Chapter Text
“Kevin, come on! Talk to me, please.”
“…”
“Oh, Kevin…”
Kevin sat in the passenger’s seat of his father’s car as they drove through Korea. He looked out of the window, Beyoncé’s “Ave Maria” blaring in his ears as he sat in silence. His father tried talking to him, but gave up after Kevin ignored him for the nth time that hour. He kept his eyes on the road as they drove.
Kevin Moon was 16 years old. He had black hair that was shaved at the sides. Usually, his hair was styled into a quiff of sorts, but today, his hair was messy, unstyled, and had flopped over the shaved sides. There were pimples sprouting on his chin and his glasses had slid down on his greasy nose. He wore a huge black and white striped hoodie and had a baggy tracksuit pants on. He wore timberlands over fluffy white socks. Kevin didn’t care how he looked; he dressed for himself and no one else.
Kevin was born in Vancouver, Canada, and lived there his whole life. Until now. His mother and father had just divorced, and Kevin had to move to South Korea with his father. He didn’t want to leave Canada; all those friends, memories, good times, they were all gone. Kevin was very sad but didn’t let the emotions get to him.
Kevin’s dad stopped outside a very fancy mansion-like house. He got out and walked up to the front while Kevin took out one headphone. He paused Beyoncé and rubbed his tired eyes. He watched he dad fumble with something outside the door and Kevin had to laugh. His dad was trying to find something while outside someone’s fancy house.
Before Kevin knew what was happening, his dad had opened the door to the mansion and had walked in. Kevin jumped out of the car with his backpack and closed the car door behind him. He tripped over the curb that the car was parked beside and he fell flat on his face. He dropped his phone beside him, and, when he picked it up, the screen had cracked. He glasses flew off and landed in front of him, and he whacked his head into the ground, all while making the ugliest screech humanly possible. He looked up at the house and saw a woman in the house next door glaring out at him. She closed the blinds as soon as Kevin looked up. He sighed as he ran into the house, closing the front door behind him.
The house looked like your average house on the inside, except it had more rooms, more room space, fancier absolutely everything, and Kevin was pretty sure he just moved into a mansion. He went upstairs and claimed a room at the back of the house as his own. He had to wait to go on a trip to buy furniture, so he had to make do with a sofa bed that sat lonely in the corner of the room. There was a window that faced a window on the neighbour’s house, and of course, Kevin had to snoop. He looked into the window and he spot a boy walking around through silk curtains. He looked like he was dancing to something. Eventually, Kevin gave up watching this boy dance, and sat down on his sofa bed.
After an uncomfortable night of sleeping on a sofa bed, Kevin and his dad went to Ikea in Goyang to buy furniture. Kevin was blown away by how big the Ikea was here compared to the ones in Canada. He picked himself out a desk, a bed, a dresser, and some random stuff to go in his room. They bought them and were going to get them delivered (as there were well over 20 items that wouldn’t fit into Kevin’s father’s tiny car). They bought doughnuts and ate them on the way home.
Within the first week, Kevin’s room was already put together. He ordered posters and stuff online to hang up in his room. He got posters of Beyoncé (duh), Drake, Justin Timberlake, Got7 (Mark was his bias), and Sam Kim (he likes his kind of music when it comes to K-pop). He was happy with the way his room looked.
As soon as he finished putting up the last photocard of Mark from Got7, the doorbell rang. Kevin went downstairs and opened the door. There stood a couple and a boy around his age in suits. The man had a box with burgundy ribbon wrapped around it, and the woman had a basket with all sorts of delicacies inside.
“Hello, are you the head of the household?” the woman asked in Korean. Kevin looked at her with confusion. He stood there with his mouth open, as if trying to say something.
“Ann…young...hasey-yo?” Kevin looked at the couple. They looked at each other as if to ask each other what he said. The other boy kicked a stone that was on the ground. Thankfully, Kevin’s dad ran up behind him and started to talk to the family. He welcomed in the couple as Kevin slid back upstairs to avoid interaction. He heard them talking in English downstairs, and he slapped his forehead in embarrassment; he could’ve just spoken in English to them. He opened his phone to try distract himself.
“Thank you for bringing the gifts over, they’re wonderful!”
“Oh, it’s nothing, Mr. Moon. We wanted to welcome you into the neighbourhood with a good first impression. I didn’t want us to be enemies before we even interacted!” The woman replied, taking a biscuit from a small plate Mr. Moon had out on the kitchen table.
“Say, your house is fantastic.” The man looked around the kitchen while he took a sip of wine. The son scratched a bit of dirt off of his pants while he sat awkwardly.
