Having said her part Dami stomped off.

“Never mind her,” Jongin said. “You want to compare notes later?”

“Your notes are probably illegible,” she murmured.

“I have nice handwriting,” he argued.

Namjoo gave him a side eye, but said nothing more.

Once classes started Namjoo couldn’t focus. She thought about the conversation Jongin’s father had whipped up that morning out of the blue. Like he knew something. The more she thought about it, the more she was 1000% confident he knew she’d seen him that night.

This was his warning.

Keep your mouth shut. Turn a blind eye. Maybe he was afraid she’d tell Jongin about his infidelity.

If he knew, what would he do? Confront his father? Go berserk? Would he hurt the days coming?

Namjoo glanced at Jongin’s back. Maybe he might hurt like her. Maybe not. She didn’t know.

The only thing she did know, was that this new marriage was not going to work out. She and her mother were going to lose their place. All because her mother couldn’t stop from seeing other men. Begging for attention from elsewhere.

And Namjoo was angry at her mother. For being like this.

It was unfair.

Didn’t her mother think about her at all?!

These thoughts made her want to combust at the end of the day, so when she got home and saw her mother in the kitchen, she immediately tossed her backpack to the ground. Leaving Jongin behind she pulled her mother out of the kitchen. Crossing the hall into the parent’s bedroom. Slamming the door close Namjoo spun around to face her mother.

“You crazy girl,” her mother muttered frowning.

“Me?” Namjoo touched her chest. “Crazy? No.” she shook her head. “That’s not me. It’s you, mom!”

Yanking her arm pulling her close, her mother asked in a low voice, “What is wrong with you? Stop with your diva act and go outside and study.”

Namjoo fiercely shook her mother off. “Mom, you just got married. Why are you doing this?”

She received a glare. Fed up her mother turned toward the door.

Namjoo felt her heart break into tiny itty pieces. “We just got here. Why are you doing this again? Don’t you care about me?”

Her mother turned toward her deeply sighing annoyed. Softening, she touched her shoulder. Speaking soothingly, “Namjoo, you’re still just a child. You wouldn’t understand. Now go outside and study.”

Tears pricked the back of her eyes when her mother left the room. Leaving her behind. Biting her lower lip, Namjoo stalked out of the bedroom. Passing a dumb stricken Jongin as she dashed outside.

She didn’t run anywhere, but to the huge Oak where the swing was swaying in the breeze. Thinking about the first time she saw it the first night she moved in. Once yearning to ride the swing into the air on a fine summer day. With her wind billowing in the wind. Prettily like a commercial model.

Slowly day by day she had imagined doing more here.

Namjoo reached out touching the dark bark, strong and sturdy like some kind of guardian watching over the house.

“Do you want to ride it?” She turned to find Jongin standing behind her. Quickly turning away embarrassed she wondered how much of the argument he had heard. As if reading her mind, he said, “I just came out. Did you fight with your mom?”

“Well…” she quietly started, “it wasn’t really a fight. I was trying to make a point.”

Stepping past her he touched the woven rope. Tilting his head back to stare up into the budding leaves yet to turn color for the fall. Then turning to look at her with an urging smile, “Come on. I’ll push you.”

She almost argued, but walked toward him and sat down feeling the air brush her face as he gently pushed her forward. The warm air was calming, relaxing, and refreshing. The breeze caressed her face the exact way her mother had when she was a lot younger and sick. Such memories were worth not a cent in present day yet Namjoo was sad.

Suddenly sliding off the swing, Namjoo told for the first time, “My parents cheated on each other when they were married.”

The swing thumped into the back of his knees softly. She turned to look at Jongin then away from his frozen reaction. Namjoo stepped away from the swing and toward the tall tree. Reminiscent of the past.

“They never seemed happy together, and then they divorced.” Namjoo leaned against the tree. “If they couldn’t be happy, they shouldn’t have gotten married.”

“My dad fell in love three times before he married my mom,” Jongin said. Moving to the side he leaned against the tree, too. “I know he was seeing other women before our parents got married.”

“Do you think it’s easy to fall in love?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think,” she asked, “our parents love each other?”

This time, Jongin didn’t reply.

“I want them to,” Namjoo confessed. “Because I like it here. I got to know you. I want to get closer to Dami. I want us all to be happy.”

How selfish, but her mother had started this. Dragging her into a marriage she didn’t want her mother to have. Now that they were here didn’t she deserve this? To live out the rest of her life here?

She couldn’t stand the fact that her mother married out of a whirlwind romance only for love to die so fast.

Marrying for her own sake, because she couldn’t stand being a single mother. Struggling financially to support a growing daughter who wanted to attend college. A woman who yearned more to satisfy her empty life than the burden she had birthed.

Contentment would never exist in her mother’s universe because of her.

So just this one time, couldn’t it be for her?

The thoughts dispersed when Jongin touched her hand. His fingers grazed her knuckles briefly before brushing down. Feeling the texture of her skin as his fingers trickled over the back of her hand. Until his fingers twined through hers and he was holding her hand.

Namjoo’s lips parted. Her eyes jumped around the yard. Heart thudding. An abundance of warmth flooded through her. Everything she had been worrying about became a grain of dirt.

Very innocently she wondered if this could be considered love.

⸛⸛⸛⸛⸛

Jongin was half-half. Hoping his father loved her mother enough to stay with her for a long time yet also hoping, the marriage would crumble. But if it did and he never saw Namjoo again, he would rather it not happen.

Because he liked her.

Namjoo grew quieter the passing days. She didn’t play along with his jokes when they studied together in the evening. The things on her mind she didn’t talk to him about.