After stepping out of the school building, Seulgi was contemplating whether she should go home. This was the day her drug addict and alcoholic mother was released from the rehabilitation centre. The sight of Seulgi reminded her mother of the father that ditched her on discovering her pregnancy. Amplified by the influence of alcohol, it would only trigger another episode of physical abuse.

When Seulgi was a child, the social service stepped in to intervene. Krystal’s parents had been kind enough to foster Seulgi under their care. As a result, Seulgi grew up nothing like her own mother. Instead, she worked hard in school and managed to secure a scholarship to support her high school studies, which came in handy as she had to leave her foster family once she reached 16, to make way for younger children in need.

During her time at the foster home, Seulgi developed a close friendship with Krystal, who was the same age as her. As they grew older, so was Seulgi’s feelings for Krystal, to the point where she crossed the friendship zone. It could be due to the make pretend role-playing game that Krystal was so fond of. Sometimes, Krystal was Snow White. At other times she would be Cinderella. When she was in the mood for something more “adventurous”, she turned into Belle. Or to open up a whole new world of cross-cultural references as Jasmine. Her biological sister, Jessica, scorned her silliness and refused to play along. Therefore, she turned to Seulgi who was glad and happy to be her Prince Charming, Beast and Aladdin.

“If both you and me have not ended up with someone by 40, let’s be together?” Krystal suggested.

Seulgi nodded furiously, “I’ll be your Prince and you’ll be my Princess.”

That was way back when they were still in elementary school Grade One. Fast forward ten years later, the pact was broken even before they reached the halfway mark.

As Seulgi reminisced the past, she had made her way to the school garden. Whipping out her personal sketchbook, she flipped through the pages of her artwork filled with scenery of the places she happened to be at, ranging from mundane classrooms from her daily life to the picturesque glory of mother nature. Thanks to her photographic memory, Seulgi was able to immortalise her crush, Krystal, in various perspectives and expressions in her drawings.

While finding a nice view in the school garden for her next masterpiece, Seulgi’s eyes landed on a fellow student tending to the plot of baechu (napa cabbage). She was probably a member of the gardening club, and it was not uncommon to spot one at this time of the day. Normally Seulgi would disregard any human presence in the view she found because she already had a subject matter in mind. The scenery was merely a background to add a story to her works. However, Seulgi decided to try something different today. Whoever that mysterious student was, she shall be the first-ever since Krystal to grace the painting by yours truly. As Seulgi’s pencil danced in its own rhythm across the paper, the view captured in her memory slowly translated into an intricate combination of sketches and , that would eventually form a painting, like…

A Few Hours Later…

Satisfied with the end product, Seulgi signed off with her initial “SG” at the corner.

“That was really beautiful.”

Seulgi jumped at the voice, even though the speaker was soft-spoken.

“Did I scare you? So sorry for coming up from behind like this. I can’t help it after seeing such a lifelike painting with myself in it.”

“It’s okay,” Seulgi brushed it off with a laugh. “It’s not like every day I get someone praising my work. You don’t have to apologise. I should thank you being the model of my painting instead.”

“You mean you hardly get compliments for your artwork? Either you are being humble or the entire school is blind. And about me being your model, I charge a fee, you know?”

“Oh… you do? Then how much do you charge for being a art model?” Seulgi was taken aback by her own boldness in front of a stranger, a beautiful stranger. She immediately covered her face to conceal her embarrassment, “Ahhh… why I am talking like a dirty old man?”

“Are you trying to hit on me?” The stranger sounded more amused than angry.

“No... no… that’s not my intention,” removing her hands, Seulgi raised them to her forehead in a sign of apology, “Kang Seulgi says sorry to er… what’s your name?”

“Another pick-up line to get my name? I’m not biting the bait… and I never ask for your name,” the stranger continued playing hard to get.

“Okay. Kang Seulgi says sorry to Baechu Yeoja (Cabbage Girl),” unfazed by the strangers’ lukewarm response, Seulgi continued in a singsong voice.

“What Baechu Yeoja!”

For some odd reason, the nickname triggered the stranger. Even when angry, Seulgi found her adorable.

“Weren’t you working on the baechu plot a while ago?” Seulgi held up her painting as evidence. “Baechu Yeoja… that shall be the title of my painting.”

Intrigued by her own random inspiration, Seulgi went on to write the title at the bottom of the painting.

“Yah! Stop it! You are ruining the painting!” On impulse, the stranger grabbed Seulgi’s hand after she wrote: “배추” (Bae Chu).

“It’s Bae Joohyun…”

Seulgi could feel her heart leaped out of the chest from Joohyun’s touch. Things were getting interesting every minute.

Afraid that she might have hurt Seulgi from her fierce grip, Joohyun released her hand and looked away. Since Joohyun was facing the other direction, Seulgi was unaware of how madly she was blushing right then. Meanwhile, Seulgi used some white poster colour to touch up the little vertical that stuck out of 추 (Chu) to correct it to 주 (Joo). Then she added the word 현 (hyun).

“It’s done. Masterpiece 배주현 fresh out of the oven.”

Joohyun turned around excitedly to admire the artwork. She particularly like how much the subject in the painting looked like a carbon copy of herself.

“Hey, Seulgi…” Joohyun asked shyly, “May I have that drawing so that I can show it to my granny?”

“Sure, you can have it,” Seulgi carefully detached the painting from her sketchbook and passed it to Joohyun, who held dearly to it like a treasure. Just then, Seulgi realised that the surrounding was getting darker. She wanted to check the time on her mobile phone but was greeted with a furious message from her mother asking her whereabouts.

“Arggg… I didn’t know it is so late. I need to get home. By the way, where do you stay? Maybe we can go back together?”

“I live over there, so I can just walk home,” Joohyun pointed to a cluster of old apartments across the main road, separated by a long overhead bridge.

“Lucky you. See you tomorrow then, Joohyun,” Seulgi waved and sprinted to the nearest subway station to take the next metro.

Once she got home, Seulgi tip-toed to the kitchen to place the bottles of Soju on the table. She was hoping to be able to return to her room quietly. When she turned around, she gulped seeing her mother wielding the familiar belt in her hands.

“School does not end this late, does it?” Seulgi’s mother walked towards the table to examine what truly interests her, the bottles of Soju

“It doesn’t. I stayed behind for group projects,” Seulgi lied, but there was no guilt attached to it. The real reason behind her mother’s saltiness was getting her Sojus late. “If there’s nothing else, I…”

Before Seulgi could finish her sentence, her back received a hard slap from the belt lashing at her. She collapsed to the floor from the nasty surprise. However, the surprise was short-lived as her body gradually got accustomed to the momentum of repeated whippings that followed. Like it did every time…

“Want to know why I punish you?” Her mother sneered. “You bought the wrong brand. This brand .”

“I’m sorry… The brand that you like had already sold out, so I…”

“Excuses! Lies! Just like that stupid father of yours!” Tired from whipping, her mother started stomping her foot on Seulgi’s rib cage. She only targeted areas of her body that were hidden by the clothes. For that, Seulgi was grateful as she had no intention to tell on her mother’s deed. Seulgi had never seen or knew her father. Her mother’s family had given up on her errant ways and wanted nothing to do with her offspring either. Even though her mother had to report at the rehabilitation centre, she would return to their modest two-room apartment often enough. At night, once her mother fell asleep in the only bed that they shared, Seulgi would back hug her mother’s warm body. Deep down, Seulgi was still that little girl craving for mother’s love. In the state of deep slumber, her mother looked peaceful enough to feed on Seulgi’s fantasy of a loving mother.