A/N: Hey everyone! I’m really sorry for the delay. Finals were the death of me! But I’m done and here is the first chapter!

    The humid air battered the girls pale face, mouse brown hair buffered slightly. The mid morning sun struggled to peek through the autumn clouds outside the car window. The drab fall day was highlighted only by the fiery tops of the trees that whizzed by the girls charcoal black eyes. The air inside the car was dry and hot but the girl still shivered in her seat, pulling her sweater over thin wrists.

    “Soo? Sooyoung?” The girls mother spoke as she to the overpass leading to the bustling center of downtown.  

    “Yes mom?” Sooyoung’s soft voice answered as she turned her head away from the window. Her mom’s straight cut bangs rustled slightly as they ran over a pothole.

    “Nothing, just thought you had fallen asleep.” She said cheerily as her hand reached for the radio. “Music?”

    Sooyoung hummed in agreement as western classic rock filled the car. Her mom tapped the steering wheel to the rhythm, a slight smile playing on her lips. Smiling her own half smile Sooyoung rested her head against the glass. Outside, the round domes of churches were the only structures visible above the tops of a sea of bright oranges and yellows. Their crosses shimmered in what little sun reached the ground. Pulling back a bit she traced the landscape with her finger before it disappeared behind red bricked buildings.

    The streets just off the main overpass heading in the city were shabby in Sooyoung’s eyes. Near a rundown metro station the area was littered with broken buildings, graffiti decorating their walls and red bricks quickly losing their colour. In more than one instance they passed a man or woman, bundle to the brim in three too many layers of clothes and pushing shopping carts overflowing with twenty-five cent bottles.

    The car meandered it’s way along with the traffic, the slow rhythm hindering Sooyoung’s attempts at remaining awake. Sooyoung’s eyes had just started drifting shut when hesitant tapping on the window had her shooting up in her seat. Wide eyes met equally startled ones peering at her through the glass. The girl outside the car pulled her small hand away from the window and smiled shyly.

    Scrambling along the panel Sooyoung managed to push the button to slide the window down. “H-Hi, um… d-do you-”

    Before the young girl could finish her sentence Sooyoung’s mom reached over her stunned daughter and handed the woman a few bills. “Here sweetie.”

    The girl bowed, hair slicked with grease and caked in dirt falling over her shoulders. “T-Thank you.” She whispered, smile widening to reveal yellowing teeth beneath dry lips.

    Before Sooyoung could break from her shock the car was moving forwards once more. Sooyoung watched the girl step back onto the curb as the rest of the cars passed, staring at the money held safely in her hands. She didn’t stop staring until the image of the mysterious girl had long since passed.

“Poor girl…” Her mother commented. Sooyoung nodded in agreement and the whole rest of the journey was silent until they pulled up to the front doors.

Sooyoung was barely paying attention to her mom shuffling through her purse to pay the parking machine. Her eyes were trained on the ever familiar white washed walls of Seoul General Hospital. She wasn’t sure who had the idea to make that the colour of hospitals, but Sooyoung thought that needed to change and fast. White was becoming her most dreaded colour.

The cheery pep of her mom’s voice had her feet moving towards the automated doors of the hospital. They slid open with a slight squeak and she automatically reached for the hand sanitizer. The halls were filled with children, adults and elderly, huddled in the main area of the hospital, waiting to be scheduled, given a new card or other paraphernalia. Sooyoung and her mom sped right past this section and down the halls to the elevators.

Squished into the elevator next to an orderly pushing a cart of supplies and a intern pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair Sooyoung shivered slightly as her mom pressed to button for the fifth floor. Clasping her fingers behind her back she closed her eyes and counted the beeps of the elevator, the enclosed space stealing what little air she had as a headache came on.

Before long they reached the fifth floor and almost tumbled over the poor woman’s feet splayed in their stirrups. They bowed politely before moving down the halls to the D wing. Sooyoung went to sit on one of the two plastic chairs outside this area as her mom checked her in with the secretary. Sighing softly she rested her head against the back wall, white like the outside of the building. Her eyes throbbed with the force of the headache and her body shivered from cold. Sooyoung waited, like she always did, sitting as stiff as a statue until it was over. Luckily it had been quick and by the time her mom returned she was sitting properly in her chair.

“Book?” Her mom asked even though she was already pulling it out. Smiling warmly she reached for the grey paperback. It was new, smelled like ink and freshly pressed paper. I Have A Right to Destroy Myself was written plainly on the front next to the authors equally neatly written name, Kim Youngha. Sooyoung didn’t have the chance to open her book before the secretary was calling her name.

Standing with her mom she went through the doors leading to the Haematology unit. They were ushered into a side room, average sized by hospital standards. A high patients bed was placed against one wall, a white, always white, paper sheet covered it. Sooyoung went and propped herself on it before even looking at the rest of the room. There was the desk, clean of all previous patient’s supplies and only files lined the top shelf.

It wasn’t long before the doctor, Kim Jonghwa, entered. His coat was white, like the walls, except for the hospitals insignia, stitched neatly on the left pocket in navy blue. The doctors tiny eyes were made large by his thick rimmed glasses and his smile was warm. “Miss Choi, how are we today?”

“Fine besides the headaches. Sooyoung’s been getting more of them lately.” Her mom spoke for her. The usually talkative Sooyoung was practically mute during these meetings.

Doctor Kim frowned and pulled out her file, jotting down some notes. “Alright… have you been feeling fatigue, dizziness or shortness of breath?” Sooyoung shook her head.

Shaking his head Doctor Kim stood, he was barely a centimeter taller than Sooyoung herself. “I’ll have to take some blood tests, AML symptoms can progress gradually or rapidly depending on the progression of the cancer. We’re lucky to have caught it so early on.”

Pulling out his stethoscope Doctor Kim commenced the habitual general exam. Sooyoung’s mind drifted as she was asked to lie down. AML. Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She had been diagnosed a year ago, just after her seventeenth birthday. It’s a blood disease that slowly kills you. The mutated cells deep in her bone marrow had nudged out any room for proper red blood cells. It’s more commonly the white blood cells, but Sooyoung’s symptoms were akin to anemia, the shortage of red blood cells.

Sooyoung’s inner thoughts were still muddling when the prick of the needle startled her from them. in a gasp of air through her teeth she sighed and relaxed. The pressure increased slightly as the blood starting leaving her arm. The tube quickly became red, the tiny bottle at the end filling. Carefully the needle was removed and a cotton swab placed over the tiny hole. The starchy white quickly became inked with red.

A/N: Hey everyone! I’m terribly sorry for the long wait, I had the worst case of writer's block. BUT it is finally here! I hope you enjoyed! Also, side note, I do not have or know anyone with AML, everything I know is from research I did (WebMD is a lifesaver)! If you see anything inaccurate please inform me!! Thank you~ <3