Taekwoon couldn’t believe that he really went to school. In the early morning, when he was sitting alone in the kitchen, he was sure that he would skip school again. He didn’t include Hakyeon and Eunkwan in his thoughts, since they came by and picked him up. Fortunately, the three males have the same classes, what made the situation easier for Taekwoon. If he would have been alone in class, he would go back home right away.

In class, Taekwoon didn’t pay attention to what the teacher said or what topic they discussed in class. He didn’t care about any of that. All he wanted was going back home and lay down in his bed, listening to music until the sun goes down. Then, he would go to sleep.

His gaze was directed out of the window, he watched the clouds and birds passing by, while his thoughts were by his dad. He didn’t even noticed that his teacher called his name and he also ignored the person next to him poking his arm.

When the lesson was over the school-bell rang to announce the awaited break. The students almost jumped off their seats to rush out of the class. Except of Taekwoon, his teacher, Mrs. Lee, wanted to talk to him after class.

„Mrs. Lee I assure you that I’m fine and that you don’t need to worry about me.“ Taekwoon sighed as he talked to his teacher.

Mrs. Lee was a young teacher, she was about twenty-eight years old and was still super excited about being a teacher. Taekwoon was sure that in at most ten years she will become a non-motivated zombie like his other teachers that are around forty-five to fifty years old.

When she tried to talk more into Taekwoon, the boy grabbed his bag and left the room after thanking her for her help and concern. He went straight to his locker, opened it and slammed his not-needed books in it.

„Didn’t went well, huh?“ Hakyeon asked as he watched his friend.

“She’s so annoying.” Taekwoon slammed the door of his locker shut and faced his friend „She won’t stop trying to ‚save the world‘ but she cannot!“

“She’s worried about you.” Eunkwang leans against the locker next to Taekwoon’s and looked at his friend.

„She doesn’t need to worry about me. First of all, I’m fine and secondly, she cannot save the world even if she wanted to.” he growled „and third - it’s none of her business anyway.“ Hakyeon laughed incredulously. Taekwoon looked at him and narrowed his eyebrows.

“Sure. And that’s why you’ve been crying earlier.” the tanned boy said and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Shut up.” Taekwoon shot back and rolled his eyes.
“There’s nothing wrong about crying.” The black haired male sighed.

“Hakyeon-ah, I think you should stop.” Eunkwang put the boy a hand on the shoulder, giving him a ‚seriously-stop-it‘-look.

Hakyeon was right about to answer, even had his mouth already open when suddenly a female voice interrupted him. He looked to the girl next to Taekwoon, she was cute.

“Hi.. Taekwoon-oppa.” The girl said shyly, afraid as she was to look at him, her gaze was placed at his wide chest.

Taekwoon looked at her in confusion. She had long, straight hazel-brown hair and big chocolate-brown eyes. Her smile was bright and cute and her skin had a light shade. All in all she was a pretty girl.

„Hello“ he replied „Do I know you?“ he asked, keeping the sound of his voice as nice and friendly as possible.
Well, he was a nice and friendly person but some people think that he is unfriendly for whatever reason.

„Mhm..“ she looked up to him, her eyes meeting his „My names is Kim Hyori.“ she introduced herself and showed her cute and bright smile when she noticed that Taekwoon seemed nicer as people said „I go to the class next to yours.“

„Ah, well even though you know my name already“ he forced himself to chuckle „I’m Jung Taekwoon.“ he introduced himself as well.
„Do you need something?“ he asked.

She nodded and lowered her gaze again. It was cute how shy she was. She breathed in deeply before asking him the question that kept her awake for nights.

“Um.. I.. I wanted to ask you.. If you.. If you would like to go to the cinema.. with.. me?”

He blinked a few times in confusion before he pointed a finger at himself, asking „Me?“.

She nodded in response and he thought about it for a second.

„Sure, why not.“ he said.

She smiled brightly again, looking back up. He could see how happy she was and it pained him but didn’t shown it.

„When does it suits you best?“ she asked him.

„I think the weekend would be the best.“ he answered.

„I think so, too. Hm.. how about tomorrow?“

„Tomorrow?“ he asked back and she chuckled.

„Tomorrow’s Saturday.“ she said „Today’s friday.“

He looked at her with big eyes „Friday?! I thought today was Wednesday!“ Eunkwang, Hakyeon and Hyori started to laugh.

His hand ran through his hair and he sighed at his own fault. “Tomorrow is fine.” He said to Hyori, the girl couldn’t hide her happiness.

