It had been the day before Hyemin's twentieth birthday.

Thirteen-year-old Hyekyung was walking home with Dongjoo from school, following their already established routine. Hyekyung chattered about how she was super excited about her unnie's birthday the next day, how Halmoni had sworn her to secrecy about the delicious cake they were going to make for tomorrow, how unnie didn't know that Halmoni had talked to the bosses of the two jobs unnie worked so that unnie wouldn't have to go to work and could celebrate officially becoming an adult. Hyekyung was still not quite exactly happy with the present she had made for her unnie – Hyekyung didn't have any allowance or anything, so she had just painted a picture of Hyemin.

"You know how awful I am at painting people, especially their faces – but I worked extra hard on this and so it does look really good, but I just don't feel it's good enough, y'know? I feel like... like..."

Dongjoo never learned what Hyekyung was feeling. Hyekyung squealed and ran to the edge of the road.

"Looky! There's a flower springing up here! Maybe I'll take it home for unnie." Hyekyung wrapped her small fingers around the stem and gently pulled it up. She tucked it in behind her ear. "How's it look?"

Even then, Dongjoo found himself thinking she was beautiful and he told her so. "You look beautiful."

"Why, thanks! I know." Hyekyung giggled at herself. "But anyway, I think – Oh."

Dongjoo had no idea what this "Oh" meant. Hyekyung's voice had taken on a tone that he had never heard before. For some reason, it felt heavy with tragedy, but the natural lilt of Hyekyung's voice gave this "Oh" a halo of hope.

He was now gazing at the back of Hyekyung's head. Hyekyung's fingers were splayed on the glass of the antique store window at either side of her head, surely leaving fingerprints. Hyekyung's fingers curled in as she breathed once more, "Oh."

Dongjoo shifted so he could see what Hyekyung was looking at. They passed by this antique store every day, and up until then, the only thing displayed in that window had been a very expensive-looking gold vase. But now it held this also-very-expensive-looking doll.

Dongjoo tugged at Hyekyung's arm. "Hyekyung-ah, come on."

Hyekyung didn't budge. "Come on, Hyekyung-ah."

Hyekyung closed her eyes and whispered something through the glass. Dongjoo used this moment to encircle Hyekyung's wrist and drag her away. Hyekyung whirled around, her eyes flashing open to give Dongjoo the most venomous look he had ever seen from her.

"Umm...uh..." Dongjoo stuttered, "Y-you should probably get home to prepare for Hyemin nuna's birthday, right?"

Hyekyung suddenly felt herself in a funny mood. "You come over too." She then decided she wouldn't ever speak to Dongjoo again. For the time being, though, it didn't matter because all of a sudden, a great rumbling overpowered all other sound. A fancy black car screeched through the road and past Hyekyung and Dongjoo, startling Hyekyung into letting a squeak escape.

Hyemin let out a similar squeak, when her cell phone rang. Hyemin was driving from her first job to her second one of the day and she had been lost in thought. She took one hand off of the steering wheel and started rummaging around her bag in the passenger seat. Nope, that was her wallet. Aha! – No, never mind, that was her keys.

The cell phone kept on ringing that whiny, persistent ring. Hyemin had developed an extreme aversion to the rings of telephones after hearing so many when the debt collectors had kept calling. So with each ring more maddening than the next, Hyemin was just about to scream when her hands finally closed around the cell phone.

"Hello?" Hyemin couldn't help the belligerent tone to her voice.
"Is this Hyemin Kwon?" A voice asked, strangely calm and in a monotone, uncannily like the 'friendly' and 'polite' voices of the debt collectors.
Cautiously, Hyemin responded, "Yes..."
"And you have a younger sister named Hyekyung Kwon?"
"How do you know this?" Hyemin's grip on the steering wheel tensed. "Who are you?"
"I'm with the government and I just want to help you."
Help us? Huh. Sure doesn't sound like it to me...
"We're fine without any help, thank you. Goodbye.'
"Don't hang up!" For a moment, actual emotion – panic – could be heard in the stranger's voice.
Hyemin wasn't sure why, but she didn't close her phone and heave it out the window, like she wanted to.
"Make it quick."
The voice began to spit words out in rapidfire. "Well, because both you and your sister are underage and without legal adult care, you need to be placed into an orphanage. We've placed you – "
The phone ended up hurtling out the window anyway.

This was Hyemin's first car crash.

Another car crash almost happened right in front of Hyekyung and Dongjoo's eyes. The black car was going on the wrong side of the road and when another car came its way, the black car had swerved, nearly taking out a group of kids that had been playing outside of the orphanage down the road. Hyekyung screamed and darted forward.

Thankfully, the children were safe, although they were trembling like a flower's petals under the weight of snow. Hyekyung held them all close as Dongjoo awkwardly stood by.

"It's okay. It's okay. It'll all be okay. You're not alone."

Hyekyung found herself saying these words but not really believing them. But she knew that what mattered was that somebody was there to tell them that it was okay, even if it wasn't the truth.

After making sure the kids were safe with their supervision, Hyekyung and Dongjoo continued on their way. Without the need to even look at the distinctive lion doorknocker, Dongjoo sensed when they were at Hyekyung's house and they went in.

Odd. Halmoni wasn't home. Halmoni did work, but she was usually back home by the time Hyekyung returned from school.

The atmosphere in the house was almost eerie – even Dongjoo could sense it. Hyekyung saw the flashing red light on the answering machine and, for some reason, felt this horrible feeling weighing down the bottom of her stomach.

"You have two messages. Beep! Hello, this is Nam Sungjin from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. I am calling in regards to Hyemin and Hyekyung Kwon. According to our information, both Hyemin and Hyekyung are underage and are not living under legal adult care. Because of this, we have selected an orphanage for Hyemin and Hyekyung to live in. We-"
Hyekyung's hand didn't shake one bit as she forcefully jabbed in the erase button.
"Message erased. Next message. Beep! Hello, this is the Police. There has been a car accident – "

They didn't even hear the rest of the message because Hyekyung knocked the answering machine off of the cabinet when she collapsed to the ground.

Hyekyung crumpled and her body heaved as sobs were wrenched out of her. Dongjoo had never seen Hyekyung cry before and quite honestly, this was terrifying. She convulsed and trembled and the sounds coming out from her core were heavy yet sharp with pain. Dongjoo was afraid to come closer and even if he had wanted to, he couldn't – Hyekyung's nails clawed at the air and she thrashed around so much that there was no way he could come close enough to touch her.

Hyekyung's cries continued and then Dongjoo all of a sudden realized that they were intelligible.

"WHY? WHY?"

Then the words were even more clear. "I HATE THIS. I HATE THIS SO MUCH. WHY? WHY?"

Dongjoo didn't have an answer for her. He couldn't even begin to think of anything that could remotely answer this question that was driving Hyekyung mad.

Suddenly Hyekyung was very, very still.

"Leave."

Dongjoo hesitated and opened his mouth to signify that he meant to protest.

"Get out. Now."

There was an iciness to Hyekyung's voice that Dongjoo had never felt before. Dongjoo's voice failed him and he hurried out.

Hyekyung was just lying there, not moving and not feeling. There was nothing to feel – now that she felt that she had lost everything she loved, she just couldn't feel anything.

But then Hyekyung did start to feel some sort of sensation. It was...anger, fury, rage.

And she knew she could never cry in front of someone else again.