“You’re too stiff with your Korean. You pronounce every syllable like you’re a translation app. Koreans slur their words, swallow half the syllables. You don’t say annyeonghaseyo, you say haseyo. The annyeong part is said in the back of your throat and you don’t even move your lips. Try it.” She reaches over and squeezes my lips together. I mumble it.

“Good. And then when you’re leaving you say gyeseyo. Say it like this and you can impress the hell out of your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Nah, he is. The one thing about guys in Korea is that they get romantic real quick. They lose interest real quick, too, but while it lasts, you’ll be showered in gifts. You know they celebrate the first day they started dating. Day one, they call it.”

This isn’t about me, I realize. This is about Jules’s hurt and longing. The breakup is still fresh for her.

“You miss him, don’t you?” I pop open a beer and slide it across the table.

Jules winces. “I fucking do.” She drains the beer and opens another one. “I plan to get good and drunk. Sorry. You’ll have to call a taxi to take us home.”

“I feel like I’m wearing half the dust of the city.”

“Same.” Jules takes a long draw. “Tomorrow’s flight will be a breeze after today.”

Despite not being a fan of random physical contact, gratitude has me itching to hug Jules. Without her, I wouldn’t have gotten this far. I’d still be stuck at home waiting for a text from Boyoung. Whether Jules is here for the entertainment of seeing me unravel or for the mystery or for some reason only my flatmate knows, she’s still here. She could’ve bailed hours ago. “Thanks for coming.”

“Eh. It was better than sitting at home.” She’s not big on warm moments. I get it. They make me uncomfortable, too. Jules peels off the paper cover of her ramen.

I follow suit, unwrapping the chopsticks, breaking them apart, and then digging in before the noodles become too swollen with water to eat. For a while, there’s nothing but the sound of two girls slurping down noodles. When my stomach is full, I push the bowl away and take a sip of my beer. Korean beer tastes about the same as American beer.

“Tell me about him. The ex in the big house.” I want to hear this story and I think Jules needs to share it. Plans to storm the Kwon castle can be cooked up later. She’s not going anywhere and neither am I.

Jules heaves herself away from the table. “I’m gonna need some ice cream before I talk about this.”

“We had it for lunch.”

“I didn’t realize there was a daily limit.”

When she disappears inside the store, I pull out my phone and check my messages. Still nothing from Boyoung, but there are two from Yujun.

YUJUN: Dinner doesn’t taste as good when it’s not with you.

YUJUN: Have a meeting in the morning but plan to take off early. Will meet you at the metro stop since you love it so much.