Joon Jae-The Question

The boy was wiping his tears and nodded. I smiled at him reassuringly.

'Does you mom leave you alone a lot?' I asked gently.

'No,' he sobbed. 'She never left me alone. Back in our country, whenever Mee had to stay out late for work, she left me with her nanny who looked after me. Sometimes even took me with her. Mee doesn't know I was left alone. The ahjumma said she will be back in an hour. She left just a while ago. I was alone when I saw Mona and she led me here. I didn't know you guys lived here! Otherwise I would have never come.'

He started crying again. I sighed. The kid seemed to be telling the truth. I turned to Taewon.

'It's not his mother's fault,' I said in Korean. 'His babysitter was the one who left without informing.'

'The mother should have hired a better babysitter then,' Taewon snapped. 'Hey kid!'

He turned back to the child. 'What was your name again?'

'Deen,' the child replied.

'Deen, time for you to go back home.'

'Hyung!' Jan said. 'You can't just leave a kid alone like that! What if someone hurts him?'

'Not our problem,' Taewon sneered. 'It's his mother's fault for leaving him alone.'

'I don't want to stay here either,' the boy said quietly.

'Deen-' I started to protest.

'Ahjusshi,' he said. 'Thank you for being so kind. But I really want to go home. I am sorry for coming in here. I will make sure not to come again. My mother taught me not to go to places where I will not be welcome.'

He bowed and turned to leave. But stopped midway.

'Why'd you stop?' Taewon asked. 'Leave.'

'Ahjusshi, can you tell me the meaning of a word?' Deen asked.

'What do you want to know?' Jan asked gently.

'What are the meanings of illegitimate and bastard?' he asked.

'Just look at the kid!' Taewon said incredulously. 'Having such vulgar words in his vocabulary already.'

'People called me those at school today,' Deen said simply. 'Are those something bad?'

I froze. Beside me Jan was staring at the child, loss for words. Even Taewon's expression froze.