Minhee grew up living right above Mark in their apartment complex. The two discovered this fact shortly after the boy moved in and they both were on their way to school one morning. At the age of eight, Minhee was happy to go to school and enjoyed every aspect of her daily routine that had ties to it. To this day she can recall walking down the stairs that morning, enjoying the sound her feet made as they came in contact with the clean green tiles. When she reached level 4, one lower than which she started, a door opened and caught her attention. The girl paused long enough to catch a glimpse of the boy emerging from his home and close the door behind him, dressed in a navy blue uniform that matched her own. Her mother taught her not to talk to strangers, so when they made eye contact Minhee opted to give him a smile and continued on her way.

Minutes later the girl was halfway to school yet had lingering thoughts about the new kid and whipped her head to look behind her. Sure enough, the boy was a safe distance back but slowed his pace when he notice the girl had stopped. Minhee fought the urge to run to him and properly introduce herself. She let out a huff and tried to continue walking forward, but the curiosity won and the girl took small, soft steps closer to the new kid. That morning the two walked to school together and Minhee even waited for Mark after school so they could also walk home together.

Years passed and every morning Minhee walked down the flight of green tiles to meet with Mark before school. Then later in the day she would say goodbye to him in the same spot she first saw him. Sometimes Minhee would follow Mark to his apartment, but could never get any homework done due to the excitement of the boy having so many siblings when the girl was used to being an only child. So while playing at Mark’s house was a treat on the weekends, Minhee’s mother often made her come straight home after school.

The pair entered middle school and this shifted their friendship. Minhee joined several clubs and this resulted in Mark switching his routine to go over to new friends houses after school. The two were in different classes due to one having far better test scores than the other. Even on the weekends they barely had contact for one reason or another. Before they could realize it, th two drifted apart and went from best friends to ranking on completely different social ladders. Mark was intelligent and excelled in math and science while Minhee was teetering on failure in school due to her focus being on art. Safe to say that even though Minhee’s family never saw the girl hanging out with the boy anymore, that didn’t stop them from comparing her to him academically.

Now in their third year of high school, Minhee hadn’t seen Mark in years. No longer even able to catch glimpses of one another on the stairwell due to massive differences in schedules. Minhee heard from her parents, who were still close to Mark’s parents, that the boy went to the top high school located an hour from their complex. The girl was used to hearing this and that about the boy’s achievements and grew to ignore the nagging undertones her parents used when they described her school in comparison to where Mark went. But Minhee was happy at her school. The test scores may not be noteworthy, but the art program was and that’s all that mattered to her.

“Honey, what are you going to do with yourself? How will you get a job if you can’t get into college?” was a favorite phrase of her mother whom recited it at least once a week. Minhee learned fast that no matter the amount of explaining and negotiating she tried to do, her parents would always be disappointed with her life choices. This started the moment she deviated from the obsessive studying path that students were expected to follow if they wanted any kind of academic success.

“You should have joined a science club with Mark when you were young instead of scribbling and coloring all over the back of your failed tests. Look at the difference it made. He is aiming for Seoul university while you want to live on the streets,” her father told her one day. The girl swallowed her pride and locked herself in her bedroom, controlling the tears that pricked her eyes. She loved art and thought herself to be damn good at it. Minhee knew deep down that her parents wanted the best for her, but wished they could be more understanding and try to give her even just a pinch of respect. The girl often took the anger out in the form of drawings that she wished could be paintings. Lacking the canvas and paint that her parents refused to buy her, that never happened. So instead with normal lead pencils that were intended for her to use to copy facts from textbooks and solve math equations, she mercilessly lined, contoured and shaded images from her mind onto printer paper. Then she would take these and tape them to her walls. This created mosaics surrounding her as if it was a force field that could protect her from the hurtful comments those around her had to say.

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