A/n hello everyone. This is my first book in English so pardon me if I'll make mistakes. I promise I'll do my best.
About this book.
This is a work of pure fiction and all characters and company names mentioned are used only for the story and are not meant to reflect the people's actions or thoughts in real life.
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Throughout my life, I have had many dreams. From a very young age, I set my sights on becoming a world-famous artist one day.
I never got tired of drawing my fictional characters and world with pencils and brushes. Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed creative powers, which were imprinted in my mind and heart like the best reward.
That was until my older sister, with the last of her funds, gave me a one-month sculpting course for my fourteenth birthday as a gift.
I remember walking lost and scared down an old, musty hallway that
smelled of paint and plaster.
I couldn't take my eyes off the amazing divine sculptures in the corridor.
To this day, that admiration and excitement remain in my body.
The old statues lying flat in the corridors, with their tragic and scarred faces, seemed like deities frozen in time.
My first contact with sculpture was like the birth of a new star for me.
The first physical contact with it made me feel like a creator. The silhouettes carved between my fingers were a part of me. They could take all my pain and suffering with them.
The seemingly inanimate creatures of my creation could keep good
company and silently bear the feelings I couldn't express with my mother and sister.
It was this connection that turned me on to new tracks. I have a new goal.
I wanted to make my spilled visible emotions an integral part of my life and share them with others. I wanted my love for sculpting to last more than just a month, and I did my best to make it happen.
Despite the financial problems of my family, I was able to enroll in the
Art university with a scholarship after graduation. I fought until the end to get what I wanted.
I worked so that I would not have to give up my favorite profession. I did everything that a human being could do, but to no avail.
No matter how much I hoped, God had other plans for me.
I didn't realize this until a year after graduating with a bachelor when my incredible plans for my debut exhibition were ruined by a sudden phone call.
That day, l had to put all my efforts and perseverance into the water for the life of my elder sister.
A sudden disaster threw me into a new, unlucky life.
Maybe I made a mistake. I underestimated my strength and gave up prematurely.
Maybe with my sister's illness, the hard work to make the dream come true wouldn't be so hard to deal with.
No matter how much thought about possible options, I always came to one
answer.
My sister's well-being was more important to me than a dream that, despite my efforts kept me down and turned me into another desperate person.
I changed my plans.
Instead of charming, emotion-sculpted figures, this time I was thinking of medical terms, professional psychologists, neurosurgeons, and physical
therapists.
The material situation was no exception.
I had to overcome many obstacles for my needs.
In a world where art-loving
girl wasn't lucky, it took me a lot of hard work to get a profession and a
stable job.
In the end, exhausted of hope, my love for art saved me and turned me into that restless dreamer who, at the last opportunity, talked with admiration about the impressive possibilities of art to the gifted children of the elementary school.
The time on the hourglass passed so quickly that I didn't even realize it.
Months and years have taken my mother's abilities with them and with her have given me more responsibility.
Instead of a dreamy artist, this time I became an adult, twenty-eight-year-old woman. My concern was only my mother and sister.
The job, together with the money for the health care of my mother and sister, barely covered the payment for my apartment, so I finally stopped dreaming.
It took me twenty-eight years to realize that I was never going to be the Cinderella whose dream would finally come true.
I immersed myself in everyday life and became a part of those people whose work has removed all human joy from their minds.
Adapted to struggle with difficult environmental conditions, I continued to live despite everything. Despite the problems, I was still a carefree girl for my family, who could visit them every weekend with a smiling face and supply them with necessary products and medicines.
I thought it would last a long time and was ready to face the difficult of teacher path for decades to endure the great pressure, but as it turned out, even this was not enough.
"Miss Sol, we thank you very much for the six years you spent faithfully
at the Iuncheon Elementary School but unfortunately, it's time for a more specialist to take your place."
The information I heard was as incredible to hear as the day of Soobin's emergency call on my first exhibition and Mom's sudden heart attack. My last hope was so gone, I had nothing left to hold on to.
