Running Away

2. Evacuate

While you were lost in the night sky, your phone started buzzing. You move away from the window towards the study desk where your phone is kept. You looked at the caller name and sighed. 'Landlord' it read. "What does he want now?" you complained. You answered the call.

"Hello Dad." You said.
"Evacuate." That's the only world he said and went silent. You were already having a bad day and now this single word has made you want to burst out and so you do.

"Dad, are you serious now? You have called me after months only to order me around like an employee. Couldn't you have asked about my whereabouts? Just asking if your daughter is alive or not isn't really a big task. Can't you treat me like a daughter? Can't you just be normal? I'm tired of all this. You are my father but I feel so disconnected from you. Can we please just stop with all this? Please."
You stopped speaking but there was no response from the other side. You take the phone off of your ear and stare at the screen. He had already disconnected. How could he do this!? Do you mean nothing to him? You're his only daughter yet he treats you this way! He keeps ordering you around, never checks up on you, does not tell you about his whereabouts, has left you to live with a caretaker since you were 7, has never been there for you when you needed him, the list goes on and on.

"I must have committed a lot of sins in my previous life to deserve a father like him. I'm glad I don't have siblings or else they would have had to go through the same shit." You said with a frustrated voice while lying down on your bed. Although you wish you had a sibling. You wish you weren't the only, lonely child. People who have siblings always complain about how annoying their siblings are. How siblings are always a pain. But lonely kids like you know the pain of not having one. The pain of not having somebody who has the same wounds like you. The pain of not having somebody to share your 3 am ideas with. The pain of not having somebody to compliment your dress. The pain of never experiencing what it feels like to get caught while stealing ice cream from the fridge. The pain of being alone.

Today was exceptionally heavy. Maybe your breakup was for the good. At least now you won't have to create a fake fight like you had to with your last boyfriend. That's a relief. Let's just sleep. What happens, happens. Tomorrow is gonna be tough. You think to yourself and go to sleep.

      ~~~ NEXT MORNING ~~~

You were woken up by a knock on the door. You roll to your right and look at the clock with squinted eyes that can't open wide because of all the sleep laden in them. It's 5 o'clock. Why is she waking me up so early? Just then, you hear a voice. "Come down in 5 minutes, the details have arrived. We are leaving by 9. We have very little time to pack up." The conversation you had with your father comes to your mind. It wasn't really a conversation though. He said just a word. "I'll be down in a minute," you say loud enough for the lady outside to hear. You then hear footsteps walking down the stairs. You get off of your bed and get in the bathroom while wishing you could sleep for just 5 more minutes.

You come down nearly after 15 minutes. You look at the lady who's busy packing things up. She points to the box kept on the dining table. You go towards it knowing what it is.

You open the box. There are a lot of things in it. You look at them one by one. First, there's a flight ticket to Busan. The flight leaves from Seoul at 12 pm in the afternoon and reaches Busan at 1. Next you have the address of your new location written on a piece of paper. There are also new passports and government IDs for both, you and Ms. Kim. You open the passport to see what new name you've got this time. Park Eunbyeol. He just changed the Ha to Byeol. How creative! You honestly don't like the name. He could've picked something better. You check for Ms. Kim and she's still Ms. Kim. He just changed her name, her surname is still the same. There's also a note. This is unusual. According to you there should've only been the tickets, new location address and new documents. Why is there a note in here? It was neatly folded so you opened it up.