“Doesn’t Gary love us too?” Hyun asked in a low whisper, as if he was afraid of the answer.

“Oh, Hyun, of course he does,” Jihyo replied softly.

“Then why doesn’t he have a courage to stay?” he asked, looking into Jihyo’s eyes. Jihyo’s eyes flickered away as a moment of doubt flickered in her. Yeah, why couldn’t he stay with them this time, she thought, as her heart tightened, maybe with a little jealously.

She gazed out of the tent, towards the sky with shining stars.

“Maybe,” she began, her eyes far away. “Maybe, sometimes we’re like shooting stars,” she said. Then, turning to look at Hyun, she continued, “We have to fall to make others’ dream come true.”

Hyun nodded slowly, his eyes glimmering with tears. So was hers.

Gary returned with a bunch of firewood. He added some to the dwindling fire, and kept the rest at the side for later use.

He saw Hyun and Jihyo looking at the sky. “Let’s sit by the fire and gaze at the stars,” he said as he peeked his head in. Jihyo nodded, so Gary went in to carry Hyun out, while Jihyo laid out a picnic mat on the ground.

Gary pointed to the one of the stars in the sky. “Hyun, look at that,” he said. “That star is the Polaris.”

“Is that the brightest star?”

“No,” Gary smiled. “But it’s important nonetheless. Because it is near the north, it helped to guide many sailors home when the compasses weren’t invented.”

“Just like you,” he continued, when Hyun doesn’t reply. “You may be tiny, but you’re important to both Jihyo and I, you know?”

Hyun let a small smile creep up his face. Jihyo smiled too.

“Why are there stars in the sky?” Hyun asked suddenly.

“The stars we see are actually far-away Suns, of other places,” Gary said.

“Other places?”

Gary used his finger to draw out a circle and a dot, representing our Solar System and the Sun.

“The outer space is a huge place…” he said, pointing at the circle. “This is where we are, our Sun, our moon, Earth, and other neighbouring planets. The planets rotate around our Sun…”

He continued drawing more circles. “…And our Sun rotate around other stars in the vicinity.”

“And because they’re so far away, they look so tiny, and we call them stars.”

“Why does everything rotate around each other? Why are they not falling down?”

“I don’t know Hyun…” Gary laughed.

“He’s a doctor, not an astronomer,” Jihyo laughed.

But Hyun wasn’t laughing. He had a solemn look on his face.

“My daddy told me that when people die, they go up to heaven and become stars.”

Gary and Jihyo exchanged worried looks. But Hyun continued talking.

“And my real mommy is up there, watching over me. And maybe now my daddy is up there too.”

His voice shook now, as tears welled up in his ey