What should I say to my mother, for whose heart it was a death sentence to be nervous? How was I supposed to smile at my wheelchair-bound sister who, due to the severity of her illness, still thought I was following my dreams?
"Miss Sol is coming!" l could still hear the excited shouts of the happy
children as I walked down the school corridor.
As hard as it was, this job was the last place where I could smile without any care.
"Miss Sol, we will miss you."
During the last lesson, I was presented with a farewell banner prepared by children under the age of twelve and figures sculpted by their little magical hands.
It was a real wonder to see for the last time the figures created by their pure
imaginations and to think that I was able to awaken something positive in
them.
My steps became heavy. After six years of tireless work, being thrown out like a useless thing, the strength I had accumulated so far was gone.
With a box full of things in my hand, taken from school, walked along the
endless streets and couldn't think of a new way out.
I couldn't give up, as always my life didn't belong to me alone! I couldn't transfer all the pressure to my mother or my sister.
I was desperate and burdened with new problems when a sudden collision and new obstacles woke me up.
An approximately ten-year-old boy, distraught from fear and running, eagerly stood behind me and grabbed my jacket with all his fists.
"Sweetheart, do you have a problem? Coming to a stranger so suddenly and-"
"Help me." With fear, he looked up at me with his huge hammered eyes.
"At least I caught you, you little tramp!"
Being in new trouble, I didn't have time to understand, so a middle-aged
man with a black mustache grabbed the boy's hand and tried to take the crying child by force.
"Stop!" I screamed out and with hesitation, I grabbed the boy's free hand.
"How dare you! Is this baby yours? Take care of your business and pass!"The enraged man gritted his teeth and fought once more to take the child.
Focused on my problems, I might have even allowed a man to take him
before, but not now. When a homeless kid needed someone's help as much
as did.
" I'm his mother! How dare you treat him like that?" I gathered the courage to argue with a strange man and After I put the box on the ground finally took the kid from him.
"How dare I? You should be ashamed. Raise your child as a thief! I'Il
teach you the lesson when I'll call the police!" The man muttered ominously and took out the phone from his pocket.
After losing my job, upcoming bills, and lost livelihood, spending hours at the police station was the last thing I wanted to go through. So I had to find a solution! The lie I told shouldn't have been exposed.
"Please Sir, there is no need to call. We will compensate you for the loss. I couldn't leave him money for food today, hunger forced him to commit such a crime. Please, my son isn't like that. Just tell me how much you want and I'll pay you."
Annoyed by the theft, the man looked at me for a second, looked at the
phone in his hand again and put it back in his pocket.
"How could you leave your child hungry? Do you and your husband find it easy to raise a child? You should do everything you can to prevent him from stealing and what are you doing?" Angry, about the age of my mother, with a mustache, started rebuking like a child and looked at the box full of my things.
"Aish, It's terrible! Did you lose your job? How are you supposed to pay me if you don't have any money?" He sighed loudly and looked at his abandoned counter.
" I'll give you everything I have left," I exclaimed convincingly.
"Aish, come with me." The salesman with big cheeks snorted unsatisfactorily and moved towards his counter.
"Thank you." The still frightened child quietly whispered to me when I took the box in my hands again and followed the seller with him.
"How much should I pay?"
I asked at the same time, when the salesman at the counter, began to fill the packet with vegetables and some fruits without saying anything.
" I don't need your money!" still annoyed, he grumbled, took the packet in his hand, and gave it to the child when he saw my busy hands.
"Consider it a debt. You'll pay me when you get a job and pay better
attention to your son." he murmured like he didn't care.
"Thank you, Sir." Surprised by his hidden kindness, I bowed down to the man as a sign of gratitude and continued on my way with the unknown child.
"Well, now I can ask."
Judging by his appearance and clothes, he didn't look like a homeless
person.
I have never seen such a magnificent quality of clothes anywhere before. The Latin M embroidered in golden thread on his jacket pocket made the blue outfit more charming.
