I would have jumped off the train the moment I got wind of my mother’s capture, if the others didn’t talk to me about thinking rationally. It didn’t matter that I would need my mom to complete the mission. All I wanted was to save her. Nothing more, nothing less. I felt that it was unfair. I’ve been trying to suppress my thoughts about Seijira but this is too much. First, it was my father. I thought everything will end in me, but why is my mother, who is a normal mortal, involved in this craziness? It almost seemed like I can’t be with my family. Not before, not now, and not ever.

                This is unfair.

                The others let me be by myself for the following hours with the assurance that I’m not going to run away. I spent my time in my mother’s room, just looking at the mess and saving it forever in my memory. I recalled the time I was telling her that everything’s so hard and she gave me words of encouragement to help me keep going. I remembered her warmth, an utter contrast to the coldness and loneliness that’s seeping through my blood. Right now, it felt like something’s blocking my throat and surprisingly, I couldn’t cry. Back then, I thought crying is the ultimate proof that you’re breaking down. Now I know that’s not true. Because right now, it’s so much painful, this feeling that you want to yell and whine and just put your middle finger up for the world to see, but you can’t bring yourself to. Instead, you just sit down like a person in shock, silent, and waiting for words to come in your head but they won’t.

                I couldn’t remember how long I’ve been staring at the opposite wall before I started to open drawers. I wouldn’t have done this if my mom was here because I’ve often been told not to mess with other people’s things. But, I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see if there’s anything that could help me, anything they’ve been hiding from me.

                The first ones I opened were full of clothes and sanitary tools. I tried to not make it more of a chaos. Then there appeared the books and jewelries my mom treasures. I flipped the pages to see if there’s anything there to no avail. Reaching the last drawer, I began to think that this is futile work when I saw our photo albums. I sat on the floor and took it all out, but then there’s a box underneath. I also took it out and though I wanted to immediately know what the box contains, I first looked through the photo albums.

                A lot of the pictures were in black and white, some already faded out. The first few ones were of my mother in her teenager years. I kept smiling like an idiot seeing her because she really looks a lot like me, though she’s more of a beauty. My baby pictures were in a whole separate album and another one was dedicated to photos of me growing up. I kept going and going until I started to have this feeling that something’s wrong. In all these pictures, I never once saw a picture of my dad, not even in my mom’s younger years. It’s almost as if he didn’t exist.

                I finally laid down the album and pulled the box closer to me. I noted how the box looked so old before slowly opening the lid. Inside, there were tons of letters in yellowish paper. I took them all out then picked the first one with utter care. I unfolded the letter and read:

                Min Jung,

                   I was serious when I told you how I felt. It’s been over a year since we first met and my thoughts about you have never changed. You may be shy and keep to yourself most of the times, but it's what makes you you.  I’m not sorry that I punched Sang Ho for being such a jerk and I’m not planning to go around saying that it’s okay if you turned me down because you know me. I want to be with you and I want to say it to you straight.

                                If you think that we could work, open your window at 7, tomorrow night. I’ll see you then.

                -Donghyun

                I ended reading with my eyes but kept staring at that untidy scrawl. So this is my father's penmanship. I felt weird, confused but somehow, a bit happy inside. I noted how he wrote his g the same way was as I do mine. From what I’ve heard of him in Seijira Academy, I've imagined my dad being the serious, responsible, leader-like man, but from this letter, I realized that he could be cheesy too, like any person who’s in love. I reread the letter, not minding at all that I was prying into my parent’s love life, before I stopped and picked another one:

                Min Jung,

                                What you said was right. We’re different and we don’t have a long history together, and my parents might not approve, but who cares? I’m the one you’re marrying (assuming you accept my proposal), not them, and it’s not even because they hate you. Believe me, they love you Min Jung, there’s just a reason why and I would probably be beat for this, but I want to be honest with you, so please be honest with me too.

                Everybody knows I attended Seijira Academy. You’ve questioned me a lot of times how it felt like to be there, and I see it in your eyes every time that you know I’m lying. I am and I’m finally stepping up to reveal what Seijira Academy is, why I’m always away, and who I really am. I’m taking this risk because I don’t want to keep pretending, at least, not to you. And Min Jung, I know too that your interest about the school has nothing to do with me attending there. There’s so much more about you than you let out. I want to know you. I want to know how such as an amazing person like you would want to keep to yourself and why you don’t even want to talk to me for the first three months we’ve met. So, if you think we can still fix this, I want to see you, later... 7 PM at Ole's. I'll wait. 

                Love, Donghyun

                Without waiting for another second to tick, I grabbed another letter and started at once. The content was definitely shorter:

                Min Jung,

                                Are you okay now? What was that earlier? You just looked so pale and shocked. You scared me right there. You were muttering something about a bird and people in black, I thought you were having a fit.

                                Min Jung, are you hiding something from me? Please…talk to me.

                Love, Donghyun

                I scrunched my eyebrows at this. Bird? People in black? It sounded like it could be Seijira and my hunters, but that’s impossible. Why would they show up to my mother? How could my mother see them? I know shadows show themselves sometimes to humans but I also know that they don’t appear the same in mortal eyes. Plus even if that is so, how could my father be so ignorant? If that was it really, then he should be able to see them too…

                I put the letter back on the floor and was about to pick another one when I accidentally look