3 months later....

"Will that be all today?" I said as I bagged the customers items. 

"Yeah," the man said as he gave me the credit card to swipe. My hands were moving on its own as it swiped the card, took the reciept out of the machine. 

"Have a nice day," I said with the fake enthusiasm I display to all cutomers.  After the man left, I sat down on the chair and took out my  notebook. 

"Okay...If I make $50 this week and then I get paid again for tutoring then I'll get....only $200 for the month..." I scribbled the numbers in and slammed the notebook. "How am I supposse to live off of $200?" I put my head into my hands and gave out a long sigh. "How am I going to pay ajhumma the rent? I need to find another job...." I flipped through the newspaper on the counter to look for job openings. Using my red pen, I circled a couple job openings that I maybe able to do. After circling the 5th option, I looked up the clock. 5:00 A.M. "Ah man, I'm going to be late for school." I quickly grabbed my bag and took the work apron off. "Ahjussi! I'm leaving!" He gave me a small shooing hand motion and I dashed out the door. 

I get to school earlier than the other students so I could change out of my work clothes and into the uniforms that were given to us students. Black plaided skirts with white collared short sleeves that was a little too big for my body. I shuffled through my bag to find my black tie and name tag: the last two pieces of the outfit. Putting on the last pieces of my outfit, I head up to the school's roof just so I could relax before school started. 

The roof is probably my little hiding place. For the past three months, no one has come up here. I would eat, take naps, and listen to music whenever I would get the time to. The roof is my place and my place only. It's the only thing that I could really posses at this school. I take out the blanket that I keep hidden behind the air vent and lay it out near the door. I put my ear buds on and slowly drift away to the music. I miss American music. The music here is nice and all but the words and the artists in America are true to the heart. They don't let other people mess with them or their music. Girls at this school would freak with boy groups that I don't bother with knowing. I don't bother with stuff that I don't really need to know. I only focus on stuff that really means to me; living. I take out my notebook again and scribble in number and job options that I need to take in order to pay the rent. 

As I scribble in my notebook I see that the sun is rising onto the horizon. My eyes stray away from the notebook and stay affixed onto the bright orange colors that the sun effuses out into the sky. 

"Beautiful isn't it?" Shocked to hear a voice on the roof, I turn to see a figure leaning against the ledge of the roof. He turns his body, but I couldn't see the face because of the brightness of the sun.  He gives me a smile as he walks towards me which gave me a better view of what he looks like. "See you in class later," he said and left out through the door. Never in my three months here have I seen a face like his. His face was new and gave off a foreigner vibe. His eyes were large and his brown hair came down to ear level. As I started to recall more of his features, the school bell rung. I folded up the blanket and tossed it back behind the airvent. I grabbed my bag and headed towards the classroom. 

I enter the classroom and ignore the other kids talking about what they saw last night or what they did out on the streets. I drop my bag on the floor and plop my head on the desk. The seat by the window; the best seat in the whole entire room. I turn my head towards the window and look out at the blue sky filled with white clouds that created shapes and animals if you try hard with your imagination. 

"Alright class! Get in your seats. We have a new student today," the homeroom teacher said. "Why don't you come in and introduce yourself." 

"Hi. I'm Vernon," the boy said simply. 

"Alright then. Why don't you sit next to SunJu near the window," the teacher said. My eyes stayed affix on the clouds since I didn't care for another kid that is like the rest of them. 

"So we meet again." he whispered into my ear. I turned my head away from the window and saw the same boy from the roof. 

"Y-you're the guy from this morning." I said. 

"Alright class please open up your Literature book and we'll start where we left off yesterday." 

~~~

The bell rung for lunch and all the students hurried out to the cafeteria. I on the other hand went to the other direction to the roof. I opened the door and when I shut the door behind me, a foot wedged in between. HIs face popped up again.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me. 

"I always come up here during lunch..." I said as I avoid his gaze. I took out the blanket and laid the blanket on the floor. The weather was perfect; slight breezes that would cool you off from the hot sun that radiated its heat from the sky. To avoid further question from him I put my earbuds in and turned the volume up. I could see his mouth moving but I could only hear the sound of my music playing. He notices me ignoring him and comes up to me. I close my eyes to shut him out even more. Please go away, I said to myself. But he didn't. He tugged onto my ear buds, pulling them out of my ear. 

"What are you doing?" I said trying to sound angry in order to repell him away from me. 

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked me. Eating. A thing that I rarely do ever since I got to Seoul. I save up all my money for rent and school supplies that I barely buy food. It's probably because I rarely have the time to go to the grocery store or even go home. Occasionally I would eat the food that is close to expiring at the convience store but rarely would ahjussi let me. I tried to remember the last time that I ate but he seemed to wait for my answer. 

"I don't eat lunch," I said to him. 

"Well okay. Don't you get hungry?" 

Why does he keep asking me questions? I asked myself. Go away.

"I don't so can you please go away?" Right when I was about to put my ear buds back in, my stomach betrayed me and growled with hunger. 

He chuckled and said, "Wow. I have never heard a stomach growl like that before." My face scrunched up with embaressement and I rememberd the last time I ate. It was two days ago when I ahjussi gave me a cup ramen and a triangle kimbab for lunch.

He rumaged through his bag and handed me a container. "You can have it. I don't really like to eat  either. You can give me the container at the end of the day. I expect you to eat it all." Before I could give his food back, he left. I opened the blue container to see three rows of kimbab cut into perfect cirlces. Carefully I took one out and put it in my mouth. As I chewed I started to cry. Making money and trying to save the home that I live in was all that I thought about that I didn't even realize that eating was important too. The taste took me back. My brain projecting a memory of my mother making kimbab when were living in the old house in America. They tasted just like my mothers. 

"Thanks." I said quietly.