I didn’t remember anything. First thing, I was with my brother in the back seat, and then I found myself on the floor. I still felt my seat belt wrapped around my waist. My eyes were fixed on blurry images until my vision finally established itself. Junho, my brother, was beside me, covered in spots of blood. I reached over to take his hand, but someone tugged me from behind.

   “Are you okay?” shouted a man’s voice from outside the car. This unfamiiliar person continued to pull me out. I tried to make it easy on him by unlocking the seat belt myself. Being a small person made it easy for my body to squeeze between narrow corners. The man who pulled me out looked relatively middle aged. His face was tensed and panicked.

   He stepped aside, revealing someone else. This new face approached me and began to dust off the glass scattered on my clothes. He was moderately tall compare to me. His soft hands made their way across my body as it also smeared the stains of blood here and there.

   My focus on him was gone as soon as I remembered Junho. He was still in the car and I wasn’t sure if he was okay yet. As I observed the scene nearby, a shiver ran through my back. The car I was in but a minute ago was sitting on it’s roof, faced down in destruction. My body immediately reacted and ran towards it.

   “Omma! Appa!” I exclaimed in worry, but a pair of hands pulled me back. It was the boy that I overlooked a second ago.

   “You can’t go! It’s dangerous!” he exclaimed with a soft yet loud tone to it.

   The world began to shake around me. There was something wrong with me, probably. My body immediately fell on the pavement with an arm preventing me from hitting my head. My eyes gradually shut tight. I felt lost in my own self.

***

   My eye lids made way for the light once again. My neck ached from the thick pillow beneath me. I sat up once my strength came back to me.

   “Oh, annyeong,” greeted the familiar voice I had heard earlier. The teenager that had helped me in the accident smiled warmly. There was a glow in his eyes that made me jump. He was, no doubt, very good looking with his dark hair and his perfect features framing his face.

   “Annyeong haseyo!” I answered confused.

   “How are you?”

   “I’m not sure.” That wasn’t a made up excuse. I really didn’t know what was going on. He beamed again, making his attributes stand out obvious.

   “I’m Joon by the way. Lee Joon,” he added after hitting me again with that attractive smile. His hand came towards me. I shook it with a shy air.

   “Omo! You’re a ‘Lee’ too? I’m Minyoung. Lee Minyoung.” Finally, it occurred to me. I was sitting with a stranger on a hospital bed. The thought bothered me despite the fact that he was incredibly stunning. I dusted off those thoughts and came back to reality. “Joon’sshi, do you happen to know where my brother and my parents are? Did anything bad happen to them?”

   His attractive expression died with my question. I could see him avoiding my stare.

   “Maybe you should get some rest first,” he covered up forcefully. I sat up, insisting I go.

   “Aniyo, I want to know now. What happen to them after the car flipped?” I began to feel worried. Joon looked extremely anxious on his seat. There was something he didn’t want to say. He bit his lip and began:

   “Well… After our car hit yours, my parents ran to you guys since your damage was obviously worse. You were pulled out first.”

   “How about my parents?” I asked suspiciously. He stuttered heavily on his words.

   “When your parents and your brother were taken out, they…” Joon didn’t finish his sentence, but I understood everything. I didn’t know that Joon was involved in the accident too.

   “Are they…” I took a deep breath to pronounce those words “… dead?”

   No response. My reaction wasn’t anything like a normal person’s. My emotions were a bit all over the place and I wasn’t sure which to express first. My fist began to tremble. There was an overwhelming amount of bitterness inside me. They called this incident an “accident”, but to me, it was still ‘their’ fault. Joon’s family was entirely liable. Only one thing went through my mind; they couldn’t get away with this unpunished.

   Joon put his hand on mine. I immediately rejected it and threw it out of my sight.

   “Don’t touch me,” I said loudly. Wanting to see my family so bad, I jumped out of bed and marched furiously towards the door. Joon got a hold of my upper arms. He held me tight, but kept his gentle touch. “Let go! I want to see Junho oppa!”

   My brother was the one I wanted to see. I always considered him as the most important person in my life.

   “You can’t. You have to stay in your room.”

   The more I fought back, the more my body began to fail. Even with all my strength put into that pressure point, Joon, who was bound to be a few years older than me, was stronger.

