JUST THE TWO OF US

An expatriate pediatrician and expert chef fall in love in South Korea in this romance by Ryu Hyang, translated from the Korean by Cha.

Thirty-four-year-old Matt Cha puts nearly all of his time and energy into caring for his young patients in an American emergency room, but it’s still a shock to him when his personal life falls apart. After he catches his live-in girlfriend with another man, Matt decides to make a major life change. Leaving behind his job and his adoptive mother, Kate, he relocates to Seoul, using his birth name, Soohyuk—for two years. Although he hasn’t lived in Korea since childhood and learned the Korean language mostly from movies, he’s determined to find his purpose there, as well as more information about his origins. He quickly makes waves at his new hospital and becomes known as much for his brilliant work as for his anti-social personality. He enlists Yuna Lee—a sweet-natured chef who’s recently opened her own catering business near the hospital—to provide him with three boxed meals a day. As he gets to know her better, he learns there’s much more to her than delicious dishes. When Yuna’s beloved young nephew Minjoon begins displaying disturbing symptoms, Soohyuk and Yuna grow even closer—but will she be able to break through his emotional barriers? In Ryu Hyang’s opposites-attract story, originally published in Korea in 2017, the descriptions of Yuna’s home-cooked meals—everything from omelet sandwiches to japchae—are absolutely lovely. The author also manages to show how Yuna infuses love into her every action, as when she puts together a special picnic for her brother and his family to enjoy. However, Soohyuk doesn’t appear to meaningfully grow or change over the course of the novel; instead, he insults Yuna and puts her down, first attempting to use the language barrier as an excuse and then his own troubled history. Even a compelling subplot involving Soohyk’s colleague Hwihyun Cho and his estranged mother doesn’t make up for the male lead’s consistently mean-spirited behavior toward everyone but his patients.

A romance with appealing descriptions but a borderline-toxic main character.