For You

Chapter 1

After all that happened that day, this one takes the cake, thought Han Youra as she fumingly walked on the Mapo Bridge.

Her day started badly the moment she woke up in the morning. She was late as her alarm clock died on her the night before. She did not realize it until she woke up at 7.00 a.m. As a teacher at a middle school, she should have been on the bus on her way to work at that same moment. Since she had to take 2 different buses and be at school at 7.30 a.m, she knew she had to run.

Due to her hastiness, she managed to break her pet fish - Bubbly's bowl as she hurriedly put on her clothes and brushed her teeth at the same time. She scooped her fish and put it in her glass jug. She bruised her shin as she clumsily knocked the side table on her way to the door. She didn't have enough time to wear her contacts so she was stuck with her thick glasses for the whole day.

By the time she reached school, the bell already rung and her colleague, Mr Nam Beom-Seok - the gatekeeper as the whole school dubbed him as, was waiting at the gate for errant school kids who were late. He turned his smug face on Youra. Fifteen years her senior, sporting a stern face on her. She did not know what she did to him before to be on his bad side since day one she became a teacher at that school. Few years later, he have not change his attitude towards her that much.

"I'm used to penalize late students. Penalizing a late teacher would be great too once in a while," he said to her.

Youra gave him a bright smile and bowed to him. "I know, but you're not Mr. Goo," she replied sassily, referring to the school principal and ran all the way to the school building to clock in.

The day went downhill since then.

She was called to the school principal's office in the middle of her class. A parent complained on her for giving bad grades to her daughter. She nearly rolled her eyes in front of the said parent and the principal. She would have given good grades if her daughter answered the questions - provided it was the correct answer. She knew she would not win if she replied, so she kept her mouth shut.

The principal, being a good friend of the parent jumped in and reprimanded her. The customer was always right, that was what the principal always said. Youra knew, that since the parent was a benefactor of the school she should just nod and be silent. She bit inside her cheek hard when the principal asked her personally to change the grades when the parent left the office.

After study session ended at 10 p.m., her boyfriend picked her up for a date. Little that she knew he was expecting that as a booty call as he tried to force himself on her as they parked at a secluded place near the restaurant they had supper at. They had been officially dating for two weeks, and the relationship had not gone that far yet. They had only shared kisses and he was demanding for sex.

In the car.

Youra refused to give in and fought back when he became violent.  He finally stopped when she held something very precious to him.

She was clenching his balls in her hand.

Youra immediately stumbled out from the car with her bag. Her glasses fell to the ground in the process and it broke. Suffice to say, at that very moment, she was single and he left her at the park alone.

Youra was about to take the bus when she realized, she was carrying an almost empty handbag all the while. She belatedly remembered that she left her purse and her phone at school in her drawer. All she had in the bag were her house keys, a tube of lipstick, a pen and a notebook. Those were all not that useful to get her home.

That brought her to the walk on the bridge. She was blind as a bat without her glasses. She knew the direction but the night time was bad for her to read the signboards even if the moon was shining bright and there were street lamps along the road.

Youra paused when she saw someone climbing the bridge rail. It was a man. A tall man, wearing black from top to toe. He even wore a cap.

Another name for the bridge was Suicide Bridge.

Without thinking much, she ran towards the person and tackled him to the ground.

"Oof!" she heard him as both of them fell to the ground.