Momo volunteers at an orphanage.

Wordcount: 2461

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Standing in front of the door, Momo took in deep breaths to calm herself down. She was both excited and nervous. It was something that she had always wanted to do, but that did not change the fact that interacting with strangers was a terribly hard thing to do for an introvert like her.

Figuring that no amount of deep breaths would effectively help her some down, she took one last one and knocked on the door.

It took only a couple of seconds for the door to open, yet the few seconds felt like forever to her. She felt a little more assured though, when she was met by a lady, who looked around her age, greeting her cheerfully (and loudly).

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Hirai-"

"Oh! You must be the new volunteer here. Come on in."

"Thank you, Miss..." Momo paused towards the end, unsure of how to address the lady in front of her.

"Oh, I'm Park Jihyo. You can just call me Jihyo, no need for formalities, I'm not very fond of that." Momo followed Jihyo as the latter started introducing. "So.. I'm not really a staff here, if you would put it in words, I'd call myself the head of volunteers? Nothing very much different regular volunteers, other than the fact I handle some admin matters for the volunteer side and I'm in charge of helping new volunteers... like you."

Momo found herself getting more relaxed as she listened to Jihyo. If the head of the volunteers was such a nice, friendly, and approachable one, perhaps it meant that her experience here would not be too tough.

After a brief tour around the various places within the compound, Momo was brought to a room where everyone as gathered. Seeing a foreign face entering the room, almost everyone's attention was immediately placed upon her.

"Okay, guys," Jihyo called, her loud voice capturing the attention of the remaining few kids who were still playing around. "We're welcoming someone new today."

With a signal from Jihyo, Momo begun her self-introduction. "Hello, I'm Hirai Momo. It's nice to meet all of you and I hope we can get along well together."

"Okay you've heard her. You guys must listen to Momo, okay?"

 

 

***

 

 

Where exactly was Momo at and why was she there?

Well, Momo was at an orphanage. Momo had always wanted to volunteer at one, but she could not do so for two reasons - she was too young, and there was no time. However, now that she had a few months of break before college, she finally had the chance to do so. Hence she was here, fulfilling one of her dreams.

 

 

***

 

 

Despite her initial worries, the situation was not as awkward as she thought it out to be. Once Jihyo had allowed them to do their own things, Momo felt a tug on her hand soon after.

Looking down, she saw a bunny-lookinglike girl, with a short haired girl standing next to her. "Momo unnie, could you read a book to us? Please?"

The girl was so adorable that Momo could not reject her (not that she was intending to anyway), so the very next moment she found herself sitting on the floor next to the bookshelf, with a girl on each side of hers. With animated actions and a lively voice, Momo read the book out to the two girls, whom she came to knew after finishing the book, that they were called Nayeon and Jeongyeon.

Different groups of children came to find her from time to time, wanting to get to know her. Likewise, while they spent time together, she got to know them better too. She was truly thankful that they had approached her first, she would not have known how to start a conversation with them if they had not done so.

Although there were quite a lot of children there, Momo tried to remember and match as many names as possible. After all, she would be going over regularly, and sooner or later she would have to know all of them - by name at least, though she hoped to have a deeper connection with them.

Within just the first few hours, Momo had realised that the kids had really different personalities, and that they were amusing too. Other than Nayeon and Jeongyeon who kept more to themselves and played within themselves, Momo had also gotten to know another girl by the name of Chaeyoung, who was sitting quietly while drawing. After having a short conversation with her, Momo found out that the girl loved drawing and aspired to be an artist when she grew up. Another thing that Chaeyoung had told her was that the girl loved rapping, and when Momo asked her to rap a little just for the fun of it, she was in for a shock because Chaeyoung, despite her young age, was actually really talented in it.

There was also a group of children together, thirteen of them as counted by Momo. They were really interesting, and what particularly struck Momo's attention (which she believes she won't forget as well) was one of the girls, Bomi, and one of the boys, Eunkwang, acting like gorillas. It was really funny and Momo had a great laugh because of that. There were also people who were really talented in singing among the group, Momo remembered, though she could not quite remember their names clearly. The group was large, so Momo struggled recalling all their names, but she was sure in time to come she would be able to do so.

Another pair that Momo remembered clearly was two girls by the name of Sana and Tzuyu. They were bestfriends. Sana was this kid who was especially clumsy. She tripped and fell very often, which sent Momo into panic the first few times she saw it. However, Momo quickly got used to it, and also realised that she did not have to worry, for Tzuyu was always next to her, ready to catch her when she fell. Momo found it really adorable, how Tzuyu would catch Sana every time, and Sana would whine to Tzuyu in a really cute way afterwards. It was such an adorable and sincere friendship, Momo had concluded after interacting with them.

The list goes on, Momo had interacted with many other children but her limited brain capacity would not allow her to memorise all their names just yet. Momo had managed to talk to almost everyone, which made her feel really accomplished. It was certainly something she had not expected to do.

But there was still this one girl that Momo had not talked to. This girl intrigued Momo a lot for two reasons. One, she was significantly older than all the other kids; two, unlike the other kids who were playing around, the girl was just seated in a corner reading a book. No one ever went to talk to her, which made Momo wonder if she felt lonely.

So, without a second thought, Momo walked over to her.

"Hello, I'm Momo."

Momo sat down next to the girl. From how the girl stiffened up as she sat down, she knew that the girl was aware of her presence. However, she continued reading her own book, not even looking up for a second. Momo actually felt a little hurt by it, she felt unwelcomed. Nonetheless, she continued trying.

