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No one knows that Derek Cho had ever returned to Vimo Island, once, before the Circus Man case. In 1997, a diplomatic meeting between South Korea and the state of California police agency led Derek Cho and his sister back to Vimo Island following their stepparents whom he doubted very much of being worthy to be called parents.
In front of the officials, they looked like a happy family. His stepmother embraced Seung Ah tightly, making jokes that made Seung Ah laugh a little. In contrast, Derek wore a flat expression. He used to think that leaving Vimo Island was the best decision. Now, standing on the same island that killed her mother, Derek couldn’t feel anything. This island, or that country, they’re just the same for him.
“Aargh!”
Derek should have guessed, as well as be prepared, that when they returned to their guest house, everything would be back the way it was in LA. His stepfather beating his arm with a broomstick, Seung Ah hiding in the closet, his stepmother acts as if nothing happened.
“You are a disgrace to this family! Who told you to just point on someone’s face?”
Derek clutched the hem of his shirt. He wasn’t making such a big deal that deserves his stepfather’s beating. There was an insect on a lieutenant’s hair, and he pointed it to Seung Ah. But what problem isn’t big in this family?
“Do you want me to leave you rotten on this island? With your rotten of a mother?”
If his mother was rotten, then this person in front of her was the maggot. Derek couldn’t hold back anymore. He shoved anything that stood in his way and ran outside without any place in mind, past the big trees, didn’t care if he steps on mire, blooming flowers, or bones created by nature’s decomposition. Derek wanted to run until his lungs exploded. But the huge root from the giant tree wouldn’t allow him to.
Bugh.
“Aish,” Derek winced in pain. He checked his leg, but his left arm hurt more.
“Are you okay?”
Derek turned his head sharply in every direction but there were only big trees around him. His intuition made him grabbed a big rock near him. “Who’s there?”
“I hear you groan. Are you alright?”
Derek turned around while pointing the rock in his hand, ready to throw it to anything that would appear. A girl showed up from behind a big tree. She wore a white dress down to below her knees, and white cloth covered her eyes. Weird.
“Stop!” Derek shouted anxiously.
The girl nodded, “Okay. Are you okay?”
“Sss…” Derek dropped the rock in his hand. It hurts so much, his arm. Since he got back to Vimo Island it’s getting worse. He looked at his arm, blood already seeping through his shirt. He dropped himself to the forest’s ground.
The girl groped the air in front of her and walked to Derek, causing him to lean back a little. Not that it would affect him.
“Ah!” Derek winced again when the girl almost stepped on his leg.
The girl squatted in front of him and held his foot, “Ah… you sprained your ankle. Hold on.”
Derek looked at the girl. Her skin was white, and she has long hair. She was clean for someone who walks in the forest with a blindfold. Is it possible that she’s not a human?
“Aah!!!”
Derek screamed in shock as well as in pain. The girl just did something to his ankle.
“Here. Done. It’s okay. Everything will be alright.”
Derek gritted his teeth, his jaw clenched. Everything will be alright, she said. From which point of view did she thought that everything will be alright? From his stepmother’s fake laugh? From Seung Ah’s frightened smile? From his stepfather who bragged about how great Derek is in front of everyone then beat him later?
The girl heard the boy shedding tears and snorted a little. She sat down and held his knee, rubbing it slowly, “Don’t cry…”
Derek frowned, “How do you know that I cry? You can’t see.”
The girl smiled, “I can hear your fingernails rubbing against the rock.”
Derek saw his own hand. He rubbed his nails against the rock unconsciously.
“What’s your name?” the girl asked.
After a short silence, Derek told her, “Seung Ho…”
“Seung Ho… are you from this place?”
He shook his head. The girl still waited for his answer. Ah, he remembered this girl can’t see. “America.”
“You’re from America? So cool!” she responded rather enthusiastically. But then she frowned, “Then how can you be here? Are you on vacation with your parents?”
“Rubbish.”
The girl tilted her head, confused.
“I don’t have parents. I only have rubbish.”
After that, no one spoke. They lost on their own thoughts. Derek recalled the moment where he and Seung Ah still live free as children. The girl tried to guess what really happened to the boy in front of her. During that thinking time, the girl’s hand never stopped rubbing Derek’s knee.
“I was about to offer you to come with me, but I live in a scary place,” the girl smiled.
Derek just stared at her for a moment while massaging his left arm, “I won’t be able to come with you. I have a sister I have to protect.”
The girl nodded after being silent for a while, “Then, you must be a great brother. She must be so proud of having you as her brother.”
Derek smiled a little. The simple sentence made him determined. She’s right. All this time, he tried protecting Seung Ah. Out of a bunch of people he met in his life, Seung Ah was the only person who always looks at him proudly. Derek wouldn’t disappoint his sister.
“Noona!”
Derek looked around. A boy’s voice was heard calling the girl from afar. The girl turned her head to the left as if she knew where the voice is coming from.
“I have to get back,” she said as she stood up. Derek followed, hissed a little while squeezing his arm.
“Does it still hurt?” the girl asked.
Derek shook his head, “My arm…”
The girl looked for his hand. She found his hand and touched it from his palm up until where his scar was. His sleeve was already red. “Oh, is this blood? But I thought you tripped and injured your ankle, not your arm. I didn’t hear your hand scratching something.”
“My stepfather…”
The girl looked at Derek with a sad expression. “Why don’t you report him to the police?”
Derek shook his head, “He is a policeman.”
She looked at him in disbelief then shook her head, “Someone has to show him what a good cop is…”
Derek was stunned. The girl untied the cloth that covered her eyes, turned out it was a bandage. Derek now could see her face clearly. So she really can’t see… She has beautiful eyes. Her iris was very bright under the afternoon sun, too bad she couldn’t see the forest. This forest strangely looked beautiful, instead of scary.
The girl wrapped her bandage around his arm calmly. Derek just stared back and forth at her and his arm. The girl finished her bandage on his arm with a tight knot.
They just stood in silence for a moment. Derek looked at his bandaged arm. The girl seemingly waited for him to talk.
“Noona!”
The girl chuckled, “Looks like he is lost. I have to find him.”
Did not make sense. Shouldn’t this girl be the lost one? But still, Derek nodded, thinking which way to go outside the forest.
“If you walk straight to the direction behind you, you will find a pathway you can follow to get out of this forest,” the girl said.
Derek looked at his back and when he turned again, the girl was already walking away.
“Wait!”
Derek yelled. The girl stopped and turned her back. She smiled, “Hang in there, Seung Ho… You will be a great person.”
Derek nodded, bidding farewell. “I hope… you find a way out from that scary place.”
The girl smiled hearing him. Then Derek turned and went back. The girl also walked again to the voice calling her noona. Derek walked faster, following the pathway he found. He realized he ran all the way out of the forest.
“Oppa!”
Little Seung Ah ran towards Derek.
“Where have you been, Oppa? What happened to your arm? Dad is very angry. He said we will go back to America tonight.”
Derek held Seung Ah’s hand and they walked back to the guest house. Let him be beaten again today. For now, Derek would enjoy this moment with his sister. He had decided to become a strong person to protect his sister.
“Oppa, where did you go?”
“The forest…”
“The forest? What were you doing in that creepy place?”
Derek blinked, staring at the family’s room’s door. He gulped and straightened his posture, “Talking to a forest fairy.”
Slowly, he opened the door.