Sophie’s POV

“Mom, Dad, I’m going to school. See you later,” I yell to them as I exit out the front door.

“Okay,” Mom yells in response. “See you later. Are you going to be late?”

“Maybe,” I say. “It depends on what I’m doing with Daehyun.”

“You guys should just go out already,” Mom says.

“Mom!” I complain. “Anyway, I’m going. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” my parents say as I leave.

As soon as I walk outside, I see Daehyun leaning up against the tree with his eyes closed. He has his headphones in so he doesn’t know that I’m approaching him. It’s actually rare for him to pick me up from my house with his headphones in since he knows just how much I love to sneak up on him. We always play jokes on one another, it’s what we do.

I move quietly and get closer and closer to him, ready to pull them out of his ears. Before I can make another move, Daehyun immediately opens his eyes.

“Wha,” I say as I jump and put my hand over my chest. “Daehyun, you scared me.”

“You were about to scare me,” he says as he takes his headphones out. “It took you longer to come out of your house today.”

“Is someone mad?” I ask pinching his cheeks.

“Nope,” he says shaking his head, “but we’re going to be late for school.”

“Right,” I say as the both of us start taking off.

Daehyun and I have been good friends ever since he’s moved to America, which was in like the sixth grade. Six years have already passed and now we’re best friends and seniors in high school. We do everything together. Daehyun and I always joke saying that it’s because we’re both Asian, so we just have this power that makes us best friends with each other. When we were in sixth grade, Daehyun moved from Korea to America. When I was a baby, I was adopted from Korea. We both have that special bond.

We both walk to school together; it’s a public school so we don’t have to wear uniforms, thankfully.”You’ll never guess what my mom of all people said to me this morning,” I tell Daehyun.

“What?” he asks looking at me. I remember when he moved here six years ago, he could barely speak any English. No one in my school knew Korean, but I was the only one that stepped up to help him. He’s been teaching me some Korean, but not enough that I could have a full blown conversation with someone in Korea. I just know how to say yes or no, which are very simple, or to say I understand or I don’t.

Daehyun, on the other hand, has learned English quickly, more quickly than I have been learning Korean. And while I may not be able to understand, I can write it, depending, and read all of it, even though I may not understand what I’m reading.

“She said that we should date already,” I say with a light chuckle. “My mother saying that we should date.”

“Huh,” Daehyun says nodding his head. “Your mom is quite something.”

“I know, right,” I say as we walk onto the school grounds. Thankfully, I don’t live that far away from school, which is why I walk. Also, Daehyun and I are in the same homeroom since his last name is Jung and mine is Karp. We’re also alphabetically next to each other, which is awesome.

“But it’s not like we haven’t heard people say it before,” Daehyun says as we walk into school and climb the stairs to our senior homeroom.

“True,” I say. Ever since Daehyun and I became best friends, people automatically assume that we’re dating, even if we deny it a thousand times, they always say that we’re going to end up with each other. Actually, even one of my best friends said that if Daehyun and I said that we have been secretly dating since high school began, no one would be surprised about it.

“Ready for another day of school, Sophie?” Daehyun asks as we head to our lockers.

“No,” I mutter as I put in the combination and open it up. “Stupid advanced placement calculus, stupid computer science,” I say as I grab the notebook and textbooks needed for that class.

“Hey, you’re the one that chose those classes,” he says as he calmly gets his books.

“Yeah, but still, you’re the one that forced me to take computer science,” I tell him.

“Well, I took it last year and now I’m in the advanced placement class and I thought you would like it. You like computers,” Daehyun reasons while he waits for me to make sure that I have everything. “Plus, it’s not even like we have that long left, only like five months until we graduate.”

“True,” I say as we take our normal seats in homeroom. “I can’t believe we graduate in five months,” I excitedly say while the morning announcements are on. “It feels like just yesterday we met each other.”

“It surely does,” Daehyun says turning around in his seat so he can face me.

“We’re still going to be friends, right?”I ask him.

“Sophie, why are you asking that?” he asks hitting me lightly on my head. “Of course we’re still going to be friends.”

“But we’re going to different colleges,” I complain, “we probably won’t see each other that often.”

