Weekend Write-In Korea! (2020)

Rim Go-Eun

The teacher stood in front of the class as he talked.

"Okay. Class. Today, we have a new student. Her name is Rim Go-Eun. And she recently escaped from North Korea."

There was an applause in the classroom as Go-Eun introduces herself nervously.

"Hi..I am Rim Go-Eun and I am from North Korea....I recently moved here."

All of the students in the class smiled. But then class ended and the teacher went home.

Four girls and a boy walked up up her. They all said "Go back to where you belong". One of them pushed her and she fell down onto the ground. Her knees became bruised and her lips became bruised too.

At this point, Rim stood up and ran out of class and locked herself in the stall of a female restroom crying harder than she had ever cried before.

She was alone in a country where she wasn't unaccustomed to. When she was seven year old, she had escaped North Korea, a country where soldiers rape women without consequences and people get arrested simply for watching American movies. And now she finally made it to South Korea only to be ridiculed by her classmates.

But suddenly, Rim Go-Eun heard a knock of the stall that she was in.

"Are you okay?', said another girl.

"I am okay.", said Rim Go-Eun.

"Good. Let's come out"

"Are you going to hurt me?"

"No. Of course not."

Rim Go-Eun hesitated before she opened the door of the restroom stall.

"Oh my gosh? Who did this to you?"

"Just some classmates."

"Why?"

"Don't worry. I am from North Korea. You'll probably hate me too."

"You're wrong."

"Huh?"

"You're must be smart and brave to escape from North Korea on your own." said the other girl as she smiled.

Rim Go-Eun began to smile her face brightened up. She wanted to made a friend and she finally made one.