“Thank you!“ she nearly screamed, which made her indignant „How about at  5 p.m. in front of the cinema?”

 He nodded in response and forced himself to smile „That’d be great.“ he answered.

“Perfect!“ she smiled „Oh, and please don’t be late… I don’t like it when people are late.” She chuckled, said goodbye and returned to her friends who celebrated her like a superstar.

“Wow. She’s really cute.” Hakyeon wiggled his eyebrows, which made Eunkwang to burst out laughing.

“Stop it.” Taekwoon beat him softly against the shoulder and went back into the classroom.

                                                                                                                             *    *    *

When school was over, Taekwoon went straight home and sighed in relief when he closed the door behind him. He survived school and was back in the only safe place for him. Home. He brushed off his shoes and dropped his schoolbag in a corner before he went directly into the kitchen to make himself something to eat. He was hungry as hell, as always when he came back from school.

The house was quite, no noise at all, except of Taekwoon’s steps. His mother seemed to still be gone. Maybe she was still at work, maybe she drove around with men. Taekwoon assumed that both are the reason for his mother’s absence. Not that he minded, not at all. He liked being alone at home, having time for himself.

The boy was too lazy to actually cook something warm, so he took out a bowl of the cupboard and poured cornflakes and milk in it. He took his food and went up to his bedroom where he the music and sat down on his couch, placing the bowl on the coffee-table in front of him. He started eating his lunch as he enjoyed listening to the music that filled his room.

Music was the only source of escape he knew. Whenever he listened to music, he had no worries or fears, he was in his own little world and felt.. happy. Music made him feel what almost nobody else could: feeling happy.

‚One day I’ll become a singer and produce my own music and make people happy with it‘ he thought as he finished eating his cornflakes.
He stood up with the bowl in one hand and left his room to head downstairs and in the kitchen. He placed the bowl on the kitchen counter and craved something sweet: Brownies. He the coffee machine and searched in the cupboards for Brownies. As his mother cannot bake she always buys pies, cookies, muffins and also his beloved brownies. Normally he didn’t liked sweets but from time to time he needed a piece of cake or a cookie.
When he grabbed a plastic bag he was sure that it must be the sweets he was looking for, but it were just chocolate-chip-cookies. He sighed and continued searching, but couldn’t find what he was searching for.

“Come on... You have to be somewhere...” he mumbled as he opened the only cupboard left but there were spices in there. When he heard the front door fall, he looked at the cookies while he went to the corridor. He needed to ask his mother if she had bought brownies the last time she went to the supermarket.

“Mom, have you bought brownies?” he asked while he read the calorie-table of the cookies. He was surprised when he read the number, he didn’t expect it to be so high.

As he got no answer he looked up and didn’t expected to not see his mother. The cookies shortly after landed on the ground and the boy went pale. His body started trembling in excitement when his eyes filled with tears.

“Long time not seen, Taekwoon-ah.” The deep voice of the well known person was the only sound in the whole house. It sounded extremely loud yet it was quite.

“D-Dad…? W-what... w-why…” Taekwoon’s voice was shaking, his mind racing. He couldn’t believe that after six incredibly long months his father was standing in front of him. He looked… good. No, happy and recovered. It must have pleased him to be away from his ex-wife and son.

The boy was ripped out of his thoughts when a pair of strong arms pulled him into a tight hug “I’ve missed you so much” His father whispered softly, Taekwoon could hear that his father was nearly crying, like he himself. It took the boy a few moments to realize what was going on before he hugged his father as well and tears started rolling down his cheeks. “I missed you too, Dad.” Who in the world would have expected things to turn around so fast? In the morning he cried because his father was gone an now - now he couldn’t even realize that he was back in his fathers arms.

After good ten minutes the father softly pushed his son a few centimeters away to look at him. A smile laid on the man’s lips as he saw that his son was looking at him with happiness and also insecurity in his eyes. „Taekwoon-ah we need to talk“ the man said and led his son into the living room. Both male sat down on the couch, facing each other.

„Dad.. I have so many questions to ask you..“ the black haired male said, his voice still shaking.

His father nodded „You’ll have the opportunity to but first I want you to listen to me.“ he said, his voice sounded serious.

Taekwoon gulped but paid attention to the words of his father, he was sure that he will explain everything to him. Deep down Taekwoon was afraid about what his father was going to say. Maybe his biggest fear will become reality and he was the reason why he left.

