Somewhere far, lived a boy named Mingyu. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim, were just an ordinary couple who owned the store at the end of the street. It wasn’t big but enough to feed their family, he and his younger sister, Minha. He was a very sweet boy, so sweet that everyone loved him. He has deep dimples on each side of his cheeks and a pair of black pearl eyes that would sparkle whenever he was happy, so beauty that everyone couldn’t help but smile at him. He was so sweet, until one day; that day changed him and turning his life around.

It was Mingyu’s favourite day in the year, when the snow fell and covering the ground below until it all indistinguishable. He was 7 at that time; he would run off the stairs, frantically searching for his ‘winter equipments’, couldn’t wait to touch the first snow of the year; but that day was different. It was his time to be awake. He knew it, but he couldn’t get up from his bed, or simply calling for help.

“H-h-ugh!”, he cried. No matter how many times he tried, his bones felt like it was piercing through his chest. He couldn’t even bear the lights that filled his room, it was too bright that he just shut his eyes off and praying silently. If it wasn’t Minha who barged into his room to ask him about her socks whereabouts, Mingyu would’ve been found dead laying on his bed; blue, stiff, and breathless.

Mr. Kim wasn’t home since dawn. He told them that he had a meeting in downtown, so he would need the car for the half of the day. There was nothing but Mingyu and Minha’s bikes on the garage that Mrs. Kim had to ask for their neighbor’s help. The doctor said that Mingyu was caught a cold with fever but still need to be admitted for a better recovery. Mingyu was still unconscious, so Minha and her mother looking for him by turns until Mr. Kim arrived. In their second night in the hospital, Mingyu’s scream made everyone in the room awake.

He screamed in pain, so bad that it stabbed your heart. He crouched in his bed, mumbling some unintelligible words, sweating and scared, but Mrs. Kim knew that it wasn’t a normal fever, something was wrong with her son. Mingyu was brought to the white room with various types of machines. The doctor couldn’t explain Mingyu’s condition; his spinal column were slightly crooked forward that caused the anulus ring to be broken and grew out of its space. The thing is, it happened within days. Usually, anyone who had the same problem was born with it, or passed by someone in the family. But Mingyu was a healthy kid. Kim family didn’t have any history of critical illness, so it was quite a surprise but horrifying news. The doctors said that the kid wouldn’t live long, probably until he hits his 11^th birthday. They didn’t cry. There were only silence.

Someone drew a smiley face on the window but he quickly erased it. The place outside was just as gloomy as their heart.

***

“Are you okay? You looked pale,” Mrs. Kim spoke to her son warmingly. “I’m all okay mother, thank you,” he replied without looking at her. It was clear that he wasn’t okay at all, but he pretended to be so, just to make his mother less worried.

“Tomorrow is your 20^th birthday, can you believe it?” Her eyes were clear icy blue, contrast to the leaves that piling up under the oak tree in their backyard. She was storing Mingyu’s clothes to his wardrobe since Mingyu couldn’t help much with the house chores.

“Mother,” Mingyu called her in such a loving voice.

“Yes, darling?” she replied though her eyes were focused to the shelf.

I love you so much, mother

 “No, nothing. I’ll be out for a moment. Save a meal for me.” He kissed her mother goodbye before escaping the room.

Mingyu strolled around the town. The cold wind of autumn swept over his body. He wore three layered clothes on, but he guessed that today’s weather was just unbearable. He greeted the old ladies in the bus stop, the newspaper guy with his orange bike, the black man whom he never know the name and his big husky dog, the kids that mocked him but still using his help; basically everyone that he knew. They greeted him back, though as he walked further they would start talking about his physical appearance. Yes, he was ugly. He looked scary, he admitted it. He was fully aware of his condition, but he couldn’t blame them.

Today he planned to visit the pet store; he always wanted a turtle. He picked the shyest one and paid it with the money that he took from his 8 months old piggy bank.

“Okay, turty, I shall name you Moon. Yes, Moon. Let’s go with me.” Mingyu smiled as he hugged the transparent box in his arms.

Time fled really fast without him knowing. The orange color of the dusk somehow made his body lighter. The traffic light just turned green and he realized that only a few people left in the side of the road as they walked passed him. He didn’t cross the road. He came there to watch the people. It was fascinating. There was some kind of weird feeling that filled his heart as he watched them go home. He could actually imagined those men and women arrived at their home, being welcomed by their family as they prepare themselves for dinner.

Dinner, he probably would miss that one today. He faintly wished his mother to remember to save him one.

“Are you that crooked man?” A voice of a girl greeted him. He lifted his head slightly to see someone about his armpit tall with long, natural fawn hair that matched her light brown eyes. She wore bright floral dress and grey-transparent thighs; there is no way you wouldn’t notice her in the crowd.

“Yes, I am.” Mingyu replied. “I am Wendy.” The girl offered her hand right hand that Mingyu quickly turned down. “Uh, that was embarassing,” she laughed awkwardly, “Sorry.”

