“Two weeks. I guess a week and a half now.” Four days have already passed. It feels longer. The time at the funeral seemed endless at moments.

“We’ll have to stuff a whole fish while you’re here.”

I don’t need an internet search to tell me what this Korean idiom means. We are going to try to do as much as we can in a short time.

“Yes, I’d like that.”

The whole experience is lovely. The restaurant is another small one with what appears to be only one server, but he bustles about delivering banchan to newcomers followed by platters of meat and sometimes vegetables for roasting. I eat way too much but I don’t want the dinner to end. A glow of warmth spreads as we talk and eat and drink. The whole dinner is like sitting in the sunshine with the rays warming me from my bones out. He’s animated when he speaks—his eyes sparkle, his hands move, his right dimple pops in and out.

At times, I stop eating to lean my chin on my hand and enjoy the moment. I’ve never been good at that. It’s always been a race to achieve one goal after another, whether it was the spelling bee or the science fair or premium marks on the SATs or graduating with honors.

“I’m talking too much,” he says.

“No.” That could never happen. Never in a million years could I imagine not wanting to hear him talk. Granted this is our first date, but sometimes you know things are true. Like when I look up and see that the sky is blue and down at my feet and see that the grass is green. Those immutable facts that don’t change even when the grass sinks back to its seed to prepare for the first freeze and the skies turn stormy gray. “I want to know everything.”

• • •

THE GIFT WAS a small box of chocolates. Yujun had said it was my dessert. I felt relieved it wasn’t something more extravagant. When we saw each other again, I’d be prepared with my own chocolate. No, something that lasts. Not that I’d expect him to put a gift of mine on his desk, but something that lasts more than a day, more than a moment. I’ll be gone, but I want there to be something that he comes across six months from now or two years from now that makes him smile with fondness—or something more. I’m not sure what.

The next day, I take the metro to a bookstore Jules recommended and buy a couple of books on learning Korean. I spend the rest of the afternoon practicing the Hangul characters, and by the time dinner rolls around, I feel like I have the hang of it. With help from the workbooks and YouTube tutorials, I can recognize the characters and make the basic sounds. It’s putting them together to form actual words that’s the problem.

But I have the tools now. I downloaded the Korean keyboard on my phone and laptop. I have apps, the textbook, access to videos. If I apply myself, I can learn. Of course, I should’ve done this before I came, but I’m doing it now and that’s the important thing.