Faith (The Next Story)

Chapter 8: The Kingdom of Goryeo Part I

"Whatever you are thinking of doing, it's a bad idea." Eun Soo was on top of the hospital building panting as she had just walked about seven floors worth of stairs. The child had climed over one of the walls of the hospital roof deck and was sitting on it casually as if the height was something he can jump over easily. The hospital had eleven floors.

She had just heard about the boy's sister. As the parents where still a no show, she had wondered about where the boy had gone. After asking questions about him to almost every personnel she met, she managed to to get information from an intern that she had seen a lone child climbing up the stairs. The intern had tried to go after him as it was already very late at night but the child had disappeared so fast and she had patients to take care of.

Eun Soo had felt uneasy. The impasive look on his face as the man berated him on the hallway haunted her. No child should have that kind of expression. Before realizing what she was doing, she had climbed the stairs to the roof deck.

The child looked back to face her. The lack of emotion on his face made Eun Soo's heart race in fear. Why did this have to happen to her? Should she just call 119? It seems that no one in the hospital had noticed that they had a possible jumper. She wanted to call for help but at the same time she was afraid to alarm the child and hasten his decision. If this child died would it be her fault? She cursed her stars for making her so unlucky. She had always loved astronomy since she was a kid, but it seemed the stars had no love for her at all, curse them.

Talk. She had minored in psychology and she remembered that in these instances talking should be the best way to go. "Hey kid, how old are you?"

The child turned his back on her and she thought her heart would jump off her chest. But he continued sitting on the wall calmly.

"I'm going to come near. I just want to talk okay." Eun Soo said, trying to sound calm. She thought she saw the boy shrug and so she walked towards him slowly. Then she was standing beside where he sat and she was tempted to try and haul him back in. But both his feet were on the otherside and she was not very strong. If he struggled, he might slip from her grasp and fall.

"I'm eleven." The boy said unexpectedly. Eun Soo just stood beside him, ready to spring into motion just in case he thought of jumping off. He was much older than she first thought but still merely a child.

"So, do you have anything you want to talk about?" Eun Soo eyed him apprehensively as he continued to stare into the distance.

"Not really." But he turned to face her. "She's gone."

Eun Soo's heart bled for him. She wanted to tell him she was sorry but she knew the words would just sound empty and it clearly was not something he wanted to hear. "I heard about your sister."

This time he gazed up into the sky. "She still would have died you know, even without the car accident. She had lymphoma and the treatments were not working."

"Your parents would be really worried about you right now." Eun Soo started leaning forward on the wall, although she was still alert to any of his movements.

"I'm sure they're fine." He didn't scoff nor did he sound sad about it. "They are not my birth parents. I'm just one of their foster children."

"And your sister?" She didn't want to pry but she was genuinely curious.

"She was my real sister." He answered with no hesitation. "I just wanted her to live. That was all I ever wanted. But in the end she was just suffering for me. And even then I didn't want to let her go."