“No,” Mingyu’s voice almost cracked, the cold hit him really strong, “no need to apologize.” The was he said ‘e’ in the word apologize is like the ‘e’ in the word intern, which Wendy suprisingly let it pass.

There was a long pause before Wendy opened again. “Where do you live?”

“A few blocks behind, why? What about you?”

“Oh, yeah,” she laughed, “I just want to know. I’m not from here, actually.”

The traffic light once again turned green. “I have to go,” Mingyu took some steps backward, “See you next time, Wendy.”

For a few seconds, she was hesitating, but she collected her courage and turned her back. “Hey- wait!” Wendy called him, but he was already gone.

***

The street lights illuminate his path. He could see the tiny plants run along the cracks, making it looked alive. Mingyu couldn’t see his house yet, but he knew he was on the right track.

“Hey!”

Mingyu got shocked. It was Wendy who were calling him. She was sitting on the paving in the side of the road. “Oh hi……you,”

“Yeah me again. So, are you going home now, crooks? Where have you gone? I’ve been looking for you, though.”

“Why aren’t you, going home too?” Mingyu replied, ignoring the rest of her questions.

She didn’t answer, but instead, she got up. She cleaned her skirt and walked toward him. “You are weird.”

“Yes, I really am.” Mingyu replied it straight away, but he didn’t seem to be hurt.

“No! Not in that term,” she squinted her face, feeling sorry. “I mean, you are weird that you didn’t show that you are curious of me –of my motive or whatever.”

“I’ve been used to it. There is no need.” He smiled faintly.

“Oh, okay.” Wendy swayed her hands awkwardly, “Well, uh, so…why are you coming home late?”

“Because I wanted to. I enjoy any kind of landscape, activities.”

“Oh, okay…let’s talk as we walk, can we?”

So they walked, side by side. Wendy was actually a lot shorter than him; it seemed that was her wedges that supported her before, but now she had taken them off that replace them with flat shoes.

“How old is it?” she pointed at the turtle. “I just bought them today. His name is Moon.”

“Do you know that fried turtle tasted really good?”

“What? Why would anyone eat turtle?” Mingyu frowned.

“No, I was joking,” she pushed his arms lightly, “Don’t hate me.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Yeah.” She suddenly stopped and raised her head to the sky. There were no stars above, but she kept staring at it.

Mingyu noticed her, but he couldn’t do the same thing. “Is it pretty?” he asked her.

“Mmhm,” she murmured.

Mingyu didn’t say anything after that. He just smiled and continued walking, leaving her behind.

Wendy suddenly started to sing.

“There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stiles,

He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.”

Mingyu stopped.

“The song sounded really good and happy. But, have you ever think about it? They may live together, but was he ever happy?”

Mingyu let out a small breath. “It defines him, what can he do?”

“He was,” Wendy ignored his question. “Why would he bought a cat, and later, he got a mouse too.” Wendy caressed her palms, waiting for his response.

“How do you know that?” Mingyu asked her. He didn’t turn his back. He didn’t want to face her.

“When you decided to commit suicide, it doesn’t make the pain gone; you just passed it to someone else. And based on that, I don’t think he want the cat and the mouse to feel his pain.”

Enough, Mingyu said to himself.

“But he never said that he was in pain.”

“Because he was crooked. What else?” Wendy raised an eyebrow, trying to be calm.

Mingyu turned his head. He observed her from the bottom to the top. “He is crooked?” he asked.

The street lights above him started to flick. The wind whistling, a car just took a turn under the broken traffic light a few meters from them.

“What do you want from me, huh?”

Wendy stood still, didn’t seem to be shocked, but shoulder were shaking in fear. A fear that he couldn’t see.

“You know what? You are the crooked one.” Mingyu’s voice raised in anger. “If you mean by crooked is someone who always lie, then it’s you that lied to me. Go away.”

“No, Mingyu, wait!”

“No, don’t follow me, Miss Wendy or whatever your name is. You are so pretty, too bad that your heart isn’t.”

He was mad, clearly mad. Mingyu decided to walk faster just in case that woman followed him. He had to tell his mother about this.

***

“This is madness, mother.”

“Son, what happened?” said her mother after she embraced him. She had cried, but Mingyu didn’t notice it.

“A grown woman chasing after me.”

His mother only watched him. She watched him with such a endearly look on her eyes. Her eyes went misty, but she wiped it out in a second. Mingyu didn’t see that.

“…so I told her to go away and here I am.”

“Yes, my dear son. You shouldn’t do that to a stranger.”

“I know, I know. But she is weird. I don’t want to go out tomorrow.”

“Okay, darling. I wish you always did.” She whispered.

***

In another place, the place where Mingyu left her, Wendy broke down in tears. She watched Mingyu’s back going further and further and then gone. She failed this time. She failed.

***

The traffic light turned green.

He saw a woman in the opposite of the road. She wore a bright floral dress with grey-transparent thigh. He knew that the woman was looking at him, but he couldn’t figure who is she.

He decided not to think about it. He checked his turtle pet in the transparent box that he just bought it today, and suddenly remembered that he hadn’t give it a name yet.

“Hello turty. I shall name you Moon.”