I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure darkness because it shows me the stars.

- Og Mandino -

“Hey, ByulHee, what did you have for breakfast?” JongIn asked, and it was the 12th question he asked that morning. His hand was moving and writing down whatever was written by the teacher but every few minutes, he would lean closer to ByulHee and annoy her to death by asking her random questions.

ByulHee groaned softly before rolling her eyes, ignoring JongIn by continuing writing. She wondered why JongIn couldn’t keep quiet for at least 10 minutes. The boy kept on asking her questions and for the first few ones, she didn’t mind answering but then it seemed that he wanted to keep on talking.

The last thing ByulHee ever wanted was to have the teacher dispel her out of the class for talking when she was teaching, but sadly, JongIn didn’t seem to worry so much about the idea.

ByulHee kept her silence for the eighth time, hoping that this time JongIn will stop pestering her and focus on the lesson. She knew what he was trying to do. He just wanted to get her to talk, and for whatever reason, ByulHee did not know.

A couple of minutes had passed and JongIn seemed to be quiet, so ByulHee assumed that he’d given up in bothering her. While she was writing, outside the window her eyes caught the glimpse of the falling leaves from the trees by the field, right from where she was sitting.

She unknowingly smiled to herself, as an old memory came to mind.

“Mummy, mummy! Look at the leaves! They’re all falling!” Little ByulHee exclaimed excitedly, while holding onto her mother’s hand. They were both walking around the garden, simply enjoying the perfect weather, which was bright and sunny. But right when ByulHee caught the sight of the falling leaves, she got extremely excited, as if it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

SuBin smiled at her little girl before her head, feeling happy that ByulHee was saturated with joy and pleasure. “Yes they are, love. And they’re beautiful, aren’t they?” SuBin said, and ByulHee nodded in excitement. They spotted a shady tree then and the both of them sat under it, as ByulHee suddenly said she wanted something to drink.

SuBin handed ByulHee the mineral bottle she’d brought from home, and while the little girl quenched her thirst, SuBin grabbed a piece of cloth from her handbag and began wiping ByulHee’s forehead, which was dripping with sweat.

“Aigoo … look at you.” SuBin said with a chuckle as ByulHee gave her back the mineral bottle, which was now half-empty. “You must be very thirsty, huh? And your face is turning red, too. We’ll cool off here for a few minutes and then we continue walking around, okay?”

ByulHee nodded her head and slowly climbed up her mother’s lap. Her cheeks were still flushing due to the heat but found comfort in her mother’s cuddle. SuBin was leaning against the tree, her arms around her three-year-old baby girl, and she swayed both of them to the sides as if she was trying to get her daughter to sleep.

She looked down at her quiet daughter and noticed that she looked tired. Well, she should be. She’d been running around the garden, chased by SuBin and had a lot of fun being out in the Sun. Now, SuBin assumed that maybe ByulHee was already out of energy.

“Are you sleepy?” SuBin asked playfully, still rocking ByulHee to the left and right. With her eyes still fixed on the dropping leaves, ByulHee shook her head as an answer, though she was indeed feeling sleepy at the moment. The leaves that were falling from the trees nearby seemed to make her feel heavy-eyed, especially when the wind was blowing and her mother’s arms were around her.

She nodded her head then and changed her answer, “Yes, I am sleepy.”

SuBin giggled and tightened her cuddle around her daughter. She knew her lassie very well. After playing all day long, it was impossible for her not to get tired and drowsy. “Can I sleep for a while, mommy?” The little angel’s voice dozily asked, snuggling closer to her mother. Her eyes were half-closed and SuBin knew she was going to fall asleep any moment.

SuBin nodded her head and tenderly began patting ByulHee’s legs. She kissed the top of ByulHee’s head and rocked her from side to side, softly humming her a song to lull her to sleep.

“What would I ever do without you, ByulHee?” SuBin asked herself, glancing down at ByulHee who was still awake, but was on her way to sleep. “What would I ever do without you ....” her voice sounded sad, and at the same time happy. A sigh escaped from as she continued her cradlesong.

