Do Kyungsoo: Age 8

"How was school, Kyungsoo?" He looks up at his mother as he sits at a table and does his homework. She washes the dirty plates with a blue sponge with shaking fingers from the scars and bruises printed all over her scrawny hands. 

"The same," Kyungsoo answers with a wavering voice. 'The same' has diverse meanings. To his mother, it means studying and listening to the teachers. To Kyungsoo, it means sitting alone at lunch and watching ignorant people all in one building at the same time. They both suddenly hear the front door of their small, wrecked house open and their heartbeats accelerate out of fear. 

He's here. He's here. I need to hide.

Kyungsoo can hear his mother's thoughts and can only feel a terrible pain in his stomach. Ever since he was born, he started hearing other people's thoughts even if he didn't want to. He knows who to trust and who not to trust. It's just as easy as blinking, but the scary part is hearing thoughts like his mother's. It hurts him to hear her suffering on the inside while he sits there in fear for the owner of the footsteps coming through the front door. Right then, the figure approaches the two.

Mrs. Do attaches her back to the sink with a frightened expression as she sees her husband walk through the entrance. Her attention is absorbed onto his face which has blood dripping down the left side of his forehead. Kyungsoo also sees this and his eyes grow wide, knowing something isn't right if blood is trickling down his father's forehead.

They're going to find out I murdered that guy. I have to hide.

Kyungsoo hears his father's thoughts and his shoulders tense up. No one can describe how horrible and panicked Kyungsoo feels as he learns his father killed someone. Eye contact is made between the father and son which only leads up to Kyungsoo earning himself an evil glare that sends shivers down his spine.

Kyungsoo knows his father is just a broken soul feeding off of evil. No money, an unstable job, and a wife and son to take care of; it only makes the man incredibly damaged as a human-being. Kyungsoo knows his father is irritated that he can't do anything better with his life and how miracles are myths to him. Kyungsoo wants to believe in his father, but it's difficult. After being beaten by this man for 5 years straight, he believes there isn't much hope left for him or his family. Blinded by rage, his father only releases his anger by taking it out on his wife and child. They don't act like a family and they will never; Kyungsoo knows that all too well. 

"You two," his father's voice is more threatening than it has ever been. Kyungsoo and Mrs. Do stand next to each other stiffly, expecting the worse. "If one word slips out of your mouths about me torturing a guy and murdering him, I will not hesitate to kill you as well." Mr. Do walks toward the young, 8-year-old child and grips onto his hair harshly, steadily drifting the kid's head back and forward. "I know you so well, Sohyun. You're an open book." Mr. Do slams Kyungsoo's head on the wall before moving onto his fearful wife. Kyungsoo shakes in fear as his head throbs. "You have tried calling the police in the past and you're lucky I haven't killed you yet." He snatches the woman's hair just like Kyungsoo but harder, acting like she deserves more pain.

"Stop right there!" The three hear and jump a little from the sudden shout. People in police uniforms barge in with guns pointed towards the man who grabs onto a woman's hair like she's a toy. "Do Jihyuk, you are being arrested for murder and abuse along with stealing liquor from a liquor store." The male officer gives him his Miranda Rights and turns him around to show his back. Latching the handcuffs on Do Jihyuk's wrists, he proceeds to push the guy towards the door where Jihyuk is going to be driven into his own cage. 

Kyungsoo and his mother are completely in shock from seeing this happen right in front of their eyes. They watch as the officers take him away. For some reason, both of them don't feel even a dash of sympathy. For 5 years they have been beaten by that man with no remorse whatsoever and to finally see the man getting punished for his actions, they feel more relief than sorrow.

Do Kyungsoo feels a huge pain from the piercing of his heart, seeing what is happening in front of him — especially on a very special day.

What a present, Kyungsoo thinks to himself.

Tears escape his mother's eyes endlessly. She drops onto her knees while covering her face with her hands to prevent anyone from seeing her cry. The shame, the humiliation, and the continuous pain she had to face all those years still remain in her head. She doesn't believe how he's going away because she has a feeling he may come back one day to haunt her. Kyungsoo hugs her with his small, frail arms covered in bruises with a dizzy head created by his father. 

The case is closed after a few days and Do Jihyuk is sentenced to life in prison for torturing a human-being with fire, knives, etc. His murderous acts are most of his reason, but his other reason is a different situation with his family. He physically abused them and threatened them with murderous intentions only giving him more reason to have a longer sentence; he also stole liquor from a shop.

