“Omma! Omma! Where are you?!” SungMi called as she kept running along the street, her eyes traveling around for the sight of her missing mother. She’d been searching for HaNi for almost an hour, but still she was not getting anywhere. SungMi was so scared that something might happen to her mother that she broke out in a cold sweat. HaNi was not in a good condition to be wandering around the streets alone, and that frightened SungMi to the core.

Right after the encounter with HyunWoo in front of their house, both of them quickly began their search after telling SungHyun and HyunSik who were in their respective classes at that time about what had happened. The four of them made a deal to search at different parts of the streets or town while keeping each other updated about the progress.

Since they needed to find their mother quickly, HyunWoo only managed to explain to her and the rest that most probably HaNi went out of the house when HyunWoo was asleep. All of them quickly understood that their mother must be looking for her ‘daughter’.

HyunWoo was feeling extremely remorseful as he felt that it was his mistake for not being vigilant enough, since their mother wasn’t in her right state of mind. After helping her in the kitchen to prepare lunch as she had insisted, HyunWoo slumped on the couch in the living room, planning to take a short break as he was exhausted. He had never thought that he would ever fall asleep as he only intended to rest for a while.

However, by the time he woke up, HaNi was already gone. His brothers and SungMi constantly assured him that it wasn’t his fault, and that he never intended to fall asleep anyway. There was no point in dwelling about it and the only thing that they could do at the moment was to search for their mother, heaven forbid before anything bad happened to her.

SungMi was still running, stopping by once in a while to ask the pedestrians whether they had seen their mother. She was still in her school uniforms which was now already wet because of her perspiration. Her hair was a mess as sweat dripped like tears from her forehead into her eyes. Her breath was heavy and fast and tendrils of fear began to coil her heart.

The image of HaNi kept appearing inside her head, causing her to fear even more on her mother’s whereabouts. She felt panic cut through her body like a sword, and adrenaline flooded her system as she ran faster and faster. Tears lined her cheeks; her eyes had gone red and puffy. Even so, she knew that whatever she was feeling at the moment couldn’t be compared to what HyunWoo was feeling. She knew that her brother must’ve had it worse.

Wiping the tears of her face with her sleeve, SungMi suddenly stopped for a while when she felt a short vibration coming from the pocket of her long pants, indicating that she had received a text. She quickly took out her phone, hoping that it was a text from any of her brothers telling her that their mother had been found. With teary eyes, she clicked on the message with trembling hands and hastily read the content.

From: DaeHyunnie

                                    Have you reached home? How’s your mom doing?         

A heavy sigh escaped from her lips as it wasn’t the text she had been waiting for. Under different circumstances, she would’ve happily replied to the text saying that she’d arrived home safely and HaNi was doing fine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right time to say so. In fact, she herself didn’t know what to say and so she just kept her phone back and continued searching.

It would’ve taken some time for her to explain to DaeHyun about what happened and she cannot waste even a single second. SungMi continued asking people around, while showing them the picture of their mother but none had come across HaNi. Her heart kept trying to break through her ribcage with its relentless pounding, and that caused SungMi to stop for a while to take a few deep breaths.

Her lips were parched and beads of sweat continued to trace their way down her neck, as the Sun was burning high in the sky. Her eyes darted around, praying endlessly that their mother would soon come to her sight. She felt her phone vibrating again and her eyes widened once she saw SungHyun’s name on the screen.

She immediately picked it up and bombarded her brother with questions, asking him whether he had found their mother as she did every thirty minutes. Sadly, his response was the same as what she’d got from her other brothers, who still cannot find HaNi. All of them wondered where their mother could have gone to, as they couldn’t think of a single place that she might be.

SungMi asked her brother whether their father was informed about this and the lad said that their father was in a surgery that moment, so they couldn’t reach him. After disconnecting the call, SungMi heaved a sigh as she raked her fingers through her hair, which was now damp with sweat.

“Where are you, omma?” SungMi mumbled, before continued running again.

In the meantime, the same condition as SungMi, HyunSik was hysterically running around too, calling their mom at the same time. He was still in class when HyunWoo called, and straight away dashed out of the classroom and began searching for their mother.

His legs started to give in, no longer had the energy to keep on moving. He had been running for almost two hours and fatigue started to kick in. HyunSik’s head felt woozy once in a while due to the boiling Sun and he leaned against the wall, his head slumped against his chest. His face had turned into a reddish hue, and the pedestrians couldn’t help but to feel sorry while looking at him. An elderly lady even gave him a bottle of water after seeing his red face, to which he downed in a go.

HyunSik was already on the edge of giving up, when he heard a familiar voice of a woman yelling to another lady, not far from where he was. “SungMi! SungMi! Let go of my daughter now!” The woman yelled again, and HyunSik was immediately on his feet. The lethargy that he felt was away as now his feet were running towards the source of the voice. He knew well whose voice was it.

“Hey, you crazy woman! This is my daughter! Stay away now!” Another woman yelled and HyunSik sighed once he reached the scene. He felt tears were forming in his eyes with what he witnessed. His mother was holding a little girl’s hand while the girl’s mother was trying to pull her daughter away. The poor girl, who was being pulled by both sides, started to cry and fear was stamped on her face.

HyunSik sprinted towards his mother, and grabbed both her shoulders. “Omma, are you okay? Let go of her, omma.” HyunSik said, while trying to pry HaNi’s hands away from the girl. HaNi looked at him inquiringly with crumpled brows, before only watched as HyunSik removed her fingers from the little girl’s hand.

Once he managed to remove HaNi’s grasp, the little girl’s mother quickly pulled her daughter nearer and walked away, not giving a chance for HyunSik to apologize on HaNi’s behalf. He was about to bow in apology but the lady was already gone, walking as far away from them as she can get.

“SungMi….” HaNi whimpered, and tears rolled down her cheeks as she could only watch the little girl walked away with her mother. HyunSik quickly turned to face his mom, and a sigh escaped from his mouth once he saw the tears that stained his mother’s face. “Omma…” HyunSik called, forgetting that he shouldn’t be calling her that, as she didn’t remember him at all.

“I’ve been looking all over for you, omma. All of us were worried sick. Where have you been?” HyunSik asked, standing face to face with his mother. HaNi didn’t meet his eyes and still stared at the direction where the girl had gone. “She took SungMi away….” HaNi whispered and looked at HyunSik with teary eyes. “She took my daughter away.”

Shaking his head, HyunSik said, “No, omma. That is not SungMi.” He assured. “Trust me. That isn’t SungMi. Let’s go home now, omma.” HyunSik said as he took HaNi’s hand, before began leading the way. HaNi only followed and kept muttering SungMi’s name with her trembling lips, and after a few steps away from the scene, HaNi abruptly stopped, pulling her hand away.

The lad was taken aback with his mother’s sudden act, and turned to look at her inquiringly. “Omma?” He called gently, wondering what was wrong for her to stop all of a sudden. “Is everything okay?”

HaNi looked at him with crumpled eyebrows and replied, “Don’t hold my hand. Why are you holding my hand? And why are you calling me omma?” She asked coldly, and in her tone of voice, it clearly showed that she didn’t like all the things HyunSik just did.

HyunSik sighed before running his fingers through his hair, and let out a sigh of exasperation. It was going to be dark in a matter of time and he was extremely exhausted. He needed to get his mother home which also reminded him to inform his other siblings that he found their mother.

“I’m sorry.” HyunSik said tiredly. “I … I know I shouldn’t be calling you that. I’m sorry. And I didn’t mean to hold your hand as you don’t like it. Only that it’s goi