Chapter III  

When Sulli awoke a few hours later, she found Victoria sound asleep, her hand still entwined with her son’s. A new wave of guilt washed over her and she felt a twinge in her heart as she saw the IV drips and heart monitor attached to her fragile nephew. Mianhe, Ryunggie, she whispered as she softly caressed his bandaged head. The medicine they injected her with still made her groggy, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She continued to her nephew’s head, lost within her mind.

Ryung was about five years of age and really small for his age. He was a preemie- born three months earlier than the intended due date. Victoria nearly died while giving birth to him, and Sulli was only notified of his birth a few weeks after Ryung was born, when Victoria finally regained consciousness. You and your mom are really unlucky with cars. Sulli remembered the time when she and Victoria still lived together, and a drunk driver nearly severely injured her older sister. History tends to repeat itself and few years later another car hit her sister again, only this time she was  six months pregnant. Now, five years later, her son had a near death experience of his own.

A shrill ringing resounded throughout the room, jolting Sulli out of her thoughts. She carefully maneuvered around her sister and found the bag she had angrily thrown to the floor.

“Yoboseyo?” she answered softly.

“Ah, deh, Victoria-ssi?” asked a male voice.

“What do you want?” she asked, the fogginess in her head was persistent.

“I’m Yang Yoseob and I work for the TS Mall Company. We heard of your issues and we would like for you to come to our office at exactly 7 am tomorrow. Tardiness isn’t acceptable. If you would like to have a chance to have your belongings back, please be punctual. Any concerns or comments, please save them for the meeting. Thank you and have a good night.” Then with a little gasp of breath at the end, he hung up.

Sulli stared blankly at the light blue walls and kept the phone on her ears for a few more minutes. All she heard was “TS Mall Company....Tomorrow... Have belongings back...”

Sulli slowly returned the phone back to her sister’s bag. She wrote on a sticky note she found on the desk beside her and went to the couch to sleep.