Lee-Min ran down the streets like a madman, his legs splashing in the pond of water that had come about as a result of the rain earlier caused by the monster. His heart was thudding so fast that he could hear it ringing in his ears, and with each step, he felt as if he was being pushed into a nightmare that he could never wake up from.
"Mother. mother's in the hospital. they told us it's cancer."
Min-Jae's voice continued to echo in his mind repeatedly, and he couldn't stop it despite trying his best to do so. His sister crying, the way she cried as she pronounced the word "cancer" — it was as if someone took a knife and pierced it right through his heart.
He pushed his way through crowds on the sidewalk, not even caring if they cursed at him or glared at him nastily. Nothing was more important in the moment than reaching the hospital, reaching his mother, reaching the one human in his life who had never abandoned him.
"Excuse me, excuse me!"
He yelled as he ran by a crowd of laughing teens and he resented them. They had no idea what it was like to see things all go wrong in the space of an afternoon. They had no idea what it was like to lose the woman you love and then learn that your mother could die any moment from now.
The hospital remained in the distance, but he could see the building in the distance, and he pushed himself to run faster. His lungs ached, his legs were tired, but he was not going to give up. He would not give up.
When he got to the hospital, he was gasping so hard that he thought he would pass out. The sliding doors pushed open and he was greeted by the disgusting smell of disinfectant. He despised the smell. It was the smell of death, of illness, of everything he was always hated growing up.
"Where is she? Where's my mother?"
He glared over at the receptionist, shaking with fear. The woman gazed at him tiredly, as if she had witnessed this same situation a thousand times already.
"What's the patient's name?"
"Seong Mi-Hee. She was brought in earlier. they informed me she has cancer."
The final word was spoken softly, and he felt his knees turn to jelly. The receptionist rammed away at the computer with fingers that clicked against the keyboard.
"Room 314, third floor. Make your way down the elevator to the left."
Lee-Min smiled and sprinted to the elevator and pushed the button repeatedly despite knowing it would not hurry it up. He dashed in when the doors finally creaked open and pushed the button for the third floor, his hands shaking so hard he almost didn't manage it.
The ride on the elevator took forever. The fluorescent lights overhead flashed, and the background music was a dirgeful slow. He looked at his reflection on the metal doors and saw a man who resembled one who had been to hell. His hair was still rumpled from rain, his clothes wet, and his eyes. His eyes were the eyes of a man who had lost everything and he wondered if this would be him any moment from now.
Once the elevator doors opened, he proceeded down the hallway, passing through room numbers up to room 314. He could hear someone sobbing inside, one of whom was Min-Jae. She was sobbing.
He opened the door gently and spotted his mother lying on the hospital bed, thinner and weaker than ever before. Her complexion was pale, her hair was messy on the pillow, and there were tubes planted on her arms. Min-Jae sat at the bedside, clasping their mother's hand, her reddened puffy eyes swelling from crying.
"Oppa."
Min-Jae told him when he appeared before her, and she rose up to embrace him. He held his little sister in his arms, feeling the tiny body trembling with tears, and he struggled to remain tough for her while he broke apart inside.
"How is she? What did the doctors tell you?"
He whispered, and one had to lean in to hear him. Min-Jae stepped back from the hug and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, still dressed in her school uniform.
"The doctor told…the doctor told me it's stage three lung cancer. They told me she has to begin the treatment immediately, but..."
She couldn't complete the sentence, and Lee-Min's heart shattered. He knew what she was going to say. He knew what "but" implied.
"But what, Min-Jae? What did you hear?"
"But the treatment is costly, Oppa. They said that it would be in millions of won, and we cannot afford it. The insurance company won't cover it entirely, and without the treatment…"
She began crying once more, and Lee-Min felt his world turning in circles in his head. Stage three cancer. Millions of won. Treatment that they could not afford. As if his worst nightmare had been taken from his head and made real.
He went to his mother's bed and sat down in the chair next to it. She seemed so calm, like she was sleeping, but he knew she was battling the greatest battle of her life. This was the woman who had raised him and Min-Jae on her own after their father passed away. This was the woman who had worked double shifts to ensure that they ate at the table and had something on their backs. This was the woman who had never demanded anything in return.
"I'm going to find a way to pay for it."
Lee-Min told her, his words weighted with determination. Min-Jae gazed up at him with hope but also uncertainty in her eyes.
"How, Oppa? Where are we going to find that kind of money?"
He had no idea what to say to her. He had no idea how he was going to do it, but he knew he had to attempt it. He couldn't lose his mother because they couldn't afford it. He couldn't lose the one person who ever did believe in him.
"I don't know, but I'll think of something. I promise."
The doctor arrived a few minutes later, a middle-aged man with kind eyes and a calm voice. He described the treatment procedure, the chemotherapy sessions, the drugs, the hospitalizations. Everything cost a lot, everything seemed out of reach. So impossible to procure.
"We have to start the treatment immediately. The cancer is bad, and with each passing day it worsens."
The doctor told him, and Lee-Min felt he was suffocating. How was he ever going to make millions of won? At his part-time job, he did not make enough to cover their needs. He did not have money saved, no property, no one from whom he could borrow.
As soon as the physician departed, Lee-Min sat down in the second chair next to his mother's bed and held her hand hard, trying to think things through. Min-Jae slept pitifully in the other chair, exhausted from all the crying and worrying. The hospital room was still, except for the gentle beeping of the machines and the sound of nursing staff walking back and forth down the hall far away.
"I'm going to rescue you, Mother. I promise I'm going to rescue you."
He talked low, his hand wrapping around hers softly. She didn't move, but he swore she squeezed his too.
Time went on, and Lee-Min understood he had to go outside and take some fresh air. He had a headache, and he felt he was not breathing normally. He explained to Min-Jae who had just woken up he would be out for a minute or two and left the room.
The white sterile hallway of the hospital stretched far, with fluorescent lights and white walls that looked chill in his sight. Slowly he walked, pockets holding his hands, trying to make it out of this, to think.
Within a period of twenty-four hours, he'd lost the girl, learned that his mother had cancer, and learned he was utterly helpless to save those he cared about.
He was so far away in thought that he did not notice someone coming. He ran into someone and the blow was hard enough that he did not move forward immediately.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
Lee-Min looked up at the person he collided with. A middle-aged man, dressed in a perfectly fitted suit and glasses that reflected the light of the hospital. The man had an official air, as if he were one of the government or corporate staff.
The man pushed his glasses upwards and stared at Lee-Min with interrogative eyes, as if he was analyzing him.
"Are you Seong Lee-Min?"
The man queried, and Lee-Min's heart skipped a beat. Why had this stranger called out his name? He hesitated to agree, not knowing what type of trouble he was going into now.
"Yes, I am. Is there a problem?"
The man searched through his briefcase and produced a thick manila folder. He handed it to Lee-Min with a stern-faced look.
"I work for the Hunters Guild. I have something for you."
Lee-Min's blood grew icy cold. The Hunters Guild. The ones who had stolen his father from him. The ones who… his breath caught at the thought of the man, that man Ryo, the guild he belonged to.
The ones who stood for everything he loathed about this world.
"I don't want anything from the Hunters Guild."
He spoke, attempting to return the folder, but the man didn't move to take it.
"Perhaps you'd like to look inside here before making up your mind."
Lee-Min gazed at the folder in his hand, his heart pounding. A part of him wished to toss it into the wastebasket and go back to his mother's bedroom, but another part of him was curious. What could the Hunters Guild possibly want with him?
He opened the folder with trembling hands and located his name on a contract. Upon reading the document, his eyes bulged in horror and shock.
The document was from his father.