“Doesn’t matter, we still have our phones. You think I’m going to abandon my best friend? Think again.”

I chuckle at the comment as the bell rings, signaling the end of homeroom. “Let’s go to advanced calculus, best friend.”

“Hey Sophie, Daehyun,” my other friend Lizzy says.

“Hey Lizzy,” Daehyun and I say as we take our usual seats forming a group. For some reason the teacher likes keeping his desks in little formations of a group of like three, sometimes there are desks of four.

“What are we doing today?” I ask.

“Something, I don’t know,” Lizzy says shrugging her shoulders. She’s the one that believes Daehyun and I should go out, too. She always tries to convince me that I like him and I deny every single one of her claims. No, I don’t like him. He’s only a friend, nothing more.

The bell rings signaling the start of class and we spend an hour and forty-five minutes learning about related rates problems, the one about blowing up a balloon and the amount of air and whatever increases. This is my weak point when it comes to math, finding things like that, but it seems to be Daehyun’s strong points. It’s like we’re complete opposites with learning.

Daehyun’s POV

Finally, the bell rings and it’s time to go to my favorite class of the day, computer science. I like robots and like programming robots, so this will help for my future career, if my family allows me to pursue this career, but I can’t tell Sophie ay of that, she’ll get worried. It’s a part of me that I’ve successfully hidden from her. I just can’t tell her, not yet.

Sophie takes her regular computer next to me and we both turn it on. She has a game project that she has to work on while I’m working on a much bigger project that I can easily finish. I just help Sophie on hers a bit since I am the one that forced her to take this class with me.

I guess some could say that I like her and unlike Sophie who just denies it, I don’t respond to it. Maybe I do like her, but I only treat her as a friend. I don’t lead her on or anything saying that I like her because I don’t know what she feels about me. I was just some foreign Asian kid who couldn’t speak any English and she luckily befriended me. She probably just took pity on me.

“Daehyun,” she whispers to me. Sophie is actually the only girl in this class of fifteen, but she doesn’t seem to mind because I’m here and so are a couple of our friends.

“Hmm?” I ask as I start typing away a little bit on my program.

“What does this error mean?” she asks pointing at her computer screen. I take a look and see there’s a red line underneath of a statement that she’s made.

“Did you call that object? Did you instantiate it?” I ask her.

“Wait a minute,” she says as she scrolls towards the top of her program. “I forgot to do that.” She laughs a little. “Thanks. I don’t know how I would survive this class without you.”

“You would’ve never taken it if it weren’t for me,” I say with a smile.

“That, too.”

We spend the next half an hour or so programming our projects until the phone rings, which is nothing abnormal. “Sophie,” the teacher says coming over and taping Sophie on the shoulder.

“Yes?” Sophie asks.

“The front office needs you.”

“Oh, okay,” she says getting up from her computer and grabbing her books.

I shrug my shoulders. She’ll probably be back. If a person goes to the front office, they’re not in that much trouble. It basically just means that someone wants to talk to you or something. It’s nothing I should be worrying about.

Before my eyes, the class ends and it’s almost time to go. “I guess she’s not coming back this block,” I mutter to myself as I go over and shut down Sophie’s computer after I shut mine down. Next block, I have something different from Sophie, depending on the day. Today just happens to be the day that I have something different, so I won’t know if she returns during that block. I don’t know until the last hour and a half of the day.

All through psychology class my mind can’t help but wander to Sophie. What was the call for? Normally she would text me if she got called out by a teacher and we were in a different class telling me, but she hasn’t texted me.

“Mr. Jung, would you like to pay attention?” the teacher asks.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” I quickly say. The way that he says my last name makes it sound more like Joong rather than Jung, but I’ve grown used to it. Most of the teachers can’t say my name anyway. They pronounce it like die-hyoon. There has to be something about that letter u that troubles people here and that ae combination. Sophie said that I should change it and other kids have asked me if I wanted an American name, but what’s wrong with my own name? I’ve never changed it anyway and I’ve never gone with a different nickname, it’s always been Daehyun.

At lunch, I sit with the normal group of guys that I sit with on this day. We joke about plenty of things and I don’t let them see that something is bothering me about Sophie. They all know my friendship with her, and only a select few know about me liking her. They always say that I should confess before it’s too late, but I don’t have the courage. I’m content with being just her friend. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy. That’s all that matters.

