Amber Liu

Amber streched out her hands and yawned. It was 6 in the morning; time for her daily morning run. She lazily pushed herself out of bed and headed groggily to the bathroom.

After a quick wash up, she changed into her running clothes and left the house. She plugged on her headphones and jogged towards the large field near her house. As Macklemore's music blared into her ears, she hummed along softly, thinking about how great her life had turned out to be. She had only moved to this town for about a month and she already had a job and friends to keep her company. Things were definitely looking up ever since... Ever since that incident.

She shook her head to get her mind off it. She knew she couldn't face the whole day if she was to think about it even for a minute. It had been too traumatizing. Before her thoughts could overwhelm her, she was startled by the loud honking of a car. She realized she had been standing in the middle of a small lane that a small white Volkswagen Beetle was trying to cross. She bowed her head in apology and ran off quickly. As she reached the other side, she was almost bumped into her newly made best friend, Choi Jinri, or Sulli, as she liked to be known as.

“Oh sorry Sul! I didn’t see you there.” Amber apologized and smiled in greeting to her and took off her headphones. Sulli pouted cutely and pretended to be injured.

“Hyung! You made me hurt my ankle!” She cried out in pretense anguish.

Amber smirked, already used to Sulli’s antics. Amber being older, scolded Sulli; “Ya, dongsaeng, no greeting and you’re already staring to tease me?”

Sulli then promptly straightened herself and yelled cheerfully, “ANNEYONG AMBER HYUNG!” embarrassing Amber.

“Ya! Ya! Not so loud!” Amber hushed her in a stage whisper. Sulli laughed loudly in reply. Amber groaned and rolled her eyes. She should have expected this from making friends with a girl younger than she was.

Amber smacked Sulli playfully and asked her sternly, “Is this how you treat your seniors?” Sullli whined as she rubbed her head and replied, “Aish Hyung… Can’t you play along? Ah… It hurts!”

Amber smirked again as she rubbed Sulli’s head gently, massaging it.

“Better now?” She asked the younger girl, who nodded vigorously in reply. Sulli smiled cheerily and hugged Amber affectionately. Amber smiled. Sulli was the type to be rather touchy and clingy.

“What are you doing out here so early?” Amber questioned the youngster who was well known for being late amongst their group of friends because of her habit of waking up late.

“Ah, I was sending my parents off to Ioawy. They needed to visit my other relatives there. You know, the Jungs, the Lees, et cetera…” Sulli trailed off and started to yawn. Amber smiled knowingly. “Tired yeah?” Sulli nodded sleepily and Amber patted her head.

“Go rest. Classes are in the afternoon today. I’ll pop by your place later to wake you up ‘kay?” Amber said and Sulli nodded tiredly before trudging off in the direction of her house.

Amber turned and continued her jog to the field. She reached it pretty quickly, considering it wasn’t too far away and she settled down onto one of the tree swings put up by the Council for children.

She sighed in contentment. It’s a beautiful day, she thought. She closed her eyes and started to swing herself rhythmically on the tree swing and let her thoughts drift.

Blue sky, white fluffy clouds, green grass, clean fresh air. She hadn’t experience such a life until a month ago. Even though her environment was completely different, she could still taste the sourness of the polluted air, she could still see the dry hard ground, and the blood red sky. The memories jolted her out of her tranquil state.

She looked down at her hands, which had begun to tremble uncontrollably. She slowly wrapped her arms around her body, trying to comfort herself when she saw wet splotches on her legs. She was crying. Again. It was a panic attack.

She sighed in resentment and closed her eyes.

When would she ever get over it?

Jung Yong Hwa

“YONG YONG OPPA!” A piercing voice rang out and woke him up from his dreamland. A sharp pain seared through his head and was followed by immense throbbing. He  grabbed his head and groaned. He had been at the of his dream and was about to finally kiss his dream girl when he was woken up from it all, again, only to be met with his constant migranes.

The voice belonged to none other than Patricia Mae, his boss’ annoying nineteen year-old daughter. She had some sort of an infatuation with him ever since he joined the farm and it had always gotten on his nerves. She was the really clingy type that would never leave him alone and she constantly was there to pester him with her sickly sweet ‘ayego’.

As he propped himself up on his arms, Patricia’s strong perfume stung his nose. He opened his eyes cautiously, hoping that she wasn’t anywhere near him, only to be met with her face right in front of his.

He yelled out in surprise and jumped out of bed, cursing loudly.

“What the hell?! Privacy woman, PRIVACY!” He practically screamed, hoping it would scare her off. But just like the many previous futile attempts, all she did was pout and whine, “Yonggie~ Sowwie~”

Frustrated, he stormed into the bathroom he shared with the other three and slammed the door. Stupid girl, he thought. Stupid place.

As he began his morning shower, a set of sharp pains shoot through his head and he grabbed the towel railing to steady himself. He cringed. Ever since that incident, he had been having such migraines. It’s been ten years, he thought. I should be used to it by now… But he wasn’t. He couldn’t go to the doctors in Ioawy. They were always ‘far too busy’ helping all those ‘injured soldiers’ in the ongoing civil war. The stupid civil war. Ioawy wasn’t even part of it, they were just the battleground. Ioawy had been one of the safest states in Morten but ignorant neighbors like Placent and Youkon had to argue over political rights and Youkon’s stupid ambassador just had to call the Blacks living in Placent a disgrace to the entire Asian-filled Morten. So what if Morten was 90% Asian? Those racist remarks sparked off the civil war ten years ago and even till today, the fighting was still on a regular basis.

Yong Hwa sighed. He couldn’t even get out of Ioawy. The authorities had confiscated his passport as they suspected him to be an enemy of some sort. Even after he had proven that he wasn’t one, they still kept it ‘just to be sure’. At first he couldn’t even find a job, but he somehow found Mr Mae’s farm and due to the lack of help on the farm, Mr Mae had begrudgingly given him a job. Yong Hwa had taken it with open arms, without considering the pros and cons. He finally was offered something like a home after all those years in a boys shelter and was over the moon when he first arrived. Up to this day, despite various annoying factors in the farm like Patricia and the boss’ constant picking on him, he was glad he was here. He had food, water, a place to rest his head, and even friends; his fellow workmates. It was a huge improvement from his life at the shelter For the two years he had worked here, not once had he regretted his decision to work in the farm.

As he stepped out of the shower, breakfast lay on a small table by his bed. He smiled knowingly. Although Patricia could be really clingy and annoying, she made really good food, and for that, he was kind of grateful that she liked him. As he dried his hair with his towel, he glanced over at the made breakfast. Pancakes, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, bacon, and an Americano; his favorite. Silently, he thanked Patricia as he began to devour the contents of the nicely made breakfast. She’s really a good cook, he thought to himself and quickly finished it before bringing the cutlery to the kitchen and starting his day of tiring work in the farm.