The list of promises I’d made to myself when I returned to the city was taped to the wall above my desk, and I thought I should take it down first. The cat came in and started exploring, as if looking for a spot of her own in this new place. She leaped onto the windowsill and curled up in a ball. Myungsuh transferred the table palm from the plastic container to the clay flowerpot and placed it on my desk. Then he sat down in the chair and tapped on the typewriter. Miru stood near the kitchen. I call it a kitchen, but it was really just a sink and a stove at one end of the room, along with a refrigerator. I washed the rice and put it in the pot. Then I pulled out the retractable tabletop that was hidden in the side of the kitchen counter and set it with containers of side dishes from the refrigerator. The pullout table was short and narrow. I kept it folded away when I was not using it. The three of us would have been knee-to-knee if we all tried to sit there. My cousin had made the side dishes for me; the containers were filled with stir-fried anchovies, brisket marinated in soy sauce, seasoned perilla.
