Daehwi didn't understand it. He didn't understand his mom's teary eyes or his little sisters whining as they pulled up to their new house.

"Daehwi," His mom turns around to face her son in the backseat, "The doctor said fresh air like this will help you get better soon. Then, we can move back to Seoul but I just need you to coopera-"

Daehwi scoffs, "I don't know why you care so much, I will be dead in 5 years anyway."  He opens the door of the car, stepping out onto the gravel driveway. He looks up at their new house, not really excited. He was neutral about the whole thing.

It was large and brown. It easily had 3 stories and a cute brown shed/kennel off to the side where you could keep gardening tools and/or dogs.

He liked that.

"Lee Daehwi!" He hears his mom stumbling out of the car, "Why are you so negative about this?" He turns around looking at her with amused eyes.

"Mom, it is 1956 and if you haven't figured it out, medicine isn't the most advanced right now. They don't even know the name of my condition yet! Do I have a reason to be positive?" Daehwi shrugs nonchalantly, "Besides, they already said I won't live past the age of 23 so why should I care?"

His mom appears in front of his eyes, tears streaming down her face dramatically, "Do you not care? Care about me or your little sister?" She grabs Daehwi's frail and skinny arms while looking at him with remorse.

Daehwi gives her a smile worth a million bucks, "I don't care about anything or anyone, mom," The smile drops off of his face and turns into a scowl, "Let me go." He shakes off her grasp, leaving her in the middle of the yard with tears streaming down her face and a heavy heart.

---

"Daehwi! Dahyun! Time for dinner!" He hears his mother yell from downstairs. He closes his eyes while taking off his glasses and setting them down on the desk in front of him.

He decides to actually go eat dinner for once but as soon as he reaches the downstairs area, he regrets it fully.

The table was full of next door neighbors, all dressed in farmer outfits. His gaze trails to the mess that they have already made, boots full of mud tracking everything inside the house.

He rolls his eyes before walking over there, already wanting to go back to his room and continue his studies.

"Who are you, fine young man?" One of the fat farmer's wife speaks out, a big smile on her face. It honestly creeped him out a bit.

"I'm Daehwi." He sighs, sitting down at the table. He reaches out to grab some seaweed soup but before he could, another farmer reaches out with a spoon covered in saliva and dips it in the soup.

Daehwi's eyes snap over to his mom who has the look of, "Don't worry sweetie, I will make this up to you."

He couldn't even eat in his own home now. 

"Daehwi, sweetheart, can you go get me more rice?" The farmer's wife speaks up once again. Daehwi cuts his eyes over to her, he was clearly not happy about it.

"Why can't you get up and get it yourself?" Daehwi's voice stops all of the conversation in the room and a thick silence hangs over the table.

"Daehwi!" His mom slaps his arm, clearly embarrassed by her son's words.

The farmer only gives a soft chuckle, "The boy is right. She can get up and get it herself, he hasn't even had time to stick one piece of kimchi in his mouth." The conversation resumes after the farmer laughs everything off but Daehwi still had a sour look on his face.

"I'm going outside for some fresh air." Daehwi's voice ceases the conversation once again as everybody was intimidated by the 17-year-olds harsh tone.

"Da-" Before his mom could even finish saying his name, the front door was slamming shut causing everyone in the room to jump in shock.

"This may sound a bit rude but," The farmer's wife starts up again, "What is wrong with your son? Why is he so aggravated all the time?"

 "My brother is dying!" Dahyun exclaims, a huge smile on her face. Their mom always said death was a good thing that should be cherished, so Dahyun was excited for that to happen to her cute older brother.

But the people in the room above the age of 12 had different thoughts about it. The silence in the room was suffocating Daehwi's mom as tears pricked her eyes.

"I'm....so...sorry..." The farmer trails off, suddenly feeling bad for his wife actions but Daehwi's mom waves it off.

"No, it's fine. I didn't want him to act like that but ever since he has been told about his rare condition, all the life has drained out of him." She dabs at her eyes with a spare napkin as she didn't want tears to fall in front of her guests.

The farmers look at each other, guilt spread on their face, "We hope he finds something good in this small town to look forward to every morning."

---

Daehwi takes in a deep breath of the cool, fresh air and stretches his limbs out.

He lets go of the breath and sees the fog of cool air that comes out, "Only 5 more years of this Daehwi, only 5 more years." He chants to himself, relief rushing through his body

Daehwi was ready for his short, sad life to be over. In all honesty, if he had enough courage to end it right now he would. But he decided he should just wait it out. Five years isn't that long if you look at it in the grand scheme of things.

He turns to go back inside but was interrupted by a slight growling sound. His head whips around, looking around the dark property for the source.

"Who's there?" Nothing answers but before he could step out into the yard to investigate, a loud crashing sound came from the kennel area.

Daehwi shrieks loudly, turning around and flying up the front porch stairs. He swings the door open and stumbles into the dining room. His lungs felt like they were on fire, thanks, the disease that they don't know the name of. The farming couple was gone, but he didn't know how they managed to sneak by him. He must have been really zoned out.