ByulHee slowly lifted her head to meet her mother’s eyes, and asked all of a sudden, “Mummy, do you love me?”

SuBin’s eyes widened at her question and couldn’t help but to laugh a little as she found it cute. She kissed the top of her head again and said, “Yes, precious. I really do love you. I love you with my entire beating heart.”

She looked at her daughter again, wondering if she understood her. ByulHee smiled at her and then asked again, “Do you love daddy?”

SuBin laughed again, “Yes, of course I do.”

“Why?”

“Because ... he’s everything that a woman could’ve asked for.”

ByulHee scratched her head, not understanding what her mother just said and SuBin only chuckled at her cuteness.

Now that her sleepiness had really taken over her, ByulHee nuzzled closer to her mother and slowly closed her eyes, as SuBin rested her head on ByulHee’s. After about a few seconds, ByulHee was off to dreamland, and SuBin adjusted her sleeping position so that she could sleep comfortably.

As the little girl slept, SuBin kept her eyes on ByulHee’s face with a smile that never left her face. She traced her eyes that will always get big when she was excited, her small, little nose, and her cute lips.

SuBin gently pushed the hair away from her daughter’s face, and as the little girl slept, SuBin couldn’t help but to be extremely grateful by this precious gift from Heaven. She knew that ByulHee wasn’t hers, and that someday she will have to tell her the truth and maybe she will return to the people whom she belonged.

But for now, let her create as many memories with her little girl as possible. For one day, only those memories can keep her company when ByulHee was no longer with her.

“Byul? Hey, ByulHee.” Right next to her, a voice jolted her back to reality. ByulHee blinked for a few times before turning to her right, where the source of the voice was, and found JongIn was looking at her with concern. “Are you okay? I’ve been calling your name many times but you didn’t respond.” He said, packing his things slowly at the same time.

ByulHee nodded her head silently but soon got a little confused seeing everyone packing their things and leaving the class. “Where is everybody going?” she asked herself, but JongIn thought she was talking to him so he answered instead, “It’s recess time, Sunshine. Everyone is heading to the cafeteria. Didn’t you hear the bell just now?”

ByulHee shook her head, admitting that she didn’t hear any bell whatsoever. Maybe she was too into her own thoughts that she didn’t realize it was already break time. JongIn chuckled as he stood up from his chair. “Funny. But you heard me calling you after that.” He said proudly.

ByulHee rolled her eyes as she got up from her chair and walked towards the door, ignoring JongIn who kept calling her from behind. Unfortunately, for her, the taller boy managed to fall into step beside her no matter how quick she wanted to get away from him.

“You want to join my friends and me? You can sit at our table.” JongIn offered as they made their way to the mess hall. ByulHee shook her head as an answer as she thought of JongIn’s friends. She saw them together before, and they were all boys. There was no way ByulHee was going to hang out with a bunch of boys. She didn’t even have any girlfriends, how can she ever sit at the table with a group of boys who, based on her observation, were very loud and noisy.

“No, thank you.” She answered nonetheless, quickening her pace. JongIn matched her speed and asked again, “Are you sure? There are empty seats, you know.”

“I said no!” She exclaimed, making JongIn who blanched at her sudden raise of voice to freeze on his spot.

Looking at his confused face, ByulHee felt guilty all of a sudden. She knew that she shouldn’t have raised her voice at him. She was sure that he was just being nice. But ByulHee can’t help but to feel annoyed with JongIn. All morning, he’d been pestering her with endless questions, and now he kept asking whether she wanted to join him and his friends during break.

She was used to being alone, and with JongIn kept on bugging her all the time was actually making her feel uncomfortable.

ByulHee muttered a quick ‘sorry’ before rapidly walking away from him -who was still stunned- and straight away dashed into the cafeteria. To make things worse, she bumped into someone, causing the drink that was held by that person t