EXAMPLE PAGE - EBOOKS - THE PROMISE OF THE TEA GODS - Flipbook - Page 39
the promise of the tea-gods
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last year? Deleting it? Then deleting from your friends list the person
who sent it?”
“No,” said Soo-kang. “I don’t spend much time on any social networks anymore—too busy. And if I did delete something, so what?
What’s that got to do with anything?”
Binnie handed Soo-kang his phone, saying quietly, “Does this ring a
bell?”
Soo-kang looked at the picture: A blue birthday card—with his name
on it . . . Instead of a bell, he heard the crash of a gong. His jaw dropped
down to his knees. “Where did you get this? It’s not floating around the
Internet with some horrible comment about me attached to it, is it?”
“No. I’m the only one who has it. And, of course, the woman who
made it and sent it to you—she has it too. Just the two of us,” said Binnie, looking at the woman sitting on the rocks again.
Soo-kang’s eyes followed Binnie’s eyes once more and, again, he
looked at the woman wearing a yellow sweater. “No way! No way, Binnie. Are you telling me the woman who sent me that card and the woman
you asked me to welcome to South Korea because she supports South
Korean singers, me included, are the same person?”
Bobbing his head up and down, Binnie looked at Soo-kang without
saying a word.
Soo-kang took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. “And you knew
this before you asked me to come here today? And didn’t tell me?”
“If you had known, would you have come?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“That’s a whole lot of answers going in a whole lot of different directions. Don’t you think?”
“I’m just surprised, that’s all. That you would do such a thing.”
“Not half as surprised as I was that you would do such a thing.” Binnie paused. Refilled Soo-kang’s cup. Then continued, “Not only is K
my most precious friend, she is also one of the kindest, most ethical
people in this world—and I can’t tell you what it took to get her to send
me that card . . . After you deleted her from your friends list, she thought
she had done something wrong, so she called and asked me if there were
