Never again will I carelessly belittle others.

That was the lesson Nora had learned this morning. The presumptive statement of the doctor who examined Owen turned out to be correct. Aileen had a large canker sore hidden inside her small mouth, making it difficult for her to eat and drink. Aileen's worries over the past two days were answered. Nora thought maybe Aileen was doing all that crying because she wanted attention from her.

After the consultation that didn't take more than ten minutes, Nora went back to Owen, who didn't seem to have moved an inch from where he was. Half of the burden in her heart disappeared after finding out Aileen's condition. The only thing left was how she should take care of Owen.

The first destination Nora visited with Owen in tow was the Social Institute, a place where many people who were homeless and too lazy to try harder gathered and worked together to live with the facilities provided by the government.

There was no other place that Nora could think of other than this place. Aside from the fact that Nora couldn't take Owen, who had not committed a criminal act, to the police station, she also had some reservations about taking him home. Her modest house was too small for three people to live in. Moreover, Aileen also needed a lot of space for her to play.

The two of them got out of the taxi and stopped in front of a large green gate that looked rusty on all sides. At the top was a gate with a large, peeling inscription. Ignoring the front of the building, Nora invited Owen inside and was immediately stunned by the number of people with shabby looks and grim faces staring at the three of them with almost blank stares.

Nora spontaneously covered Aileen, who was carried by her, with a blanket. She didn't want those people to recognize her daughter's face, and she didn't want her daughter to see such a sight. As if they were bad things.

As soon as they arrived at the administration desk, a plump woman with dark lipstick was busy scrolling through a cell phone propped up against a stack of books. She didn't immediately respond when Nora arrived. She chuckled and swore in response to her spectacle. Nora, impatient, tapped the large table a few times to get her attention.

It succeeded in making the woman glance up at Nora and then adjust her sitting position to serve Nora.

"Do you want to find people or throw people away?", was the first sentence that came out of the woman's mouth.

Nora was both stunned and offended, "W-what?"

The woman behind the desk stopped her hands that were busy looking for something from the drawer, then pulled out a piece of paper and placed it right in front of Nora, "Fill this out. All the columns." , she said flatly.

Nora complied and started reading the columns she had to fill in. There were no difficult questions, all basic questions. But it was just those questions as simple as name and age; Owen couldn't answer them. She turned to Owen, who had been silent, sitting and watching the people who seemed interested in his existence.

"Excuse me. I don't think I can fill this out." Nora said to the woman.

"Then please leave." , the woman pulled back the paper but was immediately restrained by Nora.

"No! I mean, look. I don't know him, and he doesn't know me. The doctor said that he had amnesia and there was nothing I could do. I couldn't take him home, so I brought him here." Nora explained.

The woman glanced at the handsome young Owen. He looked about the same age as Nora and then looked back at Nora suspiciously.

"Tell me the truth, is he your husband?"

"What?! Husband? No! We just met today!"

"Your brother? Your cousin?"

"Miss! I just met him on the street today." Nora emphasized her sentence, "It hasn't been 12 hours since we met!"

The fat woman burst out laughing, leaving Nora stunned.

"Look, Mom," she said as she glanced at Aileen, "I've faced people like you many times! Throwing their children, their siblings, their husbands, their wives, and even their parents here for various reasons! As if this is the final dumping ground for family problems! I don't know what you've done to that cute husband of yours that he could have amnesia like you mentioned earlier; please go back home and solve your problems like you made 'her'."

Nora was silent with her mouth open at that.

"This place is not a stray dog shelter, Mom. But if you get tired of him, you can give him to me." , added the woman, glancing mischievously at Owen.

***

The door opened, and Nora immediately placed the baby stroller that she had folded up against the wall near the shoe rack. She took off her shoes in a hurry.

"Come in! Ignore the mess. You won't understand until you have a baby." Nora said as she cleaned up the towels and dirty clothes draped on the sofa in a hurry, “Actually, this flat is quite big. But all this stuff makes it look cramped.”

Nora went back to her small dining table and placed Aileen on her dining chair while she took out the leftovers she had in the refrigerator. Luckily, she still had some boiled peas and barbeque sauce left over from breakfast this morning. She placed everything on the dining table, including the leftover lasagna from last night.

"I don't have much food because there's only me in this house. But I hope this is decent enough for you, sir." Nora said, still not getting an answer.

Another footstep came through the door, and the door closed. It was Owen. With a mask of innocence on his face, Owen looked around Nora's living space, and hundreds of scenario plans immediately popped into his head.

"What are you doing there? Come on in." Nora interrupted Owen's reverie.

Without saying anything, Owen took off his shoes while grinning.

'This place is going to be a crime scene tonight.' , Owen muttered to himself.