I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. 6:09AM. Someone’s just a teeny bit too excited for today. I turned off the alarm set for 7:00AM and got up to shower and get dressed. After all that, the clock reads 6:31AM, and the servants just woke up.

Walking out of my room, my eyes wandered over to the DO NOT ENTER door, and soon enough, I was standing right in front of it. I guess it doesn’t hurt to ‘explore’ my own house. Before anyone could find me, I slipped into the room and closed the door.

I turned around, and the room looked EXACTLY THE SAME as mine. The colors, the furniture, the layout, everything. For a second, I thought I walked back into my own room, but apparently, someone has the same taste as me.

On one of the nightstands, I picked up a picture of a woman with a little boy, and another picture that was faced down on the nightstand with the same woman and boy, plus my stepfather. If I’m guessing correctly, that woman is probably my stepfather’s ex-wife, and… I have a stepbrother? He must be the third person that Jaesuk was hinting about yesterday.

I put the pictures back down in the same position, and walked around the room. Without thinking much, I decided to take a sneak peek inside the closet, and the only thing I saw hanging were a bunch of white T-shirts and a few pair of pants and shorts. There was also a guitar in a bag covered with dust. Whoever is the owner of this room is either a very boring person, or he/she doesn’t come home a lot. Or both. Judging from the clothes, it’s probably a he, and that ‘he’ is most likely the boy in the picture.

Checking the time on my watch, it was already 6:49AM. Thinking that I’d better leave before someone finds me lurking in a “do not enter” area, I closed the closet door and gave the room one last look. The bed looked like it hasn’t been slept on for ages, and the only things on the big desk were a few jacked up badminton birdies.

I slowly cracked open the bedroom door and checked the coast before coming out and closing the door. I felt like some spy going into a suspect’s room for investigation.

After a few minutes, my stepdad was also up and ready, but the servants haven’t started making breakfast yet, so we decided to just eat breakfast outside. This was probably the best time for some family bonding.

Settling down at a coffee shop with two Americanos and two butter croissants, my stepdad attempted to start a conversation. “So, how do you like living here?”

“I like it. The house is obviously much better than my old one, and the air here is much better too, haha. Except I kind of miss my friends already.”

“They can come over anytime they want. Our house is open to any visitors. You can also go back to visit them during winter break or the summer if you want.”

Well, plane ticket and everything is quite expensive. “Okay, I’ll let them know about that.”

We continued eating in silence for a moment before my stepdad brought up his question. “Ya know, I wanted to ask more questions about you, but I don’t really know what to ask and what to not ask, so how about you tell me more about yourself? You can tell me anything, or nothing if you really don’t want to.” He smiled at me expectantly.

I thought about how to approach that question, but I ended up saying whatever came to my mind. “Uhmmm, my birthday is on December 26, which is kind of sad because everyone celebrates my birthday on Christmas instead and they don’t even remember it’s my birthday the next day. My height on my ID is 166cm, but in reality, it’s only 165.3cm. When I eat chicken, I always save the skin for last because that’s the best part. Actually, I always save the best for last. Uhmmm, the only reason I was willing to learn Korean from my mom back then was because I like watching k-drama, and then I also got into k-pop, so now I can watch shows without subtitles. Uhmmm, I don’t really like sports, but badminton is kinda fun. I can also cook lots of different food, so if you want, you can try my cooking someday.” Well, that was a lot of info.

My stepdad stared at me in amusement. “Wow, that’s…a lot more than what I thought you would say, which is great. I would love to try your cooking one day. So you like badminton too—” His phone started to ring, and I