"Hoseok-ssi, may you please count the fruits left in the basket?" his homeroom teacher asked the 16-year-old boy.
The teacher handed him the basket and started counting.
"7...8...9."
The teacher asked him to count again and he did.
"7...8...9."
The teacher looked confused. Why was Hoseok counting only up to nine when there were 10 fruits in the basket.
The teacher kept asking him to count to ten, all he still did was count up to nine.
The teacher asked him why and he only answered:
"I have my own reasons...I'm sorry."
He never told the teacher the true reason because a memory is behind it
(( flashback ))
8-year-old Hoseok is at a theme park with his mother and was playing happily until.
"Hoseok ah. Let's play a game of hide and seek. Close your eyes and count to ten got it?"
The little boy obeyed his mother. He closed his eyes and counted to ten.
"...7...8...9...10!"
Hoseok opened his eyes as he finished counting. He shifted his head left to right as he searches for his mother who is nowhere to be found.
'Maybe mom is hiding...just like she told me...' he thought.
He went searching for his mother all day but soon gave up when he found nothing. He stood at the place where he first counted, there he found a piece of chocolate bar his mother left for him.
Little did he know... His mother went on hiding and never was meant to be seeked forever.
((end))
He knew that whenever he counts to ten his mother wouldn't really come back to him, and yet he still feels pain inside
" It's not like if I counted until 10 nor 20 or 100 my mother would come back to me "
-Hoseok
