Jane turned up as usual to her third job – being the weekend house cleaner for a rich family in one of the richest streets in Seoul. The family who own the house are out on this weekend as usual, Jane wondered about what kind of nice holiday they must be on now. It must be somewhere she can only dream about travelling.

Jane must work three jobs. Her mother was never on the scene and her dad lost his job last year and has basically stayed in their small house drinking away his life for the past year. Jane must work so that she can not only provide money for rent, enough food for her father, her younger brother and herself, but also so that she can afford for her brother to attend school. One job simply isn’t enough pay to achieve this, in fact, three jobs isn’t either but she simply doesn’t have time to work anymore jobs.

She knew the routine well in this house. There mustn’t be a single speck of dust anywhere so she went around the house with a duster and a cloth thoroughly cleaning each surface rid of dust. She had no time to stand around in awe at the expensive furniture as she has another job as a waitress waiting after this one is complete. But she does sometimes secretly gape at the amazing marble benchtops or the leather sofas. Some of this stuff must be worth her house and more.

Next, the kitchen. Every single cup or plate or utensil must be perfectly in order in their correct position. The family that owns this house are very specific, but she likes it that way. Somehow she dreams that she is keeping her own mansion in order, a dream which is very far away but still something she thinks about.

But Jane doesn’t want a mansion. She wants nothing but the life of luxury. Living on the other side of the rainbow to the pot of gold has somehow made Jane angry at the people who live luxurious lives. If they have so much money, why don’t they share it? There are people in the world who can’t afford the tiniest piece of food which means life or death to them, but they spend money like it grows on trees in their backyard.

Once upon a time, Jane did dream of an expensive life. She often thought about how unfair it was that she was poor and other people her age owned fancy cars or even their own houses. But one day she woke and realised, she is privileged compared to some people’s lives. She always thought happiness was money - having all the materials items she wanted. But she came to the conclusion that she would die a happy woman only if she had helped other people in her life. Then it became her dream to finish school, then help as many people she can, to make them happy.

She was extremely lucky enough to receive a scholarship at an arts school. She is obviously the poorest student there, but nobody needs to know that. She liked to sing, and somehow busking on the street to earn a bit of money found her being scouted for an audition at one of the most prestigious art schools in Seoul. And somehow, she made it. Though it wasn’t her dream to become a musician or an artist, a free education at such an amazing school was definitely not something she could turn down.

As she was cleaning she could feel someone’s eyes on her. In the main living room there were large windows which opened up to the main street – which was a small, quiet street with about 12 large houses. There were windows everywhere on the houses so it was extremely possible that someone was looking at her but she concentrated on completing cleaning the house.

She felt more and more uncomfortable and as she looked out the window to the house next door, she could’ve sworn she saw some blond hair quickly disappear from the window. She shook her head to shake herself out of it – she thought she must be going crazy.

She finished cleaning, made sure she locked up the house and headed out, walking to her next weekend job.

After about 30 minutes of walking, she arrived at the restaurant she is a waitress at. It is a fairly mid to high class restaurant in the centre of Seoul. “Good Afternoon, Minyoung!” She exclaimed to her boss, the manager Minyoung.  “You too sweetheart! Quickly get changed we are really busy today.” Minyoung replied trying to handle too many orders at one time. Jane nodded in return and quickly scurried to the back room so that she could change into her waitress clothes which consisted of black jeans, a black t-shirt, all black converse and a black apron.

The usual went on until it became dark, around 6pm. Jane still had 3 hours left of work as the restaurant is open until 9pm on weekends. She wiped the drip of sweat tickling her face away with the fabric on her shoulder.

Suddenly a flash of light appeared along with a loud boom to follow. “Great another thunderstorm.” Jane whispered to herself. There was one last night too. The one thing her little brother is most scared of is thunderstorms, and she tried to stop thinking about how scared he must be because there is no way she is getting out of work early on such a busy night. Now there is even more people waiting for a table in the restaurant, trying to get shelter from the rain.

The sounds of quiet classical music mixed with distant thunder and heavy rain are quite a catastrophe. The music is calming, the thunder is angry and the rain is neutral which provides for an interesting soundtrack to Jane’s night.

“Jane, someone dropped a glass over at table 21. Could you please clean it up?” Jane heard Minyoung shout from a few metres away. “On it now, boss.” Jane replied, briskly walking to the storage room to grab a dustpan and a mop.

After spotting table 21, she carefully made her way there, making sure not to disturb anyone’s dinner by accidently hitting them in the head with a mop.

She bent down to pick up the larger pieces of broken glass before sweeping up the rest. But as she picked one up she immediately felt the piercing pain through her whole arm. As she braved herself enough to look at her hand she saw worse than she had expected. Her whole hand was covered in blood and it had already started making a small pool on the floor.

The pain couldn’t get any worse so she automatically let a small squeal escape . It felt like someone had just chopped off her hand altogether. A simple cut shouldn’t be this painful, so she worried about the extent of the damage.

“Oh my god!” Jane heard Minyoung exclaim. The next second her boss was squatting next to her wrapping her apron around Jane’s hand. “Get up sweetie, I am taking you to the doctor’s. Right now.”

Minyoung wasn’t like a mother to Jane, she was more like an older sister. She was only 22, five years older than Jane. She always gave Jane any extra hours she could as she knew her financial situation, she always looked out for her, and on the odd occasion Minyoung would take Jane out to buy her some new clothing.

They arrived at the doctor’s and ran as fast as they could with Jane’s injury through the pouring rain.

“Yoon Jane.” The doctor said and Minyoung quickly helped Jane into the doctor’s room.

After cleaning the blood and bandaging the wound, the doctor prescribed some medication. “You will have to return here tomorrow. I’m afraid that when you sustained the injury you tore a nerve in your hand. You must not do any hands on activities until further notice.”

Jane knew what this meant. No work. Unless she finds a thousand dollars on the floor, which is extremely unlikely, the next few weeks will be hell.

All that Minyoung could do was drop Jane off at her home and advise her that she will not be able to attend work anytime soon.

X

Jane sat on her doorstep directly in the rain. The one thing she thought about was how the weather always seemed to reflect her emotions. After a good hour of silence, a wet Jane entered her house to find her 6 year old brother, Jaemin, crying with his fingers in his ears. She completely forgot about him. She scolded herself for being such a horrible big sister.

She quickly engulfed him in a hug. With her uninjured hand she wiped away his tears, but it was to no use as her hand was so wet from sitting in the rain.

Her brother opened his eyes and saw the state Jane was in. His eyes widened and he temporarily forgot about the thunderstorm. “W-what happened to you Jane…” He questioned, on the verge of tears again. He noticed her wet bandage with the watery-red blood seeping through. He immediately started crying, screaming almost.

All Jane could do was hug him. She knew she was covered in icy cold rain but she couldn’t stand to see such a young boy cry.

“I’m sorry noona.” Jaemin cried into Jane’s shoulder. “For what Jaemin? There is nothing to be sorry for.” She pat his back trying to calm him down. “I’m sorry that I was such a coward crying about the storm when you hurt yourself.” He managed to say between sobs. “You did nothing Jaemin. You are the strongest little boy I know. Don’t ever think you are a coward. I’m sorry I wasn’t here, I know how scared you get.”

And for ten minutes they stayed there hugging with the sounds of heavy rain and thunder and the occasional bright flash of light. It was comforting for Jane. She knew that no matter how hard everything is, Jaemin will always love her and she will always love him.

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