On the lonely road of Seoul ,
A female figure could be seen running with intensity as if her life depended on it.
Perilia ran ,her feet thumped the floor with force ,sweat dripping her face.
She turned to look at her pursuers,where two men clouded in black outfits ,face like a predator pursuing its prey. Perilia didn't waste time as she turned to continue running when she saw her predators were closing the distance between them.
Bitch stopped there the men yelled in rugged voices sending shivers down hers spine. She continued running till she saw a narrow passage, she followed the passage quickly which led her to a bustling street. Turning back to look, she quickly removed her coat and threw it away as she saw the men getting close, left with her top she quickly blended with the crowd.
Where is she the men questioned ,looking left and right but couldn't find there prey.
"Fuck" they cursed in anger before turning to leave.
Mmm , mmm, mmm
Perilia sucked in a deep breath filling her lungs with air,as the men finally left.
She stood up from the place she was hiding,dusted her clothes and walked in the direction of her house.
Reaching the rusty looking two storey building,she walked the crumble looking stairs to her cubicle sized room.
"Creak" sounds as she opened the warped door, she closed the doors behind her.
She sat on the spreaded blanket on the floor which she considered her bed. Reminiscing about her life a lone tears fell off her face, but she quickly wiped it. This is not the time to cry she scolded herself.
Growing up alone without a parent,life had not been easy on her. She grew up in an orphanage home in America which she didn't know how come cos she looked Korean . You know the long silky black hair,slim body and beautiful face that's how she looks.
Being brought up among other children mostly Americans ,she was more like an outcast " an outcast amongst outcast ". She struggled to survive, learning the little education been taught at the orphanage. That's how she learnt the basics of education and was named "perilia " by the matron and then "hades" taking the matron's surname.
"Luck" being the most incompatible word with her; the matron Mrs hades left and a new one was hired. This indeed was where her hell on earth began.
"Racism among white" the new matron made me understand that term. It all started with reducing my food to once a day from the original twice a day. Mrs Walton whom I've nicknamed the devils incarnate threatened other kids from associating with me accusing me of being a curse.
Not withstanding the mistreatment,I endured the mental and physical torture for I daren't leave as the orphanage was my only home. The only string of hope I've held onto was the thought that a decent family might come to adopt me soon but to no avail, I was stuck there like a caged bird that led me to wonder if am really cursed like Mrs Walton said, all my mates have been adopted and new ones have come.
Ten years of staying caged , with hope dwindling far away from me . Is life really playing a game with me? Am I really cursed? These are questions that've crossed my mind.
Alas I thought I've seen the worst of it all but who am i kidding. Mrs Walton walked up to me on a sunny day,dragged the ten years old me with force sending me out of the orphanage home, shutting the door at my face warning me not to return.
To every other person she had shut a door, but to me she had shut my world, my home, my hope .
Lingering around the orphanage home, I was hesitant to leave. Huh chuckling at my misery I mean you can only leave if you have a place to go. The only information I have about myself is my name and the fact that am a Korean, I remembered Mrs hades the former matron told me my mom was a Korean.
Mrs hades had caught my mom dropping the infant me close to the orphanage and when she tried to stop her , my mom had ran away saying only one word; "bianeh" which Mrs hades later translated as "am sorry" also Mrs hades said my mom was very beautiful she had wondered what her reasons were for dropping me but couldn't come up with any.
As the darkness neared, the once bright sky getting dark and the sun disappearing leaving only its lingering shade of orange in the sky . I started taking small steps away from the place I once called a home, my heart sank in the sea of sadness.
That's how I left and started struggling, striving to survive. I had even stolen food just to survive since no one wants to hire a little girl for any work. Sleeping in different locations had become my daily routine till I clocked fourteen years before I started working part- time jobs to survive.
On a sunny day while coming back from work, I saw this poster; a scholarship poster to be precise to study in art international high school in Korea by taking there exam from anywhere across the world. The poster promised to admit the top five students who did well in the exams as well as covering all the expenses needed including a free flight to Korea.
The words etched in my memory as my heart thumped like a drum beat in joy, is my luck finally back? Thought the sixteen years old me ,yes I'm already sixteen.
I went home that day in joy, already making mental preparation on how to take the exams. The day I left the orphanage home, I had promised myself to find my mom and to do that I needed to be in Korea and this is like a one in a million opportunity for me to achieve that.
" if only I knew the meaning of the word naive"