aurum | ko kyung-jun

[10]

The next time Mi-Sun regained her consciousness, she found herself on the ground, laying on her throbbing shoulder.

Groaning, she sat up, her uninjured hand wandering to her shoulder. Falling on it after being shoved to the side and then sleeping on the same shoulder left it screaming at her in pain.

She could faintly feel a warm hand on her back as the boy who had slept next to her sat up as well, worried for her.

"You okay? Does it hurt bad?"

She turned to look at him, slightly nodding as her face told him as much already.

Anger seeped through Kyung-Jun as he thought of the scene he had stumbled upon the last day. "What bastard pushed you down yesterday?"

"I don't know either." Mi-Sun could only avoid his eyes as she lied through her teeth. Of course, she had seen the person who had carelessly and violently pushed her to the side.

But what Kyung-Jun didn't know couldn't make him lose his temper, right?

Her attention was stolen away from him as she heard Hyun-Ho's voice across the bloody auditorium.

"Dong-Hyun-ah... Yah, Dong-Hyun." He stuttered as he kept talking, his voice becoming louder with each word. "I think there's something wrong with Dong-Hyun."

Mi-Sun stumbled as she rushed to stand up from her sitting position and dropped to her knees as she landed in front of her friends.

Her hands trembled as she gripped the white cloth covering her unmoving friend's face. Her breath got stuck in her throat as her friend's white face was revealed, along with his bruised throat, giving away the sinister truth from a few hours ago.

Mi-Sun could barely hear Hyun-Ho's loud cries as she froze up- unable to move, unable to act.

***

When Mi-Sun's mother abandoned her, her grandmother had to step up and take the place of the primary caregiver for the toddler.

And that's how it worked for a long time: Mi-Sun's father would be in the military for weeks at a time to earn enough for the Kim family, and her grandmother would take care of the household and the Kim offspring.

Mi-Sun often missed her father, who would rarely get off time as he was only a low-ranking soldier in the past. However, with her grandmother on her side, who would spoil her plenty, she never felt like she was lacking compared to other kids.

For school performances, there would always be someone in the crowd for Mi-Sun, and even if her father couldn't be there, he would make sure to send her a present instead. The same was the case for any birthdays, Christmas, or other special holidays.

And that's how Mi-Sun grew up—in a loving family home.

But all happy things have to end one day, right?

For Mi-Sun, it happened when she was in 6th grade, walking home from school, when she noticed an ambulance in front of their apartment complex.

Her halmoni had passed away from a heart attack.

Even now, she doesn't clearly remember  the weeks after that faithful day; it was like her touch with reality had been ripped away from her.

All she remembers is waking up in a hospital bed one day. She was told that she had fallen into a state of shock after her grandmother had passed away. As she had no one to care for her and her dad was preoccupied with his own grief, no one noticed her state, leading to her fainting from severe dehydration and malnutrition.