The Hyundai was parked in Yunho’s driveway. “Here we are” he said setting the car in park. He took the key out the ignition then looked over at Jongin. He peered through the window at the same two bedroom house, “you live here?” He looked back at Yunho. “Yes, I live here with my nephew” he answered. “We should probably hurry inside before someone sees us.” Yunho took off his seat belt and exited the car, he rushed around the passenger side and opened the door for Jongin. They then walked quickly to the front door and inside the house. Yunho slipped off his work boots, Jongin copied and followed him into the living area. As he walked down the small hall he looked around in awe, both mesmerized and memorizing the details from the color of the walls to the design of the ceiling lights.
     “You'll probably want to wash up, correct?”
     “Do you mean a bath?”
     “Or a shower, yes” Yunho laughed.
     “Yes,” he nodded.
     “I'll get you a towel and clean clothes.”

     Once alone in the living room, Jongin remained standing in the center of the room. The living was made up in earthy tones, the walls painted in coffee and the furniture, beige. The colors are unfamiliar for the boy because everything at home was white, from the floor to the ceiling. On the fireplace were picture frames lined up neatly on display. He went to examine them while he waited. One of the pictures displayed a group of seven dressed in formal clothing all smiling happily at the camera. He spotted Yunho with his arms around the small older woman in the center of the group, next to him was a boy barely smiling, he looked no older than a year younger than Jongin. Next to that picture was another of the boy in school uniform. He didn’t smile. “He doesn’t smile much anymore” he heard the man say behind him. Jongin turned around, he stood in the entrance holding the towel and clothing he left to get. He walked towards him, handing him the things then looked at the picture. “My nephew, Kyungsoo” he picked up the school picture. “So young and already he’s tasted how unfair life can be.” Jongin held onto the clothing close to his chest curious as to what was this boys story.
     “What has made him not smile anymore?” he thought aloud.
     “My sister, you see,” he turned to face the boy, “she was only sixteen when she gave birth to him. Too young to raise herself and too young to raise a child.”
     “And his father?”
     “His father was no good, he wasn’t prepared to take care of anyone. He only cared about himself.”
     “So, she gave him away?”
     “My mother raised him while his mother finished high school then college. Eventually, she realized she loved enjoying herself more than being a mother and gave umma the option of putting him into the system or keeping him as her own.”
     “System?”
     “Foster Care. It’s where children who lose their parents or parents who no longer want their children go. My mother kept him, raised him as her own. The strange part about it is that his mother barely was in his life at the age we begin to have memories and yet he remembers her and that she abandoned him.”
     “No parent should abandon their child,” Jongin said.
     “I’m assuming that doesn’t happen where you come from.”
     "Not often."
     "That's something both our home planet's share" Yunho smiled.
     How can one bring another into a world and leave them?
     “How did he come to live with you?”
     “Oh, I'm a police officer and got transferred here at this station. Kyungsoo wanted to live with me. Of course, umma wasn’t pleased to hear that,” he laughed rubbing the back of his neck. “But, back home he stood in his room all the time and never made any friends. She figured it was some sort of progress that he wanted to move in with me. He was always closer to me than anyone else. I’m not really sure why, I’m pretty strange if you ask me. The good thing is since we’ve moved here, he has made friends and he plays on his school's soccer team, that’s progress right?” Yunho stared at Kyungsoo’s picture for a moment, not talking. Jongin did the same, but this time he felt sympathy for the boy. Back at home, if any of the adults were to commit such a sin like abandoning their child they would be considered as “corrupted” and sentenced by the elders. “I’ll show you to the bathroom now.”

The bathroom…

…the bathrooms on Earth are a bit different from the ones in Jongin’s home. The showers weren’t motion sensored and there was no tropical scenery for you to enjoy. While showering Jongin stared at the boring tile wall. When he finished, he dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants and a red short sleeve shirt that read Coca-cola written in white cursive ink and thick white socks. He wiped the fogged mirror clean and stared at himself. His hair lay wet and lifeless on his forehead, he looked different in these clothing, almost alien-like. What would my parents say seeing him look this sloppy? He used his fingers like a comb and combed his hair neatly. “Much better” he said to himself. But the Jongin in the mirror stared sadly back at him. In the back of his mind, Kyungsoo’s story had embedded itself into his thoughts, into his memory.
     Has that happened to me?
     Did they abandon me?
     KNOCK KNOCK.
     “Is everything okay in there Jongin?” Yunho asked behind the door.
     Where are you?
     “Yes, I’m fine” he answered.
     Why did you leave me?
     “I have your bed set up.”
     Come back for me.
     Jongin looked away from the mirror and opened the door. Yunho stepped away from it. As if the human sensed his mood he asked, “are you okay? You seem sad?” Jongin replied with, “where will I be sleeping?” Yunho stared at him for a bit longer then said, “this way” and walked down the hallway to the end of the hall. There was a brown door made from oak they stopped in front of. Yunho put his hand on the knob and said, “you’ll be sleeping in Kyungsoo’s room.”