Eun Kyung jolted up from her slumber after hearing the banging of door. Its starting again, Eun Kyung sighed. She opened her bedroom door and tiptoed silently, trying not to make a single noise towards her parent’s room door. She heard hands slammed against the wooden study in their room. The door was left slightly ajar, Eun Kyung peeped inside.

            “Please tell me it ain’t true!” Eun Kyung’s mum said, her voice trembling, like she was trying very hard not to blow off her top.

          She saw her dad ran his fingers down his hair, taking a deep breath, “Hee Young, I don’t have a choice, do I? They said if I don’t pay up they would harm you and Eun Kyung.”

            Eun Kyung’s mum who was sitting on the edge of the bed stood up and stepped forward towards her husband of twenty years.

            “Like you didn’t have a choice when you used almost all of your savings to help someone you don’t even know! Did you forget, you’re running a clinic here! Not a welfare home which receives donations from the society. Dae Ho ah, THINK! ” Eun Kyung’s mum snapped.

            “He’s not a stranger. He’s MY patient. Besides, I thought I could just pay the money I loaned to pay off the bills and pay back slowly thereafter. I didn’t even know the clinic would be suffering from lack of funds. I thought it was doing well.” Dae Ho tried to explain himself.

            “Yeah, BUT FROM LOAN SHARKS? Are you kidding me?! And then, it was Eun Kyung’s tuition fund! I don’t get it, why you have to hide all of this from me? I AM YOUR WIFE AFTERALL.”

            “I’m sorry Hee Young-ah. I’d make up for all of this.” Dae Ho took a step closer to his wife whom he love ever so dearly, reached out his hands and held the wrist of Hee Young.

            Hee Young was turning away from him, her breathing hard; her chest rises and falls fast. Truthfully, Eun Kyung had never seen her mum so mad before.

            “Hee Young-ah, look at me. Look at me, love.” Dae Ho touched his wife’s chin to turn her head to face him. She slapped the hands off her and stared at her husband intently.

            “No. I will never forgive you. Look where your foolishness brought this family to - bankruptcy. It’s falling apart, Dae Ho-ah. The banks just send its notice, this house. Yes, mortgaged to pay off your debts. Please tell me, where are we going to sleep? I certainly am not going to live in the streets!”

            Dae Ho looked down on his feet. Defeated. Regrets flood over his head. He knew there’s nothing he could do to pay off the bank loans and debts from the loan sharks. His mind is a mess. Eun Kyung knew, at that moment, her family that has always been there for her the moment she was born, the time, she started standing and walking on her own feet, when she fell down and cry, when she finally realised her talent and when she started pursuing her dream, all of that, is going to fall apart in no time.

            “You know what, Dae Ho. It’s over between us. I can’t stand all of this any longer. I give up. Do what you want.”

            Eun Kyung saw her mum walking towards the wardrobe and took out her luggage and started depositing her clothes in to the bag. Dae Ho, Eun Kyung’s dad, stood there in disbelief. He knew his wife too well that once she made a decision there is no words that can change her mind.

            Eun Kyung dropped to her knees, tears started to blurred her vision, it takes a great amount of effort to stand back up.

            “Hee Young-ah. Please. Don’t do this. We’ll get over this together. Just, give me time.”

            “TIME? Dude, I had enough already, I gave you all the time in the world. But still, the situation isn’t changing at all. I’m done.”

            Hee Young finished stuffing her belongings inside the bag and slapped the bag shut, zipping it close. She took one last look at the man who she had once loved and brought her love, hope and happiness up. The same man, whom she trusted her whole life with had let her down. Deep down to the core. Dissapointed.

            “Goodbye, Dae Ho.” She whispered, as tears made its way down her cheeks.

            Eun Kyung, who was behind their door the whole time they were bickering pushed the door open and rushed towards her parents, her eyes gave way to a teardrop then another, and another.

            “No. No. No. MUM, NO! What about Dad? What about me? What about US?” Eun Kyung sobbed as her wrapped her hands around her mum’s legs, stopping her from making another move.

            Despite her only daughter’s cried and her husband’s plea for forgiveness, her heart remained hard and cold as ice. She looked straight ahead, holding back tears. God knows how painful it is to leave the love of her life behind. But she was pushed too far to the edge to turn back. She had made her decision and its final.

            “I’m sorry. Goodbye.”

            Those were Eun Kyung’s mum, Dae Ho’s wife last words before she shook off her daughter who has been clinging onto her leg and left. Eun Kyung wailed for her mum to come back, but to no avail. Dae Ho’s heart broke seeing the woman of his life leave due to his foolishness and his innocent daughter cries her heart out because of his mistake.

            Eun Kyung looked at her dad with pleading eyes to see the face of a defeated man staring right back at her. Dae Ho knelt down next to his daughter and pulled her to an embrace, her long hair, soothing her back. He too couldn’t help but let out a tear.

             The house which was once filled with roaring laughters and excited screams almost every passing day is now replaced with silence and soft sobs every night.

