Page 62 of Free Fall
“No, and even now I wouldn’t call them my favorite. My ult, as the kids say”—I wink at him—“is a group called SHINee. I fell in love with their song ‘Replay’ as soon as I heard it. Then it was just a long, winding tumble down the SHINee rabbit hole until other groups began to make it onto my radar. Now I’m what’sknown as a KPop multi. I like multiple groups and solo artists. I get around.”
“Can I hear it?”
“What?”
“The song that made you a fan.”
“Ha!” I sit up and reach for the phone and cue it up. “Okay, but it’s an old song, a bit dated.”
“S’okay.” Dan sounds a little sleepy as he tucks his hands under his head and smiles up at me. “I’m fine with that.”
“Alright. Here we go.” I press play and the familiar music starts up. I sing along lightly, the lyrics and sounds embedded in my memory.
“I thought you said you don’t know Korean.”
“I don’t.” I laugh. “I’m probably pronouncing most of it all wrong. But, yeah, I’ve learned a little from the songs. For example, the wordnoonameans older sister or older girl in general, and it’s a little flirty when used by someone who isn’t a relative. So, the lyric I just sang is‘Noonan neomu yeppeo,’which meansnoonais so pretty. So, this song is about a pretty older girl that the singers have a crush on.” I do some of the upper body choreo. “And the dance is a little like this. I have the kids perform it sometimes.”
“How do the kids feel about not understanding the songs?” Dan asks.
“Oh, they don’t care, and a lot of them learn the Korean words to a larger degree than I’ve been able to. They’re so young and their language centers are still wide open.”
“Would you like to learn more?” Dan asks.
“Korean? I guess.” I lean back and stare up at the stars. “I mean, I looked into it and there are free online resources for beginners, but I…” I trail off.
“But something’s keeping you from starting?”
“Do you know any other languages?” I hedge. My reasons for stalling are pretty absurd.
“Nothing more than some basic Italian from Duolingo. I want to climb outside of the US one day, and the Dolomites in Italy are at the top of the list. But I’ve heard there’s some good climbing in Thailand and China, as well as Laos. There must be some good climbs in Korea and Japan…” It’s his turn to trail off.
“I’d love to travel too,” I say. “And, yeah, before you ask, I do want to go to Korea one day.”
“I wasn’t going to ask that, actually.”
“You weren’t?”
“No, I was going to come back to what’s keeping you from starting to learn Korean. You’re passionate about the music and lyrics, and you can imitate some of the sounds. That seems like a good start.”
I clear my throat. “It’s a dumb reason. Ishouldstart. I really should.”
“But what’s the reason?”
“Tenacious little jerk, aren’t you?”
Dan smiles and shrugs again. “Sort of my calling card—stubborn, obstinate, determined. Required in my line of work.”
“Is it work, though? Like do you have a sponsorship or…”
“No more trying to switch topics. Just answer the question.”
I frown, a burst of rebellion making me want to tell him to fuck off, but instead I tell him the truth. “I feel like I’d be betraying my parents. Which is dumb, like I said. I mean…neither of them ever asked me to stay monolingual. In fact, Mom really hoped I’d pick up more Spanish than I did back in high school.” I pull my hairband out and let my hair fall around me. “Besides, where was I supposed to find a Korean teacher in West Virginia, or here in Mariposa County for that matter?”
Dan lifts up on one elbow and pushes one side of my hair back, searches my face, and then falls to his sleeping bag again.“I have a pal…” He breaks off. “Well, okay, I met this guy once, I don’t think Peggy Jo would let me call the guy an actual pal… Anyway, he teaches Greek—his mother tongue—online through some service, and he only charges about eight bucks an hour. He gets enough by teaching something he knows well to keep climbing as his main passion. Surely there’s someone like that out there teaching Korean.”
“Maybe…”
“If you’re not interested, don’t worry about it. It just seems like you’re on the verge of something here. It’s like when I was learning climbing from Peggy Jo. There was the introductory phase, and I could have stayed there indefinitely and just enjoyed indoor climbing with autobelays, but eventually I took the next step.”