"Hey mom," Mikyung greeted, tossing her book bag onto the small sofa and moving one of the chairs next to her mom's hospital bed, sitting down and taking hold of her mother's hand. "How are you feeling today?"
"Just the same," her mother said, weakly squeezing Mikyung's hand and smiling at her. "What about you? How was the first day at your new school? Did you make a lot of friends?"
"I got lost a lot," Mikyung said with a laugh. Especially since she hadn't dared to ask anyone for directions for her previous classes. Finding her statistics class was the only help she'd had, and that was thanks to Seolhee, who talked to her first. "I like my classes so far. They're cool. The teachers seem nice too. I think it'll be a little hard because I'm starting second semester, but all of my professors said they'd be willing to help, and there are also tutors there, so it'll be okay. And I did make friends... maybe," she said, thinking about Seolhee and her group of friends.
"Oh? Tell me about them," her mother said, eyes shining with excitement.
"Well, the first is Seolhee. She seems really nice. She helped me find my way to one of my classes, and then she introduced me to her friends," Mikyung said, remembering how Seolhee had introduced her as their new friend. "Then there's Sunwoo, her boyfriend. They're really cute together. And then Eric, Hyunjun, and Haknyeon. They all seem nice."
"Hm... so you've made friends with three single boys?" her mother asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Mom!" Mikyung whined, playfully glaring at her mother. Her mom was constantly teasing her about getting a boyfriend. "I don't even know if they're single," she muttered, feeling her face heat up.
"So you're interested-"
"Anyway!" she said, standing up and looking around the room. "Did you eat? Should I go buy you some food?"
"You should go do your homework and hang out with friends like an average college student," her mother said softly, frowning at her.
Mikyung sighed, sitting down on the couch where she threw her bag. "I can do my homework right here," she said, pulling her books out of her bookbag.
"Mikyung-"
"And I'll have plenty of time to be like an average student, later," Mikyung interrupted.
They both fell into silence.
Three months.
That was her mother's estimated survival time.
Mikyung was not going to waste those precious moments with anyone else.
