Chapter 1: Aimless
2015
Sitting in a swing and rocking it gently with toes that barely touch the ground, Emily DeGato enjoyed the fresh air with her Siamese cat and younger sister, Danielle. The clear California morning was dappled in sunlight, littered with looming redwoods, and quiet save for the sounds of the forest and the creak of the swing.
"So what now?" Emily asked no one in particular, breaking the natural silence. Their cat, Appa, meowed.
"Oh really now?" Danielle glanced down at the tiny, 7-pound cat and scratching behind her ears and earning a throaty purr. Then, she glanced at her sister. "And what do you mean, 'What now?'"
"I moved back to our parents' house. I have 2 degrees, no real job, and no aspirations. Seriously, what now? Do I want to keep teaching cello and writing freelance all my life? Should I get a desk job?" Her real dream of becoming a professional cellist had been dashed by carpel tunnel and other nerve damage. She was still healing from her surgeries and feeling rather sorry for herself.
"Good questions. I dunno."
Emily smacked Danielle on the arm and received a smack in return. The sisters were 5 years apart and best friends. Danielle was freshly graduated from her BS in nursing degree and applying for graduate school half-heartedly. Four years of college had exhausted her. She was working as a CNA, a certified nursing assistant, while procrastinating on her applications.
"I don't want a desk job. I've never had one and it sounds hella boring," Emily said, furrowing her eyebrows. She'd always been a studio and orchestral musician. She barely even knew how to do her taxes, much less a desk job.
"You're smart. You can figure it out. You're just making excuses." Danielle always called her on her crap.
"Maybe I can just go back to school and learn Korean," Emily said dreamily. Both sisters loved K-pop, K-drama, and Hallyu in general. "Move to Korea. Go to Seoul University or Sogang. Become fluent and play in K-pop orchestras."
"Real practical," Danielle said. "But if you do that. You have to play on a SHINee album and get me signed merch." Both girls were SHAWOLs, which were devoted SHINee fans. Danielle especially had a love for collecting anything and everything SHINee. The girl had a whole wall of shelves dedicated to immaculately organized merch and a rotating set of posters that adorned 2 of 4 walls in her room (and the only reason it wasn't 4 was because one wall held bay windows overlooking a redwood doted ravine, and the other had her make-shift closet for her inordinate number of clothes).
"I promise. But only after I get MY set of goods." Emily let the dream meander through her mind, ignoring the reality of K-pop: if you work in K-pop, you don't fan over K-pop publicly. That earns you the boot.
"Mine first." Ever the bratty little sister, Danielle always grabbed every opportunity to remind Emily who she believed was boss. Thus ensued a hearty round of playful bickering that had Appa pulling at her leash to escape the noise. Sadly for the adorable kitty, the leash only ranged 5 feet.
As the sun set, the sisters fed Appa and their large tabby cat Dodo in Danielle's room before heading into the living room to greet their parents. Their father was sitting in his favorite white chair, snoring with his chin on his chest, a veritable sleeping giant, while their petite mother puttered around the small kitchen preparing a dinner of salad, ribs, and baked potatoes. Emily cruised by their working mother and plopped onto the white sofa beside their father's white chair. Danielle stayed in the kitchen to help.
"Really, Em?" Their mother asked without even looking at her eldest, who was prone to bouts of selfishness.
"My brain is too full to help," Emily said dramatically. She was the dramatic sister.
"And you're too old for me to buy that crap. Get up and set the table. Then wake your father," their mom said in her matter-of-fact way that was not unkind, but neither did it leave room for her 27-year-old daughter's antics.
With a long sigh, the young woman hauled herself from the sofa to do her mother's bidding. Dinner time was always pleasant in the DeGato household. Mr. and Mrs. DeGato were both the black sheep in their respective families growing up - neither ever quite felt that they fit in. When raising their own daughters, they worked hard to foster the understanding that they had sorely lacked.
Despite this, Emily was quiet and cranky during dinner. She couldn't stop thinking about how aimless she felt and how silly it was for a woman her age to be in her parents' house. It was not really as horrible as her mind made it out to be, but being the dramatic soul she was, it was nothing less than terrible at the moment.
"Did that publisher ever contact you back?" her mother asked in the middle of dinner. Emily, lost in thought, hadn't heard the question and raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"What?"
"You know, the one who publishes all that Korean stuff," her mom said patiently. Thirty years as a teacher had taught her immense patience, especially with the child who was so much like her when she was younger.
"Ah, yeah. Um, nothing yet. I checked this morning and the editor position is still open. I'm hoping to hear soon as the post has been up for over two weeks. But you know these things. Oftentimes they just don't even answer if they have too many applications." Emily knew Hallyu was going to blow up in the United States and was worried that she had missed the train to get involved.
"Sure is different from classical," their dad said. He had been busy packing down his salad and ribs to speak before.
"Yeah. But since I can't play, writing is the next best thing," Emily reminded him. She'd been blogging since 2011, before the 2015 surgery, and done pretty well in making a name for herself in the online K-drama and K-pop circles. But her break hadn't come yet. It was unlikely to ever come.
"You've always been a good writer. Remember you wrote all the programs all throughout high school, college, and graduate school?" their mom bragged with pride.
"Yup. Since I'm the one who did it," Emily said wryly, slightly irked.
"Ohmigosh, really?" Danielle replied dramatically, earning a table-wide eye roll. But the statement had the desired effect of diffusing Emily's infamous temper.
Emily smiled at her sister, recognizing what Danielle was doing and appreciating it. That girl was always good at reading a room.
"No, maybe I won't even take the job if I get it," Emily said. Her parents weren't even phased.
"Why not?" Dad asked, tucking into the last of his ribs.
"Maybe I'll just go and study Korean," Emily said.
"Don't you already do that?" he queried, setting down the bone and wiping his hands.
"Yeah, but it's hard to study on your own and with exactly zero native speakers here." They lived in the forests of Northern California, an area that was mostly white with some Mexican folks who had started local businesses. The most prolific non-English language was Spanish, which the family spoke due to a Spanish grandfather.
"True." Both parents remarked at the same time.
"All she does is repeat all the lines whenever we watch drama and it's flipping annoying," Danielle said as Emily rose to start clearing up. Since mom cooked, she would clear with her sister. Dad promptly returned to his white chair. He had worked all day on building a carport for mom's car and was exhausted.
"How else am I supposed to learn?" Emily snapped back. "I do it with every language. French movies in high school. Japanese dramas. Those weird Welsh videos I found. It's my modus operandi and no matter how much you complain, I'm going to keep doing it!"
"I remember those French movies," mom said as she stood supervising the cleanup. She didn't trust her kids to get everything exactly where she wanted it to go.
"Oh my god they were terrible," Emily said, scooping the food into the food waste bag. Danielle just shook her head. Her sister had a gift for languages and she knew the repetition was how she learned. It was still annoying as hell.
"I'm going to go lay myself down with the kitties," Danielle said when they were done.
"Say 'hi' to Appa and Doodoo," dad said and both girls groaned and replied in chorus, "It's Dodo!
— — —
A/N: Hi everyone! I'm writing a story loosely based on my life. Let me know what you think!