I managed to catch the last bus that was about to leave from the closest bus stop to my school. The bus driver seemed a bit annoyed by my sudden intrusion with my bag hanging off of one arm but I didn’t care. I took a seat near the back and pulled out my earphones.

The texts from my friends finally ceased but I had long turned off my phone. My Mother called me and asked me where I was. I told her I had already arrived at the hospital and she seemed fine with that.

“Hello,” I heard someone say. The voice belonged to a child who seemed to be younger than Sun Hi. He pulled on my jacket and pointed to the bottom of the seat in front of me. I raised my eyebrows before looking away.

He pulled on my jacket again. I sighed before looking down at him and asking him what he needed.

“My bouncy ball,” He pointed to the seat again.

“It’s under there?” I asked.

He nodded his head and pulled me down a bit. I assumed he wanted me to get the ball for him. I crouched down and looked under the seat to see the shiny blue ball in a small corner.

“What are you doing?!” A woman shrieked before hitting me on the head.

“Ow!” I yelled while holding my head. “What was that for!?”

She hit me again earning the same reaction as last time, “You were looking under my skirt.”

I scoffed, “Listen, lady, I was just trying to get this kid’s ball. It’s under your seat.”

By this time all the passengers in the bus were looking at us.

"I’m not inhumane enough to look under someone's skirt. Now may I get this boy's ball?"

The lady turned red and cleared before nodding. Once again, I bent down and stuck my hand under the seat. After moving my arm to the right and left for a bit, I felt the rubber and grabbed it. I stood up and dusted the dirt off my pants.

"Thank you!" The little boy exclaimed while hugging my legs as tightly as possible.

I patted his head and stretched my arm out to give the ball to him. He beamed up at me before opening his palms for his prized possession. I was about to give it to him but the bus stopped at that moment and people began walking off. Someone managed to bump into me causing the ball to fall out of my hands. I watched it bounce out of the bus while I scrambled to catch it. It bounced onto the grass where it finally halted. I sighed in relief and bent down to pick up the ball.

That was when I heard the doors close and the wheels start up again. I turned around the bus was moving without me in it.

"No!" I yelled as I tried to catch up to it but it was no good. "My bag!"

I let out a scream of frustration as I squeezed the darn ball. I took out my phone from my pocket and checked the time. It was 4 o'clock which meant that the bus would reach the hospital in fifteen minutes. I could reach that stop in time to get my bag. There was a shortcut that I knew of so I ran through streets and a small forest.

I got to the bus stop a minute or so before it came and I took that chance to get my bag. But to my dismay, it wasn't there. Somebody didn't steal it, right? It's the stupid skirt lady, isn’t it!? I thought to myself.

"Excuse me, sir, but was there a bag left here? It's navy blue with a couple of school books in it," I said to the bus driver.

"Yea, there was."

I sighed in relief, "That's mine. Can I please have it back?"

"Yea, after you answer a couple of questions."

I thought back to the hospital, "I'm in a hurry. Let's play questionnaire next time. Can I just have my bag back?"

"No can do, Kid. Take a seat there and wait until we get to the bus station. You're going to have to answer questions there."

I groaned, "How long will I have to wait?"

"My shift ends at 5:30," The bus driver said before driving off again.

I ran a hand through my hair as I slumped into the seat. What exactly was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t make it on time to the hospital and I definitely couldn’t leave my bag. It had my journal in it and I didn’t want anybody to touch that.

I guess it would have been better to just go with my Mother.

○●○●○

I called the hospital and unluckily, Mrs. Lee picked up. She was not pleased with the fact that I wasn’t coming and was definitely not happy when she found out I had lost my bag. She even told me to be more responsible next time. Tch, I was always responsible. I was just trying to help a poor kid.

I called my Mother to let her know about my circumstances. She expressed her worry and told me to call her when I got my bag back. She added that she would bring me home.

After that statement, I regretted calling her.

