“…And tomorrow’s Parent’s Day, so make sure your parents come and have fun with you!” The teacher finished, clapping her hands.

All the students began to whisper to each other, giggling about how their Umma or Appa was firefighter, or a police officer, or a window cleaner, or anything, really.

In the corner, surrounded by his bodyguards, was ten year old Lee Sungyeol. He let out a mocking scowl, just staring at his fingers. Parents. This woman had to be joking.

“Sungyeol.”

Looking up, Sungyeol magically saw his teacher standing in front of him. “Sungyeol-ah, since your –“

“Parents are dead, they can’t come?” Sungyeol finished, almost spitting in the teacher’s face. “I got that already, from last year. I don’t need you to tell me it, too.”

The teacher nodded, hiding her scared feelings. She couldn’t say a bad word to the boy because this was Lee Sungyeol – nephew of the CEO of Lee Enterprises. One wrong word, and her job was over.

“This is stupid. I’m skipping the rest of school.” Sungyeol got out of his seat, motioning to his body guards. “You, get me some more ice cream.”

The guard on the left, Hoon, shook his head. “The Master said that you couldn’t have any ice cream, sir.”

“But I want ice cream!” He demanded, stomping his foot. “If I want ice cream, I get ice cream.”

Lee Sungyeol’s motto: If I want, I get. It was as simple as that.

“But sir –“

“Don’t you dare ‘but sir’ me,” Sungyeol grimaced. “Do it. Or you will have no job by the end of today.”

“But sir, the Master said –“           

“Like I give a flying pig’s about what the Master said. Get me ice cream.”

The entire class was watching as their backed away classmate argued with a grown, muscular man – and the little boy was actually winning.

“Sungyeol-ah –“

Sungyeol’s glare made the teacher shut up immediately. She walked to the front of the class, knowing that her students’ eyes were carefully following her.

“I hated this class anyway,” Sungyeol grunted, pushing his chair in with his foot and walking out the door.

“So Sungyeol, how was school today?”

“It was fine,” Sungyeol answered, stabbing his meat before putting it into his mouth.

“Really, now? So…what did you guys do?”

“Crappy, stupid stuff.”

Lee Jonghyun let out a frustrated sigh, putting his fork down. “Sungyeol, I’ve told you a countless amount of times. Do not use foul language. That isn’t good for kids your age.”

“There’s a lot of things that aren’t good for ‘kids my age’.” Sungyeol pushed his chair back, took his plate, and walked to the sink. “And I still do them anyway.”

Nobody understood him. Nobody could, even if they tried.

Imagine never knowing your parents. Imagine not having parents. In the duration of Sungyeol’s ten years of living, he’d never met one kid that was an orphan like him. Nada.

Whenever you see a child’s improper behavior, your first thought is that they weren’t raised accordingly. That was, in a way, Sungyeol’s issue. Except he was never raised by anybody – he raised himself.

Sungyeol had somehow managed to convince himself that his uncle didn’t give a freak about him. Jonghyun had been forced to take in Sungyeol, after all. He didn’t have a choice, and he wasn’t going to abandon a parentless child.

“There’s nothing on,” Sungyeol said to nobody as he scanned through his 20’x20’ TV. “There’s nothing fun on the internet, either.”

Sungyeol’s room was packed full of electronics, gadgets, games that he’d gotten sick of, toys that he’d never touched but didn’t want to throw away. They were things bought on a whim because he’d wanted them, not because he needed them.

After all, what he wanted, he got.

Sungyeol pushed himself back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. These were the times when he wondered what having a proper ‘family’ was like. When nothing fancy was included – when you were bored, would your mom play with you? Or would your dad teach you how to build something? He didn’t know, everything was just thoughts made up in his mind.

Or maybe, maybe this was where ‘friends’ came in. Right? When you’re bored, you call up your friend and you guys talked. Or there were unarranged play-dates, when you’d just run over to their house because you wanted to.

Having friends, unlike having parents, was something that Sungyeol could control. He just chose not to have any because he didn’t like any of the people that he met. They either up to him too much, or they’d been playing him for his money, or…he just didn’t like them. He wanted a friend that could understand him, could put up with his wants and his mood swings.

Yeah. Never.

“Your food is prepared, sir.”

Sungyeol stared at the plate set before him, a gross look overcoming his face. “Ew. Ew. What is this?”

The maid bowed before replying, “Seaweed soup, sir.”

“What? No! I don’t want that. It’s disgusting.”

“But sir –“

“How many times do I have to say it, do not ‘but sir’ me!” Sungyeol shouted, glaring at the poor woman. “Just take the stuff away! I don’t want it! I want a hamburger!”

