#cuongs just being nosy. 'share it with the class.'

[phantombs]

Happy New Year, Cuong. [ Atieno is clearly thrilled to bring in the new year with him.]

“Thank you.” The paperwhites bleed their honey-sweet welcomes. The tteokguk is cooking. The night swells with glee. Cường, walking toward them now, aglow with the burning lanterns outside, feels fuller than he has been of late. And that? That is for his one company, he wagers. It’s been a long stretch of decades since he’s shared New Years Day, after all, and that fails to mention the visions in his head, and god pity his wretched soul -- the ghosts that wallow. But Atieno, radiant, is no phantom, are they? Radiant and alive, he thinks that ‘no.’ “Happy new year,” he breathes sleepily. Cường sits. The cushions by the window seat creak beneath them as he does so, and pointedly, he moves to dangle a little charm by their face. “Good luck,” he explains. “You know, having you here tonight is a sign of a very lucky year, I think. And I figure, if I’m going to be lucky, I won’t be greedy this time. I should be fair and have you share in that, too.” How generous of him. He takes their hand carefully, gingerly between his gardener-hard palms, and loops the red string about their littlest finger. It’s dainty and small, filled with a little peach petal off a plant he’d grown, and with the streets below giddy, he tilts his head toward the window. There sits a humble kumquat tree. The fireworks glow his face. “This is what they do in Vietnam. Hang this on a branch." And a little conniving-- "Tell it what you wish for.”