Kim Jae Joong. I never expected that name to end up meaning so much when I first started high school. But, life is unpredictable and… it ended up meaning more than I could ever describe.

“Do you want me to drop you?” Choi Jung Nam offered his youngest daughter, who was rushing around the house getting ready for her first day of high school. It was just yesterday that she had been a little three year old crying because she didn’t want to go to kindergarten, and now she was 5’7 ft teenager three years away from college.

“Ani, I’ll just take the bus appa,” giving him a grateful smile, before double checking her back pack to make sure she had everything, missing the sad nostalgic smile on her father’s face. “Besides, I have to learn to get there and back alone, don’t I?”

Perhaps what scared him most was her finally discovering that boys could be more than friends, and sooner or later introducing them to her first boyfriend. In his opinion she was just too young for such things, even at 15, “You shouldn’t walk alone when it’s dark and don’t stay out too late.”

“And I also have the pepper spray and torch you bought me, appa,” she reminded him, knowing where he was going with the conversation having had it so many times before. “I know, I’ll be extra careful and I won’t stay out too late.”