A week passed since the incident. Jooheon was slated to leave for the impending six months community service program that he was sentenced to the next day. His bags were all packed and ready to go.

His mother had taken a few days off so she could spend more time with Jooheon before he leaves, but Jooheon was having none of that. He avoided her at all cost and only spoke to her if it was really needed.  The single mother tried to get her son to open up and talk to her, but her efforts were repeatedly shut down.

“Heonnie…”  I know you’re angry with me, but this is the only way. If you don’t do this, they were going to shove you into jail, charge you with a more serious offense. You’re turning eighteen in a few months, they were going to wait until then and charge you as an adult. I can’t let that happen…”  The mother’s voice wavered. She reached out to place her hand on top of her son’s very own.  

Jooheon felt a pang at of guilt. He knew that it wasn’t his mother’s fault. None of it was her fault and she shouldn’t feel like it was. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to admit it openly.  His face remained stoic and he refused to look up to the older woman. Acting tough and indifferent is his shield. He didn’t want to show his emotions because he didn’t want to be seen as weak.

She sighed softly. In all honesty, she wasn’t expecting much when she came in to talk to her boy. She was grateful enough that he didn’t just walk away from her as she was talking. She gave her son a soft pat on the hand and got up to leave. 

“Sleep well, sweetie…”

 

The next morning couldn’t come any sooner. Jooheon’s mother was up even before daybreak. Actually, she wasn’t even able to sleep at all that night. Her thoughts were full and her heart was heavy. Why does it feel like she was about to send her one and only son away to his doom?  It’s nothing like that at all. This was for his son’s own good; she had to keep reminding herself that.

In reality, it wasn’t a big deal at all compared to the punishment they originally had in mind. Thanks to his mother’s persistence and determination, the authorities had agreed on a lighter punishment.

Before Jooheon rouse from his slumber, his mother had made sure everything was ready and in place. She prepared a big breakfast and even packed a lunchbox for later-- in case he gets hungry on the car ride. The last thing that was left on her list to do was to wake Jooheon up so he could get ready.

Jooheon took a while to get himself out of bed. It was harder than usual and he knew just why it was. It’s D-Day. The day that he was supposed to leave his normal routine for six long months and be forced to do things that he was not willing to do. He imagined it to be something like being in the mandatory military service. He had heard a lot about it from friends and other people that had been enlisted to do so, and it was never a pleasant story. Jooheon shuddered at the thought and trudged his way towards the bathroom with heavy steps.

 

 

 

 

Stepping out of his room, he was greeted with the pleasant smell of food. His eyes widened momentarily at the various dishes on the table.

“Oh you’re ready! Come eat! There isn’t much time left before they get here.” His mother gestured for Jooheon to have a seat. “Here’s something I packed in case you’d get hungry again later.”

Jooheon nodded in silence. He couldn’t believe that his mother had managed to prepare this much food at this ungodly hour of the morning. Without wasting any more time, he got himself seated and started eating.  Although he did not express it, he was deeply touched and grateful that his mother prepared the big breakfast for him. When he was done eating, the youngster made an effort to show his gratitude by cleaning up.  That was the least he could do, he thought.

When everything was settled, Jooheon got his bags ready by the door. There was no running away from it now, so might as well just face it with a brave face. While waiting for the transport to come, his mother tried to engage Jooheon in small talks. But the young boy was clearly not ready for that.

At 6:30AM sharp, a black car rolled in front of the apartment building. Two men in black suits got out of the car. One of them pulled out his phone as soon as he got out, while the other one waited on the other side of the car.

“Eomma, they’re here. I’m going…” Jooheon stated, his tone flat.

Nodding sadly, his mother slipped into a pair of slippers, intending to walk her son down to the car. Jooheon made his move without another word, walking down the chipped, gritty old staircase of their apartment. His mother followed suit.

The weather that day had been gloomy; the sky was dark and angry.  Dark, heavy cloud hovered above the city.  It looked like it was going to rain really hard that day. Jooheon briefly wondered if even mother-nature was not happy with what was going on that day.

Readjusting his backpack on his shoulder and gripping at the handle of his duffel bag tighter, Jooheon sauntered towards the two men. One of them had been the guy who had been handling his case, Mr. Lee Hyeongmin. Both he and his mother were familiar of him.

“Ready to go?  The taller of the two black suited men asked. He approached Jooheon and extended his hand to offer the young boy help with his duffle bag.

“Yeah.” The young boy replied curtly. Not like he had any other choices.

