a corner booth as I entered the café, the bell on the door announcing my arrival.
“Hey! Perfect timing,” he said, waving. “PR just left. Where’s Charlie?”
“He had to run some errands with his mom,” I said. Just as well that he wasn’t here in person. When I’d told him about my bet with Wes and what I had in mind to ask Taemin, he thought I was out of my mind. “Taemin is never going to say yes to that,” he’d said. But you never know what people will say yes to until you ask. Case in point: yesterday’s bet.
“Well, I’m very curious about this business proposition you have for me,” Taemin said. “Shall we get a bowl of bingsu to begin our discussion?”
“Didn’t you just have one?” I asked, eyeing the empty bowl on the table.
“Yes, but when you’re interviewing someone for a job, it’s customary to offer them a drink,” he said. “Or, in my case, a matcha shaved ice.”
I sighed. “Fine.” I’d consider this a business expense.
Ten minutes later, we were sharing a bowl of matcha-flavored shaved ice topped with mochi, sweet red bean, and two heaping scoops of green-tea ice cream.
“So,” Taemin said, popping a piece of mochi into his mouth, “how can I help you?”
I sat up straight, folding my hands on the table. “I’d like to hire you for a one-time spy job. There’s a boy at my school named Wes Jung. He runs a competing K-beauty business, and we have a bet going to see who can raise the most money by prom. If you can help me figure out what he’s selling for the next week or two, I can strategize my sales to beat him. What do you say?”
He let out a low whistle.
“That’s a pretty sneaky strategy. Why me, though? Why don’t you just get someone from your school to ask him?”
“There isn’t really anyone at school I can ask,” I said truthfully. “And definitely not without seeming suspicious. You’re the perfect fit.”
He laughed. “Do you always rope random people you haven’t seen in years into working for you?”
“You call it random; I call it networking.”
“Hmm.” He took a bite of ice cream and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, thinking. When he looked at me again, his lips were quirked up in a smile. “What’s in it for me?”
Valid. I had been preparing for this question the whole way here. “You said earlier that PR was helping you turn over a new leaf, right? And that helping people was part of that? I’m giving you an opportunity to help me, which is really giving you a chance to help yourself.”
His brow furrowed as he followed along with my logic. “Huh?”
I sighed. “Look, Taemin. My business is really important to me. And so is this bet. If you can help me get a leg up on Wes even a little bit, it would mean a lot. You have no idea how much I have to lose.”
It was weird being this candid with someone, but somehow it helped that it was someone I didn’t know so well. Sometimes it’s easier to tell strangers the truth than it is to tell the people closest to you. I was confident that I would beat Wes, but a small part of me had kept wavering since last night. If I lost against him, not only would I would lose my money, my opportunity to prove myself to Umma, and any hope of taking Halmeoni to Paris, but I was terrified that it would hurt my pride to the point of no recovery. What would it say about me if the business I’d so painstakingly crafted over the years could be easily dethroned by a newbie who’d just happened to stumble onto the scene? How could I ever take myself seriously again? If V&C failed, I failed. I needed to play every advantage I could get.
