CHAPTER ONE

Three Years Later

“Hi mom,” I say into my phone, tossing my keys back on the counter, “No, I just got home from dropping Yoogeun off at school… I have another hour before I need to be at the office, why?... I can probably drop by for a minute or two on my way in… Umma, he doesn’t need anymore clothes. I don’t know why you keep buying stuff for him. Half the clothes in his closet still have the tags on them… Okay, I’ll be there in like twenty minutes I just need to change into my suit… I’m not going to wear my suit to drop him off, I learned long ago to wait until afterwards… Because he has the worst case of butter fingers ever. Do you know how many suits he’s ruined?... Okay, I will… I’ll see you in a little bit… Love you too.”

I open up my closet and pull out my navy blue suit, laying it on my bed before walking into the bathroom. I wash my face and fix my hair before returning to my room to change. Yoogeun and I had developed a solid schedule every since he started daycare. I’d wake up at 7, get Yoogeun ready for daycare, make us breakfast, leave the apartment by 8 to make it to his daycare by 8:30. I’d get back at 9:00 and have to be at work by 10. Youngwon, my next door neighbor who attends the university up the street, picks Yoogeun up by 5 and watches him until I pick him up at 6:30. We’d eat dinner by 7:30 and I’d be tucking him into bed at 9. And then it all repeats itself the next day. I know it wasn’t exciting, but it made life easier for us. It’s hard to be a single parent and balance your child, work, and other things. Let’s just say that I don’t have much of a life outside of work and Yoogeun. But that’s fine with me, as long as Yoogeun is happy, I’m happy.

I throw on my suit and head out the door. I had to get to my parents house to pick up some winter clothes my mom decided to buy Yoogeun. It was barely spring and my mom is already buying winter clothes. How she even found them is beyond me, but I wasn’t going to argue with her. I was going to be cutting it close with this little detour, then again I didn’t have to really worry. I was a graphic designer for an independent advertisement agency, I was kind of my own boss. I set my own deadlines and all that good stuff. It doesn’t pay as good as some of the other offers I got, but they were more understanding of my situation. They understood I was raising Yoogeun on my own and were willing to accommodate me.

I pull into my parent’s driveway and hop out of the car. I take the steps up to the front door two at a time, my mom is already holding the door open for me by the time I get to the top. It was kind of freaky how she knew when I was here without having to look out a window or anything. She said it was just her mother’s instinct kicking it, I told it was just plain creepy. She’d normally hit me after that.

“Hi umma,” I lean down and kiss her cheek.

“Hi sweetie. Come on in. I’ll go and grab the bag. It’s sitting on the living room couch,” she disappears into the living room and I make my way over to the kitchen. I grab one of the many tumblers my parents had, but rarely ever used, and poured some of the fresh coffee in it.

“Where did you even find winter clothes at this time?” I ask, pouring cream into the cup and stirring it.

“I found this cute little shop by accident the other day. They had clothes for all seasons in there. They actually had the store divided into quarters, one for each season. It was the most adorable thing ever. I’ll have to take you there one day,” she walks into the room and I see that she has a rather large bag in her hands.

“What did you do? Buy every last item in that section of the store?” I take the bag from her hands and place it on the counter. I start to sift through the contents, there’s a few sweaters, a jacket or two, and a few pairs of pants.

“I just bought what I thought would look cute on our Yoogeunnie,” she smiles at me and I return it, “Besides, it seems like he didn’t have a lot of clothes this past winter. I just wanted to make sure he was going to be ready for next winter.”

“That’s not for another six months mom. What if he grows out of all of these? He is growing fast, like a weed. I wonder what they’re feeding him at daycare.”

“He won’t out grow them. I purposely bought them two sizes bigger. So they should fit him perfectly by the time he’ll need them.”

“Why didn’t you just buy him summer clothes? I’m sure he’s grown out of half the ones he has already,” I grab the bag and the tumbler off the counter.

“Oh I’m going to go back next week when they’re new shipment of summer clothes comes in,” she tells me as we walk back to the front door.

“Why don’t we all go next weekend?” I suggest while we walk out to my car, she’s holding onto my arm and gives it a squeeze.

“That sounds good and then you two can stay for dinner afterwards. I know your dad misses Yoogeunnie a lot. Not to mention it’s been too long since we’ve had a family dinner, you two have been so busy.”

“I know. Mianhe. I just have a strict deadline for this new ad I’m working on. I should be more free by the middle of next week though. Then things will go back to the way they normally are.”

“Does Yoogeun mind?”

“He understands that I need to work so I can feed, clothe, and house him. He’s a lot smart than he leads on.”

“That’s because he has a smart appa,” she goes on her tippy toes to kiss me on the cheek. I pull open the door to my car before giving her a hug.

