"Mom? Mommy, where are you?!"
Everything was on fire. Sowon couldn't find any opening to escape.
"Help! Help!" was the only thing her helpless voice managed to carry out.
This is how her life would end. She would be trapped and no one would find her.
As her final gesture, she kneeled down and put her hands together and prayed. Truth be told, she didn't know what to pray for. Her instincts told her to pray for someone to come and save her but her thoughts changed to praying for her family after she had died.

"What do you think you're doing?!"
A boy about her age ran inside and pulled her up.
"Why are you giving up already? You're crazy!"
Weak, she fell on the floor again, coughing. He told her to jump onto his back.
Almost immediately, he ran out but a piece of hot wood fell onto his back as well as her arm.
They both started to scream in pain from the hot wood. Sowon shook the wood off her arm and off his back.

As soon as they found their way outside, an ambulance was there, as if it had been waiting for her all along.

-----

"This is so cool!! We both have burns from that wood!" He shouted at Sowon.
Sowon just sat there, scared.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He calmly asked her.
Sowon slumped her shoulders and softly said, "I don't...I don't know where my parents are. What if they're hurt."
He got up and sat next to her on the bed.
"My mommy always told me that if she ever disappeared, she would always be watching over me. I'm sure that's what your mommy is doing too."
That didn't soothe Sowon at all. The little boy sighed and took her hand.
"If they never come back for you, I'll take care of you."
Sowon looked up at him and he smiled. She asked, "Promise?" He pulled her hand up and made a pinky promise.
"Til the day I die, I promise." He smiled a bright smile.
"So, what's your name?" Sowon shyly looked down and said, "Sowon."
He nodded and said, "My name's--

Sowon woke up, sweating. She let out a big sigh at this dream again. Despite the fact that everything that occurred in this dream was true, she never seemed to find out his name. She couldn't even remember his name from this incident that happened 12 years ago. Sometimes, she was angry that he had never kept his promise but it was inevitable since people had taken her away to the orphanage, after the discovery that her parents had died in the fire. She never even had a chance to say thanks.

Sowon rolled her sleeve down on her right arm and looked at the scar that lasted these past 12 years. It was the only proof she had that this mysterious boy was real.

She shifted her body to look at the time. 11:30PM. She groaned and rolled her body back into position. She would be turning eighteen in thirty minutes. Usually this would be a big day for an average teenager but to her, it was really nothing.

-----

Sowon's alarm went off and she forced herself out of bed and turned the alarm off. It would be the last time she'd wake up from that bed.

Someone knocked and opened the door. "Oh, you're up. Come outside, breakfast is ready." That would be the last time too.

-----

"Happy 18th birthday." Youngjae was the nicest one among all of them. He might've hated Sowon but he still respected her.
Sowon just ignored him. It's not like he was truly happy for her. He was probably just happy that she was finally leaving.

"Finally, you're leaving." Yumi, on the other hand, had hated Sowon from the start and expressed herself.
Sowon ignored her too. She always did.

"Yumi..that's not nice. Sowon noona, where are you going to stay?" Youngjae asked you with a pitiful smile. Sowon looked up at him and thought, *that's a good question.*

Sowon just shrugged.
"If you don't have anywhere to go, why don't you just go beg for money, like the loser that you are." Sowon ignored Yumi once more.

"Yumi, what's your problem?!" Youngjae shouted at her.
"What? It's better then telling her to go kill herself."
Sowon looked up at Yumi and said, "That's a good idea, actually."

Yumi almost choked on her cereal. "What? You're going to go kill yourself? I never knew you hated your life that much."

Truth was, Sowon didn't hate her life. She just hated life in general.
She was beginning to really consider this idea, she liked it. There would be no stress, no worries, and no people.

-----

Sowon took her luggage and walked out towards the entrance of the orphanage. The owner bid her goodbye and said, "If you can't find a place to stay, you can always come back and we'll help you."
Sowon scoffed at this. The owner said that to everyone who left, not expecting them to come back, ever.

