“Who is he? Such a nice young boy. Are you two together?” Hee Young breaks the silence, the moment Kiseop left them two alone.

            Eun Kyung nodded slowly as she hid half her face into her thick scarf around her neck.

            “He makes you smile, the widest I’ve ever seen. I saw the two of you together just now. From far that is.” Hee Young moves closer to her daughter.

            Hee Young placed her hands over her daughter’s and squeezed it. Eun Kyung hasn’t even mutter a single word. She was taken aback to her mum’s sudden appearance. Eun Kyung was lost for words. Where should she even start?

            “I’m really sorry, for everything Eun Kyung-ah. I regretted it the moment I left home. But I couldn’t bring myself to comeback, Dae Ho; your dad, he really disappoints me.” Eun Kyung’s mum sighed.

            Silence.

            “I heard about him. A year after he passed away. Then I thought about you, how lonely you must be. How hard has it been for you to live on your own? With all the debts your dad left behind.”

            Eun Kyung’s eye started tearing as her memories brought her back to the day her dad died. She placed a hand over her chest, her heart hurts a lot. But yet, she still refuses to face her mum.

            “I looked for you everywhere, my dear. Every place that I could ever think of. But can never find a trace of you.”

            Eun Kyung wiped away her tears.

            “I asked the bank about dad loans. Were you the one paying them?” Hee Young asked her daughter, who seemed to turn mute.

All the bubbly personality totally wiped away from her daughter. Eun Kyung now seemed to be a different person. Hee Young heart ache as she recalled the times Eun Kyung would call out to her with a huge beam on her face. Or how Eun Kyung would shout for her mum as loud as she could from her room just to let her mum rushed in there to hear her whine about her day. Her random kisses, hugs and ‘I love you’ late at night as they eat ice-cream in Eun Kyung’s room, Hee Young really missed that. Hee Young missed being a mother to her only daughter.

Eun Kyung nodded in response to her mum. Hee Young her daughter’s hair.

“It must be hard on you. I’m really sorry” Hee Young whispered as she stood up ready to kneel down to her daughter.

“I failed as a mother to such a wonderful and headstrong daughter like you.” Hee Young sobbed as she knelt down in front of her daughter.

Eun Kyung was surprise by her mum’s actions. She looked down to see her mum kneeling down, remorse and guilt tattooed her face as her mum tears fell to the ground. Eun Kyung fell to her knees next to her mum and pulled her to an embrace.

“Mum.” Eun Kyung croaked as she tried her best to choke back her tears. “Mum…” Eun Kyung called out again.

That one word that Eun Kyung muttered as she hug her warms her soul and heals all the pain she had been feeling for almost two and a half years. Her beloved daughter called her ‘Mum’ again. That moment she swore to herself to never let her little girl go through all the pain and suffering she had went through ever again.

“Come with me, Eun Kyung-ah.” Hee Young hugged her daughter tighter.

“Where to?” Eun Kyung whispered.

“Japan. Leave all of this behind and start a new life there.”

The thought of leaving her life, her most treasured people behind; the people who have stood by her without fail whenever she falls, it breaks her soul. Eun Kyung pulled away from her mum and looked right into her eyes.

“No.” Eun Kyung responded, stern.

“Why not?” Hee Young asked her daughter as she cupped her daughter’s face.

“Just because.” Eun Kyung mumbled.

“Ah, alright. I give you some time to think, okay, my dear?” Hee Young pressed on as she her daughter’s face.

“No mum, no. I’m not going anywhere.” Eun Kyung insisted.

“But Eun Kyung-ah.”

“I can’t leave all of this behind. Mum, where were you when my world just crumbles down on me? Where were you when I needed you the most? You weren’t there mum. You don’t know how much I struggled. Then I found these boys. They’re like family to me now. Now you’re telling me to just leave them, after all they have done to me? I can’t mum. It’s too cruel.” Eun Kyung spilled her heart out to her mum. Her eyes, tearing as she spoke each word.

Playing in her memories as she spoke, she remembered AJ who just sat by her as she cries the day she ran away leaving her dad and the house behind. Hoon, who opened his house door and took her in like family, and then there’s Kiseop, who shared her pain.

“They’re too precious to let go.” Eun Kyung sobbed.

Hee Young’s heart sank, as she hears her daughter let out her heart feelings. All the love Eun Kyung felt from those boys. Hee Young regretted not being by her daughter’s side when she fell pit bottom. To think she actually had the right to take away all the things what made her daughter happy, remorse reign over her as she thought how she failed being a good mother.

“Here. I’ll be waiting for you, my dear. Until the day your heart opens up to accept me back. I’ll keep on waiting.” Hee Young slipped a piece of paper with her address and number into her daughter’s hand, kissed her at the top of her head and left.

Eun Kyung was still on the floor, sobbing. Her hands crushed the piece of paper as the pain in her heart grew. Eun Kyung was unsure if she had already forgiven her mum for what she did. Her head told her she had forgiven but her heart tells her otherwise.

Kiseop who walked around the park for a while came back to see the scene where Eun Kyung’s mum kissed her good bye as she left. Seeing Kiseop hiding behind a tree, Hee Young approached him. Kiseop bowed as Eun Kyung’s mum stood in front of him.

“She is an amazing girl.” Hee Young smiled as she turned to look at Eun Kyung, still on the floor, sobbing.

“She is, indeed.” Kiseop replied.

Hee Young pats Kiseop’s shoulder and wiped a tear as it fell.

“You, take care of her well. That’s all I ask of you. Wipe her tear as she cry; hold her closer if she walks away. Just listen as she whine and complaint. I can tell how much she loves you and how much she treasures her friends.” Eun Kyung’s mother pleaded.

Kiseop nods silently.

“You’re leaving already?” Kiseop asked as Eun Kyung’s mum lets go of her hand from his shoulders.

She sighed.

“She is not ready yet, to forgive me. But I know one day, she will. And I shall live until the day she does.”

Kiseop watched the sad mum leave the park with her shoulders slouched, like the weight of the world lay on it. He turned to the shelter to see Eun Kyung clutching her chest as she coughed her cries echoed in the night. Kiseop walks toward Eun Kyung and knelt down, back facing Eun Kyung.

“Tonight, you have my back to cry your hearts out.” Kiseop said.

Eun Kyung slowly puts her hands around Kiseop’s neck as he stood up, anchoring both her legs as he gave the girl whom he love a piggy back ride. Eun Kyung nuzzled on Kiseop’s neck and kissed it gently. Her cries turned into soft sobs as the evening sky accompanied the two love-birds as they walked out of the park.

“Kiseop-ah.”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

 “And Kiseop-ah.”

“Yes, Eun Kyung?”

“I’m hungry.” Eun Kyung mumbled as she slowly laid her head on Kiseop’s neck.

  Kiseop giggled at the girl’s confession. With Eun Kyung on his back, he walked towards the grill house they always patronised.