Kim Yumin

Yumin is just sitting in her room on Wednesday evening when she hears the phone ring downstairs. She doesn’t bother getting up and the ringing quickly stops, most likely because her mother picked up the phone.

A few seconds later, she calls up from the bottom floor: "Yumin, it is your friend for you. Come to the phone."

She descends the stairs and moves to the cord phone that her mother is holding in both hands, covering the speaker. "Don’t talk too long," Yumin’s mother reminds her. "You have school tomorrow and you need to sleep enough before then."

With those words, she hands Yumin the phone and walks away, though Yumin notices that she stays close enough to keep an eye on her and overhear at least her part of the conversation.

When Yumin puts the speaker to her ear, she hears a laugh from the other side. "Wow, your mom really is strict," Astrid’s voice says, sounding amused. "It’s not even nine yet. Does she expect you to hop into bed the second the sun goes down?

"Ayaaa!" Yumin let’s out with annoyance, though under her breath, as she’s summoned downstairs. Omma had a way of hearing even the slightest hint of annoyance in the young girl’s voice.

She smiles wide to her mom as she takes the phone. She looks innocent, and throws a who could it be at this hour? face in for good measure. She takes the phone.
.
"Hello? Oh, Astrid, hello!" What does she want? Remember last time...

"No, I didn’t get to that homework yet. Yeah, it looks hard, right?" Code for ‘I can’t talk.’ She looks to where she know her mother is probably standing. Correction, where she is always standing. She acknowledges her, and rolls her eyes like Can you believe my luck?

Mouthing:

"Astrid. Homework." Another eye roll to seal the deal.

"Anything else I can help with?"

There's a pause in the line as Astrid seems briefly confused. Then she seems to understand that Yumin can't talk freely. She giggles excitedly. "I talked to Peter today, as I promised. I am a woman of my word, you know?"
She pauses again, though this time Yumin knows it is not from confusion but a deliberate pause just to keep Yumin waiting. Not having the patience to really draw this out herself, however, Astrid continues: "I ran into him at the Coop and we got to talking and apparently, he's been having those weird nightmares as well. Have you had those? Anyway, long story short, there's good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" The pause that follows this isn't even long enough for Yumin to answer. "Okay, good news, he thinks you're cute. Though he did call you 'that Asian girl'. Wait, does that count as bad news? If so, I have two bad news. Well, the actual bad news is, when I mentioned you, oh my God, he actually thought Kim was your given name. Like, have you ever even talked to this boy before?"

"I talked to Peter..."

Yumin walks a precarious path now. To hide excitement from both mother and Astrid, but also to seem cool and interested!

When there’s a pause to answer the nightmare questions, Yumin simply says:

"No! I hadn’t heard about that! Is everything okay?" She peeks around to see if Omma has wandered off, satisfied that the call was all business, no pleasure. Not that she really wanted Yumin to be an outcast, but parenting a teenager is hard. So many possible missteps.

Cute...

She’s shocked still for a few seconds. And then she laughs, though quickly goes to stifle it.

Kim!

Truth be told, Yumin had begged her parents more than once to switch the name order while they lived in Sweden. She was known as Kim by more than a few teachers, administrators and students. She answered to it, for an easy life.

She’d even approached her mother about a ‘Swedish name’. No dice. Kim Yumin. It was the name her great grandparents had ordained, and that was that. She could work with Peter calling her Kim. Maybe even Kimmy.

"Well, eh, not really. Never had the chance. How would I even..." she stammers. Mom had better not be listening to this.

When Yumin asks about the nightmares, Astrid just seems to shrug it off. "It's just this thing. The last couple of days, a bunch of us at school have been having weird nightmares. Like claustrophobic stuff. Plus weird sounds and crying. I don't know, that's what I get. They're not all the same. Whatever. Apparently Peter has been having them as well. I didn't ask about details, though."
The topic seems to have worn out its interest for her for now so she returns to the much more interesting question of Yumin's love life.

When Yumin admits that she hasn't really talked to Peter at all yet, Astrid giggles. "I don't know, I just didn't realize it was that kind of crush. That's adorable, though!" There's another brief pause, then she says: "I might be able to get you in touch. I'll think of something. Oh, I just looked over maths homework and it looks really complicated. You don't mind if I copy it from you tomorrow before class, right? Thanks!"

Eric and Yumin take the bus back to town together while Sabine stays behind. They don't talk much on the trip, both occupied with thoughts about their discovery. The bus passes by Gustavsson's field again and they can see the police working there, the bundle, which they now know to have been the body of their former classmate, gone.

Yumin arrives home around the time that the sun begins to disappear behind the horizon. The moment she opens the door, she hears movement in the house in response to it. She hasn't even taken off her shoes, when her mother appears, hands on her hips, looking sternly at Yumin. "Where have you been?", she asks in Korean, her voice very serious and with more than a hint of worry buried in it. "I got a call from Fru Löfgren. The police found a dead teenager. I did not know who or where and you didn't come home from school. I was very scared for my girl!"

