♪ my love

“W-what does Minwoo mean by that?” Aejin choked out as she stared at Mrs. Kam, speechless. The older woman’s mouth hung open but ended up closed again seconds after. The news was a low blow and she couldn’t bring herself to deliver the unfortunate and unjust report to the single, and not to mention, young mother. She cast her gaze to the cemented sidewalk and her silence was all Aejin needed to confirm that Minwoo wasn’t lying. Without a sign of hesitance, she bolted up the stairs hastily.

“Aejin-ah! What are you doing?!” Mrs. Kam hollered as she quickly followed behind. Suho did as well with the sobbing child still in his arms.

Reaching their apartment, Aejin was stunned to find KEEP OUT tape stuck in front of the doorway accompanied by an eviction notice posted on the barrier. Acting on impulse, she tore the warning tape off, shredded the eviction paper into pieces and unlocked the door, allowing her entrance. When she stepped inside and switched the lights on, she felt her heart plunging to the pit of her stomach.

The place was completely empty and bare.

All the kitchen appliances were even removed along with her belongings and Aejin nearly collapsed onto the floor.

Luckily enough, she was able to support herself with a palm pressed up against the wall. She felt her head spinning in circles, with the feeling that it would never stop. She couldn’t believe any of it. The events were so sudden, so unexpected, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do. Just this morning everything was perfectly fine. It was like any normal day so how could things have changed so quickly in such a short amount of time?

Something like this was unheard of. But then again, she was disowned and discarded by her own flesh and blood in less than an hour. You’d think she’d get use to all these random alterations by now, but she wasn’t. A minute or two later, Mrs. Kam, Suho and Minwoo joined her, none of them uttering a word. When Suho saw how void the apartment looked, he placed Minwoo down and scanned the room until his eyes landed on Aejin who looked paler than a ghost. He then turned to Mrs. Kam with a melancholic expression. “What exactly happened?” 

The elder exhaled and hung her head down low in shame, “I’m not too sure on that either. Minwoo and I went to the small convenience store around the corner a few hours back and when we returned, all of the tenants were gathered outside of the building. There were a couple of men dressed in snazzy suits and they informed us of the new ownership. It was nothing major really. They just told us we have a new landlord and that was it. After, they allowed us to go back to our apartments and so we did. I expected them to leave but they didn’t. If Minwoo hadn’t wanted to get his crayons from the apartment, I would have never known.” She paused and looked at Aejin.

“When I came up here with the spare key you had left me, the door was already opened and people were lugging items out of the apartment. I tried asking them why they were taking away all of the owner’s things without permission and all they did was give me a business card, saying it was an order from their superior. They also said that if there was a problem you’d like to acknowledge to go to the address on the card. I tried to stop them but they were stubborn and continued to move your belongings to the street. Minwoo was afraid someone might steal your stuff so we decided to wait outside until you came back.” 

Once she was done explaining, she held out the business card for Aejin to inspect. With shaky breaths and quivering fingers Aejin took it from her and examined it. Apparently the building was now the new property of Kim Corporations, a company known for their impeccable financial skills. They dealt with the stock markets and investments, basically millions of dollars. So why would they decide to purchase a run-down old apartment building in one of the poorer areas of the city? Did they think they could make some sort of profit off of it? 

Aejin was beyond confused but was set on personally acknowledging the issue. She didn’t know why she was suddenly evicted but she intended to find out. She stared blankly at the address printed on the card and made note