After breakfast I take the girls shoppin,and then Suzy and I drop Youngji off before heading towards Suzy's place. 

I park the car and say hi to Mr and Mrs. Bae , then help Suzy take her packages up to her room. When we arrive upstairs we notice that a maid is looking at us nervously from where she is stationed at the doorway of Suzy's room. Then she glances back behind her and wrings her hands.

Suzy and I come to a stop before her and Suzy asks, "Is everything okay Linda?" 

Linda nervously anwers, "Young Mistress, Bea and I came to clean your room this morning and as Bea was dusting off near your beloved buddha, she accidently knocked it down from the shelf and it broke."

I saw the color drain out of Suzy's face but for everyone's sake she remains calm.

"I think it will be okay, Linda. Tell Bea to gather all the peices and I'll take it to a trusted repair shop as soon as possible."

Linda grabs on to Suzy's hand and nervously nods. "If you are sure."

"I'm sure." She answers back and musters a smile. 

After the maids clean up and leave, Suzy closes her bedroom door behind us and sighs.

"I hope someone can repair it. My grandparents gave me that Buddha as a gift of encouragement and enlightment. It's my goodluck charm."

Something nags me in the back of my mind.

"When did you convert to Buddhism?" I ask curiously. Not that I have anything against it but from our talks, I've always assumed  that she was a Christian like me.

She often attended it with her parents when we were kids. 

"I never had to convert to it. My grandparents were always Devoted Buddhists. My parents converted to Christianity right before you and your family moved here but as soon as I was old enough, they let me make my own choices and I chose Buddhism."

Suzy smiles to herself and continues, "Though sometimes I let Youngji drag me to church mass just to make her feel better. She's always lighting a candle for my soul..or so she says."

She says this nonchalantly, but it has the opposite effect on me, because it literally rips the world I know, apart.

I look toward the shelves against her walls. There are trinkets and baubles, pictures and magazines...but no books. 

Slowly, though I pray that somehow I am overreacting, things start falling into place.

Youngji's reaction to the peanut butter

The book under her pillow and her bookcases filled with books....

"Suzy..."

"Yes, Jackson?" she replies with a smile.

"Why did you choose to watch The Best of Me?" 

She looks at me oddly. "Why wouldn't I have? Everyone knows the movies are better than the books, Jackson."

I push farther. "Everyone?"

"Yes. Well, except for Youngji of course but we both know how unique she is. Do you know she's never even watched one Nicolas Sparks Movie and he's like her favorite author of all time! If you ask me, that's just crazy."

Indeed.