Meeting Point
Table of Contents
By Keyna Kim
December 23rd, 2025 9:30AM
When you’re in a family consisting of two people, it’s only natural that you try to invite as many friends over as possible, trying to fill the upcoming void in your heart when the house will be ultimately silent on Christmas morning.
But it’s no time to think about that. There’s just too much to do today!
9:45 AM
I brush my teeth, still groggy from last night. I have no discipline whatsoever, and thus slept ridiculously late. But we have many guests coming over tonight, and my mom will reprimand me for sleeping in. Might as well get ready.
My eyes sting from the light, and probably exhaustion. Cold water hits my face, and I smack my cheeks frantically. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!
I feel my tiredness temporarily release from my body as I stare at myself in the mirror. Yesterday is over, tomorrow is unknown, and today is yet to come. I can do this.
First, I need to buy cheese— Brie? Marble?
Then I need to buy salami… I really like the German brand that my butcher always keeps hidden in between the other salami chubs…
I want a Diet Coke. Which tastes infinitely better than regular coke by the way. Maybe I should buy a six pack mini Diet Coke? I also need to buy grapes. Wait. Do we even have a charcuterie board?
I’m not going to wear makeup today. I’m not bothered. I’m too lazy for this.
I need to clean my room as well, so I should open my window—no I should put on sunscreen first—no I should open my window and then put on sunscreen. I need a good spray of febreeze right now. Ugh. I have nothing to wear. Is the laundry done? But it’s a Tuesday today, so I should have everything in my closet—
10:00 AM
Thud, Thud, Thud.
I roll my eyes. My neighbours are at it again.
It’s been like this from the day I moved in. I’m not familiar with the couple living there, but they are always arguing during illogical times of the day.
Huh, I realized. It’s the first time they’re fighting in the morning.
It’s always a screaming match between the two, and although I firmly believe they should break up, they won’t. I don’t even know what they look like, what could I do?
“Take my card,” my mom tosses her wallet at me. “I went and bought some supplies while you were asleep, hurry, hurry!”
I fumbled with the thin black wallet in my hands as the sun slapped me in the face. I wish I could go to bed right now. I’m so glad the store is walking distance away.
10:10 AM
I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the day before Christmas Eve, but it seems like everyone wants to make a charcuterie board.
There’s barely any left of the German salami I love. So I ask the butcher for two hundred grams worth of slices, and buy some other cheap ones. I’m going to eat most of the German salami myself anyway. I won’t share.
The grapes are small so I suspect they would taste sour. But I shrug. There are no grapes in the house. I need grapes. Now!
The cheese is stocked. Why is there so much cheese? Are people only after the German salami? Is it because it’s German?
I still have nothing to wear. I’m dressed like crap. Why is there a stain on this shirt? I haven’t worn it at all during Christmas break. I’m so overstimulated right now.
10:30 AM
I sludge my way back up to my unit. It’s the tenth floor, so the elevator shouldn’t take long to arrive at my destination, but it does! It seems like time spans forever in that elevator. I can’t even use the stairs, we’re not allowed.
As I enter my apartment unit, my mom is in the kitchen cooking frantically. It’s barely eleven in the morning, yet I smell fragrant dishes in the air.
My mom shoves a banana in my mouth. “The neighbours are arguing again.”
“Mmmmpfh,” I agree.
Thud, thud, thud, thud
I pull out the things I bought one by one. What do you mean we don’t have a charcuterie board? I guess we just have to use the biggest plate we have. This plate isn’t big enough! How am I supposed to fit all this salami, meat, and… crackers? Oh no! I forgot the crackers!
“Forget it,” my mom waved her hand. “We have an unopened Ritz box in the cupboard.”
“But that Ritz has cheese in it.”
“So? You bought cheese, the cracker has cheese, we get double cheese!”
Thud, thud, thud, thud, THUD.
I flinch. That one was particularly loud. I shrug. Are they throwing things at each other?
I watch my mom go to and fro from the stove to the fridge. I want to help, but I can tell she has her system set up and if I ruin it, she’ll get upset at me. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.
“Do you need help?”
“No.”
Ah. My mother is zoned in on cooking up the best Christmas meal. Before it’s even Christmas Eve. Hilarious!
It’s been a nice change of pace seeing my mom busying herself again.
Ever since my uncle died in July, this Christmas has felt the most isolating out of all the Christmas days ever. For both of us.
My grandma is too ill to visit from the other side of the world—my uncle, who had the finances to come… well he’s…
I shake my head. There’s no point in being depressed over it. There are guests coming over today!
July 23rd, 2025
The weather is too hot. I’m not used to the dry heat. I traveled to the other side of the world to attend a funeral, and all I can think about is how damn hot it is.
I feel sweat trickling down my forehead. I feel a droplet on the tip of my nose. I packed whatever black clothing I could find, and none of them are made for the summer weather.
