January 1, 2000
The first day of a new century. The first day of a new year.

7 year old Kai sat in the back seat of a beat up compact car. The right side back window had doodles drawn in the dew that had collected on the glass and a golden star sticker was stuck on the bottom corner of the window.

"Kai," his brother sighed exasperatedly. "How many times do I have to tell you to not put stickers on the window?" He took a glance at the back window, which was covered with the white sticky remains from stickers.

"Sorry..." Kai put on his puppy face, but made no comment about removing the sticker.

His brother only rolled his eyes and the radio.

"Oh! It's Candy!" Kai squealed as he started to sing along.

-

Meanwhile, the same song was also playing in another car.

"Eonjena ni yeope itseulge ireoke yaksokeul hagesseo... Jeolhaneuleun baradabomyo," Chanmi sang. "Candy!"

Her parents beamed as they listened to Chanmi excitedly sing along to the H.O.T. on the radio.

"I think our little Chan princess has a future as a singer!" her father praised her.

-

As snow fell softly and gently, the two families didn't know what would happen to them in the next minute.

-

As Chanmi and her parents drove along the right lane, they abruptly pulled the brake as they saw a large tree blocking the way.

"Shoot. This isn't good," her mother said softly. "What do we do?"

Chanmi's father, without hesitating, quickly drove the car into the left lane, planning on moving back into the right lane after passing the tree.

-

The sound of shattering glass. The sound of shouts and screams. The sound of a collision of two cars.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Chanmi cried. The side of her 7 year old head was bleeding, and her arm was wedged underneath the passenger seat that fell back. She screamed hysterically, trying to pull her arm out, and also trying to pull her arm out. Blood was pooling by her feet from her head, as she slowly drifted unconscious.

-

“Hyung! Wake up!” Kai vigorously shook his brother with tears streaming down his face. “Hyung! HYUNG!” Kai knew that he wouldn’t wake up. His brother was gone. “Hyung…” he whispered as he collapsed with his face buried into his brother’s blood soaked shirt.

-

Kai felt himself being pulled out from the car and away from his brother. He saw medical attendants bring the limp body of his brother out from the car to put in the ambulance. He couldn’t perceive anything around him, except that his brother was now dead. His head was spinning, and everything was blurry. He heard cries of hysteria and panic near him.

“No! Mommy! Daddy!” a girl who looked about his age screamed as medical attendants dragged her away from her car.

Kai, suddenly alert and interested, squinted his eyes, and could make out two lifeless bodies in the front seat of their car. That’s them. The people who killed my brother. The people who took away my only family.

He focused on the girl who was crying. The side of her head was cut, and she had tears streaming down her face.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” a police officer gently spoke.

Kai strained his ears to try and hear what the girl would say.

“Chan… my mommy and daddy called me Chan.”

-

Unbeknownst to him, his pain and confusion got replaced with anger and resentment, and hatred began seeping into his heart.

 

17 Years Later.

 

Chanmi ran down the corridor towards the farthest room on the left wall.

Room 245.

She flung open the door to the room, to find a 13 year-old girl dangling out from the window.

“Kim Hyejin!” she shrieked as she grabbed the girl’s skinny arms to pull her back into the room.

“Yah! Hey!” the girl kicked and pulled as the team of doctors dragged her back into the hospital room.

“What do you think you are doing?!”Chanmi reproached while running her hand through her hair. “This is the third time this week, Hyejin.”

“I’m sorry, Chanmi,” the girl winked and did a pouty face.

“Dr. Park…” Chanmi said through gritted teeth. “And what did you do to your face?! Where did you get makeup? I thought we confiscated all of it last time.”

Hyejin’s eyelids were overdone with various shades of bright blue, and her lips were puckered up with fire truck red.

“I got it from the lady next door!” she squealed with glee. “I should ask her next time again because why? Because I know that you guys are going to take it again!”

“Nobody is giving you any makeup,” Chanmi remarked. “Where were you planning on going this time?”

“The club! Don’t you guys just love the drinking and smoking and music in the club?” the 13 year-old giggled.

Chanmi merely turned to face the team of interns and residents behind her. “Lock all the windows in this room.”

“But-” one resident doctor started speaking.

“No buts, unless you want her to escape to a club to smoke and drink in the middle of the night. Lock the windows.” Chanmi interjected. She turned to Hyejin who was now checking her fingernails. “Don’t you want to leave here? Just do as we say, take all the medication, and we’ll let you go…”

After minutes and hours of coaxing, they got Hyejin to take her medication and convinced her to not leave the room.

As soon as Chanmi exited Room 245, she heaved a huge sigh, and looked towards the interns and residents.

“This is what you experience in the regular life of a psychiatrist,” she noted.

“Yes... people who have an obsession with makeup trying to climb out windows to go smoke, not to mention that she is 13 years old,” one of them mumbled.

“Yes. Bingo,” Chanmi returned, as she sighed and walked away.

-

“Send the edited manuscript to the editor,” Kai instructed his manager as he stood up and grabbed his jacket. “I’m going to go out.”

With his over-average good looks and fashionable sense of style, he knew that he caught attention whenever he went outside. As he walked to the convenience store, old grandmothers would stop by and comment on how good-looking he is. He simply flashed a smile and nodded whenever that happened, and plugged in his earbuds so that nobody would bother him.

Ding a ling.

The small bell attached to the door tinkled as he stepped inside the small convenience store. He automatically walked to the refrigerator to grabbed a glass bottle of Starbucks coffee, and as he neared the cashier, someone collided into him. His coffee fell to the ground, the glass bottle shattered, and the milky liquid spilled everywhere.

“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry,” the person that ran into him apologized and ran to get a handful of napkins.

Kai got a quick glance at the person, and frowned. She was pretty, and had long brown hair that tumbled over her shoulders. She wore a white coat that had SEOUL NATIONAL HOSPITAL embroidered, and a small nametag pinned onto it. As the girl came back with a towel to clean up the mess, Kai could read the name that was etched onto the metal pin: DR. PARK CHANMI

Park Chanmi… Kai thought to himself. Park. Chan. Mi. 

 

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First chapter is up! This is a kind of short chapter, because I wanted to introduce most of the main characters and tell a part of the back story :) I hope you all enjoy my new fanfic!