Sowon began walking towards the bridge which crossed over to the heart of Seoul.
As she was walking on the bridge, she looked down and saw how high she was up with the HanKang river flowing beneath her.
She passed by a sign that read, "Don't jump off. Call suicide hotline."
Sowon narrowed her eyes at the sign and remembered what Yumi had said to her.

Sowon walked a bit further and stopped to look at the river once more.
She looked around and saw that there were no cars nor people going by the bridge.
Taking this chance, she walked towards the rail and raised herself by stepping on a bar. By now, she was peering down towards the river. One jump and she would be gone. It was perfect.

"If God wants me to live, he'll stop me." She said to herself, one final time.

She pushed herself up and began to pull her right leg over the rail.

"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" Someone stopped her and dragged her down from the rail.
Sowon then realized that she was breathing really heavily.
"Are you crazy? What, did your boyfriend dump you or something?"

Sowon looked up at the guy, angry that he ruined her plan.
She rolled her eyes and went back towards the rail but the guy pulled her back.
"Here, come with me. You need help. Is this yours?" He pointed to her suitcase. She just glared at him, straight into his eyes.
He ignored it and grabbed her suitcase. This stranger pulled Sowon towards his car which he had stopped.

-----

Sowon was sitting in the backseat. What was she going to do now? Obviously, God had sent this stranger to stop her from killing herself. Sowon threw her head back, frustrated.

"So... where do you live?" Great. A question she had no answer to. Sowon just ignored him.
"Look, I'm sorry I stopped you but hey, you never know. You might regret trying to commit suicide in the future." Sowon rolled her eyes. *Oh sure, definitely.*
"Okay, I'll take you to this therapist I know. It's not good if you're living life like this."
*God, he was so full of .*

-----

"So, would you like to tell me why you came to this decision?"

Sowon couldn't believe it. This stranger had really brought her to a therapist. Sowon looked at the stranger who was sitting on the couch, listening. She rolled her eyes and leaned back on her chair.

"Sorry, should he leave?"
"Oh, sorry, am I stopping her from talking? I'll just wait outside."
Sowon watched the guy leave the room.

The therapist smiled and asked, "Is that better?" No answer.

"Okay, well..would you like to tell me what happened? I can help you."
Sowon put on a straight face and said, "There's nothing wrong with me."
The therapist sighed and said, "Trying to commit suicide is a problem. Do your parents know?"
"They're dead."
His face had slightly turned surprised. "Does that contribute to..all of this?"
Sowon sighed. "There's just no point in life for me."

The therapist then began to nod, as if he understood what Sowon was talking about.
"You don't have friends, do you?" Sowon shook her head.
"And you don't have family..so were you raised in an orphanage?" Sowon nodded.
"Ahhh, you're lonely."
Sowon brought her palm to her head, irritated. "No, I hate people."

The therapist nodded again, in that same attitude. He wasn't convinced.
"You don't hate people. You just don't know people. You've never experienced your life with people around you. You chose to exclude yourself from everyone, fooling yourself into thinking that you just hate them."

Sowon couldn't believe it. Had she really heard all this come out of this man's mouth? She had only one thing going through mind.
Bull..

"Let me guess, this all sounds like bull to you. That's just your personality. Right now, someone can completely change your life. You just weren't lucky to find one fast enough. I just hope someone helps you soon. That's all I can say to you."

Sowon got up from her chair and left the room.

The stranger who had saved her, helplessly followed her out of the building.
When Sowon walked past his car, he grabbed her arm. "Hey, where are you going to go?"
Sowon tried to twist her arm off but his grip was strong. "I'll just drop you off at home."
But when Sowon kept trying to let go of him, he just smiled. Seeing his smile, Sowon raised her eyebrow and said, "What?" He raised his eyebrows and said, "So you do talk. Get on, I'll take you home."

Forcefully, he pushed her inside the passenger seat and rushed over to the driver's side.
"So, where do you live?" He asked Sowon.
"No where."
"No, seriously. Where do you--" but he stopped when he saw Sowon give him a serious look. She didn't look like the type to joke around.
"Oh, well.. you can come over."
"You don't even know me."

He took out his keys from the ignition and turned his body towards her.
"Hi, I'm Woohyun."

Sowon leaned her head onto the window.
"Sowon."