“I’m home.” Jeongguk entered his house, seeing his mother and father getting ready to go out.

“Jeongguk, hurry and go change,” his mother was fixing her earrings in front of the mirror.

“Why? Are we going out?” He asked with a confused look.

“We’re going out for dinner,” his father replied. “Didn’t your mother tell you this morning?”

“I guess I forgot.” Jeongguk headed up the stairs to his room.

His father shook his head. “That boy is so forgetful. What has been going on with him lately…”

After 10 minutes, Jeongguk came back down in fresh clothes, ready to leave.

The three rode their car to a fancy restaurant. When they got there, a waiter led them to their booth where their table was.

Right next to their booth, Jeongguk saw the same girl he saw at the library during his ‘tutoring session’. It didn’t look like she was happy sitting there with her parents.

*Looks like she has a family dinner tonight too. I pity the both of us. I’d rather be home than be out here.* Jeongguk sighed and took his seat which happened to be right behind where the girl was sitting if not for the plant that divided their booths.

A waiter came to take their order then left. While they were waiting for their food to arrive, Jeongguk’s parents were talking about work while he was silent and listening to them without any interest in their conversation what so ever.

That was until… another voice behind him caught his attention.

“How are you doing on your studies Yoojin?” Yoojin’s father asked.

“Same as usual.” Yoojin replied softly.

“Your ‘usual’ isn’t enough,” her father stated. “What grade have you gotten in your latest assessment?”

“I received an A.” She softly spoke. “Doesn’t that reach your standards?”

“When Youngmi was in high school, her teacher gave her A pluses and percentages higher than 100,” her mother spoke. “Those are our standards you haven’t yet to achieve.”

Every time her parents spoke about school and grades with her, they’ve always brought her down. No matter how hard Yoojin tried, she was never able to impress her parents the way her older sister, Youngmi did.

Jeongguk overheard everything and thought that the way Yoojin’s parents were treating her was completely ridiculous. She’s just a high school student! How could they expect so much from her? *At least I know now that I’m not the only person in this school who has problems with their parents. And the books she was reading at the library! How is she not smart enough? Don’t her parents know what they’re putting her through?*

“Jeongguk!” His mother waved her hand in front of his face and popped his little bubble of thought. “Your food is here.”

“I-I… I’ll try to work harder,” Yoojin studdered.

“You mean you will work harder.” Her father shook his head then looked at his watch. “Where is Youngmi? She’s late.”

“She’s probably stuck in traffic. Give her a few more minutes,” Yoojin’s mother assured.

5 minutes later, Youngmi arrived at their table. “Appa! Umma!” She looked over at Yoojin. “Yoojin.” She smiled and sat down beside her. “I apologize for being late. I was caught up at work.”

Youngmi is five years older than Yoojin, which meant she is 21 years old. At the age of 21, a regular person would be studying in college but not Youngmi. Being as smart as she is, she skipped a grade in middle school and in high school. As expected by her parents, she now worked as a lawyer.

Day and night, she has worked hard in order to help her clients win their cases. She has won dozens of cases and gained popularity making her one of the best lawyers in South Korea.

She had a good job, making good money, extremely smart, and very pretty as well. That made her a daughter any parent would want.

Although Youngmi is the favored child, her parents rarely get to see her because of her busy schedules. Once in a while, they have a family dinner like this one, to catch up with each other.

Over dinner, Yoojin’s parents and Youngmi were having a lovely chat, excluding Yoojin. It’s not like Yoojin had anything to say either.

“Yoojin, will you please pass the salt?” Her father needed the salt for his soup.

Yoojin grabbed the salt shaker and stood up in order to hand it to her father. However, the salt shaker slipped out of her hands, dropping on to the table. Salt spilled everywhere, including the food they had in front of them.

“I’m sorry!” Yoojin quickly tried to clean up the mess she had made. From the corner of her eye, she saw her father shake his head.

The more she tried to clean up, the bigger mess she made. She accidentally pushed over a plate of appetizers and it landed on the floor, breaking the plate into pieces.

The sound of glass breaking drove a few people’s attention onto their table.

*What have a done.* Yoojin slightly panicked.

She dropped down and tried picking up the broken pieces but as soon as she picked a piece up, it poked into her finger. She was bleeding.

“Stop,” Her father commanded but she continued to pick them up.

“I told you to stop!” He slammed the table and startled her.

Jeongguk heard the bang while he was trying to eat his food. *What’s going on?* His eyes were diverted to the table behind him.

“Jeongguk! You have sauce on your shirt! And I just bought you that a few days ago!” His mother brought back his attention. He grabbed a napkin and began wiping it.

“No don’t do that! That’ll make it worse,” his mother said. “Go to the restroom and dab on it with water and a soap.”

He listened to her and left the table.

“Honey, calm down.” Yoojin’s mother tried to settle the situation. “It was a mistake. Everyone is looking at us now. Let’s just continue our dinner.” She waved her hand, trying to get a waiter’s or waitress’s attention.

Yoojin sat down, ashamed.

“You… are an embarrassment to the family. You’re clumsy and completely unreliable. Look at Youngmi! She can do everything you can’t!” Her father’s voice was loud.

“Appa!” Youngmi tried to stop him. She didn’t like the attention she was getting and felt guilty being the reason for Yoojin’s unhappiness.  

“She’s incredibly smart, obedient, and well rounded. Do you think any college will accept you when you can’t even pass me the salt without making a mess?!” her father continued.

By now, Yoojin’s head was down while trying to hold in her tears. “Excuse me. I need to use the restroom…”

She got up quickly and walked away from her family with tears falling down her cheeks.

At the same time, Jeongguk was heading back to his table. He looked at the stain on the collar of his shirt. *Umma is not going to be happy about this.*

Not looking at where he was going, he bumped into someone. He looked away from his shirt to apologize. “I’m sorry abou-.”

To his surprise, Yoojin was in front of him. He could see her eyes watering and the wetness of her cheeks.

“This is so embarrassing.” Yoojin sniffed and wiped away her tears then pushed past him without saying another word.

“Wait!” Jeongguk watched her run away.

He walked back to his table and saw a worker cleaning up the table next to theirs. “What happened while I was gone?”

“We’re not sure,” his father replied. “It’s not really any of our business though.”

“Well they should be more considerate. Frankly, I don’t want them to cause a scene while I’m eating dinner with my family,” said his mother. “They are a disturbance to everyone around them.”

Jeongguk didn’t mind his mother and continued to eat his food while wondering what happened to Yoojin and her family.