Shattered

Story By LeeHwaYoung

2011. Five years ago. The streets of Seoul buzzed with people, but no where more so than the small neighborhood of Busuda, and for good reason, as an entire family moved there. Busuda was located on the southeast side outskirts of Seoul, a distant but magnificent area, divided on the east side and west side by a strea that ran down the middle, and a large stone bridge that allowed people to cross from side to side. Then, Kim So Hyun believed her small neighborhood to be heaven on earth. No evil could come to it. It was a place that held much love wherever she went, since every where she went she could find her own family that would treat her with endless food.

Kim So Hyun often wondered these streets with her best friend, Song Ji Eun, who always had her nose in a book and was making the top grades in her class. She often spoke as if she was from a different time period and always had a new story on the tip of her tongue. This caused Song Ji Eun a major target for bullies at school, however, after befriending Kim So Hyun, this no longer mattered.

Kim Jin Tae, Kim So Hyun's father, was a proud and defiant man. He was the leader of their household, always making the most imortant of decisions. Her mother, Park Jun Geum, was also a very proud woman who liked to be treated with respect. Together they had made their large family what it was with three sons and a daughter. The first son, Kim Ki Bum, was the light of her mother's eye. Ki Bum was always treated with respect, his opinion was always held first, and he always recieved the best of everything.

Her second brother, Kim Won Sik, always spoke in a different language that he made up or in in rhyming Korean words as a boy. Everyone believed that in the future he would become one of two things: a linguist or a rapper. Her third brother, Kim Jong In, was scrawny and always tailing after Ki Bum, following him step by step and therefore becoming her mother's second favorite child.

Finally, the youngest in the family, Kim So Hyun, a surprise to her mother and father. Unlike most mothers, who wanted a daughter to raise, her mother didn't. While giving praises to her sons Park Jun Geum rarely included her. That didn't matter much to her though, as her father gave her double the love and compassion than what he gave his sons. Kim So Hyun was also extremely close to and protected by her second brother.

Just like that, everyday passed in the small town of Busuda with love and freedom. At least until October 15th, 2011, when her eldest brother had gone out with a few friends to celebrate their high school graduation. Later, it was declared that Ki Bum had been driving drunk and lost control of his car, but even that information couldn't stop their mother from going crazy.

In Kim So Hyun's mind, it was all one bad dream from the time of her brother's death to the funeral to her mother and fathers divorce and finally to the declaration of war called upon her mother. Busuda quickly became a ghost town, with families moving out of the neighborhood entirely for a much safer place. Some people moved back into the neighborhood to help their loved ones, which included Song Ji Eun, who gave up her precious education to comfort and help her best friend. Another unlikely soul was Kim Won Sik's best friend, Bang Yang Guk. Kim So Hyun's peaceful neighborhood became a wasteland, the East side her safe haven, and the West side her mother's. Even rules and laws no longer applied as the Korean government wanted to have no part in the fight between a family.

It was in this way that the next five years passed, everyday getting darker and scarier. Kim So Hyun's town of love slowly turned into one of death and a training ground for life's most trecherous lessons.

But today was not going to be one of those days, Kim So Hyun thought, as she flittered from one side of the current room she