“You’ll just need to fill in these forms here, put your address and phone number and then sign all the forms at the bottom”.

JR had went to hospital straight after finding his mother lying there, informing them of her death. He had been redirected up two flights of stairs, trailing his hurting ankle up and down them in search of the receptionist with the correct forms. He had finally found her and had begun to fill out the forms with his number, "Eight Zero Nine Six.." before being interrupted when one of the people working for the coroner walked past. He was a tall man, wearing a grey suit, and had thin red lips, “I’m sorry for your loss” he said briskly. JR looked up at him, his hand trembling a little, “T-thanks…” he mumbled before looking down at the forms again. The man gestured to him to sit down.

“Do you any help with the funeral?” the man asked, cocking his head to the side. JR thought for a second, how was he going to afford a funeral? He shook his head, refusing his head, a trait that was prevalent in his family. The man stood up and put his hand on JR’s thigh, “Phone me if you need any help,” he said before leaving the room. JR sat there for a while, contemplating how he would afford a funeral, pay for a funeral plot and pay for a minister to conduct the funeral; he just couldn’t afford it.

He finished filling out the forms and left the hospital, pulling his thin sweater against his frail figure. He took a different route than his usual one home and swung by the park where he saw some kids drinking and talking loudly. He walked on, finding a quiet part where he could sit and think, it was something he did often when he was very young. “How can I pay for this funeral?” he thought, throwing his hands up into the air. He despaired and sighed, “I should just die-“. He was about to finish his sentence when he spied a man in a suit emerging from some bushes followed by a woman wearing heels and a short skirt. He turned away, looking into the bushes as they both walked past him when a thought came across his head. Although stupid, he thought what if he took over his mother’s job and sold his body for . He winced at the thought and tugged at his sleeve, biting the top of it, “What if…” he whispered before imaging rich businessmen paying to have with him. He shook his head, standing up and wiping tears from his eyes. He got up and began to walk home, it was nearly 11 and he wanted to get home to his bed.

On his way back to their apartment he passed by the café he used to sit in when he was little. He traced his hands past the ‘help wanted’ sign and stopped, turning in to look at the 24-hour café. He pushed open the door and within twenty minutes had persuaded the owner to give him a day trial.

The hospital notified JR’s school of his mother’s death and he was given three days off school for mourning purposes. During this time, he worked at the café after getting the job and only went home to sleep and to eat. By the time Thursday came around, he found it weird not getting ready to go to work but his mourning period had ended and his teachers expected him to be in class.

“Well it can’t get any worse than it has been before, can it?” he thought as he began to walk to the bus stop. When he got onto the bus, he took a seat by the window and placed his bag on his lap. He then proceeded to think about his mother, her body was now in a coffin but it was still in the apartment, JR just needed to find somewhere to bury her, and to pay for a funeral too. He shook his head and winced before his stop came off and he made his way up to school where he was greeted with a familiar face, Mark.

“How are you feeling JR?” he asked, smiling softly. JR nodded at him and smiled sheepishly, “I’m okay…have I missed much work?” he asked, cocking his head to one side. Mark shook his head, “No you haven’t…hey, the school told me what happened, I’m really sorry to hear about it,” he said before placing his hand on JR’s shoulder. JR just looked down and nodded, “It’s fine…” he mumbled.

The day passed by quickly enough and by fourth period Mark and JR had become good friends. They had mostly all of the same classes so they stuck together until lunchtime came around.

“I’ll go on over and find us a table, ok?” Mark said cheerily whilst JR went up to grab a tray and some food. He was too preoccupied with the amount of food on his tray and how little it had cost to even notice the back he was about to run into. JR continued walking forward just as the man turned around, the man’s tray spilling over the floor. The whole lunch hall went silence and JR looked up to see Jaebum, the boy who had injured him and humiliated him just a few days ago, staring back down at him, his eyes narrowed. A chorus of ‘oooohs’ were heard from Jaebum’s friends who were sitting at the table next to them. One friend shouted, “Yah Jaebum isn’t that the kid you beat up on Monday?” to which JR winced at and looked up at Jaebum, “I’m really sor-“ he started before being interrupted by Jaebum’s hand on his throat. Jaebum looked at him with a straight face, “Pick. It. Up.” He whispered before setting down the younger boy. JR looked up at him and began to pick up the food with his hands, putting it on the tray. Jaebum’s friends began to laugh and Jaebum smirked, “And when you’re down, you can eat it you pig”. JR slowly rose, holding the tray and walked slowly over to the table Mark had found, thankfully well away from them. Before JR even sat down he began to cry, tears welling up in his eyes and streaming down his face. His bottom lip quivered and he put his hands over his face.

