I tense up, preemptively preparing myself for her response. “Why did you disappear eight years ago?”

Celeste blinks, as if that’s not what she expected me to say. Finally, with her gaze cast down to the floor, she says, “My mom got sick, so I had to go back home. Things were bad, so I couldn’t return to the US to finish my degree until the next school year, after her condition stabilized a bit.”

The way she explains it, it’s so straightforward. But there’s something off about her voice and the way she’s avoiding my gaze as she speaks.

I frown. “Is your mom okay now?” I ask, fearing the worst.

Celeste’s eyes widen. “Oh, yeah. She is. Or as well as she can be. She’s in remission. Has been for several years now, thankfully.”

“That’s good to hear.” I breathe a sigh of relief and sit back in my seat.

“What?” she asks when I don’t say anything else.

“It’s just…” It’s my turn to look away, but instead of the floor, I stare at the stage where the Irish Fighters are setting up. “I wish you’d have come to me and told me what was going on with your mom, rather than break up with me via text with no explanation. It made me feel like I meant nothing to you. Also, it’s been eight years. Like, I get that you had a lot going on when you first went back home, but what about afterward? You never replied to my messages on KakaoTalk asking if you were okay. And you dodged all my calls. You ghosted me, after we were together for over a year.”

KakaoTalk is the chatting app that almost all Koreans use, whether they live in South Korea or elsewhere in the world. Even though I blocked her on social media, I kept that channel open between us for all these years and occasionally sent her messages, in case she ever decided to reach out. But she always read everything I sent her without replying.

Celeste stares down at her hands. “First of all, I’m sorry for leaving like that. Definitely not the best way to go about things. I fully acknowledge that. I was—still am—the only member of my family living abroad. And since that was the first time I experienced a family emergency, I panicked when I heard that my mom was in the hospital. I dumped my stuff at Goodwill on my way to the airport and didn’t even properly withdraw from classes until I arrived in Seoul.”

“Wow,” I reply. “That’s a lot.”