The Do family is left alone with no money, no jobs, no family, and no friends. To them, everything is hopeless. The world is their enemy and they aren't afraid to express it no matter how much it hurts. No one understands how painful it is to have no hope left in your hands. No one is there for them and no one will help them. It's all just black sand and bitter nightmares. 

Kyungsoo doesn't know where his mother is taking him. They walk for hours along the roads without making a single sound come out of their mouths. 

There is nothing left.

No one is there.

Everything is gone.

Kyungsoo hears his mother's unhealthy thoughts as they walk down another road in the middle of nowhere. His mother doesn't even let him touch her hand or even step an inch closer to her. There is a 2 feet distance between their filthy shoes as they walk in sync from each other. Entering a street with lone buildings, Mrs. Do wraps her scrawny fingers around Kyungsoo's hands, bending down her body to reach his eye level. They stand in front of a small building made of wood. He notices how she looks unexpectedly heartbroken as she holds onto his hands tightly. The atmosphere is tense and there is no chance to erase it.

"Have a nice life. You deserve it." His mother's words turn him off and he doesn't understand what is going on. The woman rubs her palms on Kyungsoo's upper arms to calm him down, but in reality, she's the one who needs the calming down. "You need to stay here, okay?"

Kyungsoo eyes the wooden building beside him in confusion and sees the sign labelled "Dream Orphanage." His mother stands up on her two feet and walks past the boy with a saddened expression. Guilt, sorrow, and despair fill her veins as she starts running away.

Kyungsoo, being an unknowledgeable 8-year-old child, doesn't get a grip about what his mother is possibly doing. He doesn't even know what the building is nor does he want to. He stays for 2 long weeks, expecting his mother to come back to pick him up. Oh, how long those two weeks are. He sits on his small bed, looking out the window to see if his mother's figure comes down the road.

His heart races anxiously. He wants to see her. He wants to know someone is there. He can't do this anymore.

Kyungsoo escapes the orphanage and dashes down the roads and tries to find the way his mother might have gone. No information, no preparations, and no one with him; he's alone. He's hopeless and he knows it. Panting and running like his life depends on it, it just doesn't pay off. He can't find her and he may never find her. He still doesn't understand why she would even dare leave him at a place like that. There is no sign of her trace and there will never be.

She was the only one who understood what he felt like. The only one who experienced the same thing created by the same person, the only one who struggled with him, and the only one who made him feel like he wasn't alone.

But why does he feel so empty right now?

Kyungsoo realizes that he has no idea where he is and looks around to see an unknown territory.

He's lost. He's broken. He's scared.

All he can do is surf around and try to rely on his luck, but everyone knows that isn't going to work. He just sits down on the grass beside the road and hides himself with his face in his knees, afraid someone will be there to harm him. Suddenly hearing the rush of a car, his head pops up and he stands up with an anticipating expression.

Fortunately, the car stops once their headlight shines on the small figure standing on the grass.

"Is that a child?" The women questions while bending forward to get a better look. 

"That is a child!" Her son shouts excitedly from the back seat with toy cars in his hands. 

"Is he alone and lost?" She still glimpses at the boy with a worried expression. She unlocks the door, ready to hop out of her car to check on this boy, but her son hops out first before she even touches her door. He speeds over to Kyungsoo with his red, toy car held in his hands as he advances to the kid.

"Are you alright?" The kid around the same age as Kyungsoo asks with a worried expression. "Are you okay? You look hurt."

Kyungsoo recalls his face having a few bruises and quickly hides half of his face with his right hand. He's startled from the fact that someone would even dare ask him such a question. No one ever asks if he's okay. The kid in front of him grabs his wrist and pulls it away from his face in order to talk to him properly but only earns a frightened expression from the kid instead.

She's going to come back for me. 

Kyungsoo can't stop thinking about his mother. He wants to feel the warmth from her hands and her soft voice that rings in his ears. A woman hops out of the car in front of the two boys and speeds over to them with a worried expression.

"Are you alone?" She bends down to Kyungsoo's eye level just like how his mother did before she left. "Do you have your parents around here?" The words that come out of only makes Kyungsoo's heart crumble into tiny pieces. He's been telling himself that his mother will come back for him, but when someone questions h