I put up my dishes from breakfast. I flop down on the couch and pick up the remote. Text alert!

        Me again! I will probably owe you many favors at this point. I'm going to ask another: can you point Hyukshin and I in the direction of a mall? We need new clothes [cute, embarrassed text emoticon]. I must find a way to repay you, Lee Chaerin.

        I smile. He's becoming a really cute guy. It isn't a problem! Don't worry about repaying me. I have a kind of lazy, comfortable way of dressing, but I love shopping! I'll take you guys to a couple of stores.

• • •

        Hyuksoo answers the door with a huge smile and a bow. "Please come in," he says.
I'm greeted by Hyukshin. His little arms wrap around my leg in a hug. "Noona!" he smiles brightly. I ruffle his fluffy hair.

        "Hello," I say happily. He dashes away from me and into one of the bedrooms with a mischievous little smirk.

        "Ok," I laugh. I throw my hair into a quick high ponytail with the holder around my wrist. Hyuksoo watches me for a bit then smiles pleasantly.

        "I don't have any more breakfast," he apologizes. "I'm sorry, Lee Chaerin."

        "Don't worry about it! I already ate." I pat my stomach. "I'm full."

        He laughs. This is the most I've seen him smile, and it's only been a few days.

        I check the time on my phone. "The mall doesn't open for a few hours. Do you want to kill some time?"

        "Sure! But how?"

        "I have some FPS games in my apartment."

        "Do you have that IRIS based one? I've been dying to play it, even though it's a few years old."

        "Oh, yeah."

        He wrings his hands in anticipation. "Can . . . Can I play with you?"

        "Of course!" I grin. Guys like gamer girls, right?

        The three of us migrate to my apartment. I toss Hyuksoo a controller and turn on the console. I sit on the floor in my usual position for first-person shooter games.

        He goes to pick his character, the cursor undecidedly settling over Vick.

        "I'm Vick!" I half-shout. "I'm always Vick. And he looks like one of my friends, so I like to that way."

        "Seunghyun? Ha! He really does look like Seunghyunnie hyung!" He grudgingly chooses Sa Woo.

        How does he know Seunghyun oppa?

        "He does," I chuckle nervously. "Do we know the same Seunghyun?" I go to the maps select menu.

        "Deep voice? Tallish?"

        "Kinda dumb? Ah, that was a little mean to him." He can't help but laugh at my description of my oppa.

        "I think so," he smirks. "That's pretty cool."

        "But don't you think it's odd? We have a mutual friend, but we didn't know each other until a few days ago. How long have you know him?"

        "Oh, about ten years," he says after a moment.

        "No way! Me too!"

        "Curiouser and curiouser . . . " He bites his lip. "How about the hotel map? I remember that scene pretty well."

        "I will show no mercy. I can't stand Sa Woo."

        "Me either, tell you the truth. I'll let you kill me."

        "Aw! That's no fun."

        "I guess not. Do you know Jiyong?"

        "Kwon?" I ask, taking out one of the enemy surveillance team members. 

        "I guess that answers that question! Where are you?"

        "If I tell you I'll have to kill you, Lee Hyuksoo."

        "You're gonna kill me anyway."

        "This is true. Just stay on your post."

        "Come find me."

        "I'm coming."

        "You are?"

        "I'm coming!"

        "I know. Just take me out."

        "Still coming."

        "Take me!"

        "I'm there!"

        "Just do it already!"

        "Ahhh!" I fire a shot, and he falls. "Game over!" I announce, hopping onto the couch to get in his face. "I've brought you to your knees."

        We start giggling like a couple of secondary school students.

        "What's so funny?" Hyukshin asks from behind the couch. I forgot he was here!

        "Your dad made a weird face," I say. Well, that was a half-truth.

        "Ah."

        I look behind me to see him sitting on the floor leaning against the back of the couch. I reach over the couch and his hair lightly.

        "Do you need something to do?" I ask quietly.

        "No, thank you," he says. "I'm tired, so I thought I would sleep for a bit."

        "On the floor?"

        "I like the floor."

