I don't remember the year, but it must've been sometime around 1946. The style from that era was very distinctive, you know.

My parents had decided to ship me off to some kind of prestigious, all-girls academy in Italy. Not a smart move, since I'm from the United States. I was kind of wary to even get off the ship. But I did, and boy.. it was amazing. The structures I could see from the harbor were tall and gracious. Beautiful.

I was with the other new students for the academy, and they had some kind of bus waiting for us. We should've known then. The bus was shabby, and that's putting it nicely. The seat I sat in was sagging in the middle, and there was all kinds of warnings like 'turn back, please' and 'don't walk in those doors, you'll be signing your own death warrant' below the window. Being a naturally suspicious person, I ignored them.

I got off the bus, and there was, to no one's surprise, a welcoming party. They all had lovely smiles and nice clothing on. More expensive than a teacher should've been able to afford.

But they welcomed us and showed us around, and the school seemed to be a pretty nice place to go to school. The buildings all looked relatively new. The classrooms were kinda small, though that was okay. I didn't do great in crowds anyway.

They showed us where we'd be living and that's when everything started going downhill. The dormitories were no doubt old. And the bedding looked like it hadn't been washed in about 3 years. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I was definitely taking mine, even if I had to go off the grounds, and hand-washing them. A bunch of the other girls looked like they were thinking the same thing.

The last stop on the campus tour was the lunchroom, where we were also going to be served dinner. The dining room was in as bad a shape as the dormitories. But the food that we were given was okay. The soup was actually kind of good.

Then we were escorted back to the dormitories and left to unpack. A lot of the girls started looking around at each other, wondering who their roommate was going to be. I wasn't interested, really. I didn't even want to be here in the first place. I went to my room only to find that my roommate had already arrived. She smiled at me when I opened the door.

"Hi. I'm Minjung. What's your name?" I was a little startled when she started talking to me fluently in Korean.

"Junghee," I answered uncertainly. "You're Korean?" Minjung nodded.

"Half. My mom is Korean and my dad is American," that made a bunch more sense. I smiled a little.

"My mom is American. My dad's the one who's Korean," I mumbled back. I shuffled around and put my clothes up before I grabbed my bedding up and headed towards.. wherever the river happened to be. "I'm washing my bedding. Wanna come help me find the river and wash yours too while you're at it?" Minjung agreed easily.

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I was regretting not taking the warnings from the bus just then. This place was a nightmare, a sham of a school. The teachers lived in the lap of luxury. Our first meal in the dining hall was the best, hands down. The rest of the time, you were lucky if you didn't have roaches and hair in your food. But that was just an example of the inequality. The teachers slept on silk sheets. Our beds were covered with some kind of rough, scratchy fabric.

And the students, those of us who weren't beaten into submission already, were tired of it. There was talk in the halls of rebellion. I didn't like it because the one who circulated it the most was Minjung.

I'd come to think of Minjung as my best friend. She was like me in a lot of respects. I was afraid of what might happen to her if it were found out that she was the one who started all this talk of rebellion.

But one day, there came a time when the talk started turning into action. We started gathering up weapons. Limbs, mostly, that we shaped into baseball bats. Those were just in case things turned nasty, though. We didn't want to hurt anyone. We just wanted the right to better food, and better living conditions.

On the day, though, that we stepped up and bravely demanded our rights, the staff went completely nuts. I watched girls get snatched right in front of my eyes, and I instinctively knew they were going to die. It was.. not pleasant.

I ran to Minjung's class, and I grabbed her hand, dragging her along with me. She kept protesting, but I wasn't about to let her get taken from me. Not now. We hid in a dark, forgotten corner of the school. I was breathing heavily, but not from running. I hadn't been aware of how much Minjung really meant to me until this moment.

I hugged her fiercely, and she let a small surprised noise out of . But she seemed to understand, as she wrapped her own arms around me.

"Things are going to be okay, Junghee," she murmured, trying to soothe my fears. But I couldn't be persuaded to calm down.

We talked quietly for what seemed like hours before we heard a search party of staff members coming down the hallway. My eyes widened like a frightened deer, and I started to cry silently. Minjung handed me a journal.

"There are others like that buried under the tree next to the river, the one we wash our clothes in. Let people know the story, Junghee. Let people know what really happened here," she said firmly. I was shaking my head, begging her to stay. We could be quiet and they'd never find us. But we both knew that was a lie. She rubbed her thumbs across my cheeks, wiping away my tears. "Shh, don't cry. Shh.." She looked at me lovingly, and before I knew what was happening, her lips were against mine. I kissed back, trying to put as much of my feelings as possible into the kiss. "Don't forget about me, Junghee." I laughed a little through my tears. That wasn't possible.

She smiled then, and stood up. I couldn't watch. I turned away, and when I heard her leave the empty classroom, I climbed out the window. It was a long fall, but not long enough to break any bones. I got up and ran to the river where me and Minjung washed clothes, clutching the journal in my hand like a lifeline.

I didn't have any digging utensils, so I unearthed the shoe box containing the journals with my hands. Hesitantly, I opened the shoebox and picked up one of the journals. It was thick, full of things besides words. I opened it to the first page, and started reading.

Minjung had never talked about her past, and I hadn't asked. It was kind of a mutual agreement. But now, when I started reading, I realized that these journals weren't just an account of what had happened at the school. They were an account of Minjung's life.

And after reading for a while, I didn't see why Minjung kept her past a secret. She was so.. colorful. She had even helped a woman deliver her baby, since the woman hadn't been able to get to the hospital on time. She had done so much in her life. I felt awed that I had known such a person in my life.

I had started crying when I read the journals. And realizing how great Minjung actually was, I cried even harder. I mourned the loss of someone so perfect. I mourned the loss of someone, as it turned out, that I had only barely known.
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So here you go. Another angsty oneshot from me. Idk, it probably feels rushed though.

Anyway, this was based on an actual dream I had a couple of nights ago. I woke up the next morning crying my eyes out. It was horrible. T.T

I hope you enjoyed reading, though. c:

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Til next time, loves. ^o~