“Taekwoon-ah I want you to know that you are not the reason why everything turned out like it did and I am deeply sorry for the pain the situation caused you.” Taekwoon could see the tears in his fathers eyes and took his fathers hand in his own to show him that he didn’t had to worry and that his son is listening. „I bet you ask yourself why I was suddenly gone..“ he started and Taekwoon nodded. Yes, he wanted to know and he needed to know the reason. „I also bet that your mother didn’t told you the reason, or well, not the real reason.“ he said and looked at his son. „Would you mind telling me what she told you?“ he asked.

Taekwoon took a deep breath and answered his fathers question „She said that you told her that you were cheating on her for at least two years and that you said that you don’t care about us anymore, that you started to hate us as you realized how perfect the other girl and her son are and how imperfect we are.“

The look in his fathers eyes told the boy that his mother was lying to him. His father looked like he had seen a ghost, as if he misheard what his son said.
Then, a tear escaped and ran down the man’s cheek. He started shaking his head.

„Taekwoon she lied! I never said something horrible like that!“ he desperately looked at his son, he needed his son in his life he could never say or even think something horrible as that.

His son nodded „I know“ he said, slightly smiling „You won’t say words like these.“ His father breathed out audibly, as if he held his breath for at least two minutes.

„I’ll tell you what happened.“ his father took a last deep breath before he started talking again „It is true that I got to know another woman, in fact I fell in love with her but I never planned leaving you. I love you my son and you’re the most important person in my life and you always will be.“ he searched for a sign in his son’s eyes that he believed him, and he did find it. „Your mother is the person who cheated on me, I caught her with another man when you haven’t been at home and I came back from work earlier than expected. I found out that she was having a relationship with him for at least eight months, that was two years ago. Since then we fought every day, as you unfortunately noticed. I wanted to leave her with you, I wanted to start a new life with you. And what did she do? She kicked me out and said that she will call the police and tell them that I abused her physically and ually.“ He clenched his fists „I tried to reach you by phone but your mother must have installed some program that blocks my phone number. I even tried to reach you by sending you letters, I hope that you got them.“

Taekwoon needed a few moments to process what he just heard. Yes, his father fell in love with another woman but he didn’t planned on leaving him. He planned on leaving his mother, who is the one who cheated, not the other way around. Then, he noticed something, that made him look at his father in confusion.

“Dad... Which letters?” he asked. He had never heard of letters that were sent to him.

“Excuse me?” his father looked at him, obviously shocked.

“I got no letters.” Taekwoon said.

He could clearly see how angry his father got with every passing second “That’s not possible, I’m sure I’ve send them to-„ then the realisation dawned his father „Your mother must have caught them.” he whispered. „By the way, who is this sl- uh.. your mother?“ his father asked furiously, almost calling his mother a name.

Taekwoon shrugged his shoulders, after the shock of the new won information died out „I guess she’s either at work or drives around with men“ he quietly answers. Even though he was glad that his father was back, he needed to ask him the question that was burning inside of him „Dad, can I ask you something?“

His father looked at him „Sure, what’s up son?“

„Please don’t get this question wrong.. I just..“ tears rolled down his cheeks again „I just felt like you hated me and that’s why you left“ he was immediately pulled back into his fathers arms, a hand calmingly his back.

„Shh.. don’t cry, I won’t leave. I promise.“

„Why didn’t you come back sooner?“ Taekwoon pulled himself together as he asked the question „I get that mom threatened with the police, but there are plenty of hours where she’s not around.“

„To be honest, she said that I broke your heart and that you hated me since I was gone. I was insecure about facing you. I thought you didn’t wanted to see me.“ his father answered and Taekwoon looked at his father, shaking his head and nearly yelling „That’s not true!“.

His father nodded, he knew it since they both met in the corridor earlier. The man released his son from the hug and wiped away his son’s tears.

„Taekwoon-ah I want you to move in with me, Jaemi and her son.“ his father said. His son looked at him shocked and insecure. Taekwoon’s father chuckled, he knew exactly what his son thought. „Don’t worry, you’ll like them. Jaemi is around my age and a wonderful person. She is warm-hearted and has a funny and friendly personality. Her son has now turned fifteen and I bet you’ll get along well even when it takes a while.“ he said „You don’t have to decide now, I’ll give you the time you need to decide, but I want you to visit us tomorrow. The sooner, the better. Is that ok for you?“ he asked his son, who nodded in response.

„Yes, it’s ok for me and seriously I’d love to move in with you.. I don’t feel welcome here.. even thought I call this place my hom-„

„You what?!“ a voice yelled. His mother stood in the doorframe, obviously furious. Then she pointed at his father „You, get the out of here or I am calling the police and tell them that you broke into the house and harassed my son!“ she screamed.

