Chapter Text
“Alright, kids. Wake up. We’re here!”
Ryujin got blinded by the light of the sun hitting her directly in the face. She squinted and rubbed her eyes and adjusted her focus on a two-story building in front of her. Confused and still a little bit sleepy, she stumbled out of their car.
“The van’s almost here. They just got into a little traffic jam in Downtown Manhattan. But, here we are!” Wendy stood in front of them, raising her hands to present the small building to her children.
“Uhm, mom. Isn’t this a little smaller than our old apartment?” Ryujin asked, skeptical at the building in front of her, while Jisung mumbles about his worries of sharing one room with her mom and sister and not having enough space for his books. Wendy laughs at her confused children.
“This,” she pointed at the simple victorian style townhouse, “is not an apartment. This place is all ours.” Jisung’s small eyes widened in surprise and Ryujin was in a state of shock after hearing those words from her mom.
Wendy walked towards them and pushed them to go inside their new home. “Come on, kiddos. Let’s check our new place.”
Walking up the stairs and entering through the first door and surprising them with another door that leads them to the inside of the house. Ryujin looked at her mom incredulously, still not believing what was happening. Wendy just gave her a slight push and urged her to get inside the place.
When they opened the door, the first thing that they saw was the room in front of them, seemingly like the dining area down the hallway. As they started to walk, Jisung turned to his left and pointed at another room.
“Woah! Is this the living room?” Wendy nodded. Across the living room was a staircase and a narrow door.
“Want to check the room upstairs?” Jisung smiled brightly and jogged up the stairs. In the second floor, there were four rooms. The master’s bedroom-in which Wendy stated that she’ll be rooming in, which was on the street view side, the common bathroom that was right in front of the stairs and two rooms on the other side. The three of them checked the first room right next to the stairs.
“Uhm, mom. Are we going to share this room?” Jisung made a face that shows how against he is of that idea. Wendy smiled and shook his head.
“This is your room.” Excitement and overjoyed filled Jisung’s face as he ran inside the room and started planning where his things will go. As he busied himself, Ryujin couldn’t help but think where her room was...or does she have a room of her own? She turned and looked at the room across Jisung’s. It was smaller compared to her brother’s room. But, if she were to have this, she wouldn’t even complain. Having a room of her own is one of her wishes for so long, a wish she wasn’t very vocal about.
As if Wendy read her mind, she grabbed Ryujin’s hand and led her to the staircase that leads to the attic. When they reached the top of the stairs, it was pretty spacious. On one end, was a large space that could be made into another living room, while on the other side was another room.
Her feet started to walk towards the door. Ryujin just stood there while looking at the doorknob, trying to convince herself that it’s real. This is real.
“Why don’t you look open the door and look at your new room.”
Wendy said from behind her while placing both of her hands on her shoulders. Ryujin took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob, twisting it to open.
The room has almost the same size as Wendy’s yet it was a bit smaller. But for her, regardless of the size of the room, having to call this space her own was more than enough. Ever since she could remember, she never had a room of her own. It’s either she shared it with her mom, or with Jisung or all of them in one room. Money was scarce before, and they would rather spend most of them on food and emergency funds. Thank goodness that education at public schools were free.
But now, they have their own home, not just a small place, cramped with all their stuff. Ryujin looked at her mom who was smiling at her.
“Mom, where...how…”
“Living thrifty for years allowed me to save up a lot of money so we can buy our own place. But, for the meantime, we’re just renting this. Mommy will work hard to earn more and give us a place we can really finally call ours.” Wendy said as she tucked a loose hair on her ear.
Ryujin hugged Wendy tightly. “Thank you, Mom.”
The van arrived just a few minutes later and they started unloading their belongings. It wasn’t much since they don’t have a lot of things that they own. Living thrifty means buying only the things that they need. Just a couple of boxes only to unload.
Wendy was outside, checking all the boxes when someone greeted her warmly.
“Hello! You must be our new neighbor.” A gentle and soft voice made her turn towards a strikingly beautiful lady. She has long black hair that was tied in a low ponytail, a simple knitted shirt and jeans. Wendy greeted the lovely lady with a smile.
“Hi! Yeah, we just moved in. I hope we’re not making too many noises.” The lady shook her head.
“No, no! You weren’t. I just came out to throw out some garbage when I saw you. I would offer you my hand but they're not exactly clean right now.” The lady gave her a warm smile as she introduced herself. “I’m Irene. I live next door to yours.” She said pointing to the house on the left, next to theirs.
“Wendy.” She returned the same warm smile Irene gave her.
“Do you need any help?” Wendy didn’t expect to hear that from her. She heard from some of her colleagues that not all people in New York were as friendly and helpful, given that the place was filled with very busy people.
“Oh, no. We’re good. Thank you for asking, though.” She smiled.
“Mom! Where do I put all of these photo albums?” Jisung came out holding some of the items, waving them in the air.
“In the living room, honey! Just leave it there. Go help your sister bring up her stuff in the attic.” Jisung nodded and darted towards the inside of the house.
“Oh, you have kids, too!” Wendy thought that her neighbor had already left, yet she found her smiling fondly at her. Feeling kind of awkward, she tried to smile politely and nodded.
“Yeah. An 8 year old and a 17 year old.” Back in the previous towns she lived in, she never made any friends within her neighborhood. She was friendly with the old lady right next door back in Chicago but, she never really considered her as a friend. So, having small talks with this lady right in front of her was something particularly new to her.
“Oh, a teen and a youngster. I have my own set of these kids. Pretty tough managing four children, but I get by.” Without a second thought, Irene grabbed a box and held it between her arms.
“The kids are out with their dad and friends, I have time to help.” Wendy wanted to say no but Irene, even though she said that in a soft, calming voice, was pretty firm that she wanted to help her. She looks pretty harmless, maybe one helping hand would make things easier, Wendy thought to herself as she smiled and grabbed her own box, leading them inside the house.
“Mom, Mrs. Kim, Jisung and I made some snacks, you guys might want to take a rest from unpacking.” After an hour of unpacking their stuff, with Irene’s help they were almost done with half of their boxes. Ryujin came in with a tray of sandwiches and freshly made lemonade and set it down on the floor where the older women were. “Jisung made the egg sandwich spread.”
“Thank you, my dear. You’re so helpful.” Ryujin smiled at Irene’s compliment.
“Your children sure have the initiative to do things around the house.” Irene said as she grabbed a sandwich and took a bite from it. She gave Jisung a thumbs up, making the young boy shy.
“They’re great kids.” Wendy, feeling proud of the compliment her neighbor gave, couldn’t help but smile.
“How about yours? You said you have four kids?”
“Oh, yeah. Two teens who’s around your daughter’s age, a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old. I pretty much rely on my eldest son, he’s the one who helps around the house the most.” She said, taking another bite of her sandwich.
“Anyway, you guys should come over and have dinner with us tonight. I know the unpacking can be pretty exhausting-”
“Oh! No, it’s okay, Irene. We can manage-”
“Nonsense!” Irene waved her hand, “Take it as a warm welcoming gift from us.” She smiled. Wendy was about to rebut but wasn’t able to when Irene’s phone rang.
“Hi, honey, are you home?...I’m at the neighbor’s house...right next door...uh huh...I invited them over for dinner...yes, yes, you can cook that...alright, we’ll go there once we’re finished here...okay, bye.” Irene ended the call and looked up to Wendy and flashed her pretty smile. “We’re having stuffed chicken and mashed potatoes tonight.”
Wendy looked over her kids as they, too, found what happened before them a little too overwhelming. But then she thought, she never had experienced such a warm person making them feel welcome.
“Can’t wait to eat them.”