My mother came home from her visit to my grandmother. She came back looking tired and weary, yet she seemed very happy. It was probably because she didn’t have to scream her lungs out at anyone. We sat down to dinner without any arguments, eating fried chicken my father picked up when he came home from work. We were halfway done when Sungjong had to make an announcement. He’s leaving again. He’s leaving me again. And this time, I don’t know when he’ll be back.

I trudged to school today. It was sunny and breezy out, but what I was feeling was the opposite of that. Sungjong was leaving again. That was all I could think about. I stopped in front of Jinah’s house so that we could walk together to school.  She wasn’t there. She had already left for school. I continued my walk to the campus. When I reached the gates, I saw Taeyeon come out of her car. She waved at me and waited for me to come to her. We walked to class together.

First and second period passed by like a breeze. Even though I had taken 5 pages worth of notes, nothing sunk in. I had learned nothing about quadratic functions or chemical compounds. When break came along, I tapped Taeyeon, who was talking to her partner, on the shoulder and pointed my head towards the door. She nodded in understanding and I left the classroom, thumbs under the straps of my heavy backpack. I climbed up flights of stairs to the rooftop and pushed the metal doors open. The cool breeze blew my hair and I closed t