As I walk Lisa to school, a construction worker greets her with an "Annyong."

I am a bit jealous, I get so few greetings.

"You have so many friends, Lisa!"

Lisa shrugs it off. Playing it cool, like everyone can nod to the construction worker as they pass.

"Everyone says 'Hi' to you."

Lisa responds by grabbing the loose skin on my elbow. It's one of her favourite jokes. Eunjoo tells me she does the same with the saggy skin under her arm when they are walking. These are her subtle little digs at her aging parents.

She hits us where it hurts. I have a scar there from when I broke my elbow in a car accident when I was twenty. I used to mollify myself with this justification– it is not a symptom of aging but of a freak event of my youth. But Lisa grabs the skin on the other elbow too.

Knocking her hand away, I grab her elbow back. "How do you like that?" I say snappishly.

She grabs the fat that rolls out on my side– my love handle– and walks along pinching it.

She looks away as she walks, pretending that it is just familial affection, but she knows what she is doing. And I can't help but laugh.

"I wish I had as many friends as you." I say. Returning to the original tease. "What is his name?" I ask, nodding my head back at the construction worker.

She continues to walk with a silent smirk.

"Ajjusshi?"

"Kong-sa nim?"

"Gary?"

She is unphased, she just keeps holding onto that roll on my side.

The e-Mart 24 owner comes out of his store as we are passing, and we greet each other.

"Wow, Daddy" Lisa says as we pass him. "You have lots of friends."

She is teasing, but I realise happily that perhaps she is right.

The owner of e-Mart 24 has been running a convenience store by my house for the 15 years I have lived here. He and his wife have, and for a while, his father helped out too. His wife is pleasant, but he is not. He is all business and does not abide smiles and pleasantries in the workplace.

I often ask him if he has flour or bread or sanitary napkins, or something, and I like to think that it makes him feel useful.

We nod to each other now. The first time we nodded was when I saw him walking his dog on campus. It was not a business setting, so his guard was down.

Having nodded once, he now has to nod; even in his store. It is a slow build up. But I think Lisa is right, I think we are becoming friends.

The owner of the Kosa-Mart– a shop a little further away that stocks produce, has a different talk on pleasantries' place in the workplace. He always smiles, and tries to make small-talk. He's my friend now too. This happened when he forgot to charge me for carrots once, and when I noticed it, the total being a bit less than I expected, I went back to rectify it.

I have two local friends. The two chief shop owners in the neighbourhood. There are other convenience stores, but they are also-rans. I don't know my friends names yet, we aren't best friends, after all, but I call them Grumpy and Happy, and I greet them when I see them.

"You are right, Lisa," I say. "I have a wealth of friends. And one of these days I'm going to let them know the we have become friends."

Well, guys. Here I am, letting you know!