Hard Love: Reminiscence - Michaeng || Book II

-22-

Kim Dahyun

An orphan.

Well, not before her parents died in a lab explosion during the year she turned 11. She mourned, but there was no single tear she shed for the two. She can care less about it, for sure she felt grief at the very moment, but it was all wiped away once the sun rises again, turning the page. Only to blame the old Kims who stopped to held a proper close healthy relationship with their only daughter. The Kim spouse was always either busy or ignorant about their child, all they did was paying the bills for their daughter's needs, livings, and stuff.

Though the family wasn't like this in the very beginning. They were like every other relationship in the houses, full of mirth and love in every member of the Kims. However, moments of happiness are numbered as the Kim spouse started to become distant towards their family, their daughter. The reunions after work, the celebrations, vacations, family trips, it's all gone ever since they started on another lab project, and that's all the points and drops Dahyun could recall, or rather, she's trying to forget.

Chaeyoung was there too, they were neighbors if you wonder how they met. It was a bright winter morning of 2002 when Dahyun first bumped into the cub, falling on a pile of snow when they were on their way to the church in town. The acquaintance of them was normal, unintentional, it just happened, and to say it's a bliss Dahyun met the girl.

Over days, the two girls grew extremely close without any slight of uncomfortableness. As if normalcy, they find each other like sisters, a bond that can never be neglected.

For Dahyun, life was perfect for all she could have ever ask. A loving family, a caring friend, a fulfilled life, she has it all, materialistic, physically, and emotionally. Then the news about Chaeyoung is moving to another country crashed her. It was 2004 for she could still remember vividly, comparing to her parent's leave for work, Chaeyoung's leaving saddens her more. The cub was the only friend she got during then, the only shoulder she could lean on when her parents weren't with her. Now, that reliable board shoulder is going to be away too. Dahyun remembered crying for days due to this.

But that wasn't it. That's where the button of her life's true downfall was pushed.

Faster than she predicted, the Kim spouse is already leaving for another country for work just another week after her best friend's departure. To where? The Kim spouse never said, and it remained an unknown mystery for the daughter since they were both deceased now.

"We are leaving Dubu! Remember Eomma loves you most okay?" The woman said her words as she peppered her pale daughter kisses on her face which made the latter scrunched her nose with a whining giggle. After the woman made her way out of the house, the man of the house came, hunching down to level the same as his daughter's then muffled her hair, earning another groan and whines from her.

"Appa!" Dahyun whines as he pushed the man's gigantic hand off her now messy hair. The old man laughed at the amusing sight, as he beamed a wide loving smile.

"Love me more than your Eomma, aight?" Muffled her hair once more as he finally stood up with a grunt due to his old back, then marched out carrying all the varied of bags with him while still trying to wave causing a few small strip bags on his shoulder to slide off.

'This must be a long trip.' Dahyun thought as she eyed all the bags that her dad is having a difficult time stuffing in the car trunk, she offered to help but only get halted by her father, saying he could handle it. After a few more sweating and veins exposing intense fight with those suitcases, the back trunk was finally closed along with a thud, indicating the man had gone inside the passenger's seat.