Saerom

The day I get my paycheck for this week, I immediately bike to the pharmacy. This week’s wages, along with the previous two weeks – which I’ve been diligently saving up until now – will finally make up the amount I need to buy my sister’s medicine.

My sister Seoyeon is sick with this rare disease that claws at her lung tissue and makes it hard for her to breathe. She’s only 15, but she’s always bedridden, sick, and missing far too much school. This medicine helps her function on a day-to-day basis, and she needs to take it every day or else she’ll be in a lot of pain.

And this stupid medicine is expensive. It’s not covered by the state because it’s thought to be an unnecessary luxury, so we have to pay for it from our own pockets.

Well, I’m left to pay for it. And the job at the chicken restaurant barely covers it. Seoyeon’s last pills from the previous run just finished this morning.

If I didn’t receive my wages today, my sister would have had to live through the pain until I did.

I hate seeing my sister suffer. The nights without the medicine in her system are the worst. She cries and moan and wheezes all night, and it tortures me to the point I consider driving us both of a cliff so we can both be spared.

So it, I’ll get her that five-hundred dollar medicine, even if it means draining every cent of my savings for the rest of my life.

I walk into the pharmacy and am greeted by the neighborhood pharmacist.

“Hello there, Saerom,” Seungcheol says. He gives me a weird smile.

“Get me that stupid Belastryl,” I say without bothering to greet him. I reach into my bag to grab the cash.

He nods and turns around to the shelf of the drugs behind him and pulls out a box. He puts it on the counter, and I put the five hundred cash on the counter.

“Actually, it’s… uh… it’s $600 now,” he says, giving me that weird smile again.

“Wait. What?”

“Hong Pharmaceuticals just upped the price.”

“Are you ing kidding me?!” I yelled.

I feel the rage build up in my chest. I want to scream and yell and kick the displays off the shelves in this stupid pharmacy, but I hold it in, because it’s not the neighborhood pharmacist’s fault.

It’s that company’s fault.

“ them. Hong Pharmaceuticals. them,” I mutter through clenched teeth.

Hong Pharmaceuticals has a monopoly on the production of this drug, and ever since they got their grimy hands on it, they’ve been increasing the price without mercy or compassion, knowing full well the patients who buy the drug would pay any price.

“I’m so sorry,” says Seungcheol. “It’s out of my hands.”

. . . I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t afford this medicine, but if I don’t get it then my sister is going to suffer all night. I’ll have to hear her cry in pain and beg for relief and… I can’t. I won’t let that happen to her.

That damned medicine is right there, on the counter, all I have to do is snatch it.

Which is exactly what I do. I grab it and run, ignoring Seungcheol’s calls. “Stop! Come back! You have to pay for that.”

I feel bad for doing this to him, but I’ve got no other choice. I grab my bike and cycle away as fast as my legs could carry me.

And, just my luck, I happen to bike past two patrolling police officers while the pharmacist yells after me to come back and pay. I try to maneuver around them as they come for me, only to fall off the bike and be surrounded by the two of them.

-

My scrawny loud neighbor Seungkwan comes rushing in through the pharmacy door after I was forced to call him to help me out of the situation.

The pharmacist said he wouldn’t press charges if I paid full price for the medicine. I gave him all the money I had already, but has to ask my stupid neighbor to pay the rest of it.

“Saerom! Oh Saerom, what have you done?” he asks me, his lips making that expressive pout he always makes whenever I disappoint him. I roll my eyes.

The police officer explains the situation, and Seungkwan does not hesitate to pull out his wallet and empty it out.

I lower my head. I can’t stand to see him pay so much money for us. I already owe him over a thousand dollars, and I hate that I have to add even more to the growing debt. I hate that he’s so ing nice and lets me get away with it.

When the charge was paid, the pharmacist hands me the medicine. I snatch it away gruffly, stuff it in my bag, and leave, muttering curses under my breath.

“ing Hong Pharmaceticals.”

Seungkwan trails after me. “Hey, Saerom. Hey, wait!” he says.

“What?” I snap, turning on my heel to face him. “How many thousands do I owe you now?”

“Come on, Saerom, you know you don’t owe me anything.”

He always says that. Every time he ends up having to pay for something because we’re short on money: for medicine, for home repairs, phone bills, mom’s rehabilitation fees, water and electricity bills. Whenever I can’t catch up to all the charges and bills, he steps in and takes care of it. And I hate him for it, because I hate admitting that I ing need him.

I hate feeling like I owe him.

“I’m paying you back,” I huff back at him.

“Don’t steal,” he says. “If you need money, just come to me.”

“I don’t need money.”

“Please, Saerom. I’m here for you, you know that. Don’t be shy to ask for my help, okay?”

I don’t know who he thinks he is, inserting himself in our family all the time. He was my brother’s best friend since childhood, but when my brother died in the same accident that also killed my father, Seungkwan felt like he was suddenly the man of the house and had a responsibility to take care of us.

And he has taken care of us, but I never asked him to.

“All I’m saying is, you don’t have to do this alone, okay?” Seungkwan says. “I’m here for you. And if you can’t afford Seoyeon’s medicine, I’ll cover it from now on”

He’s way too nice for his own good, and I hate it. I could rob him clean right now, tell him I need a thousand bucks for something personal, and he wouldn’t bat an eye and give it to me. Never ask me back for it either.

Stupid.

But I’m being angry at the wrong person right now. He shouldn’t be the target of my rage and frustration. That - company, Hong Pharmaceuticals and their heartless policies and predatory prices. them. I would burn their building to the ground if I could afford gasoline and matches.

But I can’t even afford to be angry right now. I have to call my boss and ask him for more hours, so I can afford to pay for the medicine and pay Seungkwan back.

I hate my life.