   He tugged on my arm firmly and brought our bodies close to one another. I bumped into his built chest before both his hands dragged me to the wall aggressively. He pinned my left arm to the wall with great force and placed his other hand near my head. His face was but a few inches away and I felt his gentle breath blowing on my nose. He gazed at my hospital uniform for a second. He then lifted his attractive eyes, searching for mine and I found myself making an awkward face.

   “I told you to stay here. Don’t move. Alright? You’re still in shock and you can’t leave.” A tear fell down my check. I felt hopeless. He knew that I was on the verge of crying. “I know that you feel terrible at the moment. Your family is obviously important to you, but calm down Minyoung’sshi.”

   His shout startled me, and unwillingly, I began to cry my eyes out. My body slid down the wall as I sobbed in high volume. I didn’t care about how I looked anymore. All that could go through my mind was the scenes of the accident all over again. Joon knelt to my level where I was sitting pitifully. His firm voice changed to a sweeter one.

   “Mianhe. I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he comforted as he wiped the side of my wet face. Even if I heard him, I didn’t want to listen.

   Even with his warm affection, a voice inside contradicted it. The people who killed my parent weren’t my friends, even this young and gorgeous boy.

***

Later on in the day, Joon’s parents and the doctors came in as well, jamming the small room packed. Joon remained on the side of my bed, making me a cup of warm tea. He handed it over after drying my tears rolling carelessly down my check.

   “Don’t cry anymore. Everything will be okay,” he whispered while fixing my hair and pushing it out of my eye sight. I wasn’t normally like this. I never cried, but this was an exception.

   The more he added sweet words, the more I wanted to hit him. I was so excited for them to leave already.

   Joon sat beside me and began to listen to the doctor. I eyed him passively despite my boiling anger against him.

   “Minyoung was really lucky to have gotten out almost alive, let alone intact,” he began with an average monotone voice. “She might feel a little bit dizzy for a few days, but she will recover quickly. After we discharged her, we will send her directly to a foster home if nobody is here to claim her."

   “Foster home?” The couple stared at each other. Mrs. Lee stepped forward and looked at the papers in the doctor’s hand. "If nobody in her family is here to claim her, does she necessarily have to go to a foster home?”

"If she isn't under the care of anyone, yes. She will have to. However, if you are willing to take her, that would be a very good possibility."

"We are considering. If nobody is here in the next couple of days, we can give it a shot."  

   My jaw dropped, or so I imagined. That was the last thing I was expecting them to say.

   “Are you sure? She’s fifteen years old and that’s a hard age group to deal with. Teenagers tend to have plenty of emotion, especially when something shocking, like this, occurs. It can turn out more difficult than you think,” explained the doctor. It was as if he read my mind.

   “It’s our fault. We have a responsibility towards her.” My heart was practically praying to God to stop this. I wasn’t physiologically ready to live with people I hated.

"There's a police check to be done and it'll take a lot of time. I can give you more information tomorrow."

That was when I realized that I was really left with nothing. It struck me that in a split second, everything I once had just disappeared because of them.

   “I wouldn’t mind if she came with us,” threw out Joon who now had his hand leaning behind my back like a high school boyfriend would do. How was he supposed to be my step brother if he constantly flirted with me?

   Joon gazed at me with that striking grin once again. He kept doing that, making it appear like a seducing session. Everyone eyed me with a warm idiom.

   “What do you think, Minyoung’sshi? Would you prefer staying with the Lee’s instead of going into a foster home?” The idea brought me to disgust. I would’ve rather been killed now. As I almost protested against it, a nasty thought came to mind: This was the perfect opportunity to fully give them the taste of the pain they had caused and, the feeling of losing EVERYTHING.

   I focused back on Joon and responded to his friendly attitude with a dim smile.

   My acting had to be perfect.

   “Junho oppa, omma, appa, they won’t go unpunished. I’ll do this for you,” I thought viciously.

   “So what will it be?” repeated Mr. Lee at least five times.

   “I would be delighted to live with them… They are such kind people to be able to take me into their home. But… I will on one condition.” My voice sounded weak and innocent. “I want to see my family.” That was last wish before I went on with this craziness.