Finally, I walk into the last class of the day, advanced placement United States government. I chose this class because Sophie said she was choosing this class. I mean, why do I need to know United States government? I need to understand how the Korean government works first, but I chose it just because of her.

Sadly, as I walk in, I don’t see any sight of her. “Hey, Lizzy,” I say getting Lizzy’s attention. “Do you know where Sophie is?”

“No, don’t you? You are like her boyfriend,” she jokes.

“Ha, very funny,” I say rolling my eyes, but Lizzy only knows that I’m joking. “She left about second block, she got called down to the front office and she never came back.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Lizzy says. “She’s a good kid, she’s probably getting rewarded for something.”

“Yeah, she probably is,” I say. Lizzy’s words put at least some ease into my mind about this.

Sophie’s POV

I sit in front of my computer with my knees held up to my chest. Why? This doesn’t make any sense, what are they talking about? I wanted to fall asleep, and I’ve been trying, but sleep just doesn’t come over me. Why?

I press play again as I watch the video. Did they know? Could they predict the future?

“Sophia, Sophie, our daughter,” my father says as his face comes across the screen with a big smile. I can’t help but choke up another cry as another tear slips down my cheek. “We hope you’re doing well.”

“Shush,” my mother’s voice says. “If she’s watching this then that means she’s not doing well. Don’t you get it? Honey, ignore everything that your father has said, okay?” Unconsciously, I nod my head in agreement.

“Anyway,” my father says taking the reins again. “If you’re watching this, then the worst has happen and it’s more than we can completely describe to you, but you probably know a little bit.”

I blankly watch the screen as my father continues talking and then my mother. I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. What is this? It makes no sense. I leave the video playing and go to my bed. My parents’ words, I don’t understand them. They must be in a language that I don’t know or understand, using big words that only people from a secret agency would understand. I don’t understand. Why did they make me the video if they knew that I wasn’t going to understand it?

I take out the picture book that’s next to my bed. It’s filled of countless memories of my life since high school. Most of them are of with me and Daehyun and others are with the both of us and my parents. He always hung out with me and my parents, regardless of anything. He never complained if my parents were being embarrassing and he laughed along with their jokes. I wish he were right here comforting me, but he’s in school. I would text him, but I know that he would immediately come. I don’t want him to hinder his education just because of me. I’m a big girl; I can handle this by myself.

I look over at the clock and realize that it’s three in the afternoon, school is over now. Daehyun is probably hanging out with some of his other friends; our lives don’t necessarily revolve around each other. My mind wanders to this morning when my mother asked me if I was going o be late. Now, she’ll never ask me that again. I collapse on my bed as I start to cry.

The ringing of the doorbell wakes me up. I open my eyes and see that it’s already five. I’ve slept for two hours. I don’t remember falling asleep, I just remember crying. Going over to my mirror, I look at myself and I look like a total wreck. I quickly run a brush through my hair to at least look presentable to the person at the door.

“Hello?” I ask as I open the door.

“Sophie.” It’s Daehyun. Immediately, I run to him and wrap my arms around him. “Sophie?” he asks. “Sophie, were you crying?” I don’t pull away from him. I just hug him tighter and start to cry. “Shh,” he says as he pats the back of my head. “What happened? Let’s go inside first, let’s sit down. Are you hungry? Did you eat?”

Despite Daehyun’s constant questioning, I don’t answer him. I just need to lean on someone for right now. Daehyun leads me inside towards the living room and sits me down on the couch. “Shh,” he says as he attempts to comfort me some more. “What happened to you? Have you been crying this whole time?”

“Are you just going home now?” I ask noticing his backpack.

“Yeah,” he says nodding. “I was playing some baseball with the guys when I thought I’d stop and see if you were home. What happened to you? You like totally disappeared.” I can’t say anything and Daehyun notices it. “Well, did you eat yet?” I shake my head. “Here, I’ll make something for you.” Daehyun gets up off of the couch and he makes his way towards the kitchen. I know that he’s going to make me something that he makes for himself whenever he’s sad or whatever his mother made for him when he was living with her in Korea. I don’t know why he doesn’t live with his mother, he doesn’t talk about her often. I just know that he lives with his aunt here in America. He’s never told me why he moved either. Well, he’s never told me a very good answer.

