ᴍɪꜱꜱᴇᴅ ᴄᴀʟʟ | ᴇɴʜʏᴘᴇɴ ᴊᴀʏ ꜰꜰ

5

September 9, 2020
4:04 pm, Street in Seoul

After his encounter with Kimberly, he continued to walk, wondering how to tell his moms that for the first time in 5 years he had received 2nd place. He went to smoke on the rooftop during lunch because the beginning of semester test scores had just been posted and he had just checked. It was the first "non-first place" in years but he knew that his mothers would react dramatically to it.

They would probably take his electronics away, yell at him for a while, and lock him in his room to study every day for the rest of the school year. He really wished his father was here at this moment, but like always he is out of Korea. Since Jay was born, he has barely seen his dad, but the one or two days he sees him per year he's always with him and they do whatever Jay wants. One of his mothers is his mother biologically while the other is his dad's second wife. They live together since it was a mutual divorce and the two women don't really dislike each other and well their relationship with Jay particularly bad except when he rebels.

Jay finally arrives home and grabs onto the doorknob for a while hesitating on whether to open it or disappear for a few hours or maybe days. He was about to finally open the door when it was opened from the inside. Decision faded. "Hello, mom." Jay greets at the sight of his biological mother.

"Why are you outside? Come in now." His mother says coldly. 'She knows' Jay said in his head.

His other mother was sitting in the kitchen waiting for them to arrive. "Sit" His stepmother instructs when they are both facing her.

"Now, would you like to explain yourself?" His mom asks.

"It's just second place, 2 questions wrong, who cares?"

"WE care. How will you get into Seoul National University with a second place?! A non-perfect score?!" His stepmother screams furiously.

"I'll manage. I'm sure SNU is okay with ONE-second place." He says calmly.

"And what if they're not what will you do?!"

"Then I'll study elsewhere, it doesn't matter"

"No, you have to continue the legacy, both of us went there as well as your father, and grandfathers." His mother states.

"Well, I don't care." He whispers to himself.

"What was that?" His mother asked.

"NOTHING!"

"Now you're even screaming at us what's wrong with you Jay?!" His stepmom screams.

'I'm sick and tired and stressed of you guys always wanting me to do better even though I do my best. If dad was here he would tell me to do what makes me happy and not care about the "legacy" but that will never happen.' Jay thinks, glaring at the two but does not dare say it out loud. Instead, he grabs his backpack, stands up, and walks out of the house not in the mood to continue the conversation.

"Park Jongseong! Come back here!" Both of them scream but he only ignores them.

Jay continued to walk aimlessly around Seoul. Without meaning to, he had ended up at Let Me In café, and coincidentally, Kimberly was just heading out from there. "What are you doing here?" She asks.

"What, I can't be here? I didn't know this was your café." He replies evidently annoyed.

"Geez dude, you don't always have to be this sarcastic and annoying." She says and starts to walk away but suddenly stops after having a thought. 'Maybe I should go cover the hours I missed that day.' She thinks and walks towards the restaurant.