Summer in the Midwest brings out both lightning bugs and cicadas. There are days and nights of rain and wind then weeks of hot, humid air. Summer has always smelled sweet to Kyungsoo. From the wet morning dew to his sticky upper brow, there has always been something sickly and fragrant that sticks to his skin throughout the season. This smell is something that he clings to, it is something familiar and nostalgic, and it makes this summer feel like all those from his past.

As a child, he would sneak out onto the porch at night and look up at the stars through the window his father had carved out for him in the roof overhead. Kyungsoo could watch the night sky for hours and bear witness to the quiet hum of the nature that surrounded him. There was always the sound of the wind and the birds and the low whisper of the crickets who came alive in the fields at night. And Kyungsoo thinks back to these nights on his parent’s farm as he watches the town move past his window from the passenger seat of his social worker’s old sedan. It’s strange passing by the unchanged places he has seen a million times, when he is someone entirely new. He looks to his left and spots the hotdog stand that his father would take him to after his little league games. And to his right he can spot the walking trail where his mother taught him how to ride a bike.

Kyungsoo shuts his eyes and instead focuses on the music playing from the car radio. He can’t bring himself to think back on these memories, especially not today.

Today is the day that he thought would never come. The car ride’s conclusion will drop him into a new life and entrap him in a vicious cycle which will continue until he reaches the age of 18. Kyungsoo is on the way to his first “new home”. But he knows that “home” is not the right word. He will be living with strangers who are paid to feed and clothe him, but are under no legal obligation to provide him any kind of love or familial bond. Not that Kyungsoo would want that anyway. The sting of his orphaning is still much too fresh and there is no room in his heart to accept any sort of new affection. Instead, Kyungsoo is determined to harden his exterior and retreat into himself. He plans to spend his summer alone, working his way through his father’s collection of books and drawing in his sketchbook. He has no time and no energy to exert in seeing old friends or making new ones.

The car stops in front of an old house with white shuttered windows and a wraparound porch. The lawn is clipped to perfection and there is a large garden to the left of the house where vegetables are being grown. Everything about the building is so perfect and immaculate that Kyungsoo is surprised to see a boy around his age peeking out from behind one of the porch’s columns. Before Kyungsoo can get a better look at him, he boy vanishes into the house and a woman appears outside in his place.

The woman, Suzanne, as Kyungsoo comes to find out, it going to be his foster mom. She is a well-built woman, made strong from years of hard-living, with broad shoulders and a plain face. Her hair is done back into a tight bun, and from the look on her face, Kyungsoo can tell she is not too pleased to meet him. When Kyungsoo exits the car, Suzanne makes no attempt to open her arms or even shake his hand. Instead, she tells him to grab his things and move them upstairs to the fi