The funeral is meant to last three days. It’s the first day. It’s so quiet.
He’s dead. My voice echoes in my head. He’s dead and you’re not crying.
I blink. I open my phone.
From uncle: Missed call. June 15th, 2025
It’s the language barrier, I plead to myself. It’s the fact we live fifteen hours apart.
From uncle: Missed call. June, 2025
From uncle: Missed call. June.
From me: Missed call. July 21st, 2025
It’s the first time I met my three grand aunts. My mom’s aunts. They chatter and chatter. They look at me funny, but it’s a warm gleam in their eyes. I’m okay.
They found him dead in his apartment, head smack on the table. He might’ve had a heart attack. We don’t even know when he actually died.
Stupid alcoholism.
December 23rd, 2025
10:45 AM
I changed my clothes again. This time, the outfit is more bearable. These guests have known me since I was young, so it’s okay—
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD
The neighbours are fighting more aggressively than usual.
I lie on my bed and close my eyes for a few seconds. I’m tired of looking at the sun. But it’s even more uncomfortable because there is a humongous window beside me, and the sun joyfully stares heat onto my skin. It’s winter— why is the sun radiating so much heat?!
There was a scream.
“…elp.”
I open my eyes.
“…help… HELP… HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP.”
I sit up from my bed. The frosted glass that divided me and my neighbour’s balcony had a shadow behind it.
It had to be a woman. The screaming sounded like a girl.
I watched the shadow laid on the ground before I saw her being dragged back in.
Was… was someone pulling her by the hair?
THUD
July 24th, 2025
My grandma holds my hand, shaking.
“He was so…cold,” she stuttered out. “His lips were blue and—”
“Mom. Stop,” my own mother grabbed my grandma by the shoulder and dragged her away from me. I wasn’t allowed to see the body.
I barely stayed awake the last two days. I just slept, and slept, and slept in the backroom of the funeral house.
…The food was okay.
My uncle loved to buy me things. He had no wife, no kids. Just a demanding job and a mother with no pension.
The last thing he bought me was a pair of Sony headphones.
Haha. Headphones he bought on a whim for me. Haha.
I just kept laughing, and laughing, and laughing. I couldn’t stop. The giggles just kept coming.
One of my grand aunts clicked her tongue when she saw me laughing.
No. It’s fine. My uncle would’ve laughed with me anyway.
She’s just a kid! Let her live a little.
I see floral arrangements around his portrait. He’s smiling with a kind gaze I recognize.
My uncle has a foul tongue. He drinks. He smokes. But his eyes never failed to soften.
December 23rd, 2025 10:55AM
Silence.
Silence, silence…
Silence.
Me and my mom exchanged glances.
“They should be fine, right?” she suggested carefully.
I felt an impending doom in my heart. No. Yes? No.
I shook my head. “No. I’m going to talk to the concierge.”
I grabbed my keys—the keys attached to a lanyard I got at a university open house. A university I wasn’t even planning on attending anyway.
July 25th, 2025
“In our culture, when there is a deceased relative, the closest female family members wear a white ribbon pin on the right side of your head. Here.”
The funeral director carefully gave me a pair of ribbons. “Give one to your mom too. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I nod and take one to give to my mom.
I see the hardened hot glue attached between the white ribbon and bobby pin. I hadn’t been able to properly bathe, as I was sleeping in the funeral home and dazing into nothingness every now and then, so I felt glad that I had something to keep my oily hair out of my face.
“…He never even saw you graduate,” my mom mumbled. She held a grudge in her voice you could only hear between siblings.
I don’t reply. He would’ve bought me something ridiculous as a university gift.
December 23rd, 2025 10:56 AM
The elevator was suspiciously fast. Why is it so fast?
Hello. My neighbours argued particularly badly today. I heard screaming. It’s eerily silent now. Do you think you can do anything about it?
I rehearse it in my head two more times.
I hurry out with keys jingling in my pocket. I had just come to realize that my pants were too long.
I reached the concierge table.
Before I could even say the first few words of my rehearsed lines, the concierge rapidly put on his coat and seemed to be in a rush.
“Something happened. I can’t help you right now. Come back later.”
Curt, quick, dismissive.
My mom’s suggestion that they might be fine rings my head. I shrug. I guess they are.
I go back to my unit. The elevator is well behaved today.
11:00 AM
“He said he had some emergency,” I immediately announced the moment I entered back home.
“Oh, okay,” my mom replied, still busy with her workarounds.
I go back to my room and crash into my bed. The intention to clean my room is there… I just need to start.
I hear the sound of sirens outside. This is normal. This happens everyday. So I ignore it.
As the hustle and bustle of the kitchen dies down, me and my mom both hear shuffling outside our door. Talking, mumbling.