"Daehwi? Are you okay?" His mom stands up, worry written on her face as she walks over to her son.

Daehwi tries to even out his breath, "Y-yeah, something just spooked me a bit..." He trails off while a lump forms in his throat.

"Do you need me to get you anyth-"

"No! I....I just want to go to sleep." He tries to pry his mom off of his body but she just grips on tighter, needing to say something to him.

"Daehwi, look at me," His body is forcefully turned towards his mom, "Tomorrow you are meeting with Seongwoo to discuss marria-"

"No!" Daehwi stomps his foot and tries to pry his mom off of his body once again but she digs her nails into his skin, making him wince in pain.

"Daehwi!!" She screams which shocks Daehwi into staying still, "You will marry Seongwoo! He is rich and knows how to make you happy!"

Daehwi scoffs while rolling his eyes, "He killed dad! My father and your husband is dead because of him! And you want me to marry him?!" Daehwi screams back but before he could add on to his rant his mom slaps him harshly, snapping him back into reality.

"Seongwoo will be here tomorrow at 8:00 AM sharp. I want you to be ready and have a nice attitude, okay?! I'm tired of you acting like a to everybody Daehwi!"

"I'm dying!"

"Everyone is dying, you just have a death date stamped on you." His mom spits her words out like venom before she walks back to the kitchen, body shaking from the confrontation.

Ong Seongwoo was a prick, plain and simple. He acted like he was all high and mighty just because he had a couple million dollars to his name. Daehwi absolutely despised him with all of his heart.

Seongwoo didn't directly kill Daehwi's father but when the rumor going around that Seongwoo was dating Daehwi, Daehwi's father fell out from a heart attack. Everybody was shocked, including Seongwoo, as they didn't think he would die from the shock. 

Seongwoo felt so bad that he proposed to Daehwi. This meant that Daehwi would have almost unlimited money in his pocket and possibly a way to survive but he didn't want that. Daehwi wanted his father back. 

Before Daehwi could say no to the proposal, his own mother swooped in saying, "He would love to marry you!"

When the doctors said that Daehwi needed a house in a remote area so he could get fresh air, Seongwoo slapped 200,000 dollars in his mom's hands and told her to pick a nice, pretty house.

It disgusted Daehwi.

But hey, he was going to be dead in five years anyway.

---

His mom forced him up at the early time of 5:30 AM to help her with hanging the laundry. Daehwi groaned loudly, shoving the round glasses on his small face while dragging his body down the stairs and out of the house.

There was already 3 huge baskets full of clothes sitting on a brown, wooden bench situated below the clothing line.

"Hurry, Daehwi! We need to get these up and dry before Seongwoo gets here." She shoves a wicker basket into his skinny hands.

He sighs while walking down to the other end of the line, grabbing the damp clothes and hanging them on the line. 

Daehwi hated this.

He wanted to be in his warm bed.

He wanted to sleep away all of his sorrows and depression but no, he had to hang clothes on the line so when Seongwoo got here they would be dry.

Damn you, Seongwoo.

"Sweetie, I'm going to go get us some snacks. Continue hanging the clothes for me." Daehwi just hums in response, continuing his task quickly so he could just go back to sleep.

His plan of getting this over with was sabotaged only a couple of seconds after he thought of it.

A low, rumble comes from the kennel area again. Daehwi whips his head around as his heart beat starts to speed up.

"Who's there?" He calls out again, his dark hair blowing in the breeze, "You don't have to be scared. I won't hurt you."

"Daehwi? Who are you talking to?" His mom comes out with a platter of ham, cheese, crackers, and slices of potatoes. She sets it on the wooden bench and walks over to the mesmerized Daehwi.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing this," Daehwi whispers, hands shaking as he looks in the direction of a kennel.

His mom furrows her eyebrows, looking in the general direction of Daehwi's gaze. She gasps loudly, grabbing onto her son's skinny wrist.

A boy, no, dog? No, it was a boy, is crawling cautiously out of the kennel, face dirty and dark brown hair matted together.

It retreats when Daehwi steps closer to it, low growls coming out of its mouth.

"No," Daehwi coos, "Don't be scared... we won't hurt you..." Daehwi trails off before going back to the platter, grabbing a sliced potato, and returning to his original stance.

"Are you hungry?" Daehwi asks the boy which just nods his head wildly. His eyes shift back and forth from Daehwi's small frame to the small slice of potato in his hand.

Daehwi throws the potato slice at the boy who catches it mid-air and starts chomping down on it.

"Holy , this is amazing," His mom gapes at the boy before detaching herself from Daehwi's arm, "I'm canceling with Seongwoo, we need to figure who this is!"

Daehwi's usually neutral face breaks out into a huge smile, eyes beaming with happiness.

Thanks to this random, growling kid, Daehwi was spared of Seongwoo's cocky behavior.

He liked this weird kid already.