Your Voice (Short Story)

Room 13

YEJI

All of my Family are standing behind me, they are waiting for me to open my email and check if i'm one of the lucky Students who got the full scholarship in Seoul National University.

My Grandmother tried to stand and my little brothers helped her, Mom and Dad keeps on walking around and my Sister suddenly told me, "Unnie? You lost your signal!". Gosh!

I walked outside our house and put my laptop on our roof and i tried to open my email, i suddenly saw a recent email,

"Congratulations Ms. Hwang Yeji, you are the Top 13 out of 335 who got the full scholarship in Seoul National Univer—" I went inside our house and shouted out loud, "GRANDMA! DAD! MOM! I GOT ACCEPTED!".

All of us are crying and i just can't imagine that my hardwork have been paid off. The sleepless nights, the time where i don't even remember my own name, the tears, the breakdowns, it's all worth it because i got what i deserves.

Mom keeps on crying then Dad told me, "I will do my best to help you, my Daughter." The first thing that went inside my mind, is that i can finally move my Family to the proper city.

We've been living here in Guryong Village since i was born, this is the poorest city in South Korea and that's my Parents can't even find a decent or permanent job. I told myself that i'm gonna be the first Lawyer in our Family, i'll pursue my Dad's dream.

I went outside our house and i can't stop staring at our small house that is already falling apart and when it's raining there's always leaking on our roof. Dad, Mom, my 2 Brothers, my 1 Sister, we're all sleeping on the floor and Grandma is sleeping on the wooden sofa.

I'm the eldest Daughter, my Sister is only 9 Years Old and my Brothers are 7 and 6 Years Old. I'm the breadwinner of this Family, my Mom can't work anymore because of her weak body and my Dad doesn't have any permanent job, my Grandma is bedridden.

I already stopped studying for year but i told my Dad that studying is the only thing that i want, i just need a little bit of help and i'm gonna do everything to help myself that's why i worked for a year and saved a money but Mom suddenly gets sick that's why all of the money that i kept are all gone now.

I started browsing on the internet to search for a cheap dormitory but all of them are exceeding the price that i'm expecting. I keep on scrolling then i saw a tenement that has a room that only cost 70,000 won/monthly and it has a fine bedroom, it has its own bathroom, has a kitchen, aircon, and in 70,000 won the electric bills and water bills are already included in that price.

I guess God is helping me. I'm biting my nails out of happiness then i called Dad, "DAD? LOOK AT THIS!". I showed him and he's smiling from ear to ear, i wiped his tears and told him, "We can do this Dad, i promise that i'm gonna study so hard!".

I saved the number of the tenement and when i'm about to read the reviews, my laptop blacked out again, i can't blame it since i already used it for 4 Years and it was just a second hand that Dad bought somewhere.

I called the Landlord then i asked her,

"Hello? Is the 70,000 won room still available?"

She sounds so friendly and she answered,

"Yes, it's still available. It's our room 13 in the 3rd Floor".

I smiled wildly then i told her,

"Please, it's mine now! I would like to reserve it for me!"

"When are you gonna stay here? Next Month? You sounds like a new Student from SNU."