Focus On Me

Chapter 3

Sometimes when the night slipped away from her, when Dylan was out and partying or with some guy she probably won't remember the next day, she would often drift back to how her life began.

It started with a Korean man, Sook, young and naive meeting a traveling American woman, Levi, and they fell in love. The man's family didn't agree to their love, saying that it would only end in pain and misery, but Sook didn't listen, he was in love.

And at the age of 23, Levi gave birth to a child, Nova. During the months of carrying Levi stayed in Korea, away from her family only being able to see them virtually.

Sook doing everything in his power to help Levi become happy, taking her out on dates, spending time cuddling, and peppering the woman with love and affection.

And finally, when Nova was born, even though the two weren't married, they both agreed that she would take on Sook's name, while Levi was the one who named her.

After the months of the baby depending on her mother for breastfeeding and care and affection, when she grew up her mother left for America.

Nova doesn't remember it, but from what her cousin told her, her parents had a heated argument that ended with Sook begging for his wife to stay. That attempt failed, and Sook was left to take care of his daughter on his own.

During the years of her early childhood she often couldn't remember the woman who was called mom, Levi only came for a few weeks to visit, the months that she came over randomized sometimes being 2 months since she had seen her mom, others being five.

She would have to often remind herself, Mom loves me, just not enough for her to stay.

Even though some hardships came, ultimately Nova felt at ease especially with having the best dad she could ever ask for, often at times when Nova came home from school after sunset, she would help her father bake with the occasional times that her aunt and cousin would come over.

The only one in Sook's family that supported his decision with Levi.

And at school, Nova was left defenseless, maybe because she was different, of course, she was a Korean American in an area full of Koreans.

She got more features from her mom than her dad, so she looked more American than Korean which left her with judgemental stares. Nova got used to it, after times of coming home to Sook from after-school bullying to the small things the children did behind the teacher's back.

Then, the time that everything changed, when her father was drafted into the military. It broke everyone in the family's heart, even though they didn't like Nova, Sook was still a big part of the family, being the youngest out of his siblings, and the kindness in his heart as well.

Nova remembered that time because her father would hold Nova tightly and would tell her that everything would be okay even if he didn't know the possibility of it being okay.

During the time, Nova was only 7 years old, having started school a bit early with her father teaching her as well. At first, after her father left she stayed with her aunt, she was nice, and her cousin, who was more like a sister to her.

Until they realized that Sook would be staying a lot longer than they had initially thought, and it was only then, that Levi decided to take her daughter in after traveling around the world.

Nova left part of herself in Korea with her dad, and even the parts of the family that didn't want her to exist, she still loved them.

It was hard at first to get used to American ways, she couldn't speak English at all, which caused tension and stress over her going back to school to finish elementary in the US, and would oftentimes be learning from a special teacher that taught her English.