“How many times do I need to tell you? Your stepmom is not that kind of person. I don’t know where you heard those stories, but we love each other. That’s why we stay together. The woman who gave birth to you despised me. What’s the point in me saying all this … Hyunwoo and you are both precious to me. And that goes the same for the baby in the room.”

“Well, keep on loving each other, for thousands and thousands of years.”

“Yeoul, sit here. Tell me, what brings you home? You weren’t gone for a month or two, no, you were gone for six months! Tell me where you’ve been.”

“Why? Don’t you hate that I’m back? What do you want to know? You didn’t worry a bit, I don’t think. You even changed the lock!”

“When did you stop by? There was a minor burglary, someone took the camera, so your mom changed the lock. We thought you might’ve taken the camera. We worried you wouldn’t come back if you kept making money with petty theft.”

“What? Oh, I remember now. You believe all the bullshit stories that woman tells about me. Forget it. You don’t hear anything I say, do you?”

“Honey, honey!” Stepmother walks out into the living room. I’m surprised it took this long for her to jump in. “Honey, don’t bother. She’s just feeling all uppity because she got to see her mom. That ungrateful bitch. Tell her to leave!”

I drop my head like a soldier who’d lost the will to fight on. I stuff my feet into my wet sneakers, crumpling their backs. There were things I so badly wanted to ask—Did you worry about me? Did you miss me? Did you worry about my mom? Do you think about her? Would you like to meet her again someday?—Why didn’t I ask these questions before? What was I afraid he’d say? I wanted to tell him that I found her, that now we could all get together. I planned to act all mature, to say it like I was giving advice. Come on, you guys need to see each other at least once before you die, no? How about you guys bury the hatchet before it’s too late?

But now I get it. It’s all pointless. I get this too: I didn’t announce my independence like a Korean fighter against the Japanese colonists, but I am officially emancipated. I don’t need to come up with an eloquent Declaration of Independence. I don’t need to nudge him. I hear Americans move out when they graduate from high school. So I will too. Everything is cleared up. Easy peasy.