"What's your name?" I asked about the identity of the missing child, still worried.
No matter how much I cared about the boy's well-being, I could no longer
put him on my shoulders.
"It's Minjae." the child mumbled with protruding little pink lips and bowed his head like a culprit.
"Minjae, how did you get here?" To gain his trust, I smiled at the child and
took his small hands in mine.
"I got lost. I made a mistake and boarded the wrong bus," Minjae muttered like a criminal again.
"It's okay, I'll help you. Do you remember the home address or your mom's number?"
After hearing my question, the boy got a strange expression. He untied his hands from mine and looked at me nervously.
"I'm going to Gumpo. I will live there with Aunt Jia" Minjad took a
breath and looked at me quizzically.
The incredible information provided by Minjae and his unusual gestures
easily exposed the child to the lie.
Incheon was almost a two-hour drive from Gunpo. A child of his age
couldn't go back unaccompanied.
"Minjae, did you run out of home?" Surprised by the conclusion from his conversation I hardly asked, and put my hands on the boy's shoulders.
The fear of being caught on his face was instantly replaced by shame. His pale cheeks immediately flushed, and her bulging pink lips pulled funnily and bit the inside.
"Minjae, did your mother or father do anything to you? Why did you run away from them?" Depressed by the boy's decision, I frowned and played with Minjae's hair.
"I don't have a mother." The embarrassed child mumbled to himself and started playing with his fingers.
"Father?" I asked breathlessly and tried not to take Minjae's words to heart.
"Did your father hurt you?"
The depressed boy shook his head imperceptibly as a sign of refusal and
looked at me after hesitating.
" I don't like being in that house anymore. The new nanny doesn't look like Eunjoo." He can't wait when he'll get rid of me. He doesn't talk to me either. Aunt Jia wants to be with me. I want to live with her, that's why I'm going."
Gathering courage, he complained to me and pulled out his lower lip. It
seemed that he was trying with all his might to convince me, but I couldn't
support him. Gumpo was far away, and his family problems were none
of my business.
The decision had to be made by his father, who for some reason didn't even appear in Minjae's story.
"Honey, you should return home. Perhaps your father is looking for you
everywhere now and is worried about you. Don't you miss him? You might want to go to Aunt Jia's now, but you have to do it with Dad."
I tried to convince him, but it didn't work this time either.
The boy's icy gaze on me got cold for a moment. As if my words even offended him, but there was no other way. He was too young to grasp the reality.
"He won't look for me. He hasn't talked to me once in seven years! Dad doesn't love me and I won't go back to him!" Minjae stubbornly grumbled, crossed his arms over his chest, and kicked his small feet on the ground in protest.
Stunned by his reaction, it took me a few minutes to grasp the reality.
Whatever kind of problem there was between the unknown father and son, it was quite huge and difficult to eliminate.
"Listen Minjae." I started but he interrupted in a second.
"Take me with you. You already told that man that you are my mother. Please don't just take me back and adopt me." Minjae's sudden begging made me speechless.
His plea wasn't like the whim of an ordinary child. Desperation spoke to
him.
Problems with his father deprived Minjae of his childhood, which should
have been colorful and cheerful.
His plea was no stranger to me. He seemed to be a worse version of my
past, except that he had no one but his father.
"Minjae, if the police find out that you are living with me without your
parent's permission, we will have problems."
"Please." The boy, who started crying again, groaned heartbreakingly and got on his knees in front of me.
"I don't want to be with my father anymore. I don't want to feel invisible
again." sobbing barely spoke and put his head on my hands.
Heartbroken by his weakness, the way to say no to him was again cut by
myself.
I couldn't leave a seven-year-old boy who had run away from home either
on the street or in his family.
"Well, I'll take you with me, if you tell me your father's number. He must know that you will be with me." Defeated by my feelings, I pulled out and put the kid up.
"I don't know his number but he works in Kim's architect company."