        "All right, then. Don't hurt your back or neck."

        "Got it!" His little hand makes an ok sign and I pat his head again.

       "Cutie," I smile, turning back to the game. "Do you want to change characters?"

        "Sure," Hyuksoo laughs. "I borderline hate Jin Sa Woo."

        "Everyone should. He deserves all of that hate."

         "Does he really? Baek San used him as a pawn to kill Kim Hyun Joon and everything."

         "He wanted to kill Hyun Jun at point. He would ask to be included in missions to kill him. They were blood brothers, for crying out loud! And he kept trying to split up Hyun Jun and Seunghee because he couldn't stand that she didn't choose him."

        "When you put it that way . . . "

        "Exactly." I fire at a guard, miss, fire again, and this time I make my mark. He lets fly a spray of bullets at a single guard. "Trigger finger much?" I tease.

        "Don't even," he retorts playfully. "The controls are weird."

        "The controls are weird? They're exactly the same as every other FPS in the galaxy."

        "You don't know that."

        I smack his shoulder. "I was exaggerating."

        "Sure," he says, stretching out the word mockingly. "I think you just said that to make me feel bad."

        I ram my elbow into his side and he misfires, wasting the last shot of his clip on a barrel.

        "Whoopsie! Muscle spasm," I lie.

        "Cheater!" he pouts defiantly. "You're already way ahead of me. Why did you need to do that?"

        "You're reading the kill numbers wrong."

        "It doesn't even matter." He isn't angry with me.

        I check the time much later. "We just spent an hour playing this game. I think the mall's open now."

        Hyuksoo laughs, "I guess. Hyukshin-ah! Do you still want to go?"

        "Of course I do! I didn't get any sleep on the floor because of the game. I slept on noona's bed."

        "Fine," I say. "What else did you do?"

        "I went to the bathroom, and that's all, really. I kind of thought you forgot about the mall."

        "For a moment, yeah," Hyuksoo says, handing me back the controller. He stretches his long limbs and stands up, picking up the boy in a single, sweeping motion and places him on his shoulders. Hyukshin plays with his dad's hair, pulls his cheeks, and pokes his forehead.

        "Ow, Hyukshin-ah," the young man whines. "You're hurting me!"

        The boy giggles evilly, lightly smacking Hyuksoo all over his face as quickly as he can. Hyuksoo catches one of his son's precious little flying hands and pretends to bite it.

        "No!" Hyukshin cries, snatching his hand from his father's grasp.

        "I'm sorry," the elder replies.

        "I'm sorry for hitting you, Abjeoji," is the response. He wraps his arms around Hyuksoo's neck and we head out to my car, checking for keys, money, phones, and whatever else we need.

• • •

        Hyukshin holds his father's hand and takes my hand in his other as we walk through the parking lot. Hyuksoo holds the door open for us and let's us through before rejoining hands with the boy.

        "So," I smile up at him, "where do you want to go first?"

        "Maybe we can just look around and see what catches our eye?" he suggests.

        "Excellent idea!" I smile.

        We walk through the mall for a bit, the three of us a father and son and their random friend. 

        Hyukshin receives the happy squeals of a girl sitting on the floor outside of a jewelry store.

        "He is so cute," the girl says, hiding her smile behind her hand. "Can I hold his hand or something?"

        Hyuksoo grins, turning to the boy. He kneels down to his son's height and smoothes down Hyukshin's hair. "Go give her a gigantic hug, ok?" he requests.

        Hyukshin nods happily, running over to the girl and throwing his arms around her neck and pulling her close. The poor girl is almost bawling with excitement and happiness. Hyukshin giggles and she breaks down, holding onto him tightly.

        "I love you," I can hear her mutter. She looks up at Hyuksoo. "I was really sad today and I was just hating myself in general and I didn't want to look at jewelry with them. I honestly just wanted to die. And then I saw him, and I became really happy. I used to be like that, but everything is so stressful. I'm sorry that I, a total stranger, am hugging your son randomly like this, but I just had to. I pray he grows up and is nothing less than a delight to you and takes good care of you when you get older."

