You Don't Know Me ➳ Taesan [COMPLETED]

Six

'Taesan,' his mother called from the kitchen the moment he walked in through the door.

'Yes mom?' he responded as he shut it. He was immediately greeted by the smell of fresh pastries.

She emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands against her striped apron. 'Can you come help me a bit in the kitchen? I need your views.'

Taesan would have wished to say no, he had just had a long day at school and all he wanted was to retreat to his room and spend some time relaxing. But he couldn't say no. Since he had moved in to this new town, he felt indebted to his mother in so many ways. He was not willing to let her down on purpose.

'Sure,' Taesan responded. 'Let me just leave my backpack in my room first.'

'Alright honey,' she responded and returned to the kitchen.

Once Taesan had left his bag in his room, he followed his mother to the kitchen. The fresh smell was even much stronger and pleasant in the kitchen. 'Wow mom, that smells nice.'

'Thank you,' she smiled at him. 'These are all the pastries I'm planning to take to the market on Saturday. But I want to pick only the best for my first market day, I'm so nervous.' She clasped the dish towel in her hand. 'So, I wanted you to try which ones you like the most.'

'Cool,' Taesan looked at the pastries in front of him on the counter, the steam still rising in the air. He immediately picked the first pastry that caught his attention, which was a chocolate chip muffin.

He took a bite and was already planning on taking another one before his mother spoke.

'How was school today?' she asked the question every mother would ask her son after his first day of school.

He thought about it, school was extremely excruciating and it felt like a laborious task trying to fit in. He couldn't even tell her how everyone seemed curious about him and how it was so hard to try to not interact with anyone. But he didn't want to worry her, so he decided not to say that. 'It was okay,' was his response.

'Did you make new friends?' she continued.

Normally, a mother would be proud of their son making friends at school. But here, it was the opposite.

'No,' he answered after a while.

'You were able to walk home by yourself? Several of those students live this side...'

'Mom, you don't have to remind me every time that I'm not supposed to make friends. I know that now.' He answered in a somber and frustrated voice.

'I was just trying to make sure...'

'I know.' He cut her. 'It's all good, I know what I'm doing. I even had lunch alone today.' He didn't tell her that he had walked home from school with Amy-Janett, but that wasn't really his fault. It was her who wanted to walk with him and he couldn't say no. Besides, it wasn't as if they were friends.

His mother put her hand on her heart. 'And how was it having lunch alone?'

'It was okay, the only problem was that many people were looking at me, probably because I was alone. But I'll see what to do.'

'I'm so sorry.' She said regretfully. In another situation, she would have been so proud of him having friends and would have even encouraged him, but not now.

He just nodded this time, not wanting to talk about it. He felt like his life was a sad disaster at times, and talking about it made it worse.

'I doubt I'll find something that will top these muffins,' Taesan changed the subject quickly, then grabbed another pastry. 'This one looks good too, let's see if it can put up a fight.'