I pretended to walk off, leaving her behind. I felt her eyes on me, watching me retreat. But she turned around and began heading off home. I turned around and began following her, keeping a safe distance. Close enough to help her if anything occurred, but far enough so she wouldn’t notice me. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what possessed me to do this. She is annoying, aggravating, and confusing. Everyone in High School is like that. They cried if they had no wifi, or their crush began dating someone else before they could confess. Teenagers thought these were mind blowing problems. I couldn’t stand it. Lucy as well. She made such a big deal out of missing her bus stop. She probably just wanted to quickly get home to her perfect family. But there was something about her. She didn’t react like most people would when I told her about my mother. I was expecting an ‘I’m sorry’ and then a change in topic. But she had not avoided the topic. It had been comforting, sitting there lost in thought but not alone. It had been relieving, having someone to let out my worries. She had done me a favor, so I am repaying her. Because being indebt to someone is not my style. She was rather fearless, the way she strolled through the dark streets. Did girls in Germany know no fear? I remember the first time I talked to her, and how she had wanted to talk back to me. No one talks back to me. I am nobility. Well sort of. She stopped before a high skyscraper. I laughed to myself. Her apartment complex belonged to my family. What a coincidence. She unlocked her door and stepped inside. The windows were dark in her apartment. Was she alone? Where was her perfect family? I saw her shadow, as she the light to her room. Do I come across as a stalker? I turned around, and made my way back home.

“Where were you? You were out pretty late tonight,” my father came downstairs. I bowed towards him.

“I apologize for making you worry, father,” I avoided his eyes. My father was a powerful man. And with this power came an intimidating stare. He was never the gentle father I had dreamed of.

“It is fine, just inform me next time, alright?” he mumbled, and scratched the back of his head. I nodded yes and began walking past him, up the stairs to my room. “Taehyung?” I heard his deep, consuming voice calling from behind.

“Yes, father?” He looked down, as if uncertain and shy.

“Sleep well,” he finally said. I nodded stiffly. We usually never showed affection, and love. I finally made it to my room. My bed had already been made by the maids and my school stuff reorganized. Before I had thrown them across the room out of per frusteration. Why was math such an important subject, when it was so difficult to understand the logic behind it? A knock came from my already opened door.

“Taehyung, my big boy,” my mother came in. The cancer was evident on her face. She seemed hollow, and her eyes were always tired. She had a grey, sickening tinge to her skin color, not the healthy rosy cheeks I always see in pictures.

“What are you doing, out of bed, mother? You need to keep yourself healthy,” I worry about her. She was so weak, so fragile.

“I just wanted to say goodnight to my son. Where you at the park again?” my mother asks, as I begin steering her towards her bedroom. We slowly make our way there, our steps muffled by the carpeted floor.

“Yeah, I met a friend there and we talked,” I say. She shouldn’t know how much her health is affecting me. How much the thought of her not being here frightens me.

“That is good. That is good,” she faintly says. The little trip down the hall to my room had exhausted her. I gently placed her on the edge of her bed and kneeled down to be within eyelevel of her. “My Taehyung should be happy. You are happy right, my son?” I force the tips of my lips to come up and nod. She brushes my cheek and then turns around to tuck herself into bed.

“Goodnight mother,” the yellow light of the room adds a golden tinge to her features. She smiles and closes her eyelids. I walk out of her room and quietly close the door. My father passed me as I walked back down the hallway. He placed a warm hand on my shoulder before opening the door to Mother’s room and going inside. We were all struggling with the situation. If Mother could survive this, then maybe we would become a real family. I got ready for bed. As I was brushing my teeth and looking into the mirror at my own reflection, my thoughts drifted, for the first time, to someone other than my mother. It was her. I hadn’t really cared before, but she was actually rather pretty. She stood out. Not that I hadn’t seen anyone more pretty than her. I sure have. But she stood out because she had European features. She was only half Korean. Her eyes were rounder than an average Korean. But that doesn’t mean she had the most attractive eyes. Eunji’s eyes, Jimin’s fiancé, displayed more innocent aegyo with their even rounder form. Her nose wasn’t slim, but rather short just like any Korean. Her face wasn’t sharp, but rather soft. Her hair wasn’t fully straight and long. It wasn’t black, but a darkish brown and it fell down at random. In the morning, if she actually brushed her hair, it was straight and groomed. But after school it was more wavy and tangled. Nothing was perfect about her. She wasn’t my type in the slightest. I like groomed, well behaved girls who are organized and make an effort to look pretty. Lucy was the exact opposite. But she pulled it off fairly well, I must say. I know what the guys in school think of her. Adorable, shy, beautiful, natural, diffferent. These were the adjectives I heard most often. I couldn’t agree less. She was rude, scatterbrained, and too emotional. Sure, she had more curves than most Korean girls, but she just didn’t groom herself enough. Today at school, when I had asked her to be my tutor and she rejected me and walked away, I saw dirt on her pants. DIRT! So many germs that could affect her health. It was unclean. She is not my type. Mark my word on it.