        Hyuksoo looks like he's about to fall over. There are tears in his eyes, and he wrings his hands a bit. He can't really say anything, so he simply just bows.

        The girl takes Hyukshin by the hands, and I can see that tears are running down her small face. "You are such a beautiful soul," she says, shaking his hands on every syllable. "Never change, ok?"

        Hyukshin nods. "Please cheer up!" he encourages her. "I like your smile."

        With those six simple words, he's reduced her to a puddle of happy tears and band bracelets. I give her and hug and Hyuksoo holds her hand for a little while. Her friends call her as they get ready to move on, and she gives us each a hug.

        "Thank you!" she bows. "Thank you!"

        She waves goodbye and the group disappears around the corner.

        "God bless her," Hyuksoo smiles. "I think that just made her life."

        "And yours," I add. "I thought you were going to fall over you were so happy."

        He hides his face in the collar of his jacket. "I just felt really happy for her that she wasn't frowning anymore. She sounded so troubled."

        Hyukshin begs me to pick him up and carry him. I let him climb onto my back and we start walking again, a bit aimlessly.

        Something red catches my eye and I do a double-take, walking back to the display window. Shoes. Shoes. Pretty red peep-toe flats. Shoes.

        "Can we stop in the shoe store?" I ask, bouncing on the balls of my feet. "Can we? Can we? Please? Please . . . Can we?"
        
         "I don't mind," Hyuksoo laughs.

        "Yay!" I'm chomping at the bit wanting to look at some new shoes. I run a little ways with Hyukshin, practically dragging him and his dad into the shoe store.
         
        "Gosh, you're strong!" they remark in unison. I giggle a little and nod. When it comes to shoes, I'm more than a little nutty and overexcited.

        "All right, Hyukshin," I say, kneeling down to his eye level once in the store. "What kind of shoes would you like?"

        "Something really cool!" he says, punching a little fist into the air. "But no lights. Lights are too . . . flashy."

        "Sometimes they are," I agree. "But they're still pretty cool. Let's just look around for a while, yeah?"

        He holds his arms out for me to pick him up, so I do, placing him on my hip. I boop the tip of his nose with my finger and he smiles.

        Hyuksoo trails behind us as we, more like I, look at the many boxes and rows of shoes in Hyukshin's size. He has large feet for a little one, and I can tell he's going to be tall, just like his daddy.

        "Those are nice," Hyukshin says, pointing at a box of Nikes with white bottoms.

        "Oh, yeah," I agree with a smile. Heck. I want these.

        Hyuksoo looks up from his phone. "Did you finally decide on something?" he teases me.

        "What's that supposed to mean, finally?" I ask with feigned annoyance. I sit Hyukshin down and pull out the sneakers for him to try on and see how they look.

        "Can you work the Velcro all right?" I ask him.

        "Yep!" He puts on the shoes all by himself, on the correct feet and everything. He stands up and I kneel on the floor next to him, turning him for inspection by Hyuksoo.

        "How're we looking, Abeoji?" I ask.

        Hyuksoo watches the boy jump up and down a bit in the black sneakers and turn in a quick circle. "Do you like them, bud?" he asks.

        Hyukshin nods vigorously.

        "So do I," Hyuksoo smiles. "How much are they?"

        "Can I buy them for him?" I ask, my chin on the little boy's shoulder. I pull an aegyo, tilting my chin down to make my eyes look bigger and pouting lightly.

        "I can't ask you to do that--"

        "Please?" I bat my eyelashes and he laughs suddenly.

        "If you insist!"

        "Yay! Noona's buying Hyukshin a pair of shoes! Shoes are very special to me. I love shoes and clothes, and I'm always happy when other people get new clothes and shoes, and I'm especially happy to buy things for people." I prattle on, hugging the boy and mussing with his hair.

        "You're a bit of a strange bird, Lee Chaerin," Hyuksoo murmurs good-naturedly.

        "Thank you." We laugh for a bit, and he continues to smile after it has died down. He bites his lip to try and stop it, but his cheeks won't cooperate.

        I grin myself. I wonder what he's thinking.