Year: 2007
Gwangju, South Korea

Smooth winds were blowing. It was a summer day.

There was a house by the street. Inside the house, lived a happy family with parents and two small kids.

They were happy and spending some idle time with each other.

“Sailing across the Milky Way
To the land of clouds.
Where does it journey
Beyond the land of clouds?
Towards the sparkling reflection
So far away,
To the beacon light of a new dawn.
Now, child, find a road.”

A small boy was singing and dancing to these lines cutely, lifting his tiny arms and his legs dancing to the beats,
With her mom sitting front of him, cheering him up.

In the other room, the father was taking care of his 2 y/o small girl, singing lullabies.

“Eomma, I'm hungry!”
the boy approached to his mom. He was exhausted.
“Aw you worked hard! I'll be right back.”
She caressed his hairs and walked downstairs.

She saw the father taking care of the girl, She was finally asleep.
It made her smile adorably at both of them.

She walks towards the kitchen.

Suddenly,
A smell of burning spreads in the whole room,
and within the blink of an eye,
The house went on flames!
There was no way to get out, as the flames encircled the whole room! Three of them were in danger, and panicked.

Meanwhile, The boy who was the only one upstairs, walked down smelling the strange odour and hearing the odd noise.

He saw the three of them being encircled by the fire and shouted loudly.

“Find the exit and get out of here, my child!”

“Please get out of here!”

Both the parents shouted at him.
He wanted to stay there, even when he can't help. But their constant appeals made him run and find an exit.

He finally steps out of the house through the backyard, and can't get in again.

He then walks towards the front yard and saw a large throng of people gathered and surrounding the house that was set on fire and was burning in flames.

“I heard the fire is filled over the whole house!”
“Yeah, I don't think anybody would be able to survive..”
“I know right, I feel bad for them..”

He was even more traumatized with these words. He walked back towards the backyard, crying hard, without being noticed, and ran as far as he could!

Soon, Fire cops were called up for their rescue.

The cops were working hard on extinguishing the fire as soon as possible, and more troops were called.

The couple with the small child were rescued after a lot of breathtaking hardwork.
But they didn't even took a relaxing sigh and rushed near a group of officers, weeping and requesting the troops to find their 7 year old boy who got lost in this incident.

“Mam, Please have patience. We're trying to find him..”

“Patience, My foot! You're doing nothing but wasting time!”
The woman screamed as her husband holds her and pushes her back,

“Please don't worry, dear, he's a child, he won't go far.”

“I wouldn't have let him alone. It's all my fault.”
Her tears won't stop, even if she want.

Suddenly, a group of fire cops stepped outside the burning house. Everyone's hope was with them,
But there down heads and mournful faces were telling something else, something that no one wanted to hear.

“Did you find him?” The officer asked.

“We.. Em.. We're sorry sir, but we couldn't-”

“How dare you say that!” The lady screamed, as loud as she could be.

They were all in grief. A devastating scene it was.

At the same time, a much far away from the place,

The small kid was walking with bruised legs and stumbling steps on the streets.

He takes a seat on a bench,
and tears rolled down his cheeks.

A woman just passing by saw this pitiful child filled with intense fear.

She kneeled down and approached to him.

“What happened, child?”

He saw her, but said nothing.
All that she could see were the tears that never stopped rolling down his cheeks.

“Where are your parents?”  She asked.

“They” he said in a quavering voice, “are gone..”

Neither was he looking anywhere, nor did his eyelids blink once.

The woman felt so sad for him. Her eyes bawled out.
She had no one with her. Her husband died a few years ago, she was thrown out by her in laws, and had no child.
So she waited for nothing-

“Don't worry.” She caressed his hairs, holds him in her arms and takes him with her.

...

The old woman waved a palm front of the girl's face,

“ What are you thinking? ” She giggles slightly.

“Ah.. Yeah.. Nothing..” She smiles awkwardly,
“Well, what happened then after?”
She asked curiously.

“What would've? We just then moved to Seoul, for I didn't wanted even a small memory of his past there, bother him someday. I just wanted him to forget them all, so that he could live happily.”
She continued,
“After we reached here, I managed to work as a teacher at the school, so that we could atleast have three meals a day.
I raised him up like my own child.”

“No way..”  She was in utter disbelief,
“ He seemed as if he has no one, so lonely, like the only dried out leaf in the whole forest. So how come can a lady, out of nowhere, claims to be his family? ”

“It's hard to believe, isn't it?
But even I don't know the answer to this question either.

I'm a teacher, and I have interacted with a no. of kids in my life than anyone else,
But never in my whole life, had I known such a kid before.

I can't understand him, he just wants to be alone.

He gets up, cooks his own food, talks to nobody, and sleeps alone.

It's not like he treats me as a stranger, but he doesn't treat me as a family either.

Maybe that's because he couldn't forget his parents after all this time, and cannot get out of the trauma.

But I never got a chance to tell or ask him about this, for I didn't wanted to bother him at any cost,
I let him do anything he wants.
I just want him to feel satisfied; because I would rather die but never want to see the same traumatized child I saw a few years ago.. I could never. ”

Hearing their talks, Sven, who was just passing by and going to go upstairs, entered the room, and saw her sitting by her aunt.

“W-what are you doing here?-” He asked.

“Oh, Hi-”

“She came to met you.” The woman smiled.

“I'll get going then, thank you for the tea. Good night!” She bows and left with Sven.

Coming outside, He asked the same thing again.

“Well, I, to show you something..”
She approached.

“Show what?” He asked.

She takes out the form from her bag,

“I'm doomed today.”  She explains the incident at the training centre,
“This form, I need this to join the trainees camp, but it says it needs my parents' consent.”

He looked with stunned brows.
“Is that so? What will you do now then?”

“There's no way. I have to tell and convince them someway.”

“That's what I have been telling you from the start. You're so dumb.” He thumped her forehead.

“Go now.” He asked her to leave

“Uh, But-”

“Go”

And he pushed her out.
She looked so annoying at him, but leaves anyway.

He turnt back and saw the aunt looking at him.

“Will take some effort to explain who's she?”  She asked.

“Oh, um, I'm just helping her in something. So she treats me as a friend. That's it.”
And he leaves.

She watched him leave and thought in her mind,
“I have seen you helping so many people,
But she seems different.”
And smiled.