"Jae, do you have anything to tell me?"

I stopped eating and looked at my Dad who was seated opposite me at the dining table. His eyes didn't show any sign of anger even though his tone of voice was firm. I saw him sighed as I continued to remain in silence.

"The University Chancellor called me again and said that you've been skipping classes and even practices. Your grades are dropping. He also said that you've not been mingling well with your classmates. What's wrong, Hyun Jae-ah?"

"Nothing's wrong, Dad." I avoided his gaze when I answered him.

"Tell me the truth. Please."

Hearing him plead, it was my turn to sigh. "Honestly Dad, I'm not happy here. I don't feel like I belong here. Some of the students make fun of me because I'm Asian and not like them. They looked down on me, even some of the lecturers do that. When I go for practices, all I ever do is just run around the gym and sit on the bench most of the time. Throughout the whole year, the number of times that I actually played futsal could be counted in a single hand. I hate it here, Dad. Can I go back to Korea?"

"But it's only your first year in school. Why don't you give it some more time? Maybe after a while, things will get better. Furthermore, there's no one to look after you in Korea."

"Dad, I'm old enough to look after myself. Even now, I'm doing like-wise. The truth is ever since we came back here, I've been receiving the same kind of treatment since high school and now it continues to university. I don't think I can take this anymore, Dad."

I left the table even before my Dad could say anything. I didn't mean to be rude to him but I just want him to realise that I've had enough. My name is Park Hyun Jae. Currently studying at LA university, first year student in Interior Design. I'm also a member of the University's Women Futsal Team in school but as I've mentioned before, I'm only a benchwarmer. My Dad is an American-Korean while my mum is a Korean. Both of them met each other while studying at a university in Korea, got married and moved to LA. My early childhood in LA was until I was 5yrs old when my parents decided that they wanted me to have my education in Korea, partly also due to the fact that my mum wanted to go back home. At that age, I wasn't bothered about where I was going to since for me, education is all the same no matter where you are. We moved back to Korea and I started studying there. Sadly, my mum passed away due to an accident when I was 16yrs old. My Dad was so devastated that he decided to move back to the LA. Initially, I was suppose to follow him immediately after the funeral but I insisted on finishing my high school term in Korea. I stayed behind with Uncle Kim and his family until I went back to LA at the end of my 1st year. Uncle Kim has been working under my dad as his driver ever since I was 7yrs old. His wife, Aunt Kim, worked as a housekeeper at our home in Korea. My dad comes from a well-to-do family. My grandfather owned a chain of hotels in the States and my dad is currently managing two of it. But I was never pampered with the wealth. My parents taught me from young to start earning my own money to get the things I want but I do receive expensive gifts for my birthdays from them. My dad himself was always humble to people around him and never showed off his wealth. He taught me to be humble and always be thankful. I only wish that he'll at least spend more time with me, especially when mum is no longer around. But I guess work is the only thing that could help him ease the pain of missing mum. So for the past 3yrs since I came back to LA, I'm basically always on my own. I continued my 2nd year of High school in LA  but I never told my dad what's happening in school as I don't want to add to his burden until today.

********************************

"Ms Park, you'll be playing today since one of the reserve player is on medical leave. You'll play with the reserve team as the pivot. Go and put on the red bibs."

It was one of those rare occasions where I was able to participate in the game. I join the reserve team for warm-ups. Most of us knew each other since the reserve players have been a benchwarmer one way or another. It was just a normal practice game between the reserve team and the main team. For the first 10mins, it seems like the main team players were making fun of the reserve team players. They were just playing around, passing the ball to each other and making the reserve team players run around like fools, chasing after the balls. When the coach started to give them some warning, they began playing a bit more seriously but I can sense that the main players were not really bothered to play well. At the end of the first 20 minutes, they were leading by 4 goals. I was getting frustrated playing as the pivot as the ball doesn't seem to reach my end as it always get intercepted by the main players. During the break, I had a group chat with the reserve players. Switching my place with one of the wingers, I discussed with them about the strategies and also the weaknesses of the main players that I've noticed so far.

