She can't understand the situation before her eyes.

15 years ago

Ae Sook sits in the middle of the matt in her dad’s dojo, tugging at her white chunky uniform. She pulls on the unmarked belt, the sleeves, the pants, the collar, before she gives up and lets out a sigh.

It’s obviously never going to look nice like the pink ballet uniforms her friends are wearing.

She pulls on her small pigtails that her mom tied up this morning, all nice and pretty, and sends them into a mess as she kicks out her feet in frustration. Falling flat on her back, she stays there.

Looking at the world like a flipped over ladybug, she studies the small tile cracks in the ceiling. The longer she looks at it, the more the lines start to come together to form a pair of eyes and then a nose and a pair of lips before she sees the boy’s face from last night.

As soon as the image appears, Ae Sook scrunches up her nose and shakes her head, taking the picture out of her head. She’s disgusted. Why is she thinking of a stupid boy with cooties? Gross.

She wiggles her body around in a circle before she sees another image in the tiles. This time, it’s a wolf peering over the edge of the wall, its tongue lapping out of its mouth.

Curious, she quirks her head the side. The wolf is small with black fur and a white circle around one of its eyes. Its tail is dipped in white too, like a white chocolate covered strawberry and its muzzle is dusted with the color too. It looks so fluffy and cuddly.

Before she can stand up to get a closer look at it, her dad blocks the image as he dominates her peripheral vision. She puts her scowl back on and decidedly looks to the opposite wall.

Still, she can see him out of the corner of her eye adjusting his belt. Once he’s done, he goes to stand on the matt opposite of Ae Sook. Grabbing his belt with two hands, feet spread apart, he commands, “Attention.”

Her pout deepens as she crosses her arms and lies completely still on her back. She really doesn’t want to throw a tantrum, but when time calls for it, it must be done.

Repositioning his feet, Mr. Kim calls out once more, “Attention.”

Stubborn, Ae Sook replies with a simple no.

“Attention.” When Ae Sook doesn’t make a single move, Mr. Kim goes over to her and pulls her up so that she’s sitting up. She resists as he tries to make her stand. Giving her his best stink eye, Ae Sook concedes and stands up. She keeps her form rigid, and looks to the spot where the wolf is. The little animal mirrors her feelings and growls slightly at the situation.

“Face your elders with respect, Ae Sook,” Mr. Kim tells the indifferent girl.

Ae Sook’s anger starts to boil and she expresses her thoughts in short, choppy words. “Ani. You’re not respecting me. I want to do ballet, not this fighting-chopping-board slicing-useless-boy sport. Why don’t you listen to me?”

Tears swell in her eyes, blurring her vision and she can feel her lip trembling. She just wants to wear a tutu, what’s so bad about that? On top of that, her friends at school are going to make fun of her for doing a boy’s sport and then they aren’t going to sit with her because she could have cooties. She rubs her eyes with her small fists.

“Appa, I don’t want to do this,” she simply states.

Her dad crouches down to sit on the balls of his feet so that he is on her eye level. He searches her eyes for a couple of seconds before speaking. “Ae Sook, do you think that there are monsters in your closet?”

Her sniffles halt for a moment as confusion takes over at the question, but unable to deny the answer, she nods her head.

“One thing you’ll learn in life is that those monsters will never go away. They’ll come out of your closet, grow up with you, and follow you around when you get bigger. I can only protect you from them for a certain amount of time, but soon you’ll have to face them. This is the only way I can help you. You need to learn how to fight against them. And I’m pretty sure you can’t fight them off with a fluffy tutu, now can you? So listen to appa for once.”

Hesitantly, Ae Sook nods her head and wipes away the last of her tears with a hand.

Looking to her wolf for confirmation that she did the right thing by agreeing, she sees it cowering instead, from the shadows that occupy the corners of the wall. After running for a bit, it’s swallowed by the figures.

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Ae Sook’s ears are ringing with screams. She doesn’t know if they are hers, or her mom’s, or a combination of both, but it is a deafening sound that fills her whole body.

She stands to watch in shock as red blood colors the white carpet in an overwhelming tidal wave. It keeps spreading and spreading, and Ae Sook watches the slow progression of the blood. Soon enough, it reaches under her feet, wetting her toes.

In denial, she looks towards her dad to see the bullet wound.

“A direct shot to the head causes immediate damage, destroying the tissue and shattering the part of the skull where the entry point is located, if not more. The spread of oxygen throughout the body is delayed as the patient continues to bleed out in excessive amounts, causing hypovolemic shock. Soon enough, without oxygen in the body, multiple organ failure occurs, and eventually, the heart. Most patients die, especially without receiving treatment within 5-15 minutes of the event, depending on the severity of the wound.”

All the medical evidence points to him being gone, but Ae Sook ignores her inner med student.

Taking the knife with her, she rushes over to her dad. She passes his murderer and collapses onto the floor next to him. She can hear her mom struggling to get to her husband but Ae Sook is too busy shaking Mr. Kim to go and comfort her. He doesn’t respond, but stares into space, a grim expression on his face.

He’s not dead. He isn’t. He’s not. She just has to clean up the wound and suture it and he’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.

She takes off her sweater and presses it to his head, but in a matter of seconds, the grey material turns dark black.

Ae Sook turns to the men, one of which is still holding her mom. Mrs. Kim is sobbing, throwing herself against her captor but Scar man keeps a tight hold on her shoulders. Ae Sook doesn’t pay attention for long; she has a task.

She looks at both of the men in panic and points to the one who killed, no, injured her dad. “You, get me some paper towels and call the ambulance. If we don’t get immediate help, he could be in critical condition.” Her voice shakes as she looks down at her blood stained fingers.

The lack of compliance by the two are filled by Mrs. Kim’s wails as she calls out her daughter’s name. Closing her eyes, Ae Sook grits her teeth and turns around.

“I told you to ing do something. Why the hell are you just standing there?!” Ae Sook explodes. “Go and call 119!”

The man with the grey hair comes over, despite her mom’s voiced pleas. He grabs Ae Sook’s hair, pulling her up from her crouched position. His grip tightens while he tilts her head back to graze her chin with his finger. “He’s done sweetheart; there’s no need for an ambulance. You and your mom will join him soon enough.”

Unbeknownst to Ae Sook, her eyes glow an eerie blue, catching the men off guard. Stunned, the man lessens his grip for a second. That moment is enough for Ae Sook to escape his hold, and take the knife that she left on the ground. She swipes one of her feet across the floor, knocking the man down on his back and with the knife, she presses it to his throat much like Scar Man did to her mother’s. “You injured him, and I intend on saving him. You injured my dad and you couldn’t even call for help. If it wasn’t for you, this wouldn’t have happened.” Ae Sook stresses viciously.

She looks into his eyes, and the red reminds her of the color that her dad’s blood ran under her fingers. A voice deep in the back of her head tells her that there’s no bringing him back, but Ae Sook can’t come to terms with it. She refuses to. The one thing that both her consciousness and mind agree on is that everything’s changed from this point on.

Her gaze shifts to her mom as she digs the knife further into his throat. An eye for an eye. No one touches her family.

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Silent tears run down Mrs. Kim’s face as she stares at her daughter. Her daughter who is now slicing into another man’s throat like its the thin tissue of a frog they dissect every Monday. She can't help but think that this is going to be her life now, if she happens to make it out alive. Mrs. Kim knows the circumstan