Just after school got out in a small town near Daegu, two juniors, two sophomores, and one freshman walk to the popular diner down the street. One boy is singing his favorite song, one is holding a shoe box, and one is reading news on his phone. Once the five boys walk in, they recognize Mrs. Jung washing dishes behind the counter. While three of the boys sit down at a table, two of them approach the counter

"Hi mom!" one of the boys beamed. Mrs. Jung, recognizing the voice, rolled her eyes and turned around. "How many times do I have to remind you that I am not your mom, Hakyeon?" Mrs. Jung put down the dishes with a sigh..

"We'd like to think of you as our second mom" Lee Jaehwan smiled as he sat next to his friend, Cha Hakyeon, holding a shoe box next to him. 

"What's in the box, boys?" Mrs. Jung asked

"A pet for Taekwoon!" Jaehwan said

"We don't need another animal in our house.. I've told him this many times. Don't you boys remember what happen with the raccoon?" Mrs. Jung asked and reached for the box, to which Jaehwan yanked it out of her reach.

"Think of it as a friend for Taekwoon" Hakyeon shrugged. "He keeps telling us how much he wants one. And besides, Taekwoon was the one who caught the raccoon, not us. And we're way better at the art of catching animals" 

"He doesn't need another friend. He's got you guys" Mrs. Jung smiled

"Come on, mom. At least look at it" Jaehwan pleaded. Mrs. Jung sighed and nodded. "Okay fine.. Let me see" 

Hakyeon and Jaehwan smiled, but when Jaehwan went for the box to see that it was empty, his smile dropped in an instant. Hakyeon saw this and gulped.

"Uhm.. One moment please" Jaehwan forced a smile and took the box with him to the table where their other three friends sat and talked

----

"Wow, did you read the news today you guys? Some fisherman from Pohang said he discovered something incredible and made a call to the government about it" Lee Hongbin said out loud as he read the news on his phone. His friend, Kim Wonshik, looked over his shoulder and read with him. "Really?" he perked up.. "Ooh. "An invader from Mars?"" Wonshik read the fisherman's words from his interview. 

"Psh.. Please don't tell me you two believe in that stuff, right?" Han Sanghyuk asked from across the table. 

"I don't know. His argument sounds really valid to me.." Hongbin said, not looking up from his phone. ""100-feet-tall humanoid?"" Wonshik read aloud and smiled. "Whoa.."

"I can't believe I'm the youngest out of all of us" Sanghyuk rolled his eyes and sat back in the booth.

Just then, Jaehwan ran up to the table, his breathing irregular. 

"It's gone.. The squirrel is gone" Jaehwan whispered. "WHAT?!?" Hongbin shouted while Wonshik's and Sanghyuk's eyes widened. "SSSSSHHHHHH" Jaehwan put his hand over Hongbin's mouth with haste. "We have to find it... Quietly" Jaehwan said, to which the three friends nodded and started searching. 

Meanwhile, Hakyeon sat at the counter, stalling Taekwoon's mother. 

"You look like you've lost weight. Did you rejoin the gym?" Hakyeon blurted out. Mrs. Jung twisted her body to look at her figure and shrugged. "I've been doing some cardio at home. Thanks for noticing" she smiled. 

Jaehwan ran up to him just then and whispered something in his ear. Hakyeon nodded and looked back to Mrs. Jung. "I really want to see this animal you guys caught for my son.. I shouldn't even let you boys bring wild animals in here. This is a place where people eat"

"We're sorry, mom. He's acting up and we don't think it's a good idea to open the box in here. We'll show you later tonight" Hakyeon thought up a lie quick. "Good idea" Mrs. Jung nodded. Hakyeon sighed and reached for the empty box and pretend squirrel outside. When he stood up...

"Hakyeon?" Hakyeon heard a familiar voice call him from behind. He turned around slowly..

"Taekwoon!" Hakyeon shouted when he turned around to Taekwoon. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to return the money my mom gave me for the book fair today.. Remember?" Taekwoon fished a wad of money out of his pocket. "What's in the box?" he continued. 

"Uhhmm.. Let's discuss outside" Hakyeon tried to push Taekwoon out when he looked to see Hongbin looking under a table for something. "Hongbin?" Taekwoon sqeaked.

Hongbin looked up to the sound of his name and hit his head on the table "Hyung!" he yelled. 

----

As the others continued to search, Wonshik looked up and saw that Taekwoon was here and froze. Just then.....

Something crawled up his pant leg.. He looked down to a squrriel tail sticking out of his pants. And with that, he let out a soul ripping scream

Catching everyone's attention. 