“Your son can go upstairs to my son if he wants. I’m sure they’d get on great with each other.” Mr. Moon took a sip of wine and motioned towards the boy sitting at the table. He looked up, his face bright red.
“Ah yes, that’s a wonderful idea. Go make some friends with your neighbour, Jakey.” The boy’s mother rubbed him on the shoulder. He awkwardly stood up and started to leave the room.
“Kev’s room is the one with the Beyoncé poster on the door. He’ll be in there.” Mr. Moon called from a mouthful of biscuits. “Jakey” left the room and went upstairs slowly. He saw the Beyoncé poster and knocked. The door opened by itself, and Jakey went in. There was no one in the room, and Jakey felt like turning around and leaving. The window was open, and he saw his room through the window.
He walked over to the window and looked out at his room. He could see his posters through the silk curtain. Faint Beyoncé was playing from below him. Jakey looked out of the window and saw someone sitting on the extension roof below listening to Beyoncé while drawing. He smiled faintly.
“Y’know, if you plan on leaving the gathering, at least let us know.” He called out in Korean. The boy jumped, almost falling off the roof. He paused his music and turned around. He stood up and was just a little bit below Jakey. He piled his stuff up onto the windowsill and climbed back up. Jakey had walked back into the room to let the boy have room to get back in. He turned around and looked at the room while the boy climbed in.
“You scared me, man. At least let me know you were in my room.” The boy rolled onto the floor while exclaiming in English. “Who are you to be in my room?”
“Who are you to leave your door and window open when you have people over?” Jakey sassed back in fluent English. The boy rolled his eyes while his face turned a faint shade of pink.
“Kevin Moon. I actually live here; this is my room if you weren’t aware.”
“So you're the one that’s been staring at me recently through the window.” Jakey pointed out. Kevin choked on his spit.
“Wait that was you?” Jacob nodded. “You could see me?!”
“It’s kind of hard not to when you're basically hanging out of the window staring at me.” Jakey raised his eyebrows and smiled. Kevin went red with embarrassment and covered his face with his hands.
“Who even are you?!” Kevin yelled through his hands.
“Bae Joonyoung.” he replied.
“…in English please?”
“Jacob Bae. I’m 17 if you care, and I’d prefer it if you didn’t call me Joonyoung, please and thank you.” He responded. Kevin felt his cheeks redden. Jacob turned around and looked at the posters on Kevin’s walls. “You like Sam Kim?”
“He’s-he’s a good singer. I like his genre of Korean pop.” Kevin responded, sitting on his bed. Jacob giggled. Kevin went red again “What?!”
“Just call it K-pop.” Jacob turned back around and looked at the desk. There was an open sketchpad on the desk. Jacob picked it up and read it.
“Wait no, put that down- oh my god.” Kevin stood up and raced for the table, but it was too late. Jacob had read the drawing and smiled.
“Ariana Grande?” Jacob turned to Kevin and held up the pad. Kevin took his hands away from his face and nodded. Jacob looked back at the drawing and smiled. “It’s good. Really good. I like it. Ariana’s cool, too.”
Kevin felt his cheeks redden. All of a sudden, there was a yell from downstairs.
“Jakey sweetie! Come on, we’re leaving!”
Jacob rolled his eyes after hearing the voice of his father. He turned his head in Kevin’s direction.
“If you wanna talk again, just get my attention through my window.” He smiled, before leaving Kevin’s room. He turned quickly. “Bye, Kevin.” He closed the bedroom door, and Kevin rushed to his bedroom window. He could just about see the front of the house. He saw the side of Jacob’s head as he turned a corner, entering his house. Kevin smiled and grabbed his drawing things. He climbed outside onto the extension roof and resumed his drawing. He played Sam Kim while he drew, swirling his pen across the page in extravagant lettering.
Kevin was an avid art student back in Canada. He used to upload his artwork to a Twitter account that he has long since abandoned. He was thinking of starting anew, creating a new Twitter account. He had a private SnapChat and Instagram that only his close friends from Canada knew about. He deactivated those accounts when he moved to Korea. Kevin was thinking of starting over, like he was “restarting” his life, by making new social media accounts. He could upload his art and pictures of himself and his friends (if he ever made friends, that is). Before he could think anymore, the song he was listening to ended, and a new Sam Kim song started playing.
“Hey, Moon boy!”
Kevin looked up and saw Jacob hanging from his bedroom window.
“Sup, Jake Bae.”
“I was just about to shower and go do homework. I wanted to say hi before today ended.” Jacob smiled. Kevin smiled back at him and said goodbye. Jacob left Kevin alone once again, sitting on the extension roof, listening to Sam Kim while writing and drawing. He sighed when the song he was listening to ended.
I’m glad we moved, Kevin thought. I think I’m gonna have good memories here.