„Oh, now he’s just ‚your‘ son?! He’s my son as well as yours!“ his father’s voice got loud but he didn’t yelled. „And just for your information, I used my key to get into the house that I paid for and not you! So it’s legally my house but besides that what bull have you told him? Are you nuts?!“

The woman laughed „What ‚bull‘? I just told him the truth about you, that you’re a ing that destroyed the family!“ she yelled again.

„I destroyed the family?!“ he asked as if he misheard „You’re the one who ed the neighbor, the mailman and your boss!“

She looked at him in shock and then to Taekwoon. „Go into your room, that is none of you business“ she said in a serious tone.

„Let him hear the truth my dear, he deserves to know who ‚ruined‘ the family, to put it into your words.“ he laughed bitterly „Oh, and by the way you did very skillful. Hiding the letters I’ve written to my son? You’re the worst.“

She laughed dryly „He had suffered enough after you left, besides that neither I nor him want you in our lifes so off and get out!"

„The letters were for me, not for you. Why didn’t you hand them to me?“ Taekwoon interrupted his parents and his mother looked at him shocked and angry.

„I don’t want you to become like him! I don’t want you to be around him! But I bet you’ve already become a failure like your father“ she laughed bitterly again „Look at you, you even look almost exactly like he does.“ she growled.

Taekwoon couldn’t believe what his mother said. Did she mean the words that left ? If yes, then he would be assured that he was right: His mother didn’t love him.

„Are you crazy saying such things to your son?“ his father said shocked „You’re more horrible than I expected you to be.“ he turned to his son „Pack your bags I’ll come and get you out of here next weekend.“ he said and kissed his son on the forehead while putting a note in the boys pocket, without his mother noticing.

„You won’t take him away from he!“ she screamed „You ing ! First you and then him! Are you ing serious?!“

„Go to your room now, I think you’ve heard enough.“ he smiled at his son as he said and hugged him goodbye.

Taekwoon obeyed and went to his bedroom, ignoring the further fight. He fished out the note his father had given him and looked at it. On it was written his address and his phone and cell-phone number. The boy smiled and took out his own phone, saving the phone-numbers in his phone. Suddenly he hears the front-door slam shut and the shattering noise of something. His mother was extremely angry. He shouldn’t face her for the rest of the day or else he would be the victim of her anger. He decided that he needed to talk to someone and called his friend Eunkwang. It didn’t took the other male long to answer his phone.

“Yeah?”

“Eunkwang-ah?”

“Taekwoon? Hey dude, what’s up?” Eunkwang seemed to be happy that Taekwoon called him.

“My dad was here.” Taekwoon said quietly, he couldn’t believe that it really had happened.

“What?“ His friend sounded shocked „Really? What did he say?”

“He explained to me what happened and now he wants me to move to him but first he wants me to meet his girlfriend tomorrow.”

“That’s great! I’m happy for you!” Taekwoon could hear the excitement in his voice „But wait, tomorrow? Don’t you have a date with Hyori?“ he asked.

“Oh damn… you’re right. What should I do?” Taekwoon asked, besides, he doesn’t even have her phone number to call her and cancel the date.

Eunkwang laughed when he noticed how stressed the black haired male sounded “Don’t worry, dude. Leave it to me I’ll tell her that you forgot about a family appointment and that you’ll call her later or talk to her in school about it. I’ll manage that for you and you, you enjoy the day with your dad!“

A smile formed on Taekwoon’s lips “Eunkwang-ah?” he asked softly

“Yeah?”

“Thank you…  really… thank you. You’re a real friend.”

Eunkwang chuckled “No problem, I’m there for you, have you forgotten?“ he said „Um, Taekwoon?“

„Yeah?“

„You’re not going to cry, are you?” Eunkwang laughed after he asked.

“Bye Eunkwang” Taekwoon said.

“Ah wait!  I’m sorry! You just sounded so sentimental and I thought you were about to cry. You normally don’t say things like “You’re a real friend”, ya know? Or are you drunk? Do you feel sick?” Eunkwang laughed.

Taekwoon sighed, but that’s typically Eunkwang “Sometimes I really don’t know why I’m friends with you.” Taekwoon chuckled.

„See, I’ve made you laugh!“ Eunkwang shouted excited.

„Bye, Eungkwang. And thank you again.“ With these words, Taekwoon hung up.