“Yah! Dae ah! Come here! Come home!” a middle aged woman called the little boy.

“Eeh? But I wanna play!”

“It’s late! Come here!”

“It’s five!”

“I said come here or I’ll go there!”

“Ugh. Minhee ah, see you tomorrow!”

“Okay” She smiled lightly and watched him go.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t play with her! She’ll bring a bad luck to you!”

She heard that woman yelling and scolding him. She was still a child and couldn’t understand why all of them hate her. Why won’t they let her play with their kids? What did she do to deserve this? She didn’t hurt anyone. Why?

She left the field and went back to her grandparents’ house. While she was walking she heard a voice calling her name. It was an old woman.

“MinHee ah! Minhee!”

She couldn’t answer her call. Her lips are closed tightly. She just walked towards the old woman slowly while looking at the dusty ground. Suddenly her footsteps stopped. Her eyes became blurry as tears came out.

The old woman walked anxiously, searching for something. As she walked near a small street, she heard something. It was a child’s crying voice. She followed the voice and running towards the child after she saw her.

“MinHee ah, where did you go? Why didn’t you tell me?” the old woman asked and looked at the young child who’s crying.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She patted her head and cares her long hair.

“Why do everybody hates me? Am I a monster?” the child spoke with her cracked voice.

“No, dear. You are not a monster. Sometimes, people are afraid of what they don’t understand.” She said softly to the child and took her hand. She led the child to a small wooden house near a river. In her heart she pitied the child for having a rough life at such young age.

Its winter again.

Everything are covered with a layer of cold white crystal. The city lights are as bright as the fireworks. Here I am, sitting on the wooden bench, looking at those who walked pass me quietly and sometimes I heard them whispering about things they themselves don’t know nor understand.

“Creepy.”

“Look at that thing”

“Look”

“Omo”

“What the hell…”

“Look at her eyes”

People are afraid of things they don’t understand.

I couldn’t understand her at that time. I was a kid. The only thing I understand about the world that I’m living in is that this world is a dark place. Everyone is wearing a mask. Hiding themselves. Pretending that everything is okay.

People can hardly accept that I have a grey eye. I wasn’t born with this eye. When I was a toddler, I was involved in an accident which killed both of my parents. I was 4 when my grandma took care of me. The accident had caused my left eye to change its colour to grey, almost white. I’m not blind but I can’t see colours with my left eyes while my right eyes is normal. I usually wore an eyepatch, hiding it from the world.

I looked at the cloudy night sky as it snows, ignoring the voices. The city lights are not as pretty as I saw with my right eye. It just looked like a white puffs of ball and everything else was monochrome.

My grandma passed away when I was 18. Just before I get into the university. I decided to drop out when I got my diploma and work.

Money doesn’t grow on trees. I wasn’t born with silver spoon in my mouth.

I have always hated my left eye but grandma believes that it was a gift from my late parents. I doubt it. Why would anyone, let it be your own parents want you to have this ugly eye as a present. Everyone wants to be perfect.

This eye brings bad luck. People in my village believes that if someone looked into my eye they will die. This absurd accusation cause my grandma and me being chased away from the village and we settled down in Seoul. We lived in a small place on top of an apartment in Myeong-dong. Its small but it was everything to me.

Everything happened because of me.

When I was 7, I had a cat. A white cat. Her name is Mong. Mong was just a kitten when I picked her near the drain. She was so weak at that time. I told grandma that I saw a black thing like gas came out from her body. It was vague. But soon after the black thing disappear and Mong became healthy as ever.

There was this one time, I told grandma I saw one of my neighbour’s child, Haesong who was around my age has the same thing. When I told grandma, she said that thing is called aura and very few people can see it. I told the boy what I saw and he laughed. He went and told his friends and mocking me relentlessly. They all laughed at me and said that i was crazy.

Later that evening, a villager found a dead body of a young child floating near the river shore.  It was Haesong’s body. They said that he went for a swim in the river and probably caught by the strong current and drowned. I was terrified. Haesong’s friends told his family about what I told them earlier and later his family came to my grandma house with other villagers.

“How dare you!”

“You cursed him!”

“Witch!”

“Monster!”

“Murderer!”

Grandma protected me, saying that I’m special but they said it was a curse, a bad omen. I realized how terrified it is to have this ‘special’ skill. Every time I saw a person with that black aura, he or she will get into an accident and most of them died.

I’ve tried to help. I've tried to warn them but they ignored me, saying that I’m crazy. When it happened they blamed me and chased us away. I didn’t ask to have this. I didn’t ask to be born. But I’m here.

I’m still

alive.

Tonight I just decided to not wear my eye patch.

I want to see the world in monochrome.

As always I walked across a bridge before I reach my home when I finished my work. Tonight I had to work extra shift so I went back a bit later than usual. As I was walking towards the end of the bridge I stumbled upon a man.

I stopped my footsteps and looked at him. I closed my right eyes hoping that I was wrong about what I saw earlier but no. I saw that dark aura again. I choose to ignore it because it would do no difference if I helped him. He might say that I’m crazy.

I continued walking without looking back but a part of me just couldn’t let it go. I turned back and saw that man, standing on the fence of the bridge, looking down with no emotions.

My instinct told me to run as fast as I could and pulled his hand seconds before he’d jump off the bridge. I couldn’t let him be. I couldn’t watch him die, at least, not in front of me. Both of us fell on the ground hard

“Haish, that was close.”

I sat on the ground trying to catch my breath. I looked over to him to make sure that he was okay. He was lying on the ground with his hand on his forehead.

“You should have mind your own business.” He said slowly. He suddenly stood up and just walked away without looking back.

I walked towards him and grabbed his hand, making him turned to me.

“Here, your watch. It’s broken but it’s yours” I handed it over to his hand and looked at him. Our eyes met for a few seconds before I break it away when he spoke.

“Your eyes”

Well, . I forgot that I didn’t wear my eyepatch. I bowed to him while closing my left eyes with my left hand. Before I can walk another step suddenly he grabbed my hand and pulled me near him as he stared right into my eyes. I can no longer see his dark aura as I looked at him.

“Minhee?” he whispered.

Do i know him?

why didnt i make her wear contact?

well, idk. she still want to look with her left eyes. if she wears a contact lens, it would be hard for her to take it out when she wants so looked it with her left eyes. she also had a scar on her left eyes which makes people look at her with disgust. so its better for her to hide it with an eyepatch. hehe.