-Prologue-

July 16^th 2012

 

 

Ever since my mom passed away with leukemia when I was eight, I had been living with my younger brother, Sungjong, and my dad in Busan. At first, we had a hard time adjusting and my dad was devastated at the loss of my mom. But as the years sped by, we got used to our situation and started living the way my mom would have wanted us to; happily and without any regret.

 

It wasn’t easy for me as it would have been with Sungjong; I was the only girl in the family. When my mom was still alive, it would always be her doing my hair, dressing me, and helping me with girl problems. My dad didn’t know how to dress or treat me as a girl, so he treated me like he would with a boy; he dressed me like a guy, got me to do tasks a guy would do –and the list goes on. He’s not a bad guy; he just wasn’t expecting this situation to happen and when it did, he was unprepared.

 

As a young girl, I started dressing up like a boy and acting like one. Instead of wearing dresses, I wore over-sized shirts and baggy shorts. I should be wearing a pretty headband in my hair, but I wear baseball caps instead. My long hair was always in a low ponytail.

 

A lot of girls my age made fun of the way I looked and questioned me for dressing up like a boy. Honestly, I never cared. I was comfortable with the way I looked, and that’s all that matters.

 

It wasn’t just the way I dressed; it was also the way I did things. My dad wanted me to learn taekwondo for self defence, so he enrolled me for sessions. It had cost a bit of money, but he felt that it was an important matter, so he spent it on taekwondo sessions for me. I’ve been taking it for a couple of years, so now I’m a green belt in taekwondo.  I don't know why it's just me taking it, shouldn't Sungjong take it too? Well, I guess that's a fact I have to get used to.

My dad never taught me how to act lady-like. When I eat, I just stuff the food into my mouth and whenever it’s necessary, I would occasionally talk with food in my mouth. I always have my body slouched, my legs wide open when I sit, and my mouth wide open when I yawn.

 

Since it was just the three of us in a small house, we had gotten close to each other. I would always watch baseball games with my dad and Sungjong on weekends and at the end of each day, we slept in the living room together. But of course, there were nights were it was just Sungjong and I at home because my dad was at work.

 

For nine years, we lived like that. Our life was normal and because of my dad’s hard work, we were able to live peacefully.

 

But then, it all changed.

 

My dad lost his one and only job, and was forced to find another one quickly. He spent many days looking for a job, but it seemed like no one needed new employees.

After a week, he had finally found a job, a great opportunity. It was a job as a driver for one of Seoul’s richest families. The only problem was that we had to move to Seoul.  But since this opportunity was too good for us to let it pass, he accepted it.

 

Now here I am with Sungjong and Appa, in the train ride to Seoul. In an hour or so, my life would be taking a turn into another direction.

 

And I don’t know if I’ll like it or not.