“Myungsoo-yah,” his father began, as they sat in their old home’s living room. “Do you want to have a new mother?”

He could only stare at his father. It had only been three months since his mother passed away, and there was this bastard, asking him if he wanted a new mother—as if having a new family member was the easiest thing in the world.

“Buy me a new home, instead,” Myungsoo replied.

His father thought about it for a moment, and nodded. “A new home it is, then.”

Not long after, he found himself moving to an empty apartment. His father supplied him with the basic, necessary things, and Myungsoo tried to search for a part-time job to become independent—and possibly, to distract him from the reality that just hit him.

Six months later, he received a wedding invitation. It contained the name of his father together with a stranger’s. He was supposed to be the Best Man. He scoffed, ripped the invitation apart, burned it and went to Busan for a week with the money he earned.

He earned a box on the face from his waiting father the day he returned. Myungsoo didn’t say anything. He simply stood still despite his throbbing cheek. He got cursed at; he got told he was nothing but a useless brat who brought nothing but shame to his one heck of a father.

“I gave you everything!” his father spat out. “And you repay me with this?”

“You never gave me your time,” Myungsoo muttered. “And that pretty much means everything to me.”

That shut his father up.

<:>

The radio coming from Myungsoo’s next door neighbor woke him up. He slowly opened his eyes and stared at his ceiling for a few more minutes, focusing on the blackened spots where his collection of glow-in-the-dark stars used to stay. He removed it the month before, because he got tired of staring at fake plastic stars. He outstretched his right hand, smirked to himself, and let it drop lazily on his unkempt bed.

Whenever he woke up, the first person he would see was his mom, looking at him with a warm smile on her face.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” she would always greet, and she would extend her hand to help Myungsoo up.

“Good morning, Summer,” he would reply with a grin, followed by a tight hug.

He smiled at the distant memory, and before the past could eat him up once again, he got out of his bed to prepare for school. Ever since his mom died, he didn’t even bother eating breakfast. He somehow began to hate the smell of food in the kitchen during mornings. It reminded him of what he had lost, and that was the very thing he never wanted to remember.

Myungsoo was a twenty-one year old university student, majoring in Music. He had a decent amount of inherited money in his bank account, but he swore to never touch it unless necessary, and so he studied and gained a scholarship that would get him through his college life.

He wasn’t smart. He simply worked hard.

Music was an outlet for him. Myungsoo figured he could express his emotions through that, and it was a great help, considering he was never the kind of guy who could speak his mind out in a heartbeat. Only his mother could figure him out, after all.

He was about to head out of his apartment when his phone vibrated. It was his father. He sighed, but answered it all the same.

“Myungsoo, good morning.”

“Morning,” he replied.

“Are you going to school now?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled. He heard the chortle of his half-brother in the background, and despite him being an adult, he couldn’t help but feel a little envious. Before he could stop himself, he said, “Bye.”

A pause followed.

“Take care, son.”

“You, too.”

Beep.

Myungsoo stared at his phone, scoffed, and placed it in his pocket. He held the strap of his guitar case, lazily hanging over his shoulder, and gave it a slight tug, before proceeding to the train station.

<:>

“Noona, wake up!” Sang Moon cried, as he shook her shoulders violently beneath her covers. “Wake up, or you’ll be late!”

Suzy stirred, but thought nothing of it. She could feel the cord of her headphones against her face, but she couldn’t even be bothered to stir it away from her.

“Noona!” Sang Moon yelled.

“If you scream like that for one more time I will seriously kick you,” she threatened groggily. “Leave me alone.”

She turned her back against him, and her younger brother could only sigh out of helplessness. “But you’re running late…”

Kim Sunggyu looked at Suzy’s room after hearing the ruckus. He was an orphan, and was adopted by the Bae couple in the summer of 1993, because they believed they wouldn’t be able to have a child. Suzy being born, however, was proof what the doctor said was wrong. Sunggyu always considered her as a miracle baby, and soon after, Sang Moon followed. He never felt unwanted, because the couple treated each one of them equally. The three grew up together, and the younger two treated Sunggyu as if he was their real brother.

“What’s happening over here?” Sunggyu asked, as he entered Suzy’s room.

“Noona,” Sang Moon pointed out. “She doesn’t want to get up.”

“Go and prepare,” he instructed. “I’ll take over.”

“You’re dead, noona,” the younger one remarked, before running out of her room.

Sunggyu placed his hands on his waist, and called out, “Suzy, wake up.”

“Five more minutes,” she bargained. “Oppa, just five more minutes.”

“You’ve slept enough,” he said. “Come on. Go and use the bathroom first. Hurry, because I’ll use it later on, too.”

“Oppa…”

“I also need to get to work, so don’t waste time like this,” Sunggyu sat on the side of her bed and shook her gently. “Come on, Suzy. Once mom and dad find out you’re late again you’d be dead for sure.”

“But they’re not here,” she complained. “And you wouldn’t tell on me, would you?”

“As your older brother I have every right to report it.”

Suzy groaned, and finally removed the blanket she covered herself with. Sunggyu couldn’t help but chuckle at her messy hair and disapproving face.

“Good girl,” he teased. “Now get up and prepare. Eat breakfast before you head out.”

She frowned, and outstretched her right hand. “I can’t. Help me up.”

Sunggyu stared at her waiting hand, and scoffed as he took it. “You still are a kid, really.”

Suzy smiled at his comment, and said, “Good morning, Sunshine.”

“Good morning, Summer,” he replied. “Now go!”

Without wasting any moment, she grabbed her towel and ran for the bathroom. Sunggyu grinned as he shook his head hopelessly.

Good morning, Sunshine.

Good morning, Summer.

That was how his favorite social worker who visited the orphanage often greeted him, and somehow, he managed to pass it on to Suzy.

<:>

“Darn it!” she cried, as she watched her train speed away. She checked the digital clock above her, and saw she had to wait for another ten minutes for the next train to come. She stomped her right foot against the tiled floor, and seeing how sulking was useless, she tried to calm herself down. Suzy’s phone rang, and upon seeing the unknown number, she had the strongest hunch: it was the stranger from the last time.

<:>

Myungsoo had no idea why he decided to call Miss 51 again all of a sudden. The train he was in almost had no passengers in it, so he figured it would be okay to make a phone call. He placed his phone against his ear, and on the seventh ring, she picked it up.

He tried to gauge if the same thing would happen. He didn’t speak, and neither did she. A while later, he said, “Good morning, Sunshine.”

There was a pause, and she replied, “Good morning, Summer.”

Myungsoo’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. Soon enough, the train arrived to its next stop. More people started to enter the vehicle, and so he muttered, “Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

He noticed an elderly looking around, and with a smile Myungsoo stood up only to offer his seat to the old lady.

<:>

“So he knows that, too,” she whispered, while staring at her phone. She smiled a little, and shoved her phone back in her blazer’s pocket. Exactly, the train arrived and together with the others, she made her way in once the doors hissed open. The seats got filled in an instant, and she noticed a young man with a guitar stand up to offer his spot to someone else.

Suzy smiled, and figured chivalry truly wasn’t dead yet.

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."
- Hebrews 13:2