The two of them walked out of the studio with their pockets full: cash envelopes holding the day’s wages they’d been promised, a thousand dollars each. Throw in a top-of-the-line glove for Tommy, and the day had been nothing short of a jackpot.

“Money in our pockets and presents in our hands! Let’s go eat! It’s on me today!”

Mark shouted it, thrilled.

But Suho shook his head and looked off in another direction.

“We’ll eat later. There’s somewhere I want to stop first.”

“Where? The bank?”

“No. There.”

Suho was pointing at a big outlet mall near the studio.

“Why the mall?”

“I can’t walk in empty-handed. I’ve been staying with you for two weeks.”

Suho didn’t wait for Mark’s answer and led the way.

The truth was, the whole time he’d been staying at Mark’s house, a corner of Suho’s mind had felt like he was running up a debt. Mark said it was only natural, since they were partners, but only taking and never giving just wasn’t in Suho’s nature.

The budget’s a thousand dollars.

He meant to spend every cent he’d made today. It was basically bonus money anyway.

It wasn’t that Suho had no money. In his account sat part of the signing bonus from his Korean pro team, plus the fat signing bonus he’d gotten when he signed with the Dodgers—hundreds of millions of won in all, untouched. It was big money, enough to fix up Mark’s house right now or at least lend him his family’s living expenses.

But I can’t do that.

The reason was clear. It could come across as clumsy pity.

It’d make things awkward for both of us.

Above all, who was he to pity anyone or do anyone charity? Right now, he had no right to.

But the money I made today is fine.

He’d made it while staying at Mark’s house. It wasn’t a big sum, either, and treating everyone for the fun of it wouldn’t weigh on anybody.

So let’s not hold back.

The first stop was a toy store.

The moment they walked in, they saw stuffed animals piled up like a mountain. Without a moment’s hesitation, Suho picked up a giant teddy bear as big as his own upper body.

“Lily’ll love this, right?”

“You even have to ask? It’s bigger than she is. Obviously.”

Mark laughed like he couldn’t believe it, but Suho headed for the register.

To a five-year-old, size is joy. Suho knew from his orphanage days the look of pure delight on a kid’s face when she got a present bigger than she was.

Next was an electronics store.

Suho scanned the display and picked up a pair of headphones. They weren’t the newest model, but they were noise-canceling headphones known for being really good.

“These are for Jenny.”

“Headphones? She does like listening to music, but…”

“That too, but the house is kind of loud, right?”

Suho huffed a laugh.

What a teenage girl needs most is a space of her own. But in a cramped house, packed in among younger siblings running all over the place, it would have been hard for Jenny to get any time to herself. These headphones would let her feel cut off from the world and at peace, at least while she studied or wanted to rest.

Seeing Cash do it… it looked nice.

He didn’t bother saying that part out loud. Things between Mark and Cash still weren’t all that great.

“…Wow.”

Mark’s mouth hung open.

He hadn’t even thought of that himself. Suho, an outsider, understood what his sister needed better than her own brother did.

“Are you seriously… just that thoughtful, or are you, like, a master at reading people? Are you on your second life or something…”

“Quit gassing me up. Last one—your mom.”

The two of them headed to a shoe store.

Instead of flashy dress shoes, Suho picked out a pair of athletic sneakers with the best cushioning.

“Your mom’s a size seven, right?”

“Uh…”

Then they stopped by the cosmetics section and grabbed a set of extra-moisturizing hand cream too.

“Hey, this is seriously too much. My mom’s gonna feel bad, I’m telling you. The shoes and this cream are both expensive.”

Mark waved it off, but Suho was firm.

“Working at a restaurant, she has to be on her feet all day, right? Her feet and hands take the worst of it. You and me, we’re athletes, so we know, right? When your feet are comfortable, your day’s comfortable.”

Suho paid and picked up the shopping bags, both hands full.

He didn’t bother buying anything for Tommy. He’d gotten a glove from Rawlings, and that one alone was worth over a thousand dollars.

Now he had three hundred dollars left. And still, Suho’s shopping wasn’t done.

“Let’s go.”

The last stop was a big supermarket.

Suho grabbed a cart and charged into the grocery section. Then he swept up packs of beef for steak—every kind—the same packs Mark always picked up and put back down again and again because they were too expensive. Luckily, meat from the supermarket was pretty cheap in America, so it didn’t cost too much.

On top of that, fruit the kids liked. Then everyday stuff like jumbo boxes of cereal, milk and toilet paper, until the cart was overflowing.

“Hey! Hey! Stop putting stuff in! The fridge’ll explode!”

Mark was horrified and tried to stop him, but Suho didn’t bat an eye.

“I’m going to eat all this myself. I’m a growing boy. I eat a lot.”

“Growing boy, my ass! You’re all grown up!”

“My heart’s still growing. Besides, we leave next week, so I’ve got to eat well now.”

At the checkout, the receipt printed out long.

Added up, the groceries came to about as much as the presents. So he’d spent all thousand dollars he’d made today and had to put in three hundred more on top of it. But he’d be eating the food too, so he didn’t mind much.

Mark glanced at the receipt, then sighed and asked him seriously:

“Why are you going this far?”

His voice went past thanks into something closer to feeling bad.

Suho crumpled up the receipt, stuck it in his pocket and said it matter-of-factly:

“Do the math. If I’d stayed at a hotel for two weeks, the room and the food… this money wouldn’t have come close.”

Suho gave Mark’s shoulder a light thump.

“So don’t feel bad. This is fair rent.”

It was a lie, actually. If he’d slept in a cheap motel and scraped by on food himself, he’d have saved a lot more money.

But he’d gotten something money couldn’t buy. The warmth of a family that let him forget his loneliness in a foreign country. Warm meals at the table. The feel of real people around him.

