she's a girl and she's my friend, but...

Hyungkoo makes extremely clever observations and comments when he speaks in English, but he is still shy in his conversation. There are occasional slips in his vocabulary - such as the time he thought I called myself the Treasure of the House rather than the In-house Treasurer, or when he mixes up whether to call his relative his cousin or his sister. (She is his cousin, but specification of gender can be confoundingly absent in English for neutral words.)

So when he has referred to the young woman visiting him interchangeably as his "friend" or his "girlfriend," no one's questions could quite ascertain whether Sol is his romantic partner or a female buddy.

I thought I had my answer this morning when I heard the sounds of sex eminating from Hyungkoo's room as I passed through the second floor hallway. The masses shall be enlightened! The monkey shall be moved! I thought, thinking of the stuffed monkey in the kitchen that housemates are obligated to move when a secret is spilled around the cutting boards and tea kettles.

Which is approximately when I realized that the sounds I heard were simply the dips and rises of conversational Korean being spoken in woman's vocal register.

Stay monkey, stay.