“Whose is it? How long has it been? How could you? You aren’t married!”

“Stop asking so many questions! I haven’t even told my mom. The café owner is nagging me to get an abortion, telling me Sungyun isn’t coming back. But then my obstetrician told me it’s too late for an abortion. You’re a doctor. What do you think? Everybody is scolding me, and scaring me, telling me that I’ve made the worst mistake, and that I’ll forever be a single mom, everybody will point their fingers at me. I was even told to check myself into the single-mom facility! I was told international adoption would be a good option. Well, Sol, you’re the one who told me about that. How many kids are adopted abroad again?”

“Since the end of the Korean War, about 140,000 kids have been adopted abroad. But that’s just according to the government survey, so I bet there are more.”

“Wait, wait. Are you considering giving away your child?” Jihyun frowns as though he is looking at a criminal accused of a heinous crime.

“She never said she was committed to that idea. I was just educating this mother-to-be about her options. We’ve been talking about the reality of things, the limited options available to women in this position, how to be a resilient mom, given the circumstances. Who knows what the right choice will be?” Sol shrugs.

Suddenly Eunyong starts bawling. “What am I supposed to do? What am I going to do with the baby when he arrives? I want to have the baby. Please help me find Sungyun.”

Sol is mortified. Jihyun leaves the room to pay the cashier for the meal.

I put my hand over Eunyong’s mouth. “Are you crazy? Everybody can hear you.” My hand gets soaked in her tears and snot. She starts coughing, the way Nana did when she swallowed something wrong and I had to put my finger down her throat to get it out. “Stop crying, Eunyong. You idiot. The world isn’t going to end, I promise. Everything will be okay. You have me. I’m here for you, okay?” I try to comfort her, taking on a confident tone and tapping my chest, but my chest feels tight like I’ve swallowed something wrong. Like Eunyong, I want to find Sungyun too, but for a very different reason. But what would I do if I find Sungyun? I hate him so much I don’t know what I’d do. Eunyong, my friend, is pregnant with his baby. If she actually delivers the baby, how will I feel? “Alright, we’re supposed to be celebrating me being discharged from the hospital today, right? Then I say, let’s go somewhere. That’ll make all of us feel better. And you will be making my wish come true.”