Right before he had to go, he asked her what she thought a good friend, and she answered he was, because he had helped her when she was in trouble. He smiled at that answer and stroked her hair. Every few days, they saw each other at the cove, and Sunja grew more efficient with the wash and housework, so that no one at home noticed how shw spent her time at the beach or at the market.
Before Swunja crossed the threshold of the kitchen door to leave the house for the market or the beach, she would check her reflection on the polished metal pot lid, primping the tight braid she'd made that morning. Sunja had no idea how to make herself lovely or appealing to any men, and certainly not a man as important as Koh Hansu, so she endeavored to be clean and tidy at the least.
The more she saw him, the more vivid he grew in her mind. His stories filled her head with people and places she had never imagined before. He lived in Osaka-a large city in Japan where he said you could get anything you wanted if you had money and where almost every house had electirc lights and plug-in heaters to keep you warm in the winter. He adid Tokyou was far busier than Seoul-with more people, shops, restaurants, and theaters. He had been to Manchuria and Pyongyang. He described each place to her and told her that one day she would go with him to these places, but she couldn't understand hoe that would ever happen. She did't protest, because she liked the idea of traveling with him, the idea of being with him longer than the few minutes they had at the cove. From his travels, he brought her beautifullyh colored candies and sweet biscuits. He would unwrap the candies and put one in her mouth like a mother feeding a child. She had never tasted such lovely and delicious treats-pink hard candies imported from America, butter biscuits from England. Sunja was careful to throw away the wrappers outside the house, because she didn't want her mother to know about them.
She was enraptured by his talk and his experiences, which were far more unique than the adventures of fishermen or workers who had come from far-flung places, but there was something even more new and powerful in her relationship with Hansu that she had never expected. Until she met him, Sunja had never had someone to tell about her life-the funny habits of the lodgers, her exchanges with the sisters who worked for her mother, memories of her father, and her private questions. She had someone to ask about how things worked outside of Yeongdo and Busan. Hansu was eager to hear abut what went on in her day; he wanted to know what she dreamed about even.