{March 12th, Toronto, Canada}
{jeudi, le 12 mars, Toronto, Canada}


School was always a nightmare.
Now, even though it was March, the wind was freezing enough to make my supposedly chubby cheeks feel and look like they'd been grated with sandpaper. The school building wasn't much warmer either.

Not to mention several bad things always happened. Today I spilled a bottle of paint in art, received a C+ on a math test, was late to science and got detention, and took several balls to the face in gym. My classmates noticed the havoc which was befalling me, and didn't hesitate to make it worse. And I knew it was going to stick, and never go away. My very existence would be wrong, day after miserable day until my heart finally gave up from weariness and ceased it's beating.


I got home from school and shut the door behind me and the bitter cold. Good thing Father was out. I didn't feel like getting beaten senseless.

I now hated him. He didn't give two traffic cones about me, except when he was drunk, which was usually every few nights. It started when I was seven, the day after Mother was gone for good.


All the life in his eyes was gone, which quickly swelled up with tears that dripped off his nose. He was away for a long time after I walked home from school, and I had to make do for dinner with only a peanut-butter sandwich. When I was about to go to bed, he came home stinking like those empty bottles and cans in the streets. His eyes were glazed and unfocused, his voice was half-incoherent, and he kept tripping on nothing...


I didn't want to remember any more. The most I could bear to re-conjure was a vague image of blinding pain, tears, roaring curses, and dripping blood.


The haziness in my head was still there after I stumbled upstairs to my room, dropped my bag at the entrance and lay down on the bed on my back. I didn't move until I heard a ringing coming from the electronic device on my desk.

I grabbed the iPhone and glanced at the caller ID.
It read: ZHOU MI.

Wait, what? Could it really be him...? I thought. This would be the first good thing that happened in... two weeks, maybe? I pressed the answer button, making an effort to cheer up. "Hello?" I said slowly.

A very familiar, lilting voice replied in accented English. "Hello, Mochi." Mochi was the nickname he gave me a long time ago.

"Mimi? Is it really you?" I yelled into the phone.

I somehow sensed a smile appear on his face at my outburst and childish nickname. "Ow, ow, ow! My ears hurt now, but yeah, it is me. I haven't talked to you in ages. Hang on, I want to switch Mandarin."

"Oh, sure. Sorry about that." I said in Mandarin. "But why are you calling, by the way?"

"No reason. Just wanted to see how you're doing. So, have you graduated from high school yet? School in Canada is different from here, please excuse my stupidity."

"Not yet, but spring break is next Monday. I should tell you, Mimi- I managed to get a scholarship for a good school because I am too poor to pay, but that means I have to go and live in South Korea should I accept... where in Korea did you move to? Can I live with you, if you're close enough to the college? It's in the middle of Seoul, but I am not sure where exactly."

"..."

"Mimi?"

"...Um, Mochi?"

"Yes?"

"I told you several times last year that I was in Seoul for studies... were you not listening again?"

"..."

"Anyway, there is an empty bed in my room. You were talking about... which place?"

I rummaged around for the papers which should have been on my garbage-dump-reminiscent desk, throwing a box of tissues, my iPod earbuds, several pens, and my research paper across my room in the process.
The desk was empty. Crap! I sighed and checked in the binders which lay everywhere, eventually finding it sandwiched in between some notes.

"Sorry about that, Mimi." I apologized, having taken several minutes.

"You're still as messy as you were before, aren't you?"

"Yes. Anyway, it's called the Neul Paran School."

"Pssht, that's the one I go to. That's only ten minutes away. I'll ask Leeteuk to let you stay."

That meant that I could go to South Korea without the big worries which had been plaguing me and shadowing my mood. Today equals: best day of my life. "Thank you so much, Mimi! Oh, but who's Leeteuk?"

"Leeteuk is the oldest of the guys on my floor. There are thirteen of them, not including me. They are all very crazy. I am not exaggerating. In fact, right now I think Leeteuk and Ryeowook are trying to play a prank on Yesung..."

"It's OK, I'm fine with craziness. Actually, why don't I talk to your friend Leeteuk n-"

Suddenly the noise level on his side grew noticeably louder. I heard a faint strangled cry, followed by protests in Korean. "What the-?! Wookie, I'll tear your head off!" However, the voice was easily buried underneath feminine-sounding giggles and the weirdest, most high-pitched laugh I had ever heard.

Eventually the laughs quieted down a little and I heard the strange-sounding laugh become an ordinary deep male voice, albeit with a perpetual undercurrent of the strange laughter.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Zhou Mi-ah, who're you talking to?" the voice asked cheerfully in Korean.

"Um, it's my friend. He's from Canada."

"Ah, cool."

"He is coming to study in Korea as a foreign exchange student at our school soon. Leeteuk, can he stay on our floor? He has nowhere to live..."

The voice said something which I didn't understand before switching back to simple enough Korean. "Let me talk to him," I heard a few scuffling sounds on the other side of the line, then the voice said, "Hello?"

"Uh...hi," I struggled to form proper Korean sentences from my classes in school as I told him my name. "I am starting school in October as an exchange student at Neul Paran."

"Wait, that's really your name?" All the laughter in the voice disappeared instantly, replaced by shock and something else I couldn't recognize.

"Yes."I was confused. "Is something wrong?" There was a long pause.

"N-no, everything is fine. You're Chinese? Hope your Korean is good enough."

"It'll be okay."

"Wait, what are you studying?"

"Oh, um, I am studying music. I'm a violinist."

"You play violin?" Another long pause, before the voice said, "Zhou Mi trusts you. Says you're his childhood friend. In that case, I think I'll trust you too. When are you coming, then?"

And for my lone subscriber emodedfish, here's your chapter! :D Thank you for subscribing to Destiny by the way xD