Chapter 1

In a small, old house lived two people; a mother & her child. Her husband had passed away not too long ago. Insook was left with no one else except her daughter. One day, the walls caught on fire & burnt the house down to ashes. With nowhere to stay, Insook walked down street after street, looking for shelter or food of some sort. Her baby girl of only five month old was crying loudly, her face turning bright red. Insook held the baby closer to her body. She kept on walking. Not knowing where she was going or where she was going to end up, her legs continued to carry her forward. At last, she couldn’t go any further & fell against a store wall, slid down & fainted.

When Insook woke up, she had a horrible headache. She slowly opened her eyes & looked around. The first thought that ran through her head was that of the baby. Looking everywhere in the room, she tried to get out of bed. Her legs were too weak, so instead of standing, she fell down. Just at that moment, a lady walked in along with what looked like a maid.

“Are you alright? You shouldn’t be out of bed right now. Here, let me help you up.” The lady offered. Before she could help her to the bed, Insook went down on her knees & held onto the lady’s boat neckline, short sleeve, prana floral sail blue top.

“Where’s my daughter?! Please, I beg of you?! Return my daughter to me?! Don’t hurt her! She’s only a baby! Take me instead! I will be your servant! I can mop floors, cook, wash clothes, anything you want! Just please don’t harm my daughter?! Please?!” Insook yelled, through curtains of tears. She continued to pull the lady’s shirt.

“Stand up, dear. You are safe. We won’t hurt you or your daughter. I promise. I will have her brought here right now. Bora, can you please go & bring the girl here to me?” The lady spoke smoothly. She held Insook’s shoulders & tried to calm her down a bit, “Here, let’s get you onto the bed first. You need a lot of rest.”

Insook slowly let go of her shirt & held onto her arms. With the woman’s help, she slowly sat down on the bed. She reached for back of her to fix the pillow & motioned Insook to sit up on the bed. As Insook got situated, she pulled the blanket up & covered her legs & then she tucked the blanket tightly under her. She walked across the room & took hold of a chair, brought it next to the bed & sat down. She laid her hand on Insook’s & spoke.

“My name is Minseo Kim. My husband’s name is Dohyun Kim. We were on our way to dinner when we found you unconscious against a wall. We decided to bring you home. You have been unconscious for eight days now. The doctor said that you had a really bad fever but you should be alright now. Are you feeling any better? Do you need anything? Water? Are you hungry?” Minseo asked, with concern in her eyes.

Insook was surprised. She didn’t know what to say. She had wrongfully accused this woman of stealing her daughter. Her tears welled up again. She took Minseo’s hand in her own & spoke as her tears spilled out from her eyes, “I’m sorry. I truly am. I had no idea that you had saved both, my daughter & I. I had thought that you wanted to harm my daughter. It’s all