Kyuhyun wakes up groggily because of the irritating sound of his phone ringing. It’s not even his alarm clock that wakes him up that morning but someone calling him at five freaking o’clock in the morning. Now, how is Kyuhyun supposed to take that call in a happy manner when he went to bed last night past twelve because after his choir practice and basketball practice, there’s his date with Yoona that tops all the stress he got over his choir practice and basketball practice? He impatiently grabs his loud phone from his bedside table and answers it without even looking who’s calling.

“Hello?” Kyuhyun snarls, his eyes still closed and his mind already going back to its sleeping state because he’s really hanging up after telling whoever the hell is calling him so early in the morning that even the great Cho Kyuhyun, the genius, has his consulting hours and consultation fee.

“Hello, oppa? It’s Sooyeon.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes immediately darts open and his entire body is awake in a split second as he sits up on his bed and tried to talk in the most without-a-hangover-even-though-he-didn’t-really-drink manner. His head hurts a little and he’s still really, really tired. “Sooyeon, what’s the matter? Is there something wrong?”

“No, oppa,” Sooyeon says softly and Kyuhyun can’t make out of her voice if she’s crying or what but she does sounds like there’s something muffling her usual pretty audible voice.

“Are you crying?”

Sooyeon sniffs. “No, oppa,” she tells him but Kyuhyun is sure she is.

“Sooyeon, what’s wrong? You’re crying.”

“Oppa,” Sooyeon says, now it’s really obvious that she’s crying so there’s no point trying to deny it to Kyuhyun. Her voice is shaking and it’s breaking and she’s really hiccupping vehemently, meaning that she has been crying for a while. “Thank you… very much.”

Kyuhyun is confused. “Sooyeon, what are you saying? What are you talking about?”

“Appa arrived this morning, oppa,” Sooyeon begins explaining, making it a little difficult on Kyuhyun’s part to understand what she’s saying because she’s hiccupping like every syllable.

That’s only when it dawns on Kyuhyun, “Really? He’s already there?”

“Yes, oppa,” Sooyeon says cheerfully even though she’s still crying.

“What happened?”

“They’re – I think, they’re still talking, oppa.”

“Don’t worry, Sooyeon. Everything will be alright, okay?”

“I’m sorry if I woke you up, oppa. I just wanted to tell you.”

Kyuhyun understands Sooyeon because sometimes, when everything that’s going on in your life is like you against the entire planet, there’s that person whom you can tell everything and sometimes, all you need is someone who’ll listen to you. He understands because that’s similar to what happened to him yesterday when he’s looking for Jongwoon because he needs to tell him things and how depressed he was when he couldn’t find Jongwoon.

“It’s okay, Sooyeon.”

“Sleep again, oppa. You have less than two hours before first period.”

“Hey, Sooyeon?”

“Hm?”

“You call me if something happens, okay? Just call me.”

Sooyeon smiles through another series of hysterical hiccups because she’s been crying. She doesn’t want to tell Kyuhyun that within that couple of hours since her father arrived and his having a “talk” with her mother, it’s been involved with shouting and cursing and calling Sooyeon’s situation an “abnormal state” and that it isn’t “normal” and it’s all “wrong”.

“Okay, oppa. Thank you for everything.”

“What are you saying, silly? We’re friends, aren’t we? What are friends are for?”

“Sing me that when I come back to the university, oppa.”

“I will so hurry up and come back soon.”

Sooyeon shuts because if not, another sob might have come out of it and Kyuhyun might have gotten more worried. Truth be told, she’s not even sure not if she’ll be coming back to the university anymore. When her father hasn’t arrived, yet, it’s like there’s a 50-50 chance that she can still come back to the university and she’s been holding on to that. But now, she’s not even sure if her father can do something about her mother’s resolve to get her out of the university because “it has not been good for her”. What her mother couldn’t understand is it’s not the university. It’s not the city and it’s not Korea. Hell, we all know how Korea isn’t open about homouals but why did Sooyeon choose to come out? It’s because it is her. It’s not the university. It’s not Seoul. It’s not South Korea. It’s Sooyeon.

“My decision is final, Soohyun. She is going to change school.”

Sooyeon hears her mother says in that final tone of voice she always hears whenever her mother decides something she thinks is the best for Sooyeon or the entire family. Whenever her mother uses that tone of voice, it always means that there’s no talking about it anymore. There’s no use arguing and there’s no point trying to reason it out with her because when her mother decides for something, that’s it. Sooyeon falls on one of their staircase’s step and hugs herself. She smiles bitterly and is glad that she was at least able to call Kyuhyun and thank him for everything. Her only regret is not having the opportunity to apologize to Jongwoon, Sooyoung and Joohyun and to say goodbye to Miyoung.

“Are you hearing yourself, Yeonhee?” her father asks disappointedly. “Sooyeon doesn’t want to change schools. She doesn’t want to leave the university. Why are you deciding this for yourself?”

“That university is nothing but a wrong place for her, Soohyun! That university got her mind corrupted, got her values distorted!”

“It’s not the university, Yeonhee! It’s our daughter! Why can’t you understand that?”

“Don’t say that!” her mother shrieks violently. “Don’t say that! That’s not out daughter,” she says, her voice edgy and dangerous like she is threatening. “Our daughter isn’t like that. She’s not someone like that.”

“Like what?!”

“She isn’t a lesbian!”

Her father looks at his wife, almost pitifully. He knows what his wife is going through; he understands her, of course because he is going through the same thing. He’s also a parent and he’s Sooyeon’s father. But just like what Kyuhyun said, Sooyeon deserves to lead her own life and if he’s needed to stand in his own wife’s berserk of trying to control Sooyeon, then he’ll have to do this.

“She is in love with a girl, Yeonhee,” her father says lowly, decisively.

“She isn’t, Soohyun!”

“She is,” her father says, almost pleading to his wife. “We’ve got to accept it, Yeonhee. We’ve got to accept who our daughter is.”

“My daughter isn’t a disgusting lesbian!”

Her father clenches his fist. “She is not disgusting,” he speaks, very seriously that it catches Sooyeon’s mother off guard.

But her mother isn’t near surrendering. “Yes, she is, Soohyun!” she exclaims, throwing her arms around hysterically. “Because this is wrong! This is all wrong!”

“What is wrong, Yeonhee?” her father asks, his voice getting as louder as her mother’s voice is even though it’s not even six in the morning, yet. “Is it wrong because she is in love with a girl or is it wrong because she can’t be your prototype of a perfect daughter that you’ve always pushed her to be?!”

Mrs. Jung is astounded. “Soohyun, what are you saying?” she asks quietly, looking flabbergasted at her husband.

“Yeonhee, you can’t change who Sooyeon is.”

Sooyeon’s mother falls on her knees, weakened and defeated. For so many years in her life, never had she felt this defeated and weakened before. Sometimes, we just need to accept things we can’t change. As they’ve said, there are only two ways to achieve happiness. The first one is to change the things that you can while the second one is to accept those which you can’t.

She hears her mother cries and it breaks Sooyeon’s heart. It’s never – not ever and will never – be a good feeling for a child to see either of your parents cry and that morning, Sooyeon is watching his father, falling on the floor and wrapping his arms around her mother, both of her parents crying because of her. Her stomach’s turning upside down and she wants to choke everything on her empty stomach.

“If I could help it, I would… but I couldn’t.”