Chapter 2

My mom and I arrived at my dad's hospital room.

He had moderate carbon monoxide poisoning, his lips still cherry red.

Seeing me crying and sniffling, a snot bubble occasionally popping from my nose, he joked weakly,

"Now you know to feel bad for your old man, huh? You weren't this upset when I broke my leg dancing."

Before my exams, I was so stressed I broke out in acne and gained weight. My dad, worried, consulted a colleague in psychology who suggested I get more exercise.

But I refused to go for walks, runs, or swims with him and Mom.

He got tough and paid two thousand dollars for a dance class, thinking I'd be interested if there were lots of young women dancing there.

But I still wouldn't go.

The money was non-refundable, and the membership was about to expire when I was a sophomore.

My dad originally wanted my mom to go, but she was always traveling for work, so he had to bite the bullet and go himself.

But one day, he was having too much fun and ended up breaking his leg.

Back then, I just thought he was embarrassing.

I rolled my eyes and cursed him, saying he was a grown man gyrating among young women, making classmates laugh at me. He deserved that fall.

Now, overwhelmed with guilt, I could only repeatedly apologize to him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

My parents both thought I was acting strangely and began to shift their thoughts back to our burnt-out home. The atmosphere grew heavy.

My mom was usually a worrier, but she was also optimistic and kind.

"It's okay, Robert. Just think of it as a few days off. You're always rushing around the emergency room. Now you can guilt-free sleep in at the hospital."

"Don't worry about the house either. Even though it burned down, I bought home insurance the year before last, so we can file a claim. The most important thing is that our family is safe and sound. And I hope our precious daughter, Alice, isn't too affected by this for her SATs. It's less than twenty days away, I really don't want to see her repeat a year."

"As for Hugh, we'll help him as much as we can. Regardless of whether it was his parents' fault, they're gone. The boy shouldn't have to bear all this, and it shouldn't affect his SATs either."

"He and Alice are childhood friends. If they can go to the same university, we'll grit our teeth and help them out."

After my mom finished speaking, my dad looked troubled.

"Honey, let's not go too far. At most, we can help Hugh arrange his parents' funeral so he can focus on his SATs."

"Anything more is a bottomless pit. Besides, his family is responsible for the fire, we're victims too. If we don't seek compensation and instead help them so much, what will the other affected neighbors think? We'll be ostracized in the neighborhood. We can't do that."

"And, after working in the emergency room for so many years, I've seen too many cases where good intentions backfire, making the helper liable. Like recently, a girl got sick while hiking. Another stranger in the group kindly gave her some cold medicine, but after they got down the mountain, the girl died less than an hour after being admitted to the ER. Later, the deceased girl's parents sued the girl who gave her the medicine, and I heard she had to pay a hefty sum…"

In my last life, when my dad said this, my mom hesitated.

"But Hugh and Alice are childhood friends, Robert. Let me think."

But then, I had loudly demanded that my parents see their "good deed" through, threatening a hunger strike and refusing to take my SATs otherwise.

Now, I picked up where my mom left off:

"Mom, only good friends are called childhood sweethearts. If the relationship is just okay, they're just regular classmates."

"I used to cling to Hugh a lot when I was little, but now he's just a regular classmate. The most important thing for me right now is my SATs."

"Besides, Hugh already has someone else he likes at school, and it's not me."

Hearing me say that, my parents exchanged surprised glances for a few seconds.

But realizing my focus was on my SATs, they didn't ask any more questions.

My mom started making arrangements to take me to the hospital cafeteria for dinner.

After eating with my dad, my mom drove me back to school.

Then, she assessed the damages with the home insurance company and rented an apartment in the next neighborhood for our family to stay in temporarily.