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Summary: Chapters 19 & 20

Chapter 19: Kimchi Fridge

Michelle’s father decides to sell their house and move to Thailand. Upon seeing the pictures of their empty house, Michelle feels uncomfortable, and wonders if the new tenants will feel the ghost of her dead mother. Peter’s parents agree to store some of their furniture for the time being, and after Thanksgiving at their house Michelle stumbles upon her mother’s kimchi fridge in their basement. She opens it and finds hundreds of family photos stored inside. She spends time looking over each one, savoring the candid images of her mother. She compares her desire to preserve memories of her mother with the process of fermentation required to make kimchi, finding meaning in the idea of her mother living on in this way in her memory. Before returning to Brooklyn, Michelle goes to a Korean bathhouse for a scrub like the ones she and her mother used to get together. The woman who scrubs her asks after Michelle’s heritage, and Michelle fears that without her mother beside her, people won’t be able to infer the Korean side of her identity. She tries to communicate further with the woman but butts up against the language barrier. Later, in the sauna, she cries. 

Read more about Michelle's memories of her mother.

Chapter 20: Coffee Hanjan

A year after Peter and Michelle move to Brooklyn, Psychopomp starts getting popular, and soon Michelle is offered the opportunity to open for Mitski on tour. She names her band Japanese Breakfast and sets out on what quickly snowballs into a successful music career. Before long they are touring around the country and headlining their own shows, with Peter coming on as lead guitarist. Eventually they are offered a tour across Asia, with the last show in Seoul. Michelle and her band soak in the culture and the food across many countries before ending the tour with a triumphant show in Seoul, with Nami and Emo Boo in the audience. After the show, their local liaison, Jon, and his assistant, Koki, take them out drinking. Jon talks to Michelle about Korean rock music in the 60s. Later on, when Michelle and Peter stay in Korea to spend time with Nami and Emo Boo, Nami reveals that she and Michelle’s mother loved the music Jon had told them about. On the last night of their stay in Seoul, the four of them go to karaoke. Nami takes Michelle onto the stage and the two of them sing one of her mother’s favorite Korean Rock songs, “Coffee Hanjan.” Michelle barely knows the words but sings along anyway, feeling at peace.

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