She had remembered the day as though it was yesterday, yet several years had passed since the car drove into the sunset, never to return. Its whereabouts were still unknown to the world, leaving a small helpless child to watch her future drive across the freshly done pavement. She forced herself to believe that the same car would return one day, that soon she would be sought out after being abandoned, yet like most treasures left behind, she was forgotten about and was never claimed by the same owner.

“Happy Birthday Naomi” the voice of the care taker was so sincere, that Naomi could have forced herself to believe the happiness that traced within the words, yet the happiness wasn’t meant with real sincerity of the event, simply the age in which she had become today. “Are you ready to face the real world now?” The care taker spoke once more, a reminder that her logic made more sense than the fake happiness surrounding her.

“I have been facing it for several months” the newly aged adult spoke without much thought as she tightened the straps of her backpack to adjust properly to her small frame “nothing will change, it’s all a repetitive cycle” she had been alive long enough now to understand that things didn’t change.

Every morning, regardless of what plans binding the calendar, she would wake up and eat her awful breakfast before brushing her teeth. Every night, regardless of what experience past her knowledge, she would fall asleep within the same bed at the exact same time, after countless hours of thoughts and logic frolicked through her tired mind. She would dream of different things yet would always awaken to the reality that forever plagued this Earth, the never changing ways that people sought, and the selfish desires that people held.

‘You could be the change people need’ she heard the line all too much, from the same lips with those fake interested eyes in the words she spoke out.

‘One voice is all that is needed to change people.’

‘Being brave means stepping outside of the line and forcing those parallel lines to collide’

‘People don’t listen to silence, they listen to those who speak’

So, she had tried to speak at separate occasions, but her opinions as a dumb child never did fully register inside the heads of full grown adults. They always knew better than her, had experienced more than she could imagine, never dreaming that a child could have the same experiences. She was always shrugged away because of her age, never took seriously when her words brought forth truth and knowledge… Eventually, she even shrugged herself away, ripping her from everything she once stood for.

“Where’s Eomma Kim?” The girl asked, realizing that her favorite guardian wasn’t within the room to help celebrate her release from the orphanage.

“Her son wasn’t feeling well today, she said she will come by before you leave” Madame Shi spoke out, knowing well why the newly considerate adult had asked for the woman.

“Still nothing on my parents then?” Naomi asked without surprise as she nodded and took in the information, her eyes instead looking towards the door that was her passage to a new freedom. “I know you don’t believe me when I say they didn’t leave me here on purpose, but that’s not for you to judge” the female spoke the words she had been desperate to speak for several years yet never had a chance for they were her caretakers and without them, she probably wouldn’t have lived to see this day.

“I’m not saying anything Naomi” the elder spoke with a grim expression, clearly uninterested in what was being spoken.