“Thanks mom. I’ll talk to you later. Tell dad I said ‘hi.’”

“Sure thing. Give Yoogeunnie our love.”

“I always do,” I climb into the car and she steps back, “Love you mom.”

“Love you too honey. Drive safely and try not to work too hard today. I know you have a deadline to meet, but you shouldn’t push yourself too much. If you’re tired then take a break okay?”

“Yes mom.”

“And don’t skip your lunch like I know you do when you’re reaching a deadline. Make sure you eat a healthy lunch and not some greasy food from a street vendor.”

“Yes mom,” I roll my eyes and when I look over at her, she’s standing with her hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised, “Mianhe. I love you. I really have to go now.”

“Drive carefully! I’ll call you later! Love you!” she calls out to me just as I close the door and start the engine. I give her one last wave before I pull out of the driveway and head towards my job. I guess that was going to be me when Yoogeun is all grown up. No matter how old he gets, he will always be my baby boy, just like I’m always going to be my mom’s baby boy.

*~*

I sat at my desk going through a few papers as the kids in my class played. We’re going to be having an open house in a week and I still had so much to do. I still need to make copies of the letter telling the parents about it as well. Perhaps I’ll do that when the kids are taking their afternoon nap.

“Mr. Key! Mr. Key! Mr. Key!”

“Yoona, what did I tell you about yelling inside?” I look at the little girls that were now gathered around my desk.

“Mianhe,” she bows.

“It’s okay. Just don’t do it again okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now what do you girls need?”

“We were wondering if we could go outside and play. It’s sunny and there’s a lot of pretty flowers outside now.”

“We will go out and play, but not right now.”

“Aw, but why?” I can’t help but laugh when all four of them say it in unison.

“You girls know that we don’t go out and play until after naptime.”

“Aw, but Mr. Key,” again they say it in unison. No one would have guessed that they weren’t sisters by the way they acted sometimes. I knew that their friendship would be one that would last their whole life.

“Whining won’t change my mind. Why don’t you girls go and color? We’ll have story time in like fifteen minutes.”

“We don’t want to color. Yoogeun is coloring,” Krystal says and they all shrink away from the direction of the coloring station. I lift my head and look over at the lone boy coloring by himself.

“What’s wrong with Yoogeun? He’s a very sweet little boy.”

“He’s strange. No one likes him,” Taeyeon adds.

“How is he strange?”

“He just is Mr. Key, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Well if you don’t want to color then go and play something else. I’m almost done here then we’ll have storytime.”

“Ne!” they say as they grab hands and walk over to the toy chest. My attention goes back to Yoogeun. He seems perfectly content by himself, but I can’t help the little piece of my heart that aches for him. I knew that he was being isolated by the other kids and I was still trying to find out why. I haven’t gotten anywhere yet though. He didn’t seem to be bothered by it though. He actually seemed perfectly content in playing by himself so I’m not going to meddle anymore than I need to.

I guess he feels my eyes on him because he looks up and smiles at me. I smile back and give him a wave which he returns. How could you not like this kid? He’s the sweetest and most polite kid in my class.

“Mr. Key,” he says to me and motions me over, “Look what I drawed!”

“I’ll be right there Yoogeun.”

“Ne!” and he’s back to coloring.

*~*

I’m sitting at my desk marking all over the papers in front of me. I was starting to get really frustrated. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get this ad to look right. I’ve tried everything, I’ve adjusted the sizes of the fonts and pictures and moved them around. None of it worked. I toss my pencil aside and bring my hands up to my temples. I was really starting to get a headache now. I think I need to take a break. Maybe I’ll go out and get some fresh air to clear my mind. Then I can come back and tackle this one more time before I call it a day.

Unfortunately, my little walk didn’t help me at all. I was still stuck in the same predicament I was in since I came into work today. This was definitely the hardest ad I’ve had to work on in awhile. No matter what I did, it just didn’t flow well. I’m thinking I might have to scrap everything I had and start over from scratch. I wasn’t looking forward to doing that because my deadline was just over two weeks away and I’d have to work overtime to meet it. I wasn’t going to turn in something I wasn’t completely satisfied with though. I let out a long sigh and look up at the clock, it was barely 4 and I’m ready to call it a day. I obviously wasn’t going to get anymore work done today, so maybe I’ll just leave a little early. I start to pack up my things when Donghae pops into my office.

“Calling it a day Minho?” he asks, coming towards my desk.

“Yeah, this project just isn’t working out. Looks like I’ll have to start over from scratch tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry man, I know how hard you’ve been working on it for the past few weeks too.”

