Page 101 of Show Off

“Like that’s new.” I know what he means, though. “I’ll apologize tomorrow.”

“All of them saw the show.” He glances at me, and I stumble. Righting myself, I catch up in a few quick strides.

“I’m not sorry I outed Shirleen.” There, I said it. “I feel bad about betraying Lana, and I could have handled it better. But the secret needed to come out at some point.”

My brother looks up and there’s scorn in his eyes. “And you thought that wasyourjob?”

“Someone had to do it.”

“No, Dal.” His voice sounds almost pitying. “They didn’t.”

We’re at the door, and I swing it open. Ji-Hoon wheels ahead, then spins around when he reaches the table. Korain sits hunched at the head of it, elbows propped on a placemat. He looks up, and I swear he’s aged ten years today.

My blood runs cold.

“What?” Oh, God. Something’s happened. “What’s wrong? You have cancer? Did someone die? Are you going back to Korea or?—”

“Sit down, Dal.” The kindness in his eyes drops me to the chair beside him. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Drawing a breath, I put my arms on the table. “It’s bad news, isn’t it?”

He looks at Ji-Hoon, who already seems to know what’s happening. My brother glides to Korain’s other side. “He saw you on TV.” Ji-Hoon waits for me to nod. “The way you handled things with Lana?”

I look at Korain, who shakes his head a bit sadly. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

“That’s what this is about?” I start to get up, but he stops me with a hand on my arm. “What? I know I could have handled things better, but?—”

“Joka, be quiet a moment.” His sharp tone stalls the words in my throat. “I need you to listen. Can you do that?”

Gritting my teeth, I nod. “Yes.”

My uncle draws a shaky breath. “Your mother and I dated.”

“Okay.”

Another deep breath from Korain. “This was before she met your father. Long before you kids came along.”

“I know.” This is what’s got him so upset? “Korain, I knew this already. She showed me a photo when I was small. Maybe seven or eight years old.” It seemed trivial at the time. It’s still trivial. “She said you went out on three or four dates, and then she met our dad.”

I still remember the spark in her eyes. She told me the story one night as we flipped through a family album. “Love at first sight,” she said, smoothing my hair back from my face. Ji-Hoon snuggled close on her other side. “That’s how it was for us.”

One of so many memories, clutching my throat as I sit here, absorbing the torment on my uncle’s face.

“That’s not all.” My brother nods to Korain. “Let him finish.”

I swing back to my uncle, who swallows hard and keeps going.

“I stepped back the moment your parents told me they had feelings for each other,” he continues. “Anyone with eyes could see they were meant to be together.”

“I remember.” My throat feels knotted and I wish for a glass of wine. But something tells me not to move. “They had a great marriage.”

His forehead pinches, but he nods. “The best.”

“Not like some Hollywood sham.” I don’t even mean just Shirleen and Laurence Judson. My short years in show biz opened my eyes to how some marriages become mere business deals. “It wasn’t like that with my parents. They were soulmates right up until the end.”

“Indeed.” He looks like he wants to say something, then picks up his wineglass instead. Takes a small sip before setting it down. “I didn’t know your father’s diagnosis.”

It takes me a second to catch up. “The Parkinson’s?”

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