“Let’s roll then!” The man said, loading the duffle bag into the backseat and left the door opened. He motioned for Jooheon to get in.  He complied heavy heartedly. Before he stepped into the car, he turned around to look at his mother who was standing there watching him, eyes red and b with tears. She offered him a soft, sad smile. “Be good, sweetie!” Her voice cracking as she tried to keep her composure.  Jooheon gave a slight nod as reply and proceeded to get into the car. He wanted to tell his mother to take care of herself while he was gone and don’t be working too much, but the strings of words just wouldn’t come out.

 

Jooheon dozed in and out throughout the whole ride down to the very South of Korea. The ride had been uneventful and the two men in the front seats weren’t really chatty, too.  There was no scenery to enjoy as heavy rain accompanied them the moment they started their journey out of Seoul. Everything was just dark and gloomy. Just like his mood at that moment. Not really wanting to think about what was laid out for him for the next six months, Jooheon entertained himself by listening to the music on his phone or just by dozing off.

When he opened his eyes next, the sun was shining ruthlessly in his face. His face contorted in annoyance, he could barely see anything through the bright glare of the sun. It was a stark contrast from the cool, rainy, gloomy weather he had seen earlier. He straightened his body a little and peered out of the window, slightly confused.  His vision was still blurred from sleep and the glare didn’t help, either. But he could see a big green sign by the side of the road; NAMHAE. It reads.

He threw his body backwards into the seat in frustration and then let out an exasperated sigh. They’ve arrived. They’ve finally arrived to his impending doom. This is it, he thought.

 

 

The black sedan pulled into a stop in front of a four-storey building. A typical structure from the late 60s, the building had a limited sense of design and almost next to no aesthetic at all. Actually, almost every single building in the town looked like that.  With no other obvious modern structures around the island, Jooheon felt like he was thrown back in time.

The old building standing right before him will be his hostel for the next six months. Led by his caseworker Mr.Hyeongmin, Jooheon was introduced to his new “home”. To familiarize the youngster with the building layout, they walked around the premise. Jooheon was also made clear of the rules that he had to follow.  Consequences for breaking the rules were also explained and elaborated by the caseworker.

“Got it?” The older man questioned and Jooheon nodded, disinterestedly. “Any questions, maybe?” The boy shook his head at the second question.  He hadn’t said a word since they stepped out of the car. It hadn’t even been an hour since he’d arrive, yet he already hated every aspect of it. Living within bounds of rules was never his thing. He had no idea how he’d survive this whole thing.

The “tour” around his now so-called home concluded with his assigned room. It was a decent sized room with two sets of bunkbeds. The room was clean and void of any personal touch. Seeing that there were four beds, he imagined that he’d have to share the room with other roommates. When the caseworker explained that he does not have any other roommates at the moment, he let out a sigh of relief. At least that was working on his favour.

After the brief room tour and a few more rules later, Jooheon found himself back in the car. This time, they were heading to the location where he was supposed to serve the community service.  He was in the dark with what kind of community service that he would be assigned to.  Working in a senior citizen home could be a big possibility, he lamented. He hoped that it isn’t so. He would have no idea how to deal with it. At this point, his mind kept imagining the worse.

It was a short ride between point A and B. The car eased into a parking lot and pulled to a complete stop and Jooheon was slightly relieved that it wasn’t a senior citizen home. It was a hospital, not that it was a good thing, but he figured that it was a slightly better option.

The building had the same style as the one to his hostel, but it looked much newer in comparison.  The hospital stood on a hill with bushes of trees surrounding the area, far in distance the ocean was visible. He’d hate to admit it, but it was a rather pleasant view.

It was lunch time when they arrived. The caseworker suggested that they should have lunch first before getting down to work. Jooheon silently appreciated the suggestion. He was getting really hungry since he had a very, very early breakfast that day. He didn’t even had the chance to snack on the contents of the lunchbox that his mother had packed.

The cafeteria was buzzing with activity. Sounds of cutleries clinking and muffled conversations reverberated throughout the space.  The cafeteria was surprisingly quite full, there were barely any vacant tables left. They weaved between tables and made their way to the ordering counter. Jooheon had never been so excited about having food served at the hospital cafeteria, but he was at the moment. He was that hungry. Looking at the small lists of choices offered by the premise, Jooheon opted for cheese donkatsu.

Their order came right away at the end of the counter. Glancing quickly for an empty table,  they quickly spotted one and made their way over. As soon as they set the tray of food down on the table, the caseworker explained to Jooheon that there was still a lot to be done, subtly hinting that he should finish his lunch as soon as possible so they could get down to work. At that, Jooheon gave a curt nod and started to chomp down his food.

