“Squirt,” Someone calls me and I know who that is, but I ignore her. “Kang Mirae!” Oh no, she uses my full name.

I approach her, “What?”

My birthmother stares at me and looks agitated, “How many times do I have to tell you to clean after your mess?”

“I don’t see any mess.” I shrug nonchalantly.

“What are these then, hmm?” She grabs things and shows them to me.

“My action figures, Mommy,” I roll my eyes at the obvious.

“Exactly!” She huffs exaggeratedly. “You need to put them back in the box after you’re done.”

“But I’m not done. I’m still playing and you’re sitting on their basecamp. Intruder isn’t welcome here. Kang’s army, assemble!” I grab two of my high rank commanders and gather them in front of her on the table. I run and bring back a helicopter and tank with some more action figures, all of them are facing her full force.

Mommy sighs heavily, “I’m so tired, buddy. Can we play another time?”

“You’ve reached three strikes.” I whine. I’m not lying. She already turned me down twice and now she did it again.

“Come here,” She pats the empty couch beside her. “Cuddle time, come here!” She repeats.

I walk closer to her and then I see it, “Mommy!” I scold her, “Get up! You sit on G.I Joe!” She lifts her and takes out G.I Joe from under her. I see my General army’s hand is bent now. “No! You hurt him!”

She tosses it aside and pulls me closer. I land beside her and then she hugs me. “Where are your Mama and Yerim?”

“Grocery shopping,” I answer. “You injured G.I Joe, don’t you feel bad?”

“My God,” She sighs, “I will buy you a new one.”

I click my tongue in annoyance, “That’s limited edition. Uncle Sungjae gave it to me for my birthday last year.”

“Oh, really?”

“Uh huh,”

She lets me go and picks up the G.I Joe again, looking at it thoroughly. “Is it broken? Can we fix it?” She cringes in guilt.

I take it from her and inspect it, “Not broken just bent.”

She fixes my hair and caresses my head after, “I’m sorry, Squirt.” I shrug. “But you shouldn’t place your toys everywhere around the house. We already renovated your bedroom and made it bigger. That’s still not enough?”

“Well, I mean… how am I supposed to play ‘reservoir raid’ in my bedroom?”

She arches her brows, “Reservoir raid?” Her eyes are on me. “Please don’t tell me you use bathroom too.”

“That’s the ‘central reservoir’, Mommy.”

“Kang Mirae…”

“Mommy, it’s important to play ‘reservoir raid’ to have main source of water!”

“Unbelievable,” She scoffs. “One of these days, Squirt, you will turn our house into your playground.”

“Not really,” I grin. Mama says our grin is identical. “I don’t use your bedroom, Yerim’s bedroom, kitchen, and laundry room.”

“Hmm,” She squints her eyes, “Where are we sitting now?”

“Abandoned helipad,” I tell her. “And that’s a solar power station.” I point her to the dining room – the dining table to be exact. “That on is dev compound.”

“You play in my office too?!”

“I promise I don’t touch anything!”

She squints her eyes again, “Do I wanna know what these are for?”

I grin wider.