"What's your name?"

There was another moment of silence. Suddenly, the girl glanced over a little, put her book down and ran away. Momo was left there confused, staring at the now-empty space next to her. She picked up the book, curious as to what the girl was reading. Opening the book, she looked at the bookmark that was neatly placed in between the pages. It had a pretty design, though rather simple, and Momo noticed that there was a name written at the corner. 

Mina.

 

 

***

 

 

"So how was your day?" Jihyo and Momo were now heading to the bus stop together.

"Great, the kids were really cute."

"That's nice to hear. When you get to know them, they can be a little mischievous at times and they love to prank and joke around, but at the end of the day, you'll realise that they're still the pure and innocent little kids."

"Yeah, I learnt a lot today. Oh, by the way, you know Mina, right? Can you tell me more about her?"

"Ah, Mina. You tried talking to her just now?" Momo nodded. 

"And I'm guessing I'm right to say that she ran away?" Momo nodded again.

"Mina... She's really shy, so please don't take it to heart. You're still a total stranger here so she's probably still wondering if she should trust you. That girl's a little fragile, she believes that everyone's bound to leave her. And she tends to keep a lot to herself in general."

"Why does she think that way? It's okay if it not convenient for you to tell me." Momo was not sure why but she was really interested in Mina, she really hoped to get to know the girl better.

Jihyo looked over, hesitating a little. "Well, you see, Mina's been here longer than everyone, including me. I used to stay here too, by the way, until I got adopted. You see, there weren't many of us around last time, so the few of us were really close and we always played together. But we got adopted one by one, and eventually left the place. Mina was the only one whom no one picked, and I guessed it hurt a lot more since she was the first to enter the place as well. She's a really nice girl, it's just a pity that people are unwilling to adopt someone who's mute..."

Momo took some time to digest the new information. Mina could not speak, that was certainly new and it made Momo feel a little bad about her behaviour just now.

"What's wrong with being mute?" Momo asked in a really soft voice, unsure as to whether the question would come off as an offensive one.

"I don't know, maybe because they wanted kids who were perfectly healthy? I'm not sure either." Jihyo paused a little to collect herself. "I volunteered here because I wanted to give back, and also because I didn't want Mina to be alone. I just wish one day someone would get her out of this place. She deserves happiness, she deserves so much more than being stuck here for so many years."

 

 

***

 

 

A week passed rather quickly, and it was time for Momo to go to the orphanage again. 

Just like the first time, the kids approached her from time to time and she had fun with all of them. Seeing them for the second time, she was more familiar with them and could match more of their names to their faces now.

As usual, a certain girl by the name of Mina was the only one who did not talk to her. Once again, Momo decided to initiate the conversation.

"Hello. Do you remember me? Momo."

Just like last week, Momo received no response. She sat down, and noticed that Mina started fidgeting a little.

"Sorry, am I making you uncomfortable? I will sit further away."

Still not receiving any response, Momo decided to just take it positively that at least Mina was still sitting there and had not run away like last week.

"Erm.. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for last week. I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to talk to you. I'm really sorry." It was faint, but Momo swore she saw Mina nodding her head a little. That small action of Mina's made Momo smile.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"Hello."

As weeks went by, Mina became more comfortable with Momo's presence, and she no longered appeared to be uncomfortable whenever Momo sat down next to her. Momo could even sit right next to Mina now.

Though Mina never explicitly showed that she was paying attention to Momo, it showed from how Mina could be reading the same page the entire time Momo was with her. As Momo sat next to her, she would tell Mina anything that comes to her mind, usually about interesting that happened during the week. Sometimes she would talk about her problems in a very casual manner, and Momo realised from her peripheral vision that whenever she did, Mina would (not so) secretly look over to check if she was okay.

Not once had Mina gave her a form of reply, through writing on paper or typing out on some device, but Momo knew that Mina was always listening to her, and that was enough.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Then came one day when Momo stepped into the orphanage, and the first thing she realised was that Mina was not at her usual spot. Though she loved all the kids there, Mina was someone special to Momo. Maybe it was because they were around the same age, or maybe because of the shy looks she would give Momo whenever the latter came. It was the only time that Mina would look at Momo.

Either way, Momo was determined to know why the certain someone was not there, so instead of playing with the kids like she always did, she headed to the office where she knew Jihyo would be at.

"Jihyo, do you know where's Mina?"

"Mina? Oh, she's probably outside, sitting on the swing in the garden. She does that every year."

Every year? What did that mean? Momo was confused. Nonetheless, she thanked Jihyo for the information and went to check on her own.

True enough, Momo found the girl she was looking for in the garden. Mina was staring into space, and Momo noticed that her expression looked rather sad. Momo wondered why.

Deciding to go with her usual routine, she went back in to play with the kids, who were already waiting for her.

Momo was so caught up with having fun with the children that her worrying about Mina being upset was long thrown to the back of her mind. So she was surprised when she was tapped on the shoulder in the middle of a game, and was met with Mina looking at her with eyes that looked so sad.

Mina tugged on her wrist, and Momo took the signal that the girl wanted her to follow her. Hastily telling the children to play ahead first, she quickly stood up and walked with Mina.

It only made Momo more worried when Mina interlocked their fingers while walking. While Momo wished that they would get closer, this was definitely not a sign of that.

 

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Part 2 will be uploaded soon :) Comments are appreciated! :)