“But sir, that’s what Master had, and he said that it was good. He wanted you to have some –“

“Well, I don’t want some! So get me my hamburger!”

Bowing again, the maid took the perfectly fine bowl of seaweed soup and backed away to the kitchen, the plates clattering due to her shaking hands.

“AND GET ME MY ICE CREAM, TOO!”

“I want a flying car,” Sungyeol muttered, staring out the window of his limo on the way to school.

“What was that?”

Turning to Junho, Sungyeol repeated, “I want a flying car. Seriously, we’re in the 21st century and there aren’t any flying cars?! This is so stupid. Get me a flying car.”

“But sir –“

“Do not ‘but sir’ me. I want a flying car.”

And last week he was complaining about his BMW. That’s where the limo came from.

“But sir, there aren’t such things as flying cars. They –“

“THEN INVENT THEM!” Sungyeol said, as if it were the most simple thing on earth. “I want a flying car.”

“But sir –“

“I expect it by tomorrow evening.”

Junho sighed and turned back to stare forward. Whatever Sungyeol wanted, he got…but this was just unbelievable.

Jonghyun calculated the expenses, rubbing his temples. Lee Enterprises managed to must every bit of funding they had in order to come up with the money for this project. This meant no more fooling around for a while.

“JONGHYUN!”

“I’M IN HERE, SUNGYEOL!” Jonghyun shouted back, slowly organizing his papers back together. If Sungyeol had the nerve to call him, it had to be something important.

Hearing Sungyeol’s footsteps to the study, Jonghyun turned his chair around. A paper appeared before his face.

“It’s a cruise around Korea. I wanna go.”

Oh, no. Oh  no, no, no, no.

“Sungyeol, we can’t,” Jonghyun apologized. “Lee Enterprises is starting a new project, and all our money must go to it –“

“Since when have I cared about Lee Enterprises’ projects?” Sungyeol scoffed. He flipped the paper around for Jonghyun to see. “It’s a cruise, and I want to go. And whatever I want, I get.”

“Sungyeol –“

“Jonghyun.”

“You don’t understand, Sungyeol! This project is important, it can determine Lee Enterprises’ future! I promise you, Sungyeol, if this project turns out good, I’ll let you go on a thousand cruises. Just not this one, alright?”

“No! I want to go on this one, and only this one! If you don’t let me, I’m going to stowaway!”

Jonghyun groaned, pushing his chair closer. “Please understand, Sungyeol! Stop being so selfish! This company is going to you! You don’t need to go on this cruise! Please, Sungyeol. You need to be mature and understand right now.”

…Selfish? Was Sungyeol being selfish? Huh, that was a surprise for him.

“I just…I just wanted to go…” Sungyeol faltered. He stepped back  bit, dropping the paper and running out of the study.

Bending down, Jonghyun took the paper and read over it. “INFINITE cruise…where you’ll find your dreams, loved ones, and best of friends at~!”

He paused, looking at the picture of the boat. “It’s a cheesy title…but it managed to catch Sungyeol’s eye, so…oh.”

Dreams, loved ones, and best of friends.

Everything Sungyeol lacked.

“Sungyeol.”

“Go away!” was the muffled reply. Jonghyun sighed, opening the door. He stepped over the toys and got to his nephew’s bed.

“Sungyeol…”

“Go away.”

“You can go.”

Immediately, Sungyeol’s head appeared and he sat up. “…Really? To the cruise?”

“Yeah,” Jonghyun sighed. “I’m taking the money out of your college fund, though.”

“That’s fine!” Sungyeol cried, his lips spread in the widest smile (or the first…) that Jonghyun had ever seen. What a weird image. Sungyeol smiling. “Thank you, Jonghyun! Thank you, so, so, so much!”

“Anything for you happiness,” Jonghyun said. He’d never seen Sungyeol happy, not since…ever, really. He never even laughed as a baby.

Maybe, just maybe, this cruise was what he was waiting for. Maybe this cruise had something in store for Sungyeol that nothing else in life did.

“BYE!” Sungyeol shouted, waving to Hoon and Junho.

Smiling, the two body guards waved back. They weren’t sure how it would be like, not having Lee Sungyeol to take care of for three months.

“I think I’m crying…”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby!” Junho teased, although he was also crying beneath his tinted sunglasses.

“But look at our Sungyeol…he already looks so happy, and it’s only the start of trip.” Hoon took off the sunglasses, turning around to wipe his eyes.

“Well, all we have to do is pray that he doesn’t get shipwrecked!” Junho laughed. He patted Hoon on the shoulder as he watched Sungyeol’s figure disappear, blending into the crowd of people.