Under The Tree ~ Yang Jungwon

Chapter 2

It has been hours since I came back from mum's grave, Eunbi and dad still haven't come back yet and I'm in the kitchen doing my school work before I head out on my nightly walks they don't really know about.

As I just finish up my last bit of work I hear the front door open and close and a bunch of high pitched laughs from Eunbi. As they walked to the living room they could see me on the kitchen table.

"Hey Eun, how was today?" My dad asks me but before I can even answer we hear a screech from Eunbi.

"Eun? That's what you call me. I'm sorry but I can't have the same name as your daughter. That's just wrong. Call her by her full name!"

"What? But I have always called her that?" My dad says confused.

"Well not anymore, that's my name, I'm older and her mother so I should have that name not her!"

My mother? She really thinks she is my mother now that they are married? But like always dad agrees just to keep her happy. Just after that she storms upstairs complaining about how this is a 'great' start to her married life.

"Sorry , I'll go talk to her and try to calm her down. I'll see you later woo"

As he turns around to go upstairs I say one thing to him.

"Dont."

"Huh?" he asked again, confused.

"Don't call me that. Only mama is allowed to call me that."

"Ahh, okay i'll talk to you later Eunwoo." After that my dad turns around again and walks upstairs to 'comfort' Eunbi. I feel a bit bad as he didn't mean any harm but after mum passed i haven't been able to be called that name without getting a constant reminder that she is gone so i don't let anyone call me that.

Once he was gone I started to clean up my school stuff and quietly bring my shoes upstairs with my stuff. As I walk past dad's room I can hear their arguing even as I reach my bedroom down the hall. "Trouble in paradise'' I mumble to myself as I hear another screech from Eunbi. Once I shut my bedroom door I lock it and begin getting ready to head out. 

I slip my shoes on and grab an oversized jumper to keep me warm in the night breeze. As I am ready to leave I open my window and begin to climb out, luckily for me i can easily climb up and down things so climbing down from my window isn't a problem to me.

Jumping the last bit I softly land on the ground and begin my walk. Heading down the road I turn to head to the park that's connected to this forest. As I walk through the park I see this boy also walking into the forest. Huh that's a bit weird there's not much in the forest so not many people come to it especially at night. Shrugging it off I begin walking into the forest too. 

The reason I always come to this forest is that there's this huge tree that I climb and just sit and stare up at the stars for hours thinking, crying, what not. All just to be away from people. But as I reach the tree I am very surprised to see someone has already taken my spot.

It's that boy again. How did he know this place? Well anyone can, but what is he doing here at this hour? As I begin walking closer at twig snaps beneath my feet, gaining his attention. Snapping his head in my direction we make eye contact. "So you know about this place too seeing as you have stolen my spot?"

"Your spot?" he replies.

"Yea so how'd you know about this spot?" I was curious.

"I should be asking you that." is all I can hear as he mumbles more under his breath but is too far for me to hear. I decide that I will just sit on another branch and just act like he wasn't there as I really need to cool off and think about all that's happened today. Suddenly the boy said, "You should leave."

"And why should i?"

" cause it's not safe."

"Still why should I listen to a random stranger who is, might I add, also in this forest alone with me."

"Fine then if you die it's not my problem"

"Never would have been. But what if I came here to die? Would you stop me or watch?"

He just looked at me with wide eyes but no emotion on his face. "I'm kidding, maybe next time," I said as I began climbing down the tree. As I turned my back to him I waved my arm in the air and said "goodbye stranger, hopefully next time you see me hanging from the tree."

On my way back home all i can think about is how comfortable i felt with that boy even though he was a complete stranger i had never met before. Once I reach my house I climb up my bedroom window and head to bed for school the next day.