CHAPTER 3

 

"Yeon Ji, what is this filthy thing on you?" The lady of the house spoke. The scary thing about her question was the fact that she was still wearing a smile on her face that her son—daughter—could easily misunderstand. When the little boy had not uttered a word in response to her question, she continued to ask, "I asked you and you should answer me, Yeon Ji. Were you not taught manners? Where are the dresses I bought you?" But her voice was louder and even menacing than when she first asked, "Did I not tell you to wear the pink dress that I got for you? Don't you know how much I spent on that to be delivered here and you just ignored it for this trash?" She grabbed the boy's collar and somewhat lifted him up from the ground.

"M-Mummy! It hurts..." The little boy sobbed, trying to pry her tight fists away from him. But as a mere five year old, he was not able to stand up and fight back against an adult—especially someone whom he addresses as his 'mother.' The madame, however, ignored all of her child's pleas to stop and proceeded to tear the blue shirt off of him. Tears streamed down the little boy's cheeks and still, she screamed and clawed on his clothes as if they were going to harm him. Sadly, it was just the woman's forceful way of getting what she long desired.

"M-Madame!" The little boy's nanny thankfully found the two in the hallway. She pulled him in her arms despite the madame shouting at her while still trying to rip the remaining clothes that the little boy was wearing.

"Did I not tell you to make her wear the dress that I bought for her?" The madame demanded. "This," She said, bringing the torn blue shirt up for the nanny to see. "Because Yeon Ji has these clothes are the reason why she thinks that she is a boy! Our daughter is girl! What kind of girl likes the colour blue or black? That's for boys! Like his father! But us, all girls, adore the colour pink and wear it all the time because that is what girls like!" The lady of the house brushed past the nanny that was consoling the crying boy and went straight to the little boy's room. "Bring him here—Now!" She ordered, her voice ringing in the hallways.

"Shhh... Stop crying now..." The nanny whispered to the child, wiping his tears away with her thumb. She also wrapped around his small, beaten body the towel that she was carrying with her before she found the horrible scene. When the little boy seemed to have somewhat calmed, she assisted him as they walked to his room. Regrettably, the first thing that they saw in the room was the madame pulling the striped blue and black sheets off of the bed and throwing them on the floor. The next, she forced open the white wardrobe and did the exact same thing: anything that was not pink or the things that she bought, she disposed of.

"Mummy... P-Please stop!" The little boy begged, trying to dissuade her from taking all of the precious things that his nanny and the other house workers had given him one by one. However, this only resulted to more injury as his mother completely disregarded all of his words and pushed him out of her way.

"Lock him in here," The madame commanded and had put all of what she managed to collect in the nanny's arms. The nanny, of course, tried to protest, but was only interrupted with more orders, "None of you, I repeat, none of you, are to give my daughter any food or water or anything until she learns her mistake! Try and test me and I will make all of your lives miserable! Why don't you put yourselves in my shoes and think long and hard about how you would feel!" After that, she left the room without ever looking back even if her child was calling out to her.

"N-Nanny eomma," The little boy said instead, his voice hoarse from all the crying that he did. "Nanny eomma... P-Please don't leave me here... I-I am sorry... I am sorry..." He kept repeating the same apologies over and over again. His nanny was going to comfort him again when she heard the madame's angry voice that was shouting at her to lock the door immediately. She bit down on her bottom lip and turned her face away as she pulled on the doorknob. The little boy noticed what she was doing and ran up to the door to stop her. Unfortunately, it was already too late. The nanny had already shut the door close and locked it. "N-Nanny eomma! Please let me out! Please don't leave me! I am sorry! Please!" The little boy pleaded as he pounded on the door. The nanny could only listen to his desperate cries. She had no power with her to do anything except to listen.

At the age of seven, the little boy had come to understand at least a little bit of what his parents were doing to him. No matter how many times he tried to insist that he was a boy, it would only result to him being mistreated by his parents. He had poured his heart out, apologizing to his nanny and the other house workers as all the things that they have given him always ended up in the trash. The boy wanted to treasure them more and sometimes hide the little things inside his dresses. Only somehow, his mother seemed to know all about it and would snatch whatever he had hidden.

He could still remember that nice black keychain that Mr. Cook had given him before. It became his favourite until his mother copped him and found where he had hidden it. The little boy was going to explain about how it ended up there, but the madame had already turned a deaf ear to his words. Right before his eyes, he saw his mother throwing his favourite keychain at the fireplace. And the next? She grabbed him by the ear, twisted it and pulled on it as she dragged him all the way to his room and locked him there. Again, the little boy heard the same old orders, "Don't feed my daughter today. She is not hungry." And the workers naturally followed the madame's words.

"Nanny eomma..." The boy spoke up, staring at the ceiling as he lied on his pink decorated bed.

"Yes?" His nanny responded while she took a seat next to his bed.

When she did, he did not say another word, but shut his eyes close. For a boy at his age to feel exhausted was something that he had then considered to be normal. Other kids were probably tired too, but somewhere, at the back of his mind, he knew that this case was not the truth. There was no way that the other kids are being forced to be someone that they were not—The house workers and his nanny told him otherwise. He was just 'special'— or more like 'unfortunate.' The boy had no way of knowing whether he should be thankful or should he be feeling sorry for himself—

"Do you want to hear a story, baby?" His nanny asked him, interrupting his train of thoughts. The boy turned his head on the pillow to look at her, as he suddenly felt interested about the story. His nanny would always tell him stories of what it was like being outside of the house. The boy especially liked it when he would hear about the place called 'school' where he was told that he could meet other kids that have the same age as him. He was also told that he could have friends there, hence why he would get overly excited whenever his nanny would tell him those kind of stories. So of course, the boy nodded his head and expected similar stories from her.

"It's one of the story books that your Mummy bought you," His nanny continued, and she swore that the moment she said the word 'Mummy,' the boy's smile slowly dropped. She immediately shook her head after that, "I promise you that this is a good book. You don't have to listen, but I will still read it. Is that okay?"

"What is it about?" The boy asked, now curious.

"It is about a couple," she showed the illustrations on the book as she read slowly, "And they have long wanted to have a child. One day, as if God heard their prayers, the wife became pregnant. This means that they are expecting a baby soon..." The nanny flipped the page and waited for the boy to sit up on his bed so he could see the illustrations better. She continued, "Next to their house lived an enchantress named Dame Gothel. She had a splendid garden next to her house. It had the most beautiful flowers and herbs that any person had ever seen. However, a high wall surrounded the garden. Even if she had the most beautiful garden to ever exist, people avoided her because she was very powerful and scary."

"I... I wouldn't go and see her..." The boy said, wrapping his arms around his legs. "I will be scared..."

"I know dear," The nanny skipped to the next page, "One day, the wife stood by the little window at the back of their house and happened to see Dame Gothel's garden. In there, she saw the delicious rampions that the enchantress had planted. The rampions, or rapunzel, looked really really nice and the wife wanted to eat them. She felt really sad looking out of the window because she knew that she would be never to try them. But because her husband loved her so much, he promised her that he will do his best and get her some rampion." She turned the page, "One night, the husband climbed over the high wall, went to Dame Gothel's garden and took a lot of her rampions—"

"But isn't that bad, Nanny eomma? You always told me that stealing is bad!" The boy said, stopping her from continuing.

The nanny smiled at him, glad that he knew what was right and wrong as she had taught him. "Yes, it is wrong. So," She carried on, "The husband gave the rampions that he got from the enchantress' garden to his wife. She was very happy and made salad out of the rampions. The wife ate the salad and finished it quickly because of how delicious it was.