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“Childhood Memories”

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There was a time when everyone called her Mia, a name which her birth mother gave to her. That time, everything was simple, and she was happy. She remembered always eating her favorite strawberry ice cream in front of her grandmother’s house while waiting for her mother coming home. Sometimes, she enjoyed herself playing at the park alone after her kindergarten closed. It was rare, but she also enjoyed the storytelling her mother told her before she fell asleep. Or that time when her father visited, she was the happiest when she could be together with her mother and father, and also her sweet grandmother.

It was when she was seven years old that she learned why her father rarely visited her and her mother, why her mother always forbid her to call her father father, why her mother hid her, why her mother always told them she was her niece, why she couldn’t call her mother mother. She eavesdropped her mother talking with her father in hushed voices when they thought she fell asleep. She wasn’t that bright, but she could put two and two together. Thanks to the countless dramas and films her grandmother always played on the television.

She was an illegitimate child.

It should be okay if her mother was not a known actress and her father was not the current Mayor of the town at that time, and already had a family of his own. Her mother was a home wrecker.

It was when her grandmother, the one who raised her when her mother busily pursuing her carrier, died that slowly changing little sweet Mia into a different person. Her mother dropped her, a nine year old, in front of her father’s house doorstep. The thought about happily living with her father vanished as soon as she stepped inside the huge house. She learned that even if her father was always smiling in front of her, he didn’t like her as much as she liked him. And even if her half-brother loved her, his mother didn’t. Her sweet personality soon changed into a sour and cold one.

Mia had been a kid model even before she learned how complicated her family was. Her mother, though she wasn’t always the best mother in the world, always brought Mia to her workplace from time to time. Mia enjoyed the flash, the glamour of it. Since she was a kid, Mia enjoyed the spotlight.

Maybe that was why, even if she started to live with her father’s family, she still sneaked out to meet up with her irresponsible mother, going for an adventure of various filming sets. She discovered the world her mother loved very much and slowly learning to love it too. That time, she also built her own carrier. And slowly, little Mia found another form of happiness.

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Little Mia rolled her eyes when she saw Yugyeom, her brother showed –more like bragged- his trainees’ pass in front of her with his smug smiles. He was accepted as one of the trainees on one of the known three biggest agencies in the country, which was hers as well. If Yugyeom wasn’t the biggest trouble in her life –and it was saying a lot, considering her family histories- she would gladly have her brother at the same building with her.

She met him two years ago, but it was enough to really know everything about him. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was a little menace. For god sake, he replaced her favorite strawberry shampoo with ketchup as a symbol he accepted her into the family. He also caught smoking at the first grade of middle school and drinking just a few months later. After uncountable whips from his mother, he swore he never do that again, but Mia knew, he sneaked in a can or two of beer for time to time. Mia also couldn’t count how many times he created troubles, all she could remember was their father shouts and his mother defending him. She would lock herself in her room when that happened.

“I’ll tell your mother if you don’t stop” Mia rolled her eyes, already tired of the proud, smug, and annoying smiles of Yugyeom since half an hour ago. It was a known fact that his mother forbid him to pursue his dream as an idol. Mrs. Kim thought that celebrities were stupid and a bunch of parasites who couldn’t do a real job. But the eleven years old Mia knew better, Mrs. Kim was like that because of her own mother. After all, her mother and her were the sole reason why Mrs. Kim always in a sour mood.

So, knowing Yugyeom and Mrs. Kim, he must go to the audition without his mother’s consent. It would be another war when his mother found out, and it would be an interesting sight if not the fact that Mrs. Kim would also blame her little self for her own son’s decision. Well, she was already a child actress. Not to mention that Yugyeom auditioned in her agency.

Yugyeom puffed out his cheeks in slight annoyance. Mia was always so stuck up and she was just eleven for pate’ sake.

“Mia, Sweetheart, when you discovered how beautiful the world is, you’ll know how to be happy and slack off for time to time” A fourteen years old Yugyeom patted the top of Mia’s head with a wide smile, while the younger sibling just rolled her eyes. Sometimes, she felt like she was the older on