“Well, nothing I can do about it now. So I figured I’d cut my loses for the day and head on out.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Yeah, I figured I can surprise my son and pick him up today. That reminds me, I better call Youngwon and tell him that he doesn’t need to worry about baby-sitting Yoogeun tonight. What did you need?” I grab my bag and start to walk for the door, Donghae walking with me.

“I just wanted to ask you some questions about the project I’m working on.”

“Shoot,” we spend the short walk out to my car discussing his project, it seems like I wasn’t the only one who was having problems right now. I guess we were all kind of in slump right now. We say our good-byes as I get into my car. I pull out my phone and call Youngwon and end up getting his voice mail, he must be in class, “Hey Youngwon! It’s Minho. I just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry about picking Yoogeun up from daycare. I’m getting off of work right now, so I’ll pick him up. So you have the night off, go have fun with your friends or something. I’ll talk to you later.” I hope he gets the message before he goes to pick up Yoogeun. I start my car and head over to the daycare. Yoogeun definitely was going to be surprised to see me, I haven’t picked him up from daycare in such a long time. Maybe we’ll stop by the park and get some ice cream before heading home.

*~*

“Kyu, don’t run please,” I yell as the small boy rushes to his mom, “Aish! That kid is going to end up breaking all his bones before he reaches high school.” He ends up tripping over his feet before he reaches his mother and the sound of his cries fills the playground. His mom rushes over to him and the cries stop the moment she picks him up. I guess he wasn’t as hurt as he let on. I shake my head and turn back to the other kids playing on the various structures of our small playground. My eyes end up landing on Yoogeun again. He’s playing by himself in the sandbox again. I walk over to him and sit down beside him.

“Yoogeun-ah,” I say and he looks up at me.

“Ne Mr. Key?” he continues to shovel sand into his bucket.

“Why are you playing by yourself?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs his shoulders.

“Don’t you want to play with the other kids?”

“Not really.”

“Why not?”

“Because they don’t like me.”

“Oh,” my heart breaks for him because he seems to have accepted that the other kids don’t like him. I really don’t understand why though, “Why don’t they like you?”

“Because I don’t have a mommy.”

“What?”

“That’s what Yoona and those other girls sayed.”

“Well that’s not a good reason for them to not like you.”

“It’s okay because I have something they don’t.”

“What’s that?”

“I have a Youngie.”

“What’s a Youngie?”

“He’s lives in the room beside us. He has blue hair and let’s me drink banana milk whenever I want even though appa says I’m not apposed to.”

“Oh I see.”

“Yoogeunnie!” a deep voice yells from across the playground, I look up to see a man approaching us.

“APPA!!!!” Yoogeun jumps up from the sandbox and rushes over to the man that’s now only a few feet away. I study him and I have to admit that he’s probably the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life. He was tall and his fitted suit tells me that he works out. I look at his face and the smile that he has as he throws Yoogeun up in the air.

“Hi,” I step forward, extending my hand out, “I don’t think we ever formally met. I’m Kim Kibum, your son’s teacher.”

“Nice to meet you Mr. Kim. I’m Choi Minho, Yoogeun’s appa.”

“Please call me Key.”

“Well I’m sorry that I haven’t introduced myself to you sooner Key. We tend to run a tight schedule in the mornings. This little guy is hard to wake up,” he tickles Yoogeun’s stomach and we all laugh, “And our neighbor normally comes to pick him up in the afternoon since I don’t get off of work until 6 most days.”

“It’s okay. I normally have my hands full in the morning anyways. You’d be surprised at how many kids still cry when they’re dropped off.”

“You don’t cry do you Yoogeunnie?”

“No.”

“Because you’re a big boy right?”

“Ne!”

“Where’s your backpack?”

“My packpack is over there,” he points across the playground and Minho sets him down on the ground.

“Well go and get it so we can go home. Maybe if you’re good we can stop for ice cream.”

“Yay ice cream!” Yoogeun runs off and I turn to face his appa.

“Before I forget and I’m sure Yoogeun won’t remember either, but we’ll be having an open house next week. I really hope you can make it,” I say, Minho turning to face me as well.

“I’ll be there,” he responds with that smile again and I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks.

“Appa go go!” Yoogeun yells as he runs into his appa’s legs, clinging to them for dear life.

“Okay okay. We’ll go,” he picks up the small boy and we end up staring at each other for a second before he says something, “It was nice to finally meet you Key.”

“You as well Minho-ssi. I’ll see you tomorrow Yoogeun?”

“Ne! Bye bye Mr. Key!”

“Bye bye,” I wave as they leave, Yoogeun talking animatedly to Minho as they get further and further away. My attention is drawn back to the rest of the kids in my class when I hear Yoseob screaming at the top of his lungs. It looks like he fell off the swing again.