 

Jooheon yawned. He was getting bored of all the list of do’s and do not’s that seemed to go on forever. Plus, the meal had caused him to get rather sleepy. It was nap time for Jooheon. He could barely keep his eyes open anymore.  The hallway seemed endless as information were continuously fed into his head. By the end of their stroll, up and down the halls of the hospital, Jooheon concluded that his job there would be the equivalent of a janitor, pretty much.

He was then taken to an office, where he had to meet another person who would be bringing him to his first session of community service. Jooheon didn’t expect that he would have to start on that very day itself. He was given a paper that listed the areas that he was assigned to work at. Attached to it, there was also a map and floor plans to all four floors of the building. He begrudgingly followed the middle aged lady down another hall. This can’t be happening. It hasn’t been a day and he was already sick of being there.

The lady brought him up to his first task of the day. He was instructed to move and organize all of the boxes in the storage room and when that was done, he needed to sweep and mop the floor of the room.  It wasn’t a hard task, but it was tedious and Jooheon was not used to being told what to do.

The lady left him alone to get on with his task. Before she left, she reminded the boy to check the list to know what he should be doing next, and where. Leaving with no room to protest, Jooheon obeyed and began to do what his was supposed to do. It might have sounded like an easy task, but Jooheon had learned that it was not. It took him almost two hours to get everything done and he had to do it all without the companionship of music or any other type of entertainment as his phone was confiscated when he got to the hostel earlier. Life really , he thought.

He was told that once he was done with what he needed to do for the day, he was able to leave back to the hostel. So when he had completed his first task, he wasted no more time and jumped right onto the next task. It was the only other task for the day.

His second and last task of the day brought him to the second floor of the hospital. He was directed to go to the nurse station and show them his task list. After he did just that, the nurse in charge gave him a few boxes to bring to another location.  Double checking on where he had to go next, he eagerly made his way there.

He ended up at the end of the hallway on the other side of the second floor. There were a set of double doors leading to the other side. Jooheon used his body to push the door open as both his hand were full. The first thing that he noticed was the change of environment around him. The walls were painted in pale yellow and kiddie drawings fills up some parts of the walls. Jooheon pouted, he figured out the obvious that he was in the paediatric wing of the hospital.

Finding the location where he was supposed to drop the boxes off, he hastily threw himself into the double doors to let himself in just as he did earlier.  Slightly stumbling into the room, he noticed multiple sets of startled eyes darting a look at his way. He stood there, surprised, not expecting that there were going to be anyone in the room. Clearly he was wrong. His eyes met with another set of eyes that belonged to another boy around his age. Slightly embarrassed, Jooheon straightened himself up and tightened the grip that he had on the boxes. He bowed his head slightly mouthing an apology forthe manner of his entrance. The oldest boy in the group replied with an acknowledging nod and turned his focus back onto the group of children sitting before him.  

There seemed to be some sort of a session going on in the room that he just barged into.  If Jooheon had to guess, the oldest boy in the group must be a teacher of some sort to the children.

“Uh…”  “Excuse me? “ Jooheon interrupted.

All eyes back on him, for the second time.

“Yes? Is there a problem?” The oldest of the group spoke up.

“Uh… yeah, well, no. See, I’m supposed to drop these boxes off here, should I just leave it…somewhere?”

The other boy stood up from the tiny kiddie chair he was sitting on and made his way towards Jooheon. His eyed the box as he approaches. “Oh, yeah… these...” His eyes lit up at the realisation that the boxes were there. Without another word, he motioned for Jooheon to follow him as he made his way to the other side of the room. There was a sliding door that leads to the large balcony.

“Here, you can leave them just right here…” The boy slid the door open and pointed to Jooheon where to drop off the box.  “Thanks, by the way.” With that, the other boy left to tend to the children again, going back to sit on the tiny kiddie chair.

Jooheon shrugged and pull out the task list from his jeans back pocket. His last task was to clean out the balcony. Another easy but tedious job, he thought. At that moment, he just wanted to get his entire day task over and done with. He had been up since five in the morning and he was dead exhausted.

There were a couple of times when Jooheon wanted to give up, trash everything and leave but he talked himself out of it the entire time. Once in a while he would let himself be distracted by the activity going inside. He could still see the other boy tending to the children. They seemed to be enjoying their time in there. At least, that other boy was enjoying his job, Jooheon thought bitterly.