Mi Sun

I awoke with the sound of my ringtone. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, I thought I was dreaming. But as the ringtone played for the fifth time, I got up and checked the time, with sleepy eyes.

12:43pm

"Omo! Omo!" I said finally fully awake. "Bri! Wake up!" he didnt move or make a sound. I have forgotten how a heavy sleeper he is. I grabbed my clothes that I wore yesterday from the drawer and rushed into Brians bathroom. I took of the clothes he lent me and got dressed as fast as I could. My mother will call any minute again. I had to tell her where I was. She was going to flip when I tell her that I slept over a boy's house, even though Brian was gay, she didn't care.

I met Brian when my mom switched me from schools. We became friends when he made fun of our history teacher, we kept on giggling causing us to get detention. We both didn't care because we became the best of friends. I didn't find out that he was gay, mind you, we went shopping for our homecoming clothes and that is when I knew he was gay. No other guy can name the designers name and complement me with which dress color goes well with my skin tone. He really doesn't act like he is gay, I mean he is extremely good looking and girls bow to him whenever they see him coming. But my mom doesn't believe me when I told her that Brian was gay. She did tell me that he was biual which I just stared at her with a annoyed face.

"Can't nobody hold us down . . ." My ringtone played once again. I put my shirt on right away and rushed out of the bathroom to answer my phone.

"Yah, I am on my way, Oma!" I had to pull my phone away from my ear. She was yelling her off. I swear this lady was going to be the death of me . . . I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Oma, Ne . . . Ne . . .mwuh? Aniy--Ne" I kept on saying. There was no point in lying to my mother. She knew were I was. I learned to agree with whatever my mother says to me when it was neccessary.. No point in arguing anymore, i guess. When I finished talking with my mom, a sleepy Brian stared at me.

"Are you leaving?" I nodded. "Mk" He yawned and went back to sleep. I put my shoes on and was about to head out the door when Brian spoke again.

"I know you were not born here, Mi Sun, I remember those home videos you showed me. Watch them again or check your birth certificate, your fathers name is bound to be there." With that I left his house and got inside my mothers car. The car ride was silent, too silent. I was ready for my mom to say something or scowl me, but she just focused on driving. It was making me nervous. Once we reached our apartment my mom told me to get out and head on up to our home. She was heading to her afternoon job which meant I had to the whole house to myself. I watched her speed off and I ran inside.

****

I went into my mothers room and started going through her stuff. After half an hour of looking, I found nothing. I sat on her bed and thought about what Brian told me. I thought about the home videos . . .  I remember my vacation with my mom in South Korea. I also remembered this lady, she held me and spoke to me in Korean. I wasn't sure if there was a man there, I had to watch that video again. I got up and made my way to our video cassette. I was looking for a specific one but I couldnt find it anywhere.

"Where is it?" I siad to myself. I got up from the floor and went back to my mothers room. I stood in her room, looking around making sure where she could possibly hide this video tape. I remember when I showed Brian the tape, my mom flipped and took the cassette away from us and hid it, but where did she hide it. There was only one place I didn't check and that was her closet, but she put a lock on it which I have no clue why. The lightbuld on top of my head went on . . . she hid anything from me in her closet, duh, those christmas presents. I remembered an odd key on my mothers key chain, there was no way for me to open the closet without that key unless...

"Brian, I need help opening a door!" I exclaimed.

"Uh, I have no idea why you asking me, girl. I aint no bugular." he said, "But Ill help you find a way"

Fifteens mintues later Brian and I were at my moms closet door, trying to open it.

"Sun, can we stop for a bit. I am starving!"

"I need to know what she has in there. You were the one who told me to find out where I was actually born."

"But I am hungry!" he whined. I just gave him a look and calmed down. "Ugh, fine, lets try this." He asked my to get a screw driver. Once placed in his hand, he started taking apart the door knob. It took him about a couple of minutes, once off, the closet door opened. I let out a loud squeal.

"Omo, Bri-Bri!" I throw my arms around him and hugged him. Once I settled down, we rammaged my mothers closet. Aside from her clothes, she basically had nothing in here only a lot of shoe boxes which is odd because she doesnt own much of them unless. . .

"Here, you check this shoe box and I'll check this one." Through of third box, we found nothing.

"Seriously Mi Sun, if I don't get food in about ten seconds, I am going to start eating these boxes."

"Aish, go eat something then, I will keep on looking." Night had already fallen, I was growing tired and irritated. I needed to find these things. All the way in the corner sat a large black box. I had no clue how I missed this box. Pushing aside the other boxes, I dove in to grab that box. I gasped when I opened it.

"BRIAN!" I yelled. He came rushing in with a bowl of cereal. I showed him the box and smiled.

The box was filled with so many papers, old, faded papers. One by one, Brian and I read each letter. We knew they were love letters but there was no signature of the person who wrote them. Plus, Brian couldn't read in korean.

"Gang Mi Sun," he said. He always used my full name when he knew something important. I looked at him.

"Seems like these letters are from the same person. Look at the writing, they look the same." I looked down and nodded. "I think these letters are from your father to your mother." he said. Could it possibly be. I mean, I read every single letter out loud to him and if he made that realization by just listening to me read them . . . i just stared at him go through the box. My head was hurting, I looked at my cell phone for the time.

10:32pm. Mom wasn't due until midnight, which means we still had time, but I was extremely tired.

"Sun, look" Brian held in his hand a medium size paper. He handed it to me. The paper had my name and address and height and all that that a birth certificate has, what really caught my breath was the name above my mothers.

Gang Hyun Ki

"Bri-Brian, this is my ---"

"Your fathers name." I nodded. "Look it says I was born in Seoul, South Korea." I looked at him and nodded.

"Seems to be right." He said. "You think that video we saw wasn't a vacation?"

"You think my mom lied to me about that?" He nodded. I didn't know what to even believe, that that tape was actaully a time where my father, mother, and I lived there? And that lady that was next to us, holding me, who was she?

I put everything back in the box, except my birth certificate and two of those letters. Once everything was back to the way it was, I went to my room, took out my suit case from under the bed and started packing.

"Um, Mi Sun. . ."

"What?" I said a bit angry.

"What are you doing?" I ignored him and opened up my laptop.

"Here, look for a flight to South Korea, here is my credit card. Make sure it leaves soon." I said.

"I hate to burst your moment right now but, how are you going to even survive there?" he said.

"HELLO, Brian. I have money saved up."

Ah-huh, let me guess, five hundred dollars?" Uh-oh, I know that look.

"Look Brian, I have more money than that, now if you are not going to help me, I rather you leave. I have to find my father!"

"I get that, but what about your mother?" I stopped packing and looked at him.

"I'll leave a note for her"

"Mi Sun, do you think its a good idea?"

"Brian, I need answers, I need to do this for me and my mother mostly me. My mom could understand or not, but I cant just wait until morning. I need to find him."

I grabbed my big purse and put my other things in it. Brian sighed and started to book my ticket plus a hotel.  Once he was done, he put my laptop inside my travel bag. I got my I.D. and my passport. He gave me a piece of paper and a pen. I knew what he wanted me to do. I smiled at him and started to write my mother a letter.

"Oma, please forgive me for what I have done. I know I will pay for this when I come back, but I need to do this. Please do not stop me. I need to find him. I need to know why he left us! I will be back soon.  --Mi Sun

I looked at Brian and hugged him. He sighed and drove me to the airport.

Brian and I said our goodbyes. He told me to text him once I landed. He kissed me goodbye on the cheek and made his way home. It was 11:53pm, my flight was due in thirty minutes. I was anxious and tired. I hope I was doing the right thing.