Love Wins All

Chapter 1

New York, Brooklyn, 24th June 2026.

So-Yun is 17 and is looking at the sky from the room at the 4th flat of a her apartment. The palace has the classic New York Type of style: like the one you see on tv shows or movies. The type of building that have stone stairs before the entrance, fire escape stairs and ivy growing on walls made of rouge bricks and cement.

So-Yun means "lucky charm". A name that didn't quite represent her life. Her parents divorced when she was 7, her father moved to Seoul and had a new life, a new family. Her mother decided to stay in Brooklyn with her. they didn't have a close relationship, they didn't talk that much during the day. They used to have dinner together but the conversation were poor, like they didn't know each other. Like two strangers sharing the same flat.

The times that they were talking though, they did in Korean. Her mother wanted to teach her daughter  the native language of her country, like she wanted to live again those conversation with her husband o with her old school friends during her high school years.

So-Yun loved watching the sky eve though the skyscraper that were all around the city. Sometimes she could see the airplanes going "who knows where". Sometimes she could see flocks of birds migrate to the south and other times, nothing.

That day So-yun was watching the morning  sky before going to school. She was studying in a school of arts at Amsterdam Ave, close to Central Park.

Maybe one of the lucky moments lived by So-Yun was studying in a school of arts. When she was younger, she was used to draw with her father. In some ways drawing made her feel like she was closer to him.

Every two summers she went in Seoul to see him but lately the need to see him was less. She thought about the new family that he had; about her sister who was definitely more intelligent and prettier than her, about her step mother who loved So-Yun but somehow she was feeling distant from her. Every time So-Yun was meeting the step mother she thought "I don't have her same blood. She hates me".

Her father got married after three years after the divorce with her mom... "He was fast" So-Yun thought when she knew about the the wedding. Her mother didn't say anything: no expression, no feelings.

So-Yun knew that her parents met when they were in high school. They were in the same class but they never spoke to each other till the last year of school. They started to hang out because of friends in common and more they talked, more they noticed that they were almost the same person.

They got married after her mother ended university.

Her grandparents told her that the wedding was simple; no big celebration which was definitely the opposite of how it is in Korea. They got married at the City Hall wearing seconf-hand wedding clothes.

Her Grandparents used to say "They are so similar that they could be the same person".

"Maybe they divorced because of this" So-Yun said . Who is very similar has nothing to talk about after a while... in fact.

Her parents decided to move to America searching for some luck, leaving everything behind their back. They were searching for adventure, with almost no money but big hopes and a huge love for each other. Unfortunately the harsh reality made the realize that money was something that they actually needed. When So-Yun was born they were not poor, they found a stable job thanks to their degree from Seoul University and they could have a normal life like every American citizen. 

When she was born, her mother had to stay at home and taking care of her, and for this So-Yun thought, was one of the reason of her parents divorce. When her mom went back to work, she spend most of her days at the nursery without having a lot of friendships whit othter kids.

So-Yun childhood was... confused. Her parents who were supposed to be something secure, often they represented for her a constant fear. They were not violent or else but they were so focused on their job that sometimes she felt like a burden. Asking for help for homework or asking for a signature for school documents was for her something to have fear of because she didn't know if her parents would be mad at her or if they would accept easily.

There were times were her parents were screaming at her "Why don't you understand anything?!" or "Go away! I'm Working!"  and other times they were kind and they were living the classical family episodes like going to the zoo, walking at Central Park on her dad's shoulder or like going to the amusement park grabbing both her parents hand and a balloon tied on her wrist.

More the divorce was near, more these family episodes were rare. At home nothing changed, the only thing was her parents stopped talking.

At 7 she didn't understand why her parents were breaking up and why her father wanted to move to another country, so she thought that was her fault.