When the second half begin, my teammates started to follow the instructions that I've told them before. Playing at the winger position, I've got more control of the ball and was able to send better passes to the player playing as the pivot. Within the next 10 minutes, we've already scored 3 goals. The main players were clearly unhappy about it. Even the coach was shocked at the way we played. Seeing that I've been the one that is giving my teammates the passes, the main players began to crowd around me everytime I was holding on to the ball. Even so, I still manage to handle my passes well and we managed to score another goal. With 5mins more remaining, the ball was now at my leg as I scan around the pitch to weigh my options. I saw two main players running towards my direction which means I've got an extra teammate left unmarked. As I passed the ball to her, I felt a sharp pain coming from my right ankle. We managed to score another goal but I was struggling in pain. One of the main player had purposely whacked me on my ankle even after the ball was already passed on. I can't believe my eyes when I saw the main players walking by me as if I was invincible. My teammates who were celebrating on our win, realised that I was not there and saw me lying on the floor in pain. They rushed to my side and helped to pull me up. One of my teammates complained to the coach but I was totally disappointed when the coach pretended not to have seen the incident and even accused me of being careless. My teammates wanted to protest but I stopped them. The coach continued saying that even if we had win the match, it was because the main players were not giving their 100% and it doesn't matter.

"Is that excuse even acceptable, Mrs Stevens? I would have expected 100% from all my students even if  it was a practice match and how could you say that a player of yours was being careless when she obviously was being brought down by a bad tackle." I saw the school's Chancellor, Mr James, walking towards us. What shocked me was that my Dad was walking beside him.

"Mr James, I didn't expect you to be here. Anyway, I didn't really see the incident so I thought that the players were just playing around with each other."

"Playing around? My daughter's ankle is already swollen now as you can see. I don't think you could even count that as playing around. And what do you mean you didn't see the incident? Both of us were watching the whole match and we saw how clearly the incident was happening in front of you. James, I'm bringing my daughter to the clinic right now and if anything bad comes out from it, rest assured the school board of directors will be informed of it."

I've never seen my Dad got so angry before. Neither have I seen him make use of his status like that. Uncle James and Dad used to be college mates before Dad went overseas to study in Korea. As I limped away with the help of my teammates to follow my Dad, I saw the coach and the main players being nagged at by Uncle James.

The doctor said that there's nothing wrong with my ankle except for a pretty bad bruise. The swelling had reduced a lot after ice packs was being placed on it. I'm currently on my bed, resting after the visit to the clinic. I was given 3 days of medical leave just to ensure that it heals properly and not to aggravate it with too much movement. I was busy playing on my PS3 when I heard a knock at the door as my Dad entered. He was back to his gentle side as he brought up my dinner for me.

"Hey, Dad. You don't have to do that. Nancy could have brought it up to me." Nancy was our housekeeper.

"It's okay. I cooked it for you. Your favourite, kimchi fried rice. Eat it while it's hot." Dad smiled and placed it on the table.

I smiled at my Dad, thanked him for the food and stopped playing the game to have my dinner. While I was eating, Dad actually took my game console and continued playing my racing game but he lost. I laughed at him and realised how much I missed having him around. When I finished my food, Dad took the plate away from me and put it back on the table.

"Jae, mianhae." I looked at him. I was shocked as it's been a while since I last heard him using Korean language. "Appa have not been taking care of you well. I've been keeping myself busy with work so that I wouldn't miss your Umma so much but didn't realise that I've been neglecting you. I didn't even know that you're being bullied in school."

Hearing him calling himself Appa, brought tears to my eyes. Ever since Umma passed away, he had banned me from using any korean words when at home and even did not allow me to call him Appa. Instead, I've to call him Dad. I didn't question his orders because I knew he loved Umma a lot. They were each other first love. I controlled my tears and tried to smile at him.

"It's okay, Ap... Dad. I understand your position. Furthermore, I'm more than capable to look after myself. You and Mum had taught me well so don't feel bad. But what makes you come down to school just now?"

"You can call me Appa, Hyun Jae-ah. Honestly, I missed you calling me by that name. I came down to find out what exactly is happening in school since we had that talk during dinner two days ago so I went to look for Uncle James. By the way, about your request to go back to Korea, I'll have to think about it for a while. We'll discuss it another time okay."

I was excited when Appa mentioned that he might consider my request. Even though he didn't promise me anything but the fact that he'll think about it is already a good start for me. After a short chat with Appa, I bid him good night and went off to sleep.

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A/N: To my readers, for those who don't know how futsal works, basically it's like soccer with only five players on the hard-floor pitch. A goalkeeper, a defender, two wingers and a pivot(forward). If you would like further elaboration of futsal, here's the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal Thanks.