Hajin the Hermit

To kill a bee – first aid kit     As a young child, I watched a television program named “Go Diego Go!”. The main character of the animation was Diego, a young adventurer of the jungles. He used a special bag filled with supplies and food used to rescue wild animals. Quickly, Diego and his rescue kit became my hero.   Watching the animation, my younger brother and I started having little expeditions of our own. Our favorite pastime was to go outside to the playground or the woods, searching for animals and insects that needed our help. We also bought a plastic pill container from the town grocery store and named it our first aid kit. We filled the kit with sugar, salt, water, oats, and honey nicked from the kitchen.   With our small first aid kit, we fed birds, located stray cats, and especially, tried to save dying bees. In certain times of the year, bees were frequently spotted in our playground, laboriously fluttering for their last f...

[ title undecided ]  Brring Brring  A sound of the alarm broke through the heavy air of the dark apartment. By the time of the fifth ring, Clarke McMurphy was stirring in his bed. Eyes still half closed, he fumbled around to find his phone, deleted the alarm, and sat up. It was already bright outside: gray clouds hung over the city, but the air was dim gray. He could hear the faint sound of cars heading to work.  Clarke headed to the kitchen, dragging his slippers on the way. The apartment had one bedroom and a kitchen, not well furnished but enough for a 34 year old man living at the edge of New York City. Clarke has always had a light menu for breakfast. A banana and an cup of coffee would suffice. As Clarke sipped his on his Starbucks mug cup, he opened his laptop to check the email.  Then he saw it. His fingers, crawling over the metal rectangle, felt aloof. Clarke flexed his hand. The five long sticks on each side seemed to come into clear view, refined ...

All is dark in the cold night of Hoengseong. The wind is rushing through the snow-covered mountains. In the middle of the mountain lies Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (a.k.a KMLA), isolated. On the top floor of KMLA’s dormitory building, a single dim light is seeping out into the night. It is coming from a dark storage room of the school cafeteria, where twelve students are huddled up, whispering. There was a knock on the door. Everyone flinched- except for Summer, who scuttled to hide behind the shelf of tuna cans. “ It ’ s me ” , whispered Blake, peeking into the dark room. The dead quite room was now filled with sighs of relief. “ You ’ re late, Mr. Class President”, Seolin accused.   " Sorry, I just came back from the basketball competition- did I miss something? ” “ The morning assembly had been a chaos. They banned our graduation!” “…and so, we’re planning an escape” added Brian. “Here, come on in”, said Jihyun, handing Blake a shabby scroll of paper. ...

Once upon a time, there was a man living in New York. He worked at an insurance company, five days a week from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening, One day, as he was typing on his laptop, it suddenly occurred to him that his hands were grotesque. The end of his arms was divided into five lanky, ugly, pieces that could move separately. He immediately felt disgusted at this weird part of him. (Hajin) At first, he thought that the whole thing was a dream. He slapped and pinched himself muttering that this was a dream. However, nothing changed. After few hours of panic and staring, he decided to face it. (Minseok) “I have hands!”, he thought. These hands were what made him work 5 days a week from 6 to 9 at an insurance company. (Jaehyun)  I finally realized that hands are the most important part of our body. After some considerations, I stopped working at an insurance company. I purchased a ticket to Africa. After some immigration process, I became a doctor who cu...