The first thing Minseok recalled next morning was his newborn sister’s face. He had to admit that she was cute when he had seen her yesterday in the hospital, but he still hated her. It was entirely her fault that he had to spend his days away from home.

His mother had explained to him that he would have to live another month or two at Uncle’s because “Mommy and Daddy don’t want your sister’s wails to disturb your sleep at night. Besides, you get to play with Joonmyeon!”

If only they knew how his aunt and Joonmyeon really were.

He politely declined Hyoyeon’s help to do up his shoelaces: He did not want to be a burden to anyone anymore. Instead of knotting the laces, he simply tucked them into his shoes. It was a bit uncomfortable, but, oh well.

He kept his mouth shut all morning until he and Joonmyeon reached their classroom, where they had to greet their teacher. He did not say anything even when Joonmyeon harassed him by calling him several offensive insect names.

He failed at making friends at school. They seemed to be keeping their distance from him for the reason that he appeared to be dumb, for he spoke very rarely. And if he uttered words, they reckoned he was dense; this particular assumption transpired from the moment he had answered their teacher’s question (“if three twinkle, twinkle stars meet other three stars, how many stars would there be altogether”) with “gwiyomi (cute)” as he could not formulate the correct answer.

Upon sauntering into the playground during their short break, Minseok tripped on something and fell facedown on the ground.

“Kissing the earth, stupid?” One of his classmates shouted with glee and many others laughed. Minseok suspected that Joonmyeon was one of the laughing ones.