The boy regained consciousness at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. His senses slowly came back to him as he heard the buzzing of his surroundings get louder. Realizing that the boy had woken up, the unfamiliar person spoke again. "Are you awake? What is your name?"
The boy blinked, his eyes fully adjusted now, and saw that the voice belonged to a strangely-dressed man in a blue top. He felt wary of him, but kept quiet, and tried to sit up once he realized he had been laying down.
"Ouch." His body felt stiff. He attributed this to his exhaustion from the day before. He quietly a.s.sessed his body's condition. He was in an extremely fragile state. When the man noticed the boy trying to move, he gasped and immediately moved closer to help him sit up.
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"My, my. You were all curled up on the floor, no wonder your body is so cold. Are you alright?"
"Yes…Yes, I'm okay." The boy replied. He pushed himself to a sitting position, his head clearing as he did so. He looked around and took in his surroundings, and what he saw was utterly bewildering.
The boy saw things he'd never seen before. People all around him were wearing strange clothes. Some of the people were shouting things so fast that the boy couldn't tell what they were saying, and their faces were red in anger. It was mesmerizing. Others were simply sitting, as he was, and staring absentmindedly at various spots in front of them. There were all sorts of people, young and old. Next to the boy there stood a white wall, only slightly taller than he was. He could see that there were more people beyond this wall, all wearing the same blue tops as the stranger who had spoken to him. It was then that the boy noticed how bright everything around him was. He only looked up a little and his eyes already hurt from the light. He had never experienced anything like this before.
Distracted by his surroundings, he failed to notice that the man had left to get something from the other side of the wall. When he returned, he was holding a small paper cup in his right hand. "Would you like some water?" the man asked, handing the cup over. The boy looked at it without saying anything and simply accepted it into his hands. The pristine white paper cup was full of crystal clear water. He stared at it a short while and took a small sip, tasting the liquid. It was the same water he was so used to. The man smiled watching the boy drink the water so carefully and knelt in front of him, matching his eye level. "Alright." He sounded satisfied. "Do you feel fully awake now?" When the boy nodded in answer, the man asked again. "Where do you live?" This time, the boy simply sat there, still not speaking a word.
"Where is your mother?" The man's question made the boy's eyes fly open. That's right, his mother. He remembered then. He had spent the whole day yesterday looking for his mom. "My mom went missing." Fear crept up to the boy, and his voice trembled as he answered. The man frowned at this, and scratched his eyebrow as he thought.
"And your father?"
"My father...pa.s.sed away when I was young."
"Hmm. Well, will you wait here for a bit?" the man asked as he stood up. As he began talking to someone beyond the wall, the boy went back to observing his surroundings again. None of the people around him looked familiar, and they were all wearing strange clothes. What was even more strange were the buildings and weird objects all around. But the craziest thing was that he had no idea how he ended up in this place. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep on the chair that his father had made. That's right, the chair! Remembering it had caused the boy to also remember his dream. The details were still fuzzy to him, but he knew that his father had given him a pendant. As soon as he recalled the dream, he suddenly became aware of a weight on his neck. Doubting himself, he slowly reached for it, and saw that he was holding the same pendant he had seen in his dream.
At this point, the act of thinking itself became much too overwhelming for the boy. The disappearance of his mother and brother, the dream about his father's gift, and now the materialization of that dream gift into a real, tangible pendant around his neck. From beginning to end, none of it made any sense to the boy. It was then that the man walked back towards him, and began his questions once again. "What is your name?"
"My…name…?" The boy was fl.u.s.tered. The man was only asking about his name, but he could not bring himself to answer, and neither did the man pressure him to do so. Rather, he seemed concerned at the lack of an answer. "Do you, perhaps, not know your name?" the man asked again, more carefully this time. Still, the boy remained silent. Beginning to feel frustrated, the man asked him several more questions, and each time, the boy gave no answer. He had gone completely silence since the moment the man asked about his name.
"Hey, Officer Choi." Someone called from a distance. "Don't just stand there. Get that guy to quiet down."
"Yes, sir." The man, Officer Choi, answered back with a curt nod. He glanced at the boy for a moment before moving to take care of "that guy." Apparently, a drunkard had mistaken the precinct for a karaoke bar, and was now screaming at the top of his lungs. Despite all the ruckus, the boy sat incredibly still on his chair, looking only at his little feet, like a doll on display.
The boy spent the night at the police station. He answered no questions and spoke no words, and he didn't touch any of the food he had been offered. The precinct had contacted a welfare center early in the morning, and by lunch, a welfare worker arrived. She looked to be in her forties, and Officer Choi proceeded to explain the boy's situation to her, his eyes red from fatigue. "I found him while I was patrolling Inpyeong Park. He was lying down on a bench, all curled up. I didn't even realize he was just a little kid until I walked up to him. Scared me to bits. I tried to shake him awake but he didn't even budge, so I thought maybe I should take him to a hospital. The station was closer, though, so I brought him here for a bit, to see how things would go. I laid him down on that chair there with a couple of blankets. He woke up not long after. He did answer some questions at first, but then he just went all quiet, won't talk at all. We don't even know his name, or how old he is." Officer Choi scratched his eyebrow, frown deepening as he spoke. "Oh, I did ask while he felt like talking, and it turns out his father's pa.s.sed, and his mother is gone."
The welfare worker thought to herself for a while, then turned back to the officer, looking as though she had figured something out. "Could it be that he was already in the system, and he just ran away? If things are as you said, that would make him an orphan. The fact he's not telling us his name means that he ran away from his center, and he's scared that we'll send him back if we know his name."
"Uh…Why?"
"Things have gotten a bit better nowadays, but there are still cases of violence in welfare centers, you see."
"Oh, like what they're saying in the news…?"
"Exactly. Or maybe he was being bullied by the other kids and wanted to escape from that. In any case, if we don't know his name, then we can't locate the center, meaning he won't have to go back there."
The welfare worker sounded very sure of her theory. She had seen so many cases just like this that it no longer came as a surprise. The way she had spoken was almost arrogant, making Officer Choi feel quite awkward, but she was unfazed by his lack of a reaction. Rather, her words were full of pa.s.sion, almost like she was moved with a sense of duty and responsibility to make sure this all ended well.
"I will take him in and look for other welfare centers we can send him to." She declared confidently.
"Uh, what…?" Officer Choi found it odd that things were moving along so smoothly, but decided to go along with the expert's opinion. In the end, the child's situation was up to welfare workers, not police, and he didn't feel like complicating things by offering his opinions on the matter.
The child left the police station, holding the welfare worker's chubby hands. She gave him a warm smile.