*

            She was walking home from the super mart near her house with the groceries in her hand. In her head she was already excited to cook for her dad, the only family she had left. Humming to her favourite song while slurping on her yoghurt drink, she turned the junction to her home.

            She saw five tall men; she had never met in front of the door, pacing restlessly. They were all dressed in black suits. She stopped in her steps and hid behind a wall, trying to find a way to tell her dad not to return home yet. She reached inside her pocket for her phone, but it wasn’t there. Eun Kyung started to panic. Her dad must not return home for the night.

            They have been living like this for the past month, escaping from the loan sharks and hoping the bank wouldn’t come to snatched away the house. Eun Kyung’s dad worked from day to late night to earn the extra money to pay off the debts and the living expenses.

            Seeing her dad working too hard worries her, but there was nothing to do to help. Her dad wouldn’t allow her to work, saying she’s too young and that her existence next to him was all that matters. It gives him strength. So, all this while, Eun Kyung tried her best o never shed a single tear in front of her dad or make things difficult for him.

            She saw her dad heading towards the direction of the house opposite her, she tried her best to motioned to her dad not to come any closer but all leads to failure, the five men were too tall and she was not tall enough. The moment the men saw the figure of her dad, shoulders slumped as he walked; tired of a days work, they broke into a run and surrounded her dad.

            Right in front of her eyes, Eun Kyung saw her dad desperately trying to escape from one of the men firm grab; they knocked him down to his knees in no time. One men held him on both his arms and lifted it outwards so Eun Kyung’s dad appear helpless to the blows the other four men gave him. They were continuously kicking and punching, one after another, fists or legs landed on her dad’s already weak and battered body. Eun Kyung’s dad struggles to break free but to no avail. They were too strong for him.

            The tallest man among the rest, who was holding on to Eun Kyung’s dad all this while forced him up to his feet and handed him over to another man. The Tallest reached out for something in his coat pocket.

            “No… No… No.. Someone please help!” Eun Kyung pleaded to the empty neighbourhood. It was late at night and everyone was probably asleep and oblivious to the ruckus happening in the small corner of the rows of houses.

            Eun Kyung stood there helplessly, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she watched the tallest man of the lot drew out a pistol, aiming straight at her dad’s head. Just one shot in the head, and her dad’s brain will all blow. This was when, Dae Ho’s eyes; Eun Kyung’s dad eyes, found his little princess scared figure just in front of him, hiding behind a pillar, just a few steps away. His eyes began to swell and Eun Kyung took a hurried step forward.

            STAY. Her dad mouthed towards her. She did and hid behind the pillar again, the yoghurt drink still in her hands. Only this time, her hands were trembling so hard. The five men were oblivious and were laughing, muttering curses and jeers towards Dae Ho who was already beaten up to a pulp. Bleeding from the head, scars on his lips, his eyes swell badly. It was definitely a heartbreaking sight for a seventeen year-old girl who had a whole future ahead of her but had to stand there and watch as her dad suffers a great deal of pain.

            The tall man pulled the trigger, aiming it straight into Dae Ho’s head. The other four man, moved away and left Dae Ho alone, who was struggling to stand on his two legs.

            “STAND! I want to make sure, my face is the last face you will ever see before I send you to your grave. STAND! I want to watch you as you fall once this bullet knocked you out to your death.” The tall man bellowed.

            Dae Ho looked up, found Eun Kyung’s eyes and mouthed, I LOVE YOU. Eun Kyung dropped to her knees, knowing what was going to happen next.

            BANG! The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the small and humble neighbourhood. Eun Kyung’s eyes were wide open staring straight into her beloved dad’s pitiful eyes that were also staring right back at her. He fell and lay all limped on the cold ground. The five man kicked him one last time before leaving the scene, high-fiving each other, roaring with laughter.

            Eun Kyung ran and knelt down next to her dad in time to cradle his head on her thighs to see him smiling right at her. Slowly, his eyelids shut close and Eun Kyung knew he was gone. She didn’t screamed or did she begged her dad to wake up. Eun Kyung simply kissed her dad’s bloodied forehead goodbye, hugged him one last time and went in the house to pack up her belongings and called for the ambulance.

            Too painful to stay and watch at her dad lying on the cold ground or even pay her respects to her dad at the funeral, Eun Kyung covered her dad with her favourite blanket and took away his wallet she just wants to run away from this life without the authorities chasing after her asking on her dad. It was just too painful to recall the painful memory.

“I’m sorry, dad. I love you too. Forever and always,” Eun Kyung whispered as she kissed him one last time and walked away, head hung low to anywhere her feet might bring her.

            Eun Kyung wasn’t at the scene any more, left without a trace when the ambulance arrived.

            In a blink of an eye, Eun Kyung was dragged down to nothingness. No college to go to and no happy family to return to. Life was meaningless.

            Eun Kyung who was always cheerful and always the reason for her friends’ non-stop laughters and smile succumbed to depression.