Chapter 1

We’re all in the same game; just different levels. Dealing with the same hell; just different devils.

If hell had a name then it would be ‘life’ and if people really knew that the devil was once an angel, trust would have been long gone.

Only a few people in this world know how life can be the opposite of heaven, and even fewer believe that it is worth living; life is.

While walking across the street, Lee Kyung Mi stared at the pedestrians who seemed rushed by their works and glimpsed at the shops which were as dull as dishwater. Every step she took made her wonder how mysterious things are. What does life mean? If she moves a finger does her fate change? Though she knew how meaningless her questions were, she never refrained from wondering, because wondering is the only thing that had her hanging on life.

As the headphones covered her ears, all her senses drifted into a calmer world. Everything facing her was a picture drawn and painted, and every other still object was just a decoration. She matched her walking pace with the beats of the music. It was slow, serene and empty. When the music came to an end, she inhaled deeply as if all that was around her to fill an empty space in her.

Mi Calmly walked towards her house. She climbed two steps to reach the doorstep of her home. She was getting ready for a scolding and a very heavy one at that. She pulled the doorknob and rolled her eyeballs as soon as her mother approached her with a paper in one hand and a phone in the other.

“You’re in deep trouble lady. Don’t think I’ll let you off easily this time.” Mi’s mother widened her eyes in attempts to reveal her anger. She signaled her to sit on the sofa which was partially occupied by Mi’s father who was busy reading the stock news. Mi sat on the sofa; she had her head tilted on one side and moved her legs back and forth, impatient and unwilling to wait for the conversation that was about to happen.

A few minutes passed and her mother was still on the phone going on about something about ‘yeah she is a good child, thank you for your help and I will see you in two days’. The subject of the conversation was so obvious that anyone would have guessed what was happening.

Her mother placed the phone on the dining table after the call finally ended. She reduced the gap to her daughter. Mi stood up out of manners; she moved backwards just to remain on the safe side.

“How could you?” Her mother started with an annoyed expression on her face.

“Your frequent absence from school was no big deal.. smoking at your age, I can forgive.. but this…” Her mother stared at her disgustingly as if not her daughter she was talking to.

She started pointing here and there, giving names of supposedly honorable neighbors and relatives that she wished her daughter would be like but none of her speech actually meant anything to Mi. Mi was in a different world, she heard this lecture many times that she had long ignored it. She gazed at her mother for a while, noticing the black circles under her eyes, the wrinkles that covered the edges of her face and felt pity for her mother who seemingly suffered due to work.

“I wish I never gave birth to you” her mother spouted without realizing.

Mi was in shock. Everything said to her so far did not affect her in any way; she heard it for a million times and it wasn’t as harsh so it didn’t really mean much. But this was something else. Her eyes widened at her mother’s declaration. She knew her mother was not fond of her actions, but how can her mother even say such a thing.

“Sorry but I can’t say the same thing to you…” Mi said as her eyes started to water. She used her elbows to rub the tears off her eyes and sniffed her nose to hold back her burst of emotions.

“What do you know of what happened? You only heard their side of the story.. What about me? Did you even bother to ask me? NO you didn’t because you just want to believe what other people tell you.. you want the easy way out.. what kind of a mother are you?” Mi said while trembling. Half of what she said was not what she intended to say. She could not refrain herself though. She ran up to her room and closed the door shut behind her, causing a loud thud to echo through the corridors.

She sat on the ground, her head leaning on her bed and her hands folded over her face. She cried for about 10 seconds at most, but stopped suddenly and normally as if nothing important happened. It was normal for her to cry, though this time she took longer than usual, this scene of her crying is an everyday occurrence in her household. She quickly sat on her bed and pulled the sheets above her face. She breathed in interims as a result of the decline of her crying.

Mi pulled the cover under her neck when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching her room.

“Since they expelled you, I enrolled you into LIN High, you must be there after tomorrow” Her mother said behind the door, her voice barely audible, Mi had to squint her eyes and focus all her senses to the door.

When her mother walked away, Mi turned her head to the opposite side now facing a photo. The photo was standing on small desk beside her bed. It was a photo of three girls and two boys smiling happily as their arms were wrapped around each other. The background was a classroom with a guitar lying on a table and a piano standing in the corner of the photo.

She reluctantly reached for the frame and flipped it to cover the image. Everything felt out of place to her. Mi always dreamed of having the perfect teenage life with all her friends, but just because of an incident she is innocent of, her dreams are destroyed and shattered to pieces.

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The next day went by with nearly no conversation between Mi and her parents. Her father and mother had a small argument amongst themselves about how Mi’s attitude is the fault of the other and that they should have raised her better and some meaningless dispute went on.

The next day Mi got ready for school. She brushed her teeth, combed her hair, wore her newly bought uniform and had a banana for bre