"Good morning."

That was the first thing I heard when I woke up. I had a huge headache and when I tried to open my eyes, everything was just blurry.

"What's going on?... Where am I?..." I mumbled.

"You're in the hospital. How are you feeling? Do you remember anything?"

When I started to see a bit more, I saw a man in his 50s in front of my bed.

"Horrible... what happened? My mind is just blank. There's nothing I can remember..."

"Is that so?... Well, you did fall down the stairs pretty badly. But don't worry. The doctor said we're free to take you back home today."

"Excuse me, but I can't remember you..."

"What are you talking about, Jihye? It's me, your father!"

"...Jihye?..."

"Yes, that's your name. Do you not remember anything at all?"

"No... I'm sorry... father?"

"It's fine. Your mother and I will help you remember. Now go get ready. We're leaving soon."





We drove towards my so-called 'home' but when I looked outside, there was just miles of nothing. Looking straight forward, I saw a small village ahead. We drove through it and at the end of the village the car stopped. We arrived at the place my father called my home.

"We live on a farm?!"

"It's worse than I thought, princess. Of course we do!"

We left the car and walked towards the big Hanok-style house. Father showed me all the rooms. It was a square-shaped Hanok with an open area in the middle, which was the last stop of our little tour.

"I'm back! And look who I brought along, dear!"

There was a woman watering a small flowerbed. When she turned around, she looked a bit shocked.

"Welcome back." She smiled hesitantly.

"Thank you.. mother?"

She looked at father and then back at me and nodded.

"I'll go to my room and rest a bit. I still don't feel good. Please excuse me."

I walked towards where father said my room was supposed to be. This room was so plain and dull. There is a saying that a person's room reflects one's personality. Was I plain and dull? I started to feel worse so I didn't think much about it anymore and just went to sleep.





After a few hours I woke up to my parents' yelling so I decided to see what's going on. My mother was preparing food in the kitchen and my father was standing next to her.

"How can you do this?! Do you know how much trouble we'll have if someone finds out?!"

"You said it yourself!! 'If' someone finds out. Maybe noone does?!"

"Do you really think noone would care enough to mention something or to try to find some information?!!" Mother slammed the knife on the surface she was working on.

"What's going on?" I rubbed my eyes while walking in.

"Nothing, princess. Just some problems with our customers." Father said.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll go outside and take a look at the village. Maybe that will help me with remembering something."

"Alright. Oh, can you go to the market on your way? We need some stuff. The market's on the other side of the village. You won't miss it." Father pushed a list of things to buy into my hands.

"Will do. I'll be on my way now." With that I left for the market.





I was in the middle of buying all kinds of things that were listed on the piece of paper I was holding. I turned around the corner to another road when I heard a scream. I couldn't see much due to the Hanoks shadowing the streets but I thought I saw two people at the end of the road. One was laying on the floor, the other one was hovering above the first. Even though there were only a few market stands at the beginning of the streets and none towards the back of it, I was surprised that noone paid attention to these two people. I was walking towards them when I saw the hovering person holding a pocket knife. That person was about to hurt the other so I reacted.

"Hey!! Leave the person alone!!"

I dropped the grocery bag and ran towards them. Standing just a few meters away from them, the person who was standing turned towards me. It was a very creepy-looking man in his 20s. A disgusting grin was placed on his face.

"And what are you gonna do about it if I don't, girl?" He asked in the most creepiest way and slowly started to walk into my direction.

He was about to lash out on me with the knife when my instincts kicked in. I defended myself by blocking his arm to prevent the knife from reaching me, twisted his arm, threw the knife out of his hands and pushed him away from me. He stumbled a bit but he was obviously getting really angry. He once again ran towards me to throw a punch at me when I turned and kicked into his face. He was about to get up when I pushed him back down by placing my foot on his chest. I looked down at his face grimacing in pain.

"Are you gonna leave her alone?" I asked in a cold tone.

It seems like he noticed he'd have a hard time if he actually tried to fight me so he just nodded.

"Get lost before I change my mind." I walked towards the other person that was still laying on the floor and heard the man get up and run away from behind me. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a girl, about my age, that was attacked by that scum.

"Are you okay?" I held out my hand for her. She took it and I helped her up.

"Yes... I'm fine. Thank you very much." She kept looking towards the ground.

I lifted up her chin and gasped at what I saw.

"Did he just do this to you?!" The girl had a huge black eye.

"No! No... I'm fine. Thank you again, but I gotta go now." No matter what she said, I was pretty sure that the guy from just now must've slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground. She started to gather some things that must've fallen to the ground along with her. Before she could run away from me I grabbed her arm.

"What's your name?"

"Aeyoung."

"My name is Jihye. Please look for me if you need help." This wasn't gonna be difficult in a village like this.

She nodded and scrambled away. I watched her leave and sighed. To be honest, even though I didn't know her, I did worry about her a lot. Then my mind wandered off to something else.

Where did I get those badass fighting skills from?!




*Hanok = Korean traditional house

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Hello!!
OMG I've been gone for so long! :'(
I actually have been working on this story but at some point I didn't know how to move on to where I wanted to be so I ...kinda...ish... stopped working on it T_T
But then today I sat on my again and started working on it! I'm determined to find a way!!
Anyways~ I hope you can give this story at least a tiny bit of love from your big heart? <3
See ya~ :D