http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBFqEwOkSwA

Joo: Turn Around

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A loud, obnoxious snore echoed through the walls, awakening the young seventeen-year-old girl in the room. Her big, deer-like eyes opened, and her endlessly long eyelashes fluttered her eyes tried to accustom to the dimness of the cramped room. She placed her palms flat by her sides and pushed her body weight so that she was sitting up. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the room.

Her science textbook was still open, and her science homework was spread all over the small, mahogany table in the room. Novels and textbooks neatly aligned on the bookshelf, and a small stack of albums that were filled with quotes and photos she had taken rested in the corner. A wooden box by the desk contained notebooks and pens that she used to communicate with others. Her dark green and plaid school uniform hung neatly over the bookshelf.

The walls rang again with the deafening snore, and she turned her head to see her aunt sleeping beside her.

Unlike her side of the room, her aunt’s side of the room was chaos. Mini-skirts, fishnet stockings, and low-cut shirts were thrown in every direction. Cigarettes overflowed in the ashtray, and three beer bottles littered the space in front of the closet.

The young girl pushed the blanket off of her, and very carefully, stood up. She tip-toed towards the bathroom and began to wash. After lightly slapping lotion onto her face, she snuck back into the room and changed into her uniform. She smoothed the plaid skirt that fell above her knees and tightened the dark green blazer over her chest. She picked up her nametag and stuck it on the blazer. She gazed at her nametag in the reflection.

Park Minjoo.

That was her name. She quite liked her name.

Other people were fortunate enough to be able to call her name, but she wasn’t. In fact, she couldn’t say anything at all. Just like the Little Mermaid, she had lost her voice, but unlike the mermaid princess, Minjoo would never get her voice back. She had lost it due to a severe fever when she was three years old, which was when she had first come to stay with her aunt. Being an irresponsible person, her aunt hadn’t gotten her treatment in time. That had resulted in the damage of her vocal chords, and ever since then, she had not been able to utter one word or even make a sound.

The grumbling of her aunt made her jump out of her thoughts, and she turned her head around.

“Wa...er…wa…er…” Her aunt mumbled with her eyes halfway way open and one hand reached out.

Minjoo tilted her head in wonder.

“I said water, you stupid girl,” Her aunt muttered irritably.

Minjoo scrambled towards the tray over their blankets and hastily poured water into a plastic cup. She handed the cup to her aunt who snatched it away without a word of thanks. Her aunt gulped the water down and mumbled something about being able to live again. She looked at Minjoo’s outfit, and her expression grew confused. “Are you going somewhere?”

Minjoo grabbed a lime green notebook from the box, quickly wrote an answer, and showed her aunt the piece of paper.

“School?” Her aunt read. Minjoo nodded.

“Whatever.” Her aunt to her side and pulled the blanket tighter over her. “Make sure you lock up the coffee shop. Don’t you dare take any money from the cash register. I know exactly how much is in there, and if there’s even so much as one penny gone, I’ll blame you.”

Minjoo heard a snore and knew her aunt had fallen asleep already. She walked over to her desk, gathered her books and papers, and put them in her backpack. Then she swung the backpack over her shoulder, grabbed her worn pair of Converses, and traipsed downstairs into the Madam’s Coffee Bar.

This wasn’t a normal café with fancy interior decorating and romantic booths for couples to cuddle in. It was a coffee shop by day and a bar by night. To be honest, the shop was more of the latter. Her aunt’s job as a barmaid gave her a degraded reputation, and she was known around town as the “bar ” who lured in married men and took all of their money. Minjoo wasn’t the slightest bit like her aunt, but that didn’t stop her reputation from also becoming tainted. No parents wanted their child to be friends with the bar ’s niece who might be just as bad as her aunt was. None of her classmates wanted to befriend her anyways because they found it frustrating how she couldn’t talk. They called her all sorts of name like “dummy” and “mute maiden”.

Minjoo slipped her feet into her sneakers and tied the shoelaces tightly before leaving her home. She locked up the coffee shop and made sure it was locked tightly before heading to school. As she approached the school, she saw more and more of her schoolmates. Everyone was walking with at least one other friend. The only person who was alone was Minjoo. She was used to the solitude by now and walked without embarrassment or shame.

“Look! There’s dummy!”

“Hey, mute maiden! Guess what?! I saw your aunt making out with Hyesung’s dad!”

“Shut up! No he didn’t!”Minjoo took a deep breath and struggled to ignore their taunting. She walked in through the black gates of Yongin High School and went into the building. She stopped by her locker before walking into her senior classroom. Her first period was math, which was her favorite subject. Her homeroom teacher was kind to