Chapter 14: A Lady Request

They sat across from each other in a tiny, timeworn restaurant two blocks from the hospital — the kind of place with yellowed menus taped to the wall and a fan that turned too slowly. The late lunch crowd had cleared out. It was just them, two bowls of doenjang-jjigae, and the quiet hum of old ballads playing from a radio behind the counter.

Hana sat stiffly, unsure if she should eat. She kept fidgeting with her spoon.

“You always this tense, Miss Hana?” the grandmother asked, lips twitching in mild amusement.

Hana looked up, startled.

“I heard about you,” the old woman smiled. “My Sang Mi called you her pork belly buddy. Said you were some weird ex-kickboxer who drank too much soda and had absolutely no fashion sense.”

Hana blinked. “She said that?”

“She also said she liked you more than anyone she ever met.”