‘ No,’ he said. ‘I’m saying it because it’s kind of obvious.’
‘It’s not obvious,’ Eleanor said. She turned on the bench so she was facing him, and pulled his hand down.
‘Nobody thinks Asian guys are hot,’ Park said finally. He had to look away from her when he said it – way away, he turned his head completely. ‘Not here, anyway. I assume Asian guys do all right in Asia.’
‘That’s not true,’ Eleanor argued. ‘Look at your mom and dad …’
‘Asian girls are different.
White guys think they’re exotic.’
‘But …’
‘Are you trying to come up with a super-hot Asian guy, so you can prove me wrong?
Because there aren’t any. I’ve had my whole life to think about this.’
Eleanor folded her arms. Park looked out at the lake.
‘What about that old TV
show,’ she said, ‘with the karate guy?’
‘ Kung Fu?’
‘Yeah.’
‘That actor was white, and that character was a monk.’
‘What about …’
‘There aren’t any,’ Park said.
‘Look at M*A*S*H. The whole show takes place in Korea, and the doctors are always flirting with Korean girls, right? But the nurses don’t use their R&R to go to Seoul to pick up hot Korean guys.
Everything that makes Asian girls seem exotic makes Asian guys seem like girls.’
The gander was still honking at them. Park picked up a chunk of melting snow and tossed it half-heartedly in the goose’s direction.
He still couldn’t look at Eleanor.
‘I don’t know what any of that has to do with me,’ she said.
‘It has everything to do with me,’ he answered.
‘No.’ She put her hand on his chin and made him face her. ‘It doesn’t … I don’t even know what it means that you’re Korean.’
‘Beyond the obvious?’
‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘ exactly.
Beyond the obvious.’
Then she kissed him. He loved it when she kissed him first.
‘When I look at you,’ she said, leaning into him, ‘I don’t know if I’m thinking you’re cute because you’re Korean, but I don’t think it’s in spite of it. I just know that I think you’re cute. Like, so cute, Park …’
He loved it when she said his name.
‘Maybe I’m really attracted to Korean guys,’ she said, ‘and I don’t even know it.’
‘Good thing I’m the only Korean guy in Omaha,’ he said.
‘And good thing I’m never getting out of this dump.’
It was getting cold, and probably late; Park wasn’t wearing a watch.
He stood up and pulled Eleanor to her feet. They held hands and cut through the park to get to the car.
‘ I don’t even know what it means to be Korean,’ he said.
‘Well, I don’t know what it means to be Danish and Scottish,’
she said. ‘Does it matter?’
‘I think so,’ he said, ‘because it’s the number-one thing people use to identify me. It’s my main thing.’
‘I’m telling you,’ she said, ‘I think your main thing might be that
you’re
cute.
You’re
practically adorable.’
Park didn’t mind the word adorable.
Eleanor They’d parked on the far side of the Market, and the lot was mostly empty by the time they got back.
Eleanor felt tense and reckless again. Maybe it was something about this car …
The Impala might not look pervy on the outside, not like a fully carpeted custom van or something – but the inside was a different story. The front seat was almost as big as Eleanor’s bed, and the back seat was an Erica Jong novel just waiting to happen.
Park opened the door for her, then ran around the car to get in.
‘It’s not as late as I thought,’ he said, looking at the clock on the dash. 8:30.
‘Yeah …’ she said. She put her hand down on the seat between them. She tried to do it casually, but it came off pretty obvious.
Park laid his hand on top of hers.
It was just that kind of night.
Every time she looked at him, he was looking back at her. Every time she thought about kissing him, he was already closing his eyes.
Read my mind now, she thought.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she said.
‘Okay.’ Park took his hand away and put the key in the ignition. Eleanor reached up and caught his sleeve before he could turn it.
He dropped the keys and, all in one motion, he turned and scooped her into his arms.
S er io u s ly, scooped.
He
was
always stronger than she expected him to be.
If you were watching them now (and you totally could because the windows weren’t fogged over yet) you’d think that Eleanor and Park did this kind of thing all the time. Not just the once before.
This
time
was
already
different.
They weren’t moving forward in orderly steps, like a game of Mother May I? They weren’t even kissing each other square on the mouth. (Lining things up neatly would take too long.) Eleanor climbed up his shirt, climbing on top of him. And Park kept pulling her to him, even when she couldn’t come any closer.
She was wedged between Park and the steering wheel, and when he pushed his hand up her shirt, she leaned against the horn. They both
jumped,
and