A fresh start, a new beginning they call it. That's what I had come to Seoul in the first place for, I suppose. Despite the fact that so much had happened over the past year, I no longer regretted any of it. Through every single hardship, each scary, heart-racing moment, I had somehow managed to pull through. With the help of others, but nonetheless, here I was. And for once in a long time, I felt happy, secure, and ready to once again trust in something I had almost let go of. Love.

"You're late again," Daehyun commented as I crept from my apartment. It had been my plan to try to sneak to school in the morning unnoticed, but Daehyun just had to be ever so sweet and wait for me. It was like this every morning since we had both moved back to the complex.

"You don't have to wait for me if you don't like being late," I crossed my arms and began down the staircase. Even though this side of Daehyun was a pain to deal with, I secretly loved his teasing and nagging. I had missed it.

He easily caught up and linked arms. "So I talked to my mom last night."

My eyebrows shot up and I stopped in my tracks. "Huh? Your mom?"

"Yep. She called again, and we finally got to talk. It was really weird, ya know, talking to someone you thought was gone. She's coming to come visit me next week, though."

"Wait, so everything's okay with her?" 

He gave thought to my question for a moment, then agreed. "Yeah, she was sick before, but she's a lot better now. My dad managed to scare her away, but she had never forgotten about me. My dad just told me she had passed away from her sickness, and I didn't know any better so of course I believed him. I was never told that she pulled through, and had decided to come looking for me."

"Why would he do that?" I wondered aloud.

"Hm?" Daehyun glanced over at me.

"Well, it's just, why would your father do that. I understand he was into some bad stuff and did things he regretted, like he stole all of that money, but still..."

"Probably just felt bad having to put Mom through all of that," he laughed bitterly. "He probably felt too guilty and shameful to deal with her. That's a pretty good excuse, right?"

I pat Daehyun on the back and smiled back at him warmly. "It's alright, that's all in the past. I'm just happy that you'll finally get to see her. It sounds like you guys'll have a lot of catching up to do."

Just as I finished speaking, we passed by the front desk. 

"Morning Shinwoo."

An older man, atleast in his sixties, strained his back as he turned to scoff at us. "The two lovebirds headed to school?" The skin sagged around his yellowed eyes and they narrowed as he directed his attention back to his desk work. The new desk clerk certainly was a force to be reckoned with, for he was quite old and cranky. It was a big change to the previous body that filled that space.

"I have singing lessons after school, and _____ has violin practice, so don't expect us until later."

He snorted in response and waved us off carelessly. Certainly was a change indeed.

"I almost miss Donghae. Is that weird of me to say?" I whispered once we were out of earshot.

"Not even a bit." Daehyun sighed, shaking his head.

"Whatever happened to him anyways?" 

"Who knows." His face, clear and unworried allowed no further explanation. I guessed that wherever he may be, it would no longer interfere with either of our lives. Of course I was still worried about Donghae returning, but I decided to extinguish that withering worry with whatever new hope and calmness I could derive, from inside of myself and from the Daehyun. I was told that he had called the police and saved us that night after all. Whatever his reason was for that, I was done wasting brainpower about him. Forever.

So to the beat of our own drum, a quick paced rhythm, we strode through the busy streets to our awaiting school, Sunhwa.