And if Mark hadn’t invited me, I never could have dreamed of a shoot like today’s.

You couldn’t put a dollar value on things like that. No—he wouldn’t have minded paying thousands of dollars more. He only wished this was all he could do.

“…Let’s go. Let’s fill up the fridge and get dinner cooked before your mom gets home.”

Suho walked on ahead.

Watching him from behind, Mark felt a sting in his nose. He really couldn’t beat this guy, in more ways than one.

That evening.

For the first time in a long while, Mark’s house filled with the smell of meat cooking. The top-of-the-line steak cuts Suho had bought sizzled as they cooked, and fruit, salad and even a cake came out onto the table.

It was a feast a poor family rarely saw even on holidays or birthdays.

“Thank you for the food!”

The kids’ eyes sparkled. The moment they put the meat in their mouths, it melted, and they cried out in delight.

When everyone was more or less full, Suho quietly got up and brought over the shopping bags he’d left in a corner.

“Okay, these are instead of dessert.”

First, Suho held out a big wrapped package to Lily, the youngest.

“What is it?”

Lily tore at the wrapping paper with her tiny hands. Out popped a teddy bear even bigger than she was.

“Whoaaa! A teddy bear!”

Lily hugged the bear tight and rolled around on the floor, and she thought Suho was just like a real Santa Claus.

No wonder. She’d only ever played with things her big sister or brothers had used, or with old toys bought at a flea market. This was the first new thing she’d ever had in her life. A teddy bear bigger than she was, too, and all her own.

So to Lily, Suho wasn’t just the big brother who fed her well. He was a prince who’d worked magic on her little world.

Jenny was next.

When Jenny opened the small box Suho handed her, her eyes went wide.

“Are these… noise-canceling headphones?”

“You seemed like you liked music.”

Jenny bit her lip.

How did he know?

A cramped house, noisy little brothers and sisters. For a teenage girl, a space of her own was a luxury. She was always giving way to her siblings, and nobody ever asked what she actually needed. She knew it was only because the family didn’t have anything to spare. Still, she was at an age when it stung anyway.

And yet that small, hidden need, one even her family hadn’t noticed, had been filled by a stranger just passing through.

“Thank you. I’ll really take care of them.”

She said it and hugged the headphones tight to her chest. Underneath it was a thank-you for respecting her.

And Suho casually tossed Tommy, who was sitting beside him, the batting gloves they’d gotten at the studio earlier.

“Use them when you’re bigger. They’re good ones.”

“Whoa! These are Rawlings! So cool!”

Tommy was as happy as if he owned the whole world, with no idea that his real present was sitting on top of the shoe rack. A treasure hunt always works on a boy. After dinner he’d go outside with the gloves on to swing a bat. That was when he’d find his real present, the glove.

Last, Suho went over to their mother.

“These are for you, ma’am.”

“Oh, n-no. I’m fine…”

Their mother waved it off, but Suho opened the box and took out the cushioned walking shoes. Then he gently set the hand cream set down next to them.

“I hope they help, even a little.”

Their mother took the shoes and couldn’t speak for a while. As she ran her rough hand over the soft insole, her eyes grew wet.

“My son… has such a good friend.”

Ever since her husband left, the ones holding this family up had always been her and Mark. There had been no room to lean on anyone or be comforted.

But this young man from a faraway country had breathed warmth into the house these past two weeks. He played with the kids, filled the table, and now he’d even thought of her aching feet.

It felt less like Mark’s friend and more like she’d gained another son she could count on.

“…Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She held Suho’s hand tight. Her touch was rough, but warm.

Mark watched it all, happy, and with his nose stinging a little.

After that, the family simply enjoyed their dinner.

The truth was, as soon as the sun came up tomorrow morning, they might be back to worrying about unpaid bills, heading off to exhausting jobs, and wondering what they were going to eat. One feast didn’t make poverty disappear.

But it didn’t matter.

No one can run every day with their lungs screaming. To climb a steep hill, you need a stretch of flat ground to catch your breath. The warm, full feeling and the laughter of tonight—a single day of breathing room—would become a solid prop to hold them up through the hard times ahead.

Mark looked over at Suho, happy. It made him proud, and grateful, that it was his friend who’d made this picture.

“Okay, everybody got presents. What do we say?”

At Mark’s words, the family shouted it like a chorus.

“Thank you!”

Suho rubbed his nose with his index finger, embarrassed.

There couldn’t have been a more perfect day before leaving for Arizona.

Another week went by.

Before they knew it, the day to leave for Arizona had dawned.

Suho and Mark packed their bags and stood at the front door.

“Be careful. And make sure you eat right.”

“If you’re on TV, I’m gonna brag about it at school!”

Their mother and the kids all came out to see them off. It had been a short time, but Suho was practically another member of this family by now.

Suho smiled and ruffled the kids’ hair.

“I’m heading out. I’ll come back again sometime.”

Then the two of them climbed into the Uber they’d called ahead of time.

“Thanks. Really… thank you, buddy.”

At Mark’s heartfelt words, Suho shook his head.

“Nah. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

“You didn’t even get anything out of it.”

“I got a good rest, thanks to you.”

He meant it. The warmth he’d felt inside the walls of a family might have handed Suho, who’d been standing at the edge of a cliff, the biggest weapon of all: peace of mind. The certainty that he wasn’t alone anymore. The belief that someone had his back. That alone was enough for Suho.

And it was exactly what Mark had meant to do when he first invited him.

The cab turned onto the airport approach road. Off in the distance, the runways and planes came into view. The scenery of LA was falling away behind them, and the door to the real battlefield was opening.

Suho clenched his fist. The break was over.

Now it gets real.

Arizona. A desert crawling with monsters. The time was coming when he’d have to prove everything he had under its blazing sun.

End of Chapter 48