“JR…what’s wrong?” Mark asked, placing his hand on JR’s wrist. JR shook his head hysterically, “Nothing- everything is wrong everything is going wrong” he spat out before sobbing into his jumper. Mark grabbed his wrist before holding it gently, “Don’t cry in front of them JR, they don’t deserve it. Let’s go get you washed up, ok?” “No…I’m fine” JR replied, wiping at his eyes and giving a very faint smile, “Let’s just eat ok?”

JR nodded slowly before Jaebum and his gang of friends walking past interrupted the two. As Jaebum walked past he conveniently bumped into the trays full of food and they both crashed to the floor. His friends laughed before Mark stood up, causing the gang of people to stop in their tracks, “Have a little bit of mercy, JR’s mother just died, you don’t have to be s” he said before sitting down again. One of Jaebum’s friends piped up, “Yah Jaebum, didn’t you say this kid was from the North?” “Yeah, what of it?” Jaebum replied keeping his eyes fixated on JR’s face. “Well you know that my father was seeing, she was from the North and he told me she died”. Jaebum’s face slowly turned to his friend and he smirked before turning back to JR and placing his hands on his shoulders, “Ah little JR, you didn’t tell your friends that your mother was a e?”

The whole lunchroom went silent and JR kept his eyes focused on his tray. Jaebum began again, “You should have told me, I would have loved to pay that cheap hooker to my-“ JR stood up, flinging Jaebum’s hands off of him. He spun around and stared Jaebum straight in the eyes whilst Jaebum’s friends all began to laugh. Jaebum placed his hands on JR’s shoulders again sending him back down, “What a shame? Do you have any sisters? How about you? I’m sure any of your lousy family would happily jump on a for a few won-“ Jaebum’s remarks were interrupted by the piercing sound of JR slapping his cheek. Jaebum stood back, holding his red cheek before he pushed JR down onto the table, holding onto his neck, almost spitting at him, “How dare you- you little freak-“ he spat out before being restrained by his friends.

“Friday, after school, I will beat the living daylights out of you my friend-“ he shouted before being taken out of the lunchroom. JR just sat there, staring at the tray before Mark gently touched his wrist, “Don’t worry about him, are YOU okay?” he asked. JR just smiled and nodded before getting up and running from the school, running down the hill home towards his apartment. He had to go do the right thing.

Jaebum left school at the normal time, saying goodbye to his friends and getting into his father’s chauffer. The Chauffer nodded at him as Jaebum put in his earphones, letting the car zoom off from the school. The car wasn’t going back to Jaebum’s villa; no it was going out deep into the countryside, a few hours outside Seoul. Jaebum looked out the window as the car stopped beside a graveyard, a graveyard he knew well. He stepped out of the car and walked up the dirt pathway to a grave he wished he didn’t have to visit. “How are you mom?” he asked as he knelt down beside the huge gravestone at the top of the yard. He rubbed the dirt off the top of it before replacing the flowers he had placed in the vase. He sat there and talked to his mother, his dead mother who he could hardly even remember.

JR waited until the dead of night and armed with a shovel and a lantern, he made his way down seven flights of stairs with his mother’s coffin. He used every bit of muscle he could muster not to collapse under the strain of her body but he managed it. He loaded the coffin into the delivery truck he had borrowed from the café and despite the fact he had only driven twice in his life, he merged onto the road and stopped at a nearby disused industrial estate halfway between the apartment and the school. It was here where JR unloaded the coffin and for seven hours straight he dug his own mother’s grave, he placed her carefully into it and he filled the hole back up. The sun began to rise on the dusty and dirty industrial estate and JR coughed, holding himself up by the edge of the van. He marked the spot where he had buried her with an X in chalk so that he could come back. It was here where she would lay, for eternity, in some disused and dirty industrial estate. JR couldn’t afford more but he had achieved what he had set out to do; bury his mother. He left the site and continued home before putting on his uniform and heading out to school without a wink of sleep.

He didn’t feel tired though, he knew that his mother could rest in peace now and that she was free from their hell of a life and that soon he too could be free.