The Visitor At SoYae

This morning, as we were sharing coffee and I was telling my retiree friends about my trip to Palgongsan yesterday, there was a knock on the door. I looked around. We were all present. Who could that be? Another older gentleman walked in. Annyong… Annyong… We all stood up and greeted the visitor. Mr. Lee explained to me, “New student-a. Normally afternoon. Today, morning.” Oh. Okay. We sat back down. Mr. Nam had been sitting beside me on the couch. He got up and offered his seat to the visitor, Mr. Noh. He turned to me, “Miss Ro-ri. Very pretty name. You are from America?” Yes, San Francisco. I didn’t get a good feeling from him. He kind of creeped me out. “Very pretty girl. Teacher Song tell me much about the American. I had to come meet. Are you married? No? Single? Ahhhhhh….” I felt betrayed. Teacher Song, why? This is the one place that I am completely comfortable, completely at peace. Throughout the morning Mr. Noh would come by my work station, to get a new brush, a new book, to look at my work. He would speak to Teacher Song, every now and then I would hear “Rori-ga. Rori-ga.” Okay, even if I don’t understand the whole sentence, I understand my name. Quit talking about me.