"Minwoo-ya, will you play with dolls all day long? why don't you play soccer out with your friends instead?"

 

"But mom... no one wants to play soccer with me"

 

"Do you ask them to play along?"

 

"No"

 

"That's why..."

 

Mom took my doll from my hand. It's Alice, she's a blonde with purple fancy dress embroidered with gold silk thread. Mom didn't like my dolls, she doesn't like girly things in general. She can't even cook. But I love my mom. She raised me on her own. She's tough. I'm the cute lovely son. Aren't we complement each other?

 

"Mooom... give me back my Alice"

 

"Minwoo-ya... I have no problem if you're into this kind of thing. But it makes me sad that you don't have a friend"

 

At that time... I realize that my difference will distanced myself from the rest of the world

 

---

I woke up from my nap because I could hear the rain's falling. My mom is away again, she's an executive creative director in a small advertising agency. I think she's handling a TVC in Japan or something right now. She's only 33 though. She started as a humble junior art director when I was 6, now I'm 16 and she earned the position she deserved. She had me when she was 17, she had wild teenage days... she was lucky my grandparents still keep her around, to actually got her double degree in marketing and design, she's made of steel. That's also why my grandparents didn't cast her out, she's such an opinionated woman, and people could trust her decisions. I never knew who my father is, my mom always said a man who left the woman who bear his child better be forgotten. By forgotten, that means we never talk about him, at all. It feels like my mom had me by herself. Just like Mary.

 

I don't go to school anymore, my mom opened a flower shop in our house back when I was 14, she loves flowers, it balanced her tough side, almost like deliberate. I was homeschooled before, in elementary school my mom kinda gave up on me, I couldn't get along with any of my friend, she said school's only function is making some friends, if I can't get it done there then there's no point in going to school. She then took care of my education by herself, she thought me basic stuffs in math, science and social studies, but the most important thing for her is knowing what my passion is since early age. See, freedom is awesome, but also such a burden. I don't know what I want to do, but for now manage a flower shop is quite fulfilling for me.

 

I walk to the door, opened it to watch the rain. Ah, it's about time for hydrangeas to blossomed again. My mother used to fill our garden with sunflowers, when it's summer our house will be totally yellow. I don't like yellow. It's a cheesy color. I love purple, though, so I cut half of my mom's sunflower to plant hydrangeas by myself. It was hard to reason with my mom, so I researched everything to support my idea, and I found out that purple and yellow are complementary colors, I said they're like us. I'm the cool purple hydrangeas and my mom is strong yellow sunflowers, shining through the summer and I will be blossomed right after her, side by side. My mom laughed at me that time, but she liked it so much that I spent my time researching so she let me plant my hydrangeas. Later on, I did more research just to found out that it's actually orange that complementary to purple. How stupid I was, my mom went to design major.

 

Our house is 2 stories all wooden house, with terrace around it. For someone who works in design world, my mom has really traditional taste in terms of architecture. This house quite stand out among other houses, in this busy suburbs, everyone build a minimalist and practical house. We just moved in since 3 years ago. When my mom's saving finally could afford a house, she went crazy over it. She doesn't like the idea of concrete minimalism for house, it's too depressing, she said, when we're back home, it's should feel homey.

 

"Excuse me!", a voice called me.

I look at the street and there's a young man holding his dog, with his bright yellow umbrella and dotted baby blue shirt tucked in nicely in his khakis.

"May I help you?", I said.

"Yeah", he's walking towards me, right to my door.

"Do you know this address?", he handed me a piece of paper.

"Aa... it's next to this house! There!", I pointed the white house right beside my house.

"Ah! Really", the man said excitedly.

"It's empty. Oh, are you the new owner?", I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm moving in tomorrow. It was my uncle's house before. Now he's gone to Japan, so he asked me to stay here instead", he said.

"Oh. That so. You lived near here?", I asked.

"Yeah, um, I rent an apartment down the street right now, but when I heard my uncle asked me to live in his house I just agreed right away", he said.

"Ah, I see...", I smiled at him. It's weird, I feel like we had meet before.

"I'm Donghyun. Kim Donghyun. Nice to meet you. We'll be neighbor soon", he said.

"I'm No Minwoo", I said, bowing back to him.

"Minwoo-ssi, what a nice house, do you manage this flower shop too?", he asked.

"Yeah, my mom is away, she's in Japan right now, um, actually there's Hyunseong-hyung who helped me with this flower shop, but he went to take care some businesses right now", I said.

"Oh. Really?. I lived in Japan for three years, back in highschool... which is... 5 years ago. Hahaha. I'm old", he said.

I laughed at his openness.

 

"I'm your dongsaeng, then", I said.

"I see... ok then, ah... this is Sushi, by the way... my uncle bought me him from Japan. Isn't he a cute shiba inu?", he bent down to give Sushi's hand for a high five.

"Hi Sushiii", I hold his hand. "I bet you're oishii", I said.

Donghyun smile unsurely about my lame pun. "Don't eat him", he said.

"Hahaha... he's really cuuute. Ah, look, he's like smiling to me!", I said, holding Sushi's fluffy face.

"I think he likes you already", Donghyun said.

"Sushi-yaaaaah", I pet his head.

"See you tomorrow then, Minwoo-ssi. Bye", he said while picking his yellow umbrella.

"Bye", I waved my hand to him.

 

Donghyun walked away as he pointing to random directions, talking to Sushi, showing his dog its new environment. It's really a heavy rain. The air is so cold, but I can feel my chest's warming. Why didn't I ask him to came in for a cup of tea?