Kala sidled up to Matt, whispered in his ear, “Ignore them.”

He should listen to her, he knew. But instead Matt said, “Korean.” He held the guy’s stare.

“What?”

“He’s from Korea, not China,” Matt said, looking up at Woo-jin.

The man pushed closer to Matt, his shoulders thrown back.

Woo-jin tried to defuse the situation. “We don’t want any trouble,” he said.

The man repeated the words in a mock Asian accent. “Oh, you no want no trouble. You love him long time.”

More laughter.

“Why don’t you and I go outside?” Ganesh said, nudging his way in front of Matt. “Or are you too scared to go without Semen Breath and Muffin Top?” Ganesh looked at the two men flanking the leader. It was a line from the movie The Judge. Matt knew because they’d watched it together, but the men were clueless.

The heavier man Ganesh had called Muffin Top hitched up his pants.

“Nobody asked you, Osama bin Fuckface,” the leader said.

Matt grabbed Ganesh just in time, holding him back from jumping on the guy.

The man’s legs were spread, a fighting stance. His friends seemed less enthusiastic.

That was when Matt realized that he recognized them, the friends. He looked at Semen Breath. “It’s been a long time, Steve. How’s your sister doing?”

Steven Ellison’s eyes immediately hit the floor. They’d been in Cub Scouts together. Gone on camping trips. Had playdates. Steve’s older sister had a severe disability and was in a wheelchair, unable even to feed herself.

“She’s good,” Steve said, his eyes sheepishly lifting to Matt’s.

“And, Nate, you still playing baseball?” The man Ganesh had called Muffin Top had been the star of their Little League team.

Nate, too, looked down, embarrassed.

But the leader, he was familiar, though Matt couldn’t quite place him, said, “You pussies can get all nostalgic, but this motherfucker”—he poked a finger in Matt’s chest—“thinks he and those Jew filmmakers can drag us all through the mud, and then just show up in our bar like nothing’s happened.”

“I had no part in the documentary,” Matt said.

“The fuck you and your shit family didn’t.”

Now Matt felt his blood turn hot. The rage he’d worked so hard to bury all these years coming to the surface again. “Say one more thing about my family, and Steve and Nate are gonna have to carry you out of here.” Matt meant it.

The crowd that had formed around them parted, and a blur of dark hair whooshed by. It was a young woman. She walked right up to the leader and put herself between the man and Matt.