“Wakey, wakey,” Daehyun says lightly shaking me. “The food is ready. Let’s eat.”

I slowly climb off of the couch and go to the dining room where there’s food laid out. I know that it took Daehyun a long time to prepare it, but I don’t feel hungry. “Daehyun,” I say. “Thanks, but I don’t feel hungry.”

“That’s why you should eat,” he says putting some food on a spoon and bringing it towards my face. “I’ll feed you.” Reluctantly, and after Daehyun’s incessant nagging, I finally open my mouth and let him put the food in. “Ah,” he says after a while of silence. “Here is your work from the government class. I told the teacher that you weren’t feeling well and went home sick, okay?” he asks going to his backpack and pulling out some papers. “I’ll just leave them on the desk out here.”

“Thanks,” I mutter.

“Sophie, can you tell me what’s wrong?” he asks leaning down to be eyelevel with me. I turn my body so I’m facing him, but my head is still hung low and my hands are in between my legs. “You know you can trust me, right Sophie?”

“I know,” I say nodding my head.

“So tell me, please?” he begs with his eyes.

“My parents,” I begin, “they’re…dead.”

Daehyun’s POV

Her parents are dead? How is that even possible? They were there this morning, this morning her mother made a comment about us dating. Now they’re suddenly dead? This can’t be happening. “Sophie,” I whisper.

“I don’t need your sympathy,” she says.

“I won’t give you my sympathy then. I’ll just give you my company, how about that?” Slowly, Sophie nods her head. “Why don’t we go to your room? You must be feeling exhausted.”

We both make our way to her room where I see a picture of her mother and father on her computer screen with a box that says play again up on the screen. “Play what again?” I ask out loud.

“A message,” she quietly says.

“A message?”

“A message from my parents.”

“Do you mind,” I begin.

“I don’t. It’s not even like I understand it anyway.”

“Well, you go to sleep first,” I say going to the edge of the bed and tucking Sophie into bed. Once I see that she’s asleep, I put headphones into the computer and press play again. I watch the video and listen to every word. What is this?

Quietly, I make my way out of the house and towards my own house. I kick a rock as I walk to my aunt’s house. I’ve called her house my home for the past six years. She takes care of me and worries about me, but she knows that if I come home late, it’s normally because I was with Sophie. She doesn’t know the whole story today.

“Where have you been?” she angrily asks.

“I was over at Sophie’s house,” I state.

“Do you know what time it is?” she asks.

“Yeah, nine at night,” I say looking my phone.

“Your mother’s on the line.”

“My mother?” I ask. She only ever calls if…actually, she’s never called me in my six years here. Maybe she’s called my aunt, but she’s never called me. My aunt hands me the phone and I take it, switching on the Korean in my brain since my mother will speak Korean to me. “Hello?” I ask.

“Where have you been?” she asks. Sisters are surely alike.

“I was out, Mom,” I say. “Why are you calling me?”

“It’s time to take your proper place,” my mom casually states.

“I don’t want to,” I complain. “Do you not remember why I’m here anyway? I didn’t want to go to my proper place.”

“You have no choice, Jung Daehyun,” she says saying my full name. When that happens, it means that she’s mad. “Your flight to Korea is booked for you tomorrow morning at ten. If you’re not on it, then I’ll come over, personally find you, and put you on it. I better see you tomorrow night.” She hangs up the phone leaving me standing there.

I can’t leave for Korea. Not when Sophie’s in such a state. I don’t want to leave. I’m her best friend, I’ve spent six years here and now my mother is demanding that I go back. I can’t leave, but if I don’t go back, it’s going to be even worse.

Korea or America? My mother or Sophie? Me taking my proper place or my friendship with Sophie? Which choice to make?

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How will Daehyun tell Sophie that he's going to Korea? How will Sophie react? What is Daehyun's proper place in Korea? What was on the video that Sophie's parents left? Could Daehyun understand the video?

First chapter is up. Hope you enjoyed :D

I actually think this was one of the better first chapters that I ever wrote.