“Did you hear the sirens earlier?” I ask. My mom only nods in response.
I slightly peer open the door, and I see the concierge unlock my neighbour’s door for the police.
I see them walking in, and I close the door the moment I make eye contact with one of the officers. Nope. Not my business.
Someone knocks on the door.
I open the door again. Me and my mom both peer carefully at a police officer.
“May I come in to ask you some questions?”
July 26th, 2025
It is so hot. So fricking, fudging, fiddling hot.
That’s all I can think about. The heat. I think about the heat when I finally leave the funeral home. I think about the heat when I ride the bus. I think about the heat when I have to watch my mom carry my uncle’s cremated ashes in a sad box. I think about the heat when I have to carry my uncle’s funeral portrait. I keep thinking about the heat when I watch my mom quietly sob in her seat, the bus ride to the mountains. The mountains where the rest of my family is buried.
December 23rd, 2025 11:10AM
I try to answer his questions as best as possible.
“Did you hear anything earlier today?”
“Did you see anything odd?”
Yes. There was screaming. Loud thuds. I saw a woman get dragged by her hair.
“What times?”
10:00 AM. 10:30 AM. 10:45 AM.
July 26th, 2025
I go up the mountain. There are no roads. There are no signs. There is nothing that would navigate me to the graves of my grandfather and my great-grandparents.
I don’t want to be here anymore. Why did my uncle have to die during the peak of summer?
I hear cicadas. Or crickets. Is that a mosquito?
I already have mosquito bites all over my body. I’m itchy. I’m sweaty. I feel gross.
My mom is silent all the way through.
December 23rd, 2025 11:20AM
“I’m not supposed to tell you this, but…”
I watched the police officer shut off his camera on his chest.
“Someone fell from the balcony.”
My mom gasped.
We live on the tenth floor.
“The girl is okay?” my mom asked. All context clues led my mom to believe the girl was getting abused.
“Oh—yeah. The girl is okay. But someone fell.”
Something clicked. Oh. The girl might’ve pushed her boyfriend off the balcony.
“There are no cameras, no nothing. So uh, yeah. We’re trying to figure out what has happened.”
“Oh. No,” I croak weakly.
“I know that can be a traumatic thing to witness, so if you need any professional help, you can call…”
He scribbled something down on a piece of paper.
“Oh, and can I get your contact information—and do you have any piece of id?”
I nod. I give him my identification card. I give him my number. I give him my email.
As he left and we clicked the door shut, I looked across the living room and onto the balcony windows.
I want to see.
Me and my mom slowly walk up and open the windows. Our balcony is particularly bigger than most units. There’s wooden flooring on the ground, so I step out barefoot.
I peer down.
There it was.
It’s covered in orange tarp—kind of. I can tell they had just begun to cover up the body.
I see the mold of the head peak out. There’s blood splattered outwards beside it.
Fell headfirst, was my first thought.
The blood wasn’t as dark as I thought. It was a lighter, pastel kind of red. Not really pink, either.
Brain, I concluded. What— what? What’s wrong with me? Why am I thinking like this?
My neighbour fell through and onto the only parking lot entrance. Everything was closed off.
Christmas plans got canceled.
At least I get all the salami to myself?
July 26th, 2025
The headstones of my grandfather, my uncle, and my great-grandparents sit near each other. My mind is still thinking about the heat.
“That’s your grandfather,” my mom points out. He died ten years before I was born. I never met him.
I bow respectfully and greet him. I wonder what he was like.
As the rest of the family prepared food and alcohol for the graves, my mom crouched down at my grandfather’s, and grazed her hand over the engravings of his name.
I hear her cry.
“Dad, why did you take my brother too? Why did you take my brother with you so early? Dad. Dad— why would you do that? Dad.”
This is the first time I hear her genuinely sob.
January 2nd, 2026
I came home after hanging out with my friends, to see my mom intently stare off into the distance.
“I heard someone sobbing next door earlier this afternoon,” she said.
“Maybe it’s the boyfriend’s mom.”
She doesn’t reply.
“Maybe she was grieving over her dead son.”
“Maybe she came to collect her son’s stuff,” she mumbled.
This time, I was the one who didn’t reply.
July 26th, 2025
My mom stopped crying. She tries to pull herself back together. She pats me on the back. I wondered if she was trying to save her image as my fearless, stoic mother.
“You know what your uncle said about you last time?”
I shake my head.
“He said you should follow your dreams. Do whatever you want. Do what you love. Do what you enjoy.”
I feel my throat close.
“He said that as long as you’re happy, everything will be good.”
Suddenly, I begin to cry.
Hello, my name is Keyna Kim. I’m a casual writer who likes to read more than I write. Storytelling (in all forms) has always been beside me my whole life and being able to participate in that brings me joy. I hope to be able to continue expressing myself creatively and have fun!
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