I wasn’t ready to talk to her especially considering the fact that I heard my Father’s voice in the background. He was playing checkers with Sun Hi; that used to be my favourite board game.

I remember all three of us would sit around the checkers board. My Mother would cheer us on while my Father and I played. He taught me a lot and soon, I became a good player. He let me win sometimes but other times, he would play hard and I would lose.

But once I actually won by myself. We had just had pizza and were sitting around lazily. When the thought of playing checkers crossed my mind, I yelled it out and we all ended up on the floor in seconds with the checkerboard in the middle of u. We both had our competitive looks on and my Mother cheered for us.

I remember jumping over his last piece and I remember seeing the shocked look on his face. He usually feigned lose but this time, he didn’t expect it. I threw my hands in the air and hugged my Mom while yelling, “I won!”

I sighed as I looked out the window to bring myself out of my thought of the past. We were heading towards the bus station now with only the bus driver and I left in the vehicle.

“Hey, Kid. How did you lose your backpack anyway?” The bus driver suddenly asked.

I rolled my eyes at his sudden curiosity, “I was helping a kid.”

“With what?”

“With getting his darn bouncy ball which ended up bouncing outside. I went to grab it but the bus left by the time I got up.”

“Ah, well, I’m sure the head man will return it to you.”

“Mmhmm,” I said.

I took out the ball that was the cause of all my problems. I turned it around in my hand to examine it as I never got a good look at it before. It was blue with a slight shine to it. But what surprised me was that there were also words on it. In white writing, the ball said: It’s never too late.

I raised my eyebrows at the words, not agreeing completely. I believed that there were times when it was too late. Times when even if you tried real hard, things just wouldn’t get better. Tough times.

I shoved the ball back into my pocket and diverted my attention back to the window, waiting for the bus to finally stop.

○●○●○

“So you’re saying that this is your bag?” The man asked me.

I nodded my head, “I can tell you everything that’s in there if you really want.”

The man opened the bag and started rummaging through it like it was worthless. It irritated me the way he just handled it with lazy hands.

“Yea, do that.”

“Well, there’s an orange notebook. It has notebook written on it. There’s a calculator; black. There’s a math textbook and a navy blue binder that’s full of my school stuff. Want more?”

The man nodded his head as he continued to look through my bag as if there wasn’t something special in there.

The bus driver brought me into the bus station after parking his own bus. He took me into the head office and gave the man in there my bag. After asking me to sit down and making me wait fifteen minutes, he was finally ready to do this unnecessary questioning.

“Well, you’re right. That’s all in here. Here, kid,” He handed me my bag.

I leaned forward and grabbed it over the messy desk before bowing slightly.

“Hey, Kid!” The bus driver called out. “You need a ride home?”

“No, thank you,” I bowed again before walking out of the office.

○●○●○

My Mother came quite quickly and it surprised me that she knew where the bus station was. I got into the front seat and just gave a small hello. After putting on my seatbelt, I turned my head to the window and didn’t say a single word.

“Must’ve been horrible, right?” She asked randomly.

I nodded my head, assuming she was talking about the bus ride—which was horrible. It was awkward and painfully long.

She giggled all of a sudden which caused me to look at her subconsciously. I cursed at myself for turning to her and focused my attention back to the front.

“You know, when I was in high school, I lost something on a bus as well,” She began. “Just like you, I had to go to the bus station to get it back. It’s a stupid rule, right? Quite inconvenient.”

I was slightly surprised at the fact that we both went through this but hid all emotions. I didn’t want to give into my Mother’s kind ways.

“Sehun, why aren’t you saying anything?” She asked me.

“I never talk much.”

“You do talk, honey. It’s just today you’re acting differently,” She pointed out.

I bit my lip, not pleased that she noticed that. I didn’t say anything though and just waited for us to get home. Lucky for me, we had arrived in our neighbourhood. And before I knew it, we came into our driveway.

I took off my seatbelt and was about to get off when my Mother spoke, “I know you purposely didn’t come with me today after school, Sehun.”