Mae

Chapter 3

Mae entered the lunch room and Soobin pounced on her.

"You're back!" 

"I was hardly gone, you overgrown string bean," Mae punched his shoulder after setting down her load. 

"You have cookies?" Soobin asked, ignoring her.

"Yes. But you have to be a good boy if you want some."

Soobin looked at Mae with pleading eyes and she relented, giving him one as the pair sat down. Soobin hummed happily as he chewed on a white chocolate and cranberry cookie. Mae rested her head against his shoulder and he leaned into her touch. Mae's heart swelled with how much she loved this tall, awkward, string bean of a boy. He obviously loved her too, he was loyal to a fault and they trusted each other with everything. 

"Grandma found something of Dad's in her attic," Mae whispered into Soobin's shoulder.

Soobin hummed and moved his arm around her shoulders. He hardly needed words to communicate his comfort, the two prefered hugs anyway.

Soobin managed to eat two more cookies before Mae waved him away, worried that there wouldn't be any left for tomorrow. Mae spotted her brother's friends and walked over to them, holding a cake tin in her arms. 

Heeseung spotted her first and looked up at her with shining eyes, "did Grandma make us a cake?"

"Yes she did," Mae smiled and handed him the tin, "make sure the others don't eat it all at once," she winked.

Her warning issued groans from the rest of the group.

"Hey, at least you'll have some for the rest of the week if you save it."

Mae felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind, "guess who it is!"

Mae giggled, "is it my best brother Jake, by any chance?"

The arms hugged her tighter and she felt a head on her shoulder, "you always know, MaeMae."

⋆ ♫ ♪ ♫ ⋆

After dinner, Mae told Soobin she was going to look at something Grandma had given to her.

"Dad gave it to her. She thinks it could be something big."

"Promise you'll be careful?"

Mae touched her forehead to his, "I promise."

Soobin pulled her into a bear hug and then disappeared down the hallway. 

Mae went to her room and locked the door. Eunjoo would be out practicing for another hour at least. She pulled out the dusty object from under her bed. 

It was a small brown briefcase with her father's initials engraved into the golden clasp. Mae brushed the dust off and gently opened the flap. The inside was empty except for a few photographs. Mae pouted at the lack of contents, but she took out the pictures and examined them anyway.
The first was a picture of her parent's wedding day. Mae's heart ached with homesickness and the sight of her parents laughing together. She put the photo down and picked up the next.

It was a photo of her and Jake all dressed up and having a tea party. Mae gazed at her brother's giggling face. He had grown up so much. Mae sorted through all of the photos, each of them a special occasion in her father's life.

As Mae was observing the last picture, which was her father's tenth birthday, she noticed a small handwritten symbol to the left of the birthday cake, obviously added in afterwards. It was an equal sign. Mae stared at the photo, puzzled.

She picked up the wedding photo and looked through it for anything unusual. She found the number one just under her father's elbow.
Mae looked through all of the pictures and found a letter, a number or a symbol in each of them. She stared at the pictures in wonder. But what could all of the symbols and numbers mean? Her father was a clever man and he wouldn't just put random numbers into a stack of photos for nothing.

Mae decided to order the photographs by when they happened, starting with her father's birthday and ending with the tea party.

Mae wrote down each symbol on a piece of paper. Together they looked like a formula; y=a(1-b)x. Mae stared at it in awe. This must be her father's famous decay rate algorithm.

She quickly put the photos and the paper into the briefcase and back under the bed. Her father had made her well aware of the dangers of knowing so much. Mae hoped that she wasn't in danger now. 

⋆ ♫ ♪ ♫ ⋆

Mae ruffled Jake's hair, "alright then Jakey boy. I love you."

"I love you too."

Mae turned down the hall and almost crashed into Soobin, who had been waiting for her.

"You're such a good sister," he observed.

"Oh hush you," Mae punched him on the arm.

"Hey that hurt."

"You missed me didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. I bet you missed me too."

Mae ignored him and walked into their first class.

"Good morning Mrs Lee," she greeted the maths teacher.

"Good morning Mae," returned the teacher kindly.

Mae and Soobin sat down near the back so that Mae could work quietly on her extra assignments while Mrs Lee taught the rest of the class. She opened her workbook and put on her headphones, eager to get into solving equations.

Mathematics was so therapeutic. All the numbers and letters somehow worked together into neat formulas and answers. Before long, Mae had a page full of neat equations, all confidently answered with the working out to the side.

Maths was Mae's favourite subject and she enjoyed sitting quietly in the corner with her music, neatly organising rows of mathematical equations.

She looked up after finishing another page of her textbook. Mrs Lee was going around helping the other students with the latest subject, factorising. Soobin was working hard at his answer sheet, biting his lip in concentration. Mae rested her chin on his shoulder and looked at his answers.

"You missed a step," she whispered.

Mae explained how to solve the equation in a simple, straightforward way. Soobin reached for her hand with his free one and gently massaged her fingers as he worked out the last problem with Mae's help. 

He answered correctly this time and Mae smiled, "see? You do have it in you."

He rested his head against hers which was still on his shoulder.

"You're a good teacher," he simply stated.