Kyunghee School of Arts, 2010

“Be nice to anyone, don’t run by yourself, and always home before midnight, okay?”

Jongin shakes his head again when his mother repeats again her ‘rules’ and silently begs his father to let him at least has a bit of his pride left with him when his parents finally decided to take off. He has not able to raise his head up ever since his arrival because he is worried that other kids will laugh at him on the way his mother treats him.

He doesn’t have the heart to blame his mother for being that protective, though. They lost one of his sisters a year ago when a drunk driver smashed into her car. But he was old enough to understand that his sister did not do anything wrong that night, she was only a wrong person in a wrong car on a wrong time.

“Yeobo, we need to go. Jongin is old enough to take care himself. We’ve discussed this, haven’t we?” His father softly pulls his mother off him and smiles a little at him.

“Yeah, Umma. I promise you that I won’t forget that.” Jongin pats her mother’s hand awkwardly. “I will…”

Then they hear a soft cough besides and the three of them move their gaze to the door and see a woman who is looking at them with apologetic smile. It seems the woman can see that a moment between mom and son is broken when she comes to the room.

“I am sorry, but are you the new roommate?”

Jongin’s mother nods and smiles back, and Jongin knows from her body language that she feels comfortable with the other woman.

“This is Jongin, and you are?”

The other woman suddenly remembers something and jumps a little to move backward. Seconds late she drags a tall and lanky boy with her.

“I am Sehun’s mother. He will be Jongin’s roommate I think.”

The boy only nods and stays behind his mother's body. Jongin is betting with himself on why is the boy so quiet. He can be shy or maybe he is just too ignorant. Then he sees his mother’s eyes.

Uh, yeah, introducing yourself, Jongin.

“Uh, I am Kim Jongin. Nice meeting you.”

He moves closer to this Sehun