Behind These Walls | Park Banryu

XII

"Mom?" The woman looks at me in confusion. "Do I know you?" my heart dropped at her words.

Does she not remember me?

"Mom- it's me." I say softly. "I'm sorry but I don't know you." I sigh in defeat. "S-sorry you just looked like my mom." she smiles softly at me.

"It's alright sweetie. Oh uh by any chance do you know where I can buy cheap clothes? Mine are ripped." she asks and I nod. "I'll take you there."

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She looked down at the two coins in her hand. "N-never mind, it's still expensive. I'll just wait until I get a job." I hand the seller some money and hand the clothes over to my mom.

"You didn't have to do that. You've already saved me from that horrid place." I chuckled. "Don't worry about it." My mind started to wonder if she had anywhere to stay.

"Do you have anywhere to go? Any family?" I hoped that she would say yes, saying she had a husband. If my mother was alive then my father should be too, right?

She shook her head. "No, I don't know where to go. I don't have enough money to even find a small place to stay."

"Stay at my place." "No! You've done enough for me already, I don't want to be a burden." she rejected me but I was persistent. "You're not a burden, plus I'm only at my house when the hwarangs have their days off. I'm an instructor in the palace for the hwarangs so I'm mostly within the palace walls." I lead her to my house.

"It's small, hope you don't mind." she shakes her head. "Don't worry about it, it's perfect." I smiled at her.

"Oh mom- ahjumma, would you like something to eat?" I asked. I was so eager to call her mother, tell her what has happened through the years and just hug her but I can't.

"Aha, yes please." I set the table and prepared some soup, meat and rice along with a few vegetables. "Eat up." I say to her before digging in myself. "Do you have any family?" she asks me which makes me pause and gulp.

"U-uh my parents died a while ago, as well my brother." "Oh, I'm sorry for asking." she says. "It's alright. If you don't mind me asking, what about you? Where is your family?" she places her chopsticks down and exhales deeply.

"Honestly, I don't remember. One day I just woke up in my friend's house but I couldn't remember anything that happened." I slowly nodded.

"I guess we both don't have any family." she chuckles. "We could be each other's family." I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"I would like that." she says.

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"Ah-ro!" I called her and she came walking to me. "Did you find her?" she asked and I nodded fastly.

"Omo! That's great, what did you guys talk about?" "Well, she doesn't remember me." I look down. "She doesn't?" I shake my head no.

"I'm sorry, you can help her remember though." I shrug. "I don't want to stress her out too much. I'll wait for the right time." she nods.

"We need to tell Soo yeon." Ah-ro exclaims. I agree and we head to her house.

We were near her house but we saw Banryu walk out with a distressed face. "Banryu? What's wrong? Is Soo yeon home?" I ask him and he glares at me.

"She's gone." I tilt my head in confusion. "Gone? What do you mean?" "She ran away. She's not coming back." My eyes widened.

"I don't understand, why would she run away?" Banryu throws a piece of paper at me. "Because of you." he says coldly before walking off.