Today I heard back from the childhood friend's sister who grew up with you in Taegu. She shared a story with me- part of it (the MacGyver part) I'd heard, but the other one was new to me. New. It's you through and through. It leaves me amazed at how the essence of a person- even living on a different continent, speaking a different language, years later- is the same.
It also brings me the aching-longing-incredible pain of your absence and loss. I want to share this story with you and ask you about it. "Do you remember that? Tell me about it."
Silence.
One of the stories that really stick out in my mind is when their junior high shool class had to take an IQ test. Each child was given a scantron sheet to use and fill in. Since it was a timed test, the teachers were very stressed and so were the kids. Everyone wanted a high score since having a high IQ equated to being "smart".
Well, imagine the shock when hae hwan turned in his scantron, with comic characters drawn into the bubbles instead of answers! He got into a lot of trouble that day but still managed to score off the charts. You know very well he was a genius right? His older brother may have been a genius in science and the technology but hae hwan was a whole different genius. He played the macgyver theme song after hearing it once on the TV on my piano perfectly. We just stood there with our mouths wide open in awe.