The sun rose on a typical Sunday. There was only one church across the street of the apartment complex to go to, and according to the Lus, almost everybody in the neighborhood gathered there for weekly sermons. So, excited by the prospect of making new friends, Sarang changed into her best dress and walked out of the apartment hand in hand with her mother, waiting for the elevator to arrive on their floor.

That was when Luhan and his parents also exited their apartment and headed towards their new neighbors. Once Luhan’s eyes met Sarang’s, his face lit up with a beam, and Sarang could swear that the whole hallway seemed just a bit brighter.

“You going too?” he asked excitedly, to which she mutely nodded. “Same! I can sit with someone I like now!” Sarang’s heart soared and felt jumpier than ever about going to church.

Then a thought occurred to Sarang.

“Luhan oppa,” she whispered on the elevator, tugging on his sleeve gently to get his attention, “you said…everyone in the neighborhood comes to this church. Right?”

“Right.”

“Does…that mean Lee Miyoung…?” She trailed off, feeling her stomach begin their anxious acrobatics and nearly flipping her insides out.

“Hmm? Oh, Miyoung? No, she doesn’t live around here.”

Sarang heaved a quiet sigh of relief and felt the excited but nervous butterflies replace the stomach gymnastics. If Miyoung isn’t there, how bad can it be?

The two families arrived, and upon seeing Luhan, the women handing out the program sheets in the entrance hall smiled. “Good morning, Luhan! How was your week?”

“Great, thanks!” he replied with gusto and placed his hand on Sarang’s shoulder. “This is my friend, Jung Sarang! She’s new here!”

Sarang flushed red at the sudden spotlight she was into, but the women gave her kind smiles. “Hello, Sarang. Are you the same age as Luhan?”

She found her tongue and throat dry, preventing her from speaking, so Luhan took over. “She’s a year under me. And she’s also quite shy.”

The woman to Sarang’s right chuckled. “That’s all right, dear. The children go upstairs to the Youth Group center for learning. Pastor Hong will be up there. Luhan will show you the way.”

“Thanks! Bye!” Luhan waved, guiding Sarang over to the stairs behind the women. He turned back to Sarang with an excited smile. “You’ll love everybody here! The Youth Group is for middle and high school kids of the members of the church. We listen to Pastor Hong’s sermons, not Pastor Go’s.” Sarang nodded in understanding and wordlessly followed. The sound of loud laughter from behind one of the doors made her feel nervous again.

“Don’t worry, everyone here’s nice,” Luhan reassured her before pushing the door open. He was immediately greeted warmly by too many voices to discern from one another.

“Hey, Luhan!”

“How was your game this past week? Did you score anything?”

“How’s eighth grade treating you so far?”

“Good, good,” Luhan laughed before reaching behind him to grab Sarang’s arm and whirl her out from his shoulder. “Guys, this is my friend Jung Sarang. She’s new to the neighborhood and a year younger than me. We go to the same school.”

Sarang watched as about thirty interested set of eyes turned to her and flushed in embarrassment. “H-hi.”

“She’s pretty quiet, but she’s really nice,” Luhan beamed proudly. “This is Sarang, my school friend. She just recently moved into my building.”

Sarang quickly met several other people, and although they were all quite friendly, she didn’t find anyone with whom she clicked. So she went searching for Luhan, but it appeared he’d already seated himself at a small table with a group of people more his age and in the early high school years, laughing over something on his friend’s screen. Sarang felt her heart fall in slight disappointment and looked around for a table to sit at. She decided to place herself with a group of girls who were playing on their phones when she joined. One of them looked up at her curiously.

“Hey, you’re the new girl, huh?” she asked, and when Sarang nodded nervously, she smiled and stuck out her hand. “I’m Jiyeon. What grade are you in?”

“Seventh,” Sarang said, but it came out a little hoarse from her unused vocal cords.

“Cool. And you go to Anyang with Luhan?”

Nod.

“I’m in eighth at Daesan. Anyang’s a lot closer to here, isn’t it?” Sarang didn’t answer, but she clucked her tongue. “I’ve wanted to transfer to Anyang, but I couldn’t choice in.”

Sarang found that this Jiyeon girl liked talking quite a lot, and so did her friends: Dahae, Miseul, and Hyojin. But they were nice, and during service when they did confession circles, they always made sure to include her. Sarang was actually feeling quite optimistic that she’d found a group of friends—for possibly the first time ever—and was about to let herself feel truly happy about it.

But then while they were talking about their parents, Sarang accidentally let slip that hers were divorced. The girls’ expressions changed instantly.

“Your…parents divorced?” Dahae asked in what sounded almost like an accusatory whisper.

Sarang’s smile fell slowly. “Yes.” But it sounded more like a question, like she was asking, “what’s wrong with that?”

The four girls exchanged a look of what appeared to be mutual understanding and Jiyeon quickly excused herself—“I need to go look for my wallet”—and left the table as soon as service ended without another glance at Sarang. The other three girls did the same thing, although Sarang had noticed that their belongings that had spontaneously gone missing had been poking out of their bags. Once again, her heart sank as the all-too-familiar sense of disappointment saturated her insides.

What’s wrong with having divorced parents? Sarang wondered miserably. Just because my mom and dad don’t live with each other anymore doesn’t mean I’m weird…does it? A sudden bout of fear seized her chest. Does that make me weird?

She noticed several other people in the Youth Group—the ones who Jiyeon was close to—were sneaking glances her way. And all a