For most of her life she spent most of her time running. If she wasn’t running she would be working. But earning money for someone her age had never been easy. So she spent more time running.

Her feet were going to give away any minute. She knew she just had to stop running. But she couldn’t. Not until the loan sharks lose her. They were right behind her, shouting for her to stop.

She glanced over her shoulder as she ran through the narrow alley, gasping, and almost tripped on her own foot as she turned round the corner, pushing the boxes lined at the side of the alley behind her to block the loan sharks and hopefully make them lose sight of her.

She was thirsty; she didn’t get the chance to drink her orange juice when the loan sharks noticed her coming out of the convenience store which made her drop her bottle of juice. Now she wished she hadn’t dropped the bottle. But then again she has nothing more to lose anyway.

She had stormed out of the house earlier that day, angry at her mom for shouting at her.

“Yaa!” her mom had shouted as she slammed the door of their house.

She never liked her mom being like that; shouting at her for being home late after school, for watching TV, or for eating ramyeon in the middle of the night. It was always because of such stupid reasons. Some people might say that her mom was being like that because she cared about her daughter and all.

But to her, no. Which mom who cares about their daughter works late into the night and comes home early in the morning or sometimes in the afternoon drunk or tetchy?

“Go to sleep, mom. You’re drunk.” She had mumbled that day as she had made her way out of the house, too annoyed to stay much longer.

Her mom had shouted something at her, but she didn’t listen. She refused to. She knew that if she did, she would’ve made a comeback and then it would result in a tongue fight between both of them.

Stress from school was enough, and now at home? She couldn’t handle it. At school her teachers kept pressuring her about her delayed tuition fees and that if she didn’t pay it before the weekend she would be expelled from school. Then as if her teachers weren’t enough of an earsore, her classmates always made fun of her for being her mom’s daughter.

She wouldn’t be bothered to fight back if it was herself who they made fun of, but when it came to her mom she wouldn’t let it go that easily. Sure her mom was everything short of what a mom was supposed to be but her mom was still her mom and nothing could change that.

It was a weird relationship but she loved her mom more than anyone else in the world. Not that she had any other people to love though. She only had her mom to depend on in the entire world. She wouldn’t know what to do if she ever lost her.

But she knew it as she ran away from the loan sharks. This was what would happen to her if she lost her mom. Her mom had left her for the loan sharks and now she was running for her dear life.