The Secretary

Custody

Two Months Earlier

Y/N stood looking at her boss, well now ex-boss, in shock.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have enough money, Y/N. I'm sorry. We're closed down as of today."

"But the contract..." Her boss looked sadly at her.

"Take me to court. It doesn't matter. If I don't have money, I don't have money."

"I moved halfway across the world for this!" Y/N's voice was slightly raised but her boss just shrugged.

"I'm sorry. But I can't make money appear out of thin air." Y/N thought her boss was too passive about ruining her life and she would turn out to be right a week later when the woman was arrested for embezzlement from her own company. But that didn't help her now. She needed a new job and a new visa.

At least she always could go back home, she thought grimly. She shuddered at the thought. She'd left that town behind, she'd planned, for good. But fate apparently had other plans.

Ring. Ring.

And Y/N was on a flight back to her home country, finding a job even more imperative now.

-
She sat stoically at the funeral, eyes forward, ignoring the people surrounding them. They probably thought she was calloused, not crying at her own parents' funeral. But Y/N had given up caring about what they thought a long time ago. Small minds bred destruction and the destruction they had bred all those years ago meant she probably wouldn't cry now. She'd already cried a lifetime's worth of tears. She was more worried about her younger siblings.
She bit her lip as she eyed both caskets. She was actually glad, in a way, that her parents had passed. Overall happy? No. They were the only ones who had truly understood what she'd been through. They'd had her back all the way. But now the ostracization was over. They'd never again suffer for standing up for what was right. They could truly rest in peace. Like she wished she could sometimes. She never understood why they hadn't just moved away from the small, inbred minds that currently surrounded her pew. Her dad could've pastored somewhere else.
After the funeral, it was time for the mandatory plastic smiles and fake condolences. She knew none of them actually cared. The main reminder of the town's guilt was gone and the town could breathe a sigh of relief, no longer having to stare those memories in the face.
"What are you going to do now?" Y/N pasted on her own plastic smile and stared her former friend in the face.
"Go back." Her ex-friend eyed Y/N's siblings.
"With them? Aren't they too young to move halfway across the world?"
"They're too young for Mom and Dad to die, yet here we are."
"Well, best of luck ." The former friend said, when the deafening silence had gone on too long.
That was how it was with all of them. Y/N despised them all.
-
"I'm sorry, forgive me." She bowed her head at the grave. "I've failed you."
-
Y/N dragged the heavy suitcase into her small, one bedroom apartment and let it thunk on the floor. She didn't care if it woke up the neighbor downstairs. She didn't care about anything, she was too emotionally worn out.

"Unpack your blankets, spread them on the floor. We'll worry about beds later." After I get a job, she thought silently. She was grateful now she'd insisted on finding her own place, this second year of teaching. The apartment contract was under her name, not her former employer's, so at least she didn't have to worry about being homeless. For now.

It should be pretty easy to find an English teaching job in Seoul, right? She had a year and a half's worth of experience under her belt. Surely that meant something in the job economy.

Three tired faces looked at her before begrudgingly setting the rest of the luggage down and pulling their blankets down. The floor was hard but they didn't care, they were too tired. And that was how those three passed their first night in Seoul.

Y/N had always been driven, wanting desperately to get out of her small, po'dunk town and finally create a life for herself. College was expensive but she'd worked two jobs, taken courses in high school, and graduated with her degree a year early. After that was a flight to South Korea and the beginning of a new life. A life far away from her problems.

She loved her family, her parents, her younger siblings. But she fucking hated their town and everyone in it.

Even so, now she'd wished she'd bothered to come back to visit at least once. Because the airport was the last time she'd seen her parents.

Now they were six-feet under, victims of a tragic accident, and she was a jobless older sister who suddenly had custody of three unruly young people who'd suffered the trauma of having their parents ripped away from them at an early age. It was enough to make her cry. If she'd had time.

She didn't have time. She needed money. She needed a job. And they needed to learn Korean as quickly as possible.

Present Day

Y/N still felt sick as she dragged herself into the small, crowded apartment. Drake, the youngest and only boy, was curled up on his makeshift bed, head buried in a book. Out of all of them he took after his oldest sister the most. He was more likely to be found with his nose in a book than playing video games. At 12, he was just hitting puberty and had the random cracking voice to show for it. He didn't care much though. He didn't care much for what others thought, something his older sister sometimes wished she was better at.

"You okay?" He peered up at her as she rushed by him and barely made it into the bathroom before dry heaving again. "Y/N?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." She rasped. He was too young to remember why she was like this and she didn't intend to explain. It was partially a secret, and the full story would probably go with her to the grave now that her parents were dead.

"How did your job interview go....oh, well I see." Tab poked her head in and wrinkled her nose. "Want some water?" Y/N nodded. Tab, short for Tabitha, was the most difficult one for her to get along with sometimes. She'd taken their parents' deaths the hardest. At 14 she was precocious and just coming into her own. Y/N wondered how their mother had managed to handle it.

"Where's Cindi?" She asked when Tab brought the water back. Tab shrugged.

"She needed to clear her head so she went for a walk. She said she'd be back before dinner." Cindi was the second eldest at 17, and also the most quiet. It was like she'd almost completely shut down right after the accident. Y/N could rely on her to watch the other two when necessary but it hurt her to see Cindi so withdrawn. She seemed to only speak when presented with an opportunity yell at someone, resulting in more than one fight amongst the kids.

When Y/N felt like some of her strength had come back and her flashbacks weren't as bad, she fixed them ramen noodles and they ate together. As a family. Then she went back to job hunting, scratching today's company off her list, and mentally rehearsing her answers for tomorrow's interview.