voice | kim mingyu

nine

To build trust, someone needs to take a step first. And that's what he did.

Mingyu was having a hard time holding all of his emotions in. He had to be professional. After all, that's what he has been doing for years. Holding it all in. His emotions weren't worth his time. Not at all.

Crying was not on his list of to-dos.

She knew she could trust him and so she grabbed the notebook and started writing on a new sheet, My real name is Kang Hyein. It's not fake. I want to hide my identity. But I am who I am. My father used to beat my mother and older sister a lot. I was a troublemaker. I bullied kids at school and I got bad grades. My mother defended me by getting hit instead. He told us to be quiet. Never to speak of what happens at home.

He quickly finished reading as she turned to the next blank page to continue writing, My mother became mute. She was then sent to a mental hospital. She still lives there today and she doesn't tell the world what had happened almost every day at home. My sister committed suicide under another name. Then I started getting beaten when he couldn't hurt anyone else. Soon after, I became mute too. I was just an embarrassment to my family. I visit my mother often but we don't speak about what happens at home. We just talk about our day.

Hyein had to hold back her tears as she flipped to the next page. Mingyu leaned closer to tell her that he is here and it's okay. He took her hand softly as the other hand continued to write, I still get beaten because of my mistakes. I still do poorly at school. And I'm an embarrassment to my father. Nobody knows he has a daughter. Only the staff of the schools I go to. The public doesn't know at all.

The public? Mingyu thought to himself, What does she mean by that? The tears started coming out again as she tried to stop them. He made her turn around to look at him, "It's okay. You can cry. I'm right here for you." And he embraced her as she cried on his shoulder.

The sound of the pen clinking on the floor was louder than her soft cries but he was only focused on her. When she stopped crying, she pulled away and they looked at each other for a moment. He wiped her tears away again and whispered, "Thank you for telling me your story." and a small smile appeared on his face.

She smiled back as she reached over and cupped his face. With her eyes trained seriously on her hand, she tapped her finger a few times on his cheek as he quickly caught on to what she was doing. His face had turned red when she finished tapping and he was quite flustered by her request.

"You want to sleep with me?"