Just like yesterday, Kyung left the classroom early so I had nice peaceful walk to work. Though I don’t know why I had looked up to see if Kyung was in his seat waiting for me after class. I would usually ignore all else and just focus on myself. But nowadays, I seem to be involving myself in whatever activity with Kyung, especially with the encounters I had had with him these past days. I shook my head of all the thoughts with him and prepared my mindset for work.

-

The sound of the door’s bell goes off. I looked up from the counter and forced a smile onto my face to welcome the customer that had just walked in. The minute that I see who it was, the smile on my face slightly dropped. As he walked towards the counter, I found it hard to breathe because I wasn’t expecting his appearance in here.
“So this is where you work, huh,” he spoke, widening the ridiculous smile on his face, “a coffee shop.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, and as much as I wanted to speak rudely to him, I couldn’t. I tried to widen the smile on my face, and cleared my throat, “What would you like today?”
“Hmm,” he exhaled, looking up at the menu from behind me, “what’s something you recommend?”
I cringed at the words, “Um, well, the peppermint mocha is surprisingly popular, especially for the weather.” I tried to sound as happy as I could.
“I don’t really like mocha,” he shook his head, “do you have any tea of sort?”
“You’re in a coffee shop,” I said through clenched teethes.
Kyung laughed, “I know, I was joking around.”
“Are you going to order something or what?”
“Nah, I just wanted to come by and wait till you were done with work.” He smiled at me, “I can’t have you walking out alone by yourself.” He said, “It’s dangerous for a girl like you be out alone, you know.”

“I’ll be fine; I’ve been walking home alone since I’ve worked here for the past months.”
“Yeah, but the situation from yesterday could happen again, and if I wasn’t there, who knows what could’ve happened.” He stated, “I mean, what would you have done if I wasn’t there, huh?”
“I would have ran without looking back,”
“Why didn’t you do that yesterday then?”
I furrowed my brows, “Because… I didn’t think you guys would notice me,”
He smirked at my answer, “My point exactly,” he took a step back, “I’ll wait here at the tables until you’re done with work, alright?” He winked at me before turning around to find a table to sit at. I sighed and decided to head into the backroom.


Stepping out from behind the counter with my street clothes on, I looked over at the table that Kyung had been occupied and noticed that he was sleeping. I wasn’t sure why I was hesitating to whether or not inform him that I was done. It would be best if I just left, but I had this guilty conscious that kept bugging me. With a sigh, I decided that it was best to wake him up and let him know that I am done with work. Taking a couple of steps towards him, I watched as he twitched in his sleep and smiled. Must be dreaming of something good, I thought to myself.
My hand trembled as I reached over to touch his shoulder, “Hey, wake up,” I said, moving him with my hand.
He grumbled an unintelligent word and slowly pried open his eyes, “Why am I being awaken?”
“Well, if you want to stay and sleep here then be my guest,” I replied.
At the sound of my voice, Kyung’s eyes opened widely; he smiled, “Ah, are you done with work?” I nodded. “And you woke me up,” he stated rather than questioned, “how sweet.”

“I only woke you up because I didn’t want you to sleep here,” I said, “I would get in trouble if I closed without knowing that someone had decided to spend the night here.”
He chuckled and got up from the chair, “Well, let’s head home.”

The walk home was quiet, but not awkward. Kyung was smiling half the time and chuckling to himself. I tried to keep my distance from him, but he ended up closing the gap between us. Because of this, I decided to ask him questions about his sudden behavior towards me.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?” I began, “We’ve gone to the same school for almost 2 years and now you’re suddenly… talking to me?”
Kyung looked at me with surprise, “We’ve gone to the same school for almost 2 years?” I nodded at his question to which he exaggerated his surprised look by dropping his mouth. “Why haven’t I seen you in school then?”
I frowned, “We’ve been in the same homeroom for the 2 years, you know?”
“I don’t remember,” he answered bluntly, which I somehow found offensive.
I clucked my tongue, “I guess you wouldn’t since you were a pretty popular person who only talked to popular people, especially pretty girls,” I said.
Kyung crossed his arms, “You’re pretty too,”
“Words like pretty mean nothing to me,” I coldly said to him.

“Why is that?” He questioned, “Any girl would die to hear a boy call her pretty,”
“Well, I’m not like other girls who would die at the word,”
“Do you prefer being called smart then?”
I shook my head and realized that he hadn’t answered my question yet; so I asked it again, “Why are you talking to me like it’s a normal thing?”
“It is a normal thing,” he replied, “human beings talk to each other, you know.”
“There has to be a reason why you’re suddenly talking to me,” I pressed, “before I was just a wallflower and now you’re beginning to stick your nose into my private life—or well, trying to.”
“Why should there be reason?” He questioned, “I’m talking to you because you’re my math tutor.”

“There are other people you could have asked to tutor you,” I countered, “better yet; you don’t even like school so I don’t see you would want help with math.”
Kyung clucked his tongue at me, “Do you need a reason for everything that happens?”
“Yes,”
He snickered at my answer, “So blunt,”
“If you’re just using me to fool around with and not because you need help with math, then I suggest that you stop.” I stopped walking, seeing that the apartment was only a few feet away. Facing the male before standing next to me, I took a step back from him, “If you really need my help in math, then prove it to me. Otherwise, you’re just wasting my time.” I said and turned around to walk towards the apartment.

-
-

Sliding open my room’s door, I found my mother sleeping on the floor. My brows furrowed as to why she had been sleeping out here and not in her room with her husband. Bending on my knees, I gazed at her face for a couple of seconds to see if I could find any markings to tell me her reason for being out here. It only took me a couple of minutes to find a small purplish-color on the side of her face. My fist clenched in anger. That man thinks violence is the only way to get his things around here, I think to myself as I stand and walk towards the bathroom to find a first aid kit. Though this would take up my time to walk to school, I didn’t mind it since I didn’t have to tutor Kyung anymore.
Walking back to the room where my mom was found asleep, I set the kit on the ground and opened it up. I grabbed an ointment which would sooth the bruise so pain wouldn’t ensue. Softly, I rub the ointment onto my mother’s cheek, knowing that it would cause her to wake up, but I told her that I was applying ointment on her. She smiled weakly at me and closed her eyes.

“How late did you come home last night?” I decided to ask.
My mother sighed and opened her right eye, “Past midnight,”
“I’m guessing you guys bumped into each other outside and he got mad at you for something,” I said through gritted teethes.
“He said he saw me holding hands with another man,”
I clucked my tongue, “He didn’t even try to listen to what you had to say, huh,”
“He’s a good person, though,” she countered, “he loves me a lot.”
“Mom, that’s what they all say even if they beat you into pulp,” I said to her, “I think it’s best if you just left the guy.”
She clucked her tongue at me this time, “Your father is a good man—”
“He’s not my father,” I interrupted her and stopped applying the ointment, “my father is dead.” I said and stood up. My mother said my name, but I shook my head and quickly told her that I was going to be late for school if I don’t leave right now. After putting the first-aid kit up, I left the apartment with a heavy heart. The memory of finding out my father was dead due to a street-shooting flooded my mind as I walked to school. If only he hadn’t decided to go out that night just to buy me paper for school. I sighed and tried to kick out the memory.