Wonshik's scream spooked the squrriel and it jumped up on people's tables, chasing them out of the diner. Food flew into the air, getting all over everyone, including the six friends.

Soon, the diner was devoid of customers and littered with food and broken silverware. 

Mrs. Jung looked at her son from across the diner, sighed, and through her hands up. "I'm sorry" Taekwoon mouthed to her

----

"I'm very disappointed in all of you" Mrs. Jung said to Hakyeon, Wonshik, Jaehwan, Hongbin, and Sanghyuk, who stood in a line in front of her, still covered in food, looking down at the ground, unable to look anywhere else. Taekwoon was also covered in food as he watched his mother scold his only friends. 

"Mom.. I told them to go out and catch something.. I stayed at school cause I had to make up a quiz" Taekwoon said, breaking an awkward silence. "I took it as a joke.. I didn't think they'd actually do it" he continued

"But hyung.. You've been complaining for weeks about how much you want a pet" Jaehwan whined.

"You told them to do this?" Mrs. Jung asked her son. 

"I didn't know this would happen" Taekwoon frowned.

Just then, they all heard a car horn from outside the window. "That's my mom here to pick us up" Wonshik said

"Go home boys. Give me alone time with my son" Mrs. Jung pointed to the door and said. The five boys nodded and trudged to the door.

"Bye hyung" Sanghyuk muttered as he walked out the door. "Bye Sanghyuk-ah" Taekwoon waved as his friends vanished through the door. 

"You told them to go out and catch and animal??" Mrs. Jung towered over her son and asked, to which he only nodded shamefully. "We can't take care of a pet, Taekwoon! We don't have the money!! You better be damn happy I didn't get fired, or else I wouldn't be able to take care of you either!!!" she ranted.. Taekwoon could feel tears fall down his face at his mother's words. 

"I'm sorry, mom" he sobbed and rubbed his eyes

Mrs. Jung sighed, sat down next to Taekwoon and embraced him. "Don't cry, dear.. Sorry I got so mad.. I know you hate it when I yell at you"

Taekwoon took a moment to cry into his mother's stained shirt while she tried to run her fingers through his tangled and messy hair. Taekwoon was always one that wasn't good with animals.. But he loved them very much

"Why do you so desperately want a pet this year? First the raccoon, now this.." Mrs. Jung held her composure and asked.

"I don't know.." was all he said.

"It is because you're trying to fill the empty hole after you father passed?" she asked the painful question..

Taekwoon's father died in a plane crash not only a year ago, and since then, both Taekwoon and his mother have been feeling a hole in their family, just like any grieving family would. Except Taekwoon was determined to refill the empty hole with something else.. 

"It's not that I want a pet to forget dad.. I just hate feeling empty, and I don't like all the sympathy I get from my classmates.. With dad. I felt so happy. I had my parents. I had my friends" Taekwoon explained, feeling more tears on their way to his eyes. 

"But now he's gone.. Why couldn't it have been me?" Taekwoon cried

"Don't say that, honey.. Don't ever say that again" Mrs. Jung rocked her clearly broken son in her arms as he sobbed.

As a couple weeks passed, Taekwoon, his friends, and his mother forgot about the squirrel incident and moved on. Still hoping for a trip to the pet store, Taekwoon asked his mother everyday, but always got the same response

"No"

----

While Taekwoon sat at the dining room table doing homework, home alone, the phone rang

"Hello?" 

"Honey.. It's your mother. I have to work late tonight.. You can have some left over chicken from the other night for dinner, okay? I'm sorry we couldn't go out for sushi like you wanted. Tomorrow night, for sure" she explained. Taekwoon smiled and made his way to the pantry, eyeing all the junk food. "It's fine mom.. I'll feed myself"

"In bed by 10:00pm.. You have school tomorrow, don't forget. And get all your homework done" she finally said before bidding farewell and hanging up

By 11:30pm, Taekwoon had made a chair//blanket fort in front of the TV and watched a Back To The Future marathon..

"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gunna see some serious " Doc Brown said, making Taekwoon giggle at the foreign vulgar language.

Just as the delorean started up, the TV screen started to fuzz up and soon, the movie was no longer visible. "What the hell?" Taekwoon pouted under his breath and hit the TV with his fist

In an attempt to fix the antenna, Taekwoon climbed on top of the roof, flashlight in hand.

But when he shined his light on the antenna, it was gone..

Taekwoon swiped out his cell phone to text Wonshik. 

"Wonshik! My antenna disappeared!" he typed and sent

 

 

And there's that chapter. I hope this story goes well :D happy reading