Responding in Korean:

"Oh, mom! I was just at school and then me and some of the others had a few things we needed to work on together! I didn’t hear anything about that! We were so busy with our project. What… what happened? Who was it? Do they know?"

She approaches her mother, noting the worry, and hugs her for as long as she needs.

Yumin's mother holds her for a long time before she lets go. "I don't know any details," she then admits. "I think it is a boy. A child, like you. Oh, it's so terrible."
She hugs Yumin one more time but lets go much quicker this time than the last. "I'm sure it will be all over the news tomorrow so then we will hear more." She looks sternly at Yumin. "Tomorrow, after school, you come straight home, understood? No project. I want you right here with me where you're safe."

"But don’t you think they’ll have security at the school tomorrow? It might be safer there than anywhere!"

She says, rather than argues. Her tone is one of mild resistance and curiosity but unwillingly to push.

"Most of the work is done! We just need to finish everything up!

I wonder who it was! It’s terrible news!

Want…" Yumin thinks for a second "… to watch some TV?"

A smile gesture to comfort mom. And maybe give her a little extra rope tomorrow to work with!

Yumin's mother looks at her thoughtfully, then she says: "Alright then. If you want to work on your project, you can do it, but only at school. If you want to go anywhere else, you can invite your group here to your room." She smiles sadly. "No wandering around the island until we know exactly what happened and that there is no danger."

When Yumin suggests watching TV, her mother nods. "That sounds nice," she agrees. "But I will make us something to eat. It is so late. You must be starving, my poor girl. Do you have all your schoolwork done?"

When Yumin wakes up the next day, she can smell artificial cleaners and she hears the commotion of her mother running around the house. It's one of those weekends, it seems.
She debates whether she should just stay in bed while her mother cleans the house but then realizes the futility of that. As soon as her mother decides it's time for Yumin to help, she'll come in to wake her anyway. She won't be able to dodge her part of the housework.

As soon as she steps out of her bedroom, her mother calls out. "Yumin, good morning. It's a wonderful day for some spring cleaning. You have your schoolwork finished for Monday? You can give me a hand with this."

"Just a little left to do." she lies.

"What do you want me to do? I don’t mind cleaning out the fridge!"

Ha! Always better to offer up yourself for an easier job, before mom assigns something terrible that would take hours. Gardening, or bathroom duty.

Plus, this way, she could sneak in a few nibbles here and there while she worked.

"Yes, that is a good idea," Yumin's mother agrees. "Make sure to throw out any food that is no longer good. And no snacking. You can't spoil your appetite."

Satisfied that at least she got to choose her own chore, Yumin heads into the kitchen and begins working on the fridge. Despite her mother telling her not to, Yumin does sneak a bite of this or that while she's cleaning.
As she is wiping out the emptied out fridge, her mother comes into the kitchen with her and pours herself a glass of water. Sitting down on a chair for a brief break, she asks: "You were out so late again yesterday. Until after dark. You know what happened to this poor boy from your school. You're not getting mixed up in any trouble, are you?"

"No, no. Of course not, Omma. In fact; I think it’s really brought people together. They want to keep close and watch each other’s back. It’s… nice. So I felt a little awkward being the first one to leave last night, you know? It felt disrespectful.

We even went to visit his aunt. That poor woman. Do you know her?"

"No, I don't think I do," Yumin's mother replies. "She must feel terrible. Losing your child, or nephew, like this. Oh, Yumin, I couldn't imagine what I would do without you. You have to promise me you'll stay safe." She frowns at the complaint about Yumin having had to leave early the previous day but then nods. "If you promise you are staying safe, I'll try to be less restrictive," she says. "But you don't have any plans to go anywhere today, do you?"

"Plans today? Ah… no! Not really. I know we had to gather up some samples for science class. It’s so gross. The teacher wants us to bring in some swamp water, some moss, and an insect for next weeks classes." she makes a face that says it’s the last thing she’d ever want to do.

"But I know some of the others are busy today, so it might be tomorrow. I’ll have to wait and see." she hopes the ‘find out later’ answer is enough to soften whatever law she’s about to try and lay down.

"Swamp water, moss and insects?", Yumin's mother asks disapprovingly. "Well, that's horrible. But if it's for school..." She sighs. "Well, let me know when you find out when you will do it. And if you need a ride somewhere. Maybe I can drive you." She glances into the fridge. "It looks like you're almost done with that. You should go and take care of the bathroom next."

"The bathroom…?" Yumin asks disapprovingly.

"Isn't it bad enough that I have to go into one swamp today? Now you want me to clean that one, too?"