In a year when I could barely support myself, I found a brilliant but poor student in a filthy alley, broken and violated.

His eyes were empty. “Do whatever you want with me,” he said.

I did nothing of the sort.

I just cleaned him up and put him in a fresh, white shirt.

And stuttered earnestly, “J-just… live.”

Later, he taught himself, got into the best university, and became its youngest doctoral advisor.

On a typical summer night when I went to pick him up, he coldly rejected a girl whose smile was as bright as the sun.

And for the first time, I heard him ask me, lost and anxious:

“What is love?”

When I saw the expensive brooch she had given him in his hand,

I knew it was time for me to leave.

Latest Release