The Close Strangers

s i x

Mark comes out of his room with his bag hanging on his left shoulder. He's ready to go to the campus since he has a morning lecture today. He immediately stops himself from walking when his mother suddenly calls him from the kitchen.

"Where are you going, hm?" His mother asks with a spatula in her hand.

She's probably leaving her food just to stop Mark from his attempt to run away.

"You don't want to see a fire burning myself up at this early, right?" She asks, meanwhile, his son doesn't have any choice besides listening to his mother.

Mark nods as he fixes the position of his bag, followed by a smile of satisfaction from his mother.

"She's still getting ready," Yoona asks, "You'll wait for her, right?"

"How could you know?" Mark asks back instead of answering her question.

"I woke her up," She answers.

"You woke her up yet you didn't even wake your own son up?" Mark asks, not receiving any response since his mother doesn't want to deal with him this early.

Mark sighs before walking towards the mirror which is hanging on the wall near where he stands.

"Why did you leave her yesterday, honey?"

Mark turns his head as he brushes his black hair with his fingers.

"I had a quiz yesterday morning, so I needed to come early," He explains.

He said a fact, but it was also a lie since he didn't need to come early.

"But, you could've waited for her," Yoona responds, "She wouldn't take that long to get ready."

Mark chooses not to respond since he knows his mother still has 163926 words to say.

"Mark, listen to me," She continues, just like Mark expected, "She will live in this house for a year, or even more."

"I don't want her to feel like she's not welcome in this house."

"I know you don't like to hear this, but she's a part of our family now."

It's not that Mark doesn't like to hear that thing. It's just weird to think that some girl, who is practically still a stranger for Mark, suddenly comes into their family.

"What I mean is she's our responsibility," Yoona continues, "You are responsible to take care of her too."

"Mom, here's the thing," Mark finally responds, "I'm actually fine with everyㅡ"

"Good morning, sweetie," Yoona interrupts her son even before he could mention the point of his words.

He turns around to see who his mother greets. He sees the girl they were talking about earlier, wearing a kimono dress with her wavy hair that she put up in a ponytail.

"Hello, Mark," Yerim greets him cheerfully, causing Mark to frown but end up greeting her back.

Mark doesn't know why Yerim seems to be so friendly to Mark when this guy has acted like an asshole ever since day one.

Yesterday, Yerim arrived at home ten minutes before Mark's mother did and it made Mark feel super grateful because if Yerim arrived a little bit late, then Mark would've probably died yesterday.