Jae Hee’s POV (Angel’s Orphanage)

If I had seen the little girl on my own, I would have attributed it to hallucination. However, Krystal saw her too. Contrary to what Krystal had thought, I wasn’t turned off by the grotesque appearance of the girl. Her resemblance to someone I used to know, who was supposed to be older than I was, unsettled me.

“Thanks, Jae Hee, but I’m fine. You can let go of me now,” Krystal looked at me awkwardly.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…” this is South Korea, not USA. I mentally reminded myself.

“I am not offended by the hug. It’s just that you held a little too tightly that I had trouble breathing,” Krystal explained. “Any way you seem to know the girl.”

“She looks exactly like the oldest noona from the orphanage.”

Flashback…
“Jin Ri, I’m back. Where are you?” I called out happily. “I’ve got a big surprise for you!”

I had just returned from the town with Tae Woo Ahjussi. Ahjussi was a regular volunteer in the orphanage. He was also the brother of one of the ahjunmas here. Whenever he visited, I would be his assistant in menial tasks such as painting the walls and fixing any broken items. In return, he brought me out to town in his van, where I got to choose my rewards such as toys or candies. This time I asked for ice-cream because both Jin Ri and I loved ice-cream. To us ice-cream was a rare treat as the orphanage was quite poor. I often overheard the ahjunmas working here complaining about the lack of money, helpers and virtually everything.

Normally Jin Ri would be sitting on the porch to wait for my return. However this time she was not there. I started to search high and low in every corner of our orphanage, growing more worried with every minute as I saw no signs of her.

“Hahaha. That toe-ki is so stupid. Did she really think we will be friends with her?” I could hear the voices of the noonas and hyungs coming from the gate outside the orphanage. Did they say “toe-ki”? Had they done something nasty to Jin Ri again?

“Noona, Hyung, did you see Jin Ri?” I questioned them.

“If you want to know where Jin Ri is, you need to pay for the information, with that,” the oldest noona, also the leader of the group, pointed at the big tub of ice-cream I was holding.

“Sorry, this is for Jin Ri.”

“Ok. Then you can forget about seeing her again. Let’s go!”

“Wait up!” I could always get another ice-cream by helping Ajhussi, but once I lost Jin Ri, I lost her forever. “You can have the ice-cream, just tell me where Jin Ri is.”

“Good boy!” one of the hyungs snatched the tub of ice-cream from me roughly.

“Wow, ice-cream for tea. Lucky!” Then they turned to run away.

“Hey, you haven’t told me where Jin Ri is!” I chased after them. Eventually, we ended up in the backyard.

“Jin Ri or ice-cream, you are getting neither. Just get lost!”

“Fine!” I pounced onto the hyung that was holding the ice-cream and clawed his arm with my fingernails.

“Yah! You little brat! Back off!” Being taller than I was, he easily shook me off to the ground.

“Interesting…” the oldest noona smirked. “If you can win these hyungs in a fight, not only will we tell you where Jin Ri is, you can have the ice-cream back.”

“Why should I believe you?” I shouted back. Then I felt someone lifting me up by grabbing the back of my shirt. Before I could protest, he threw me back with my face on the ground.

“The fight has begun!” Cheers filled the air as more vicious kicks landed on my body. It was difficult to fight back as they outnumbered me. However, I could not give up. I had to save Jin Ri. I was already deprived of my parents, so I could not lose Jin Ri as well.

Just then one of the kicks was aimed at my face. With my last ounce of strength, I turned my head slightly and bit his leg as hard as I could.

“Ahhh!” He lost balance, collided with another hyung and together they fell to the ground. The rest of the hyungs got angry and wanted to hit me harder.

“Enough!” the leader noona ordered. Then she threw the ice-cream tub back at me. “The ice-cream has melted. We don’t want it anymore. You can have it back.”

Tears streamed down my face, not from the pain of my wounds, or the melted ice-cream, but from the anxiousness of not finding Jin Ri.

“Yah!” the leader noona was still around while the others had gone. “You want to find your dongsaeng right? Follow me.”

After a long walk, with pauses in between as the noona waited for me to catch up, we finally reached an old-looking shed. Then she threw me a key.

“She’s inside,” with that the noona walked away.

Instead of windows, the shed only had narrow openings at the top of the wall. It must be rather dark inside.

“Jin Ri! Are you inside?” I called out as I staggered to the door.

“Oppa!?” although I could tell that she had been crying, I was relieved to hear her voice. After the door was opened, she rushed out to hug me.

“Ouch!” my wounds hurt from the contact, but it was okay. As long as Jin Ri was okay…

Jin Ri immediately pulled herself away from me. “What happened Oppa? Did the other oppas beat you up again?”

“No. I accidentally fell down while I was looking for you. Don’t worry about me, I am a strong boy. Hehe!” I flexed my muscle to prove my point.

“It’s all my fault. Oppa always gets hurt because of me. Because I am weak…”

“Don’t say that. It is an oppa’s duty to protect his dongsaeng,” I held her hand and we walked back in silence.

When we reached the orphanage, I realised I was still holding on to the tub of ice-cream. Since it was no longer edible, I decided to throw it away.

“Wait!” Jin Ri stopped me. “Why are you throwing away the ice-cream? I want to eat.”

I opened up the cover to show her the runny remains of the melted ice-cream. “We might get stomach upset if we eat this.”

Jin Ri looked on sadly as I dumped the ruined ice-cream into the rubbish bin.

“Hang on in there. When I grow older, I shall bring you out of this horrid place!” I promised, for the thousandth time.

“Erm. I will wait for that day to come. Till then, please stay by my side. I am scared to be alone. Pinky promise,” she linked her last finger with mine and I reciprocated. She never stopped believing in me.

“Next time, don’t sleep so much. Wake up earlier in the morning so that you can come along when I go out with Ahjussi. The town is really fun…”

Present…

Krystals’s POV

“Those kids were too much! They took advantage of their seniority and bullied the younger ones,” as a victim of bullying and ostracism, I was utterly disgusted with the behaviour of the children. “So were they punished?”

“Yes. The ahjunmas made them clean up the dining room, but that did not deter them from being repeat offenders. The fact that they were not intimidated by the adults turned them into the most feared gang among us,” Jae Hee sighed.

“Regardless, Jin Ri is lucky to have a sweet oppa like you to protect her,” just like how I had Sulli stand up for me against Seol Han Na most of the time.

“I beg to differ. In the end, I fail her. This orphanage, my only lead, turns out to be a dead end. And the apparition we saw just now gave me a bad feeling that something horrible had happened. Does that mean Jin Ri…” Jae Hee choked on his words. Apparently, he could not bring himself to finish the sentence.

Please, gods of every religion, let Jin Ri be alive, I silently prayed. I wanted to place my hand on Jae Hee’s shoulder to console him but ended up tugging the sleeve of his denim jacket instead.

“Jae Hee…” my voice quivered, “Is that another gho... ghost?”