1 Prologue / Introduction

June 16th. That is my birthday. It wasn't that bad honestly. There was cake, presents and family. Everything a sixteen year old could ask for in a birthday. Like I said, it wasn't bad. It was fun and I wish it would have lasted forever. But nothing lasts forever and in my case that means a lot. 

Three days after my birthday my parents drove to pick up forms from the travel agency that was planning my trip to Korea, I was going to go with my cousin as a summer trip. But unfortunately, as they were crossing an intersection almost a few minutes away from home, an out of control truck driver halfway asleep slammed into the side of my parents vehicle. 

Killing both of them.

Usually when someone's parents die, they are sad and or brutally affected by the pain and dreaded aftermath of the incident, but it never really hit me that it ever happened, the only time I cried was when I got the first phone call, from a hospital around 10 minutes away from my home. "Hello, is this Kagawa Isamu?" asked the asked the receptionist, "Please come to Sumiyoshigawa hospital as soon as you can, we have bad news about your parents." They hung up the phone soon after. 

I was in walking distance from Sumiyoshigawa hospital so I put on my shoes as fast as I could and began to run, even though my feet were blistered from sports I ran as fast as I ever could with tears running down my face and my eyes barely being able to stay open, I could hear my heart beating in my head and could feel my palms starting to get sweaty. 

Once I arrived, I pushed through the doors and pushed my way through to the front desk, I frantically gave the lady my name and wrote down my contact information on a form which was soaked in tears and covered with pen smear. She could see I was shaking and told me to calm down and take a seat in the waiting room, and that a doctor would be with me shortly. The hospital was a cold place, almost freezing. 

The chairs felt sticky and the air was so heavy on my head. Maybe it was just my imagination but I could almost feel the screams from patients several floors up or the pain of the people in surgery. Everything hurt and I wasn't even told what had happened to my parents yet. Around twenty minutes later a tall man with red dyed hair walked out with a few pieces of paper on a clipboard, his face was concerned but stiff and as neutral as he could physically make it.

"Kagawa Isamu?" he called out.

 "Yes, thats me," I stood up from the chair and began walking towards him fiddling my fingers together. I was still shaking like it was below 0. It was obvious I was trembling and people around me began to stare at my jelly legs which could barely hold me up. 

"You might want to sit down for this," the man said, "Please just try to calm down before I explain." I nodded in agreement trying to not be a pest and sat down in the spot I was sitting in before. 

He sat beside me, reading his papers which looked like they were filled with millions of aggressive words and numbers. He placed his hand on my shoulder and slowly began to say, "Your parents are dead."

Those four words absolutely broke everything in my life, it felt like my heart had stopped beating and a cold shiver went through out my body. The doctors hand felt like a limp ice cube and my face began to quiver. I didn't cry however, I did not even react. I just stared at the man in fear of what would happen after. This is not how I expected my summer to go. Not at all.

He got up and explained what had happened, that the truck driver who hit my parents jumped out and ran away before police were able to catch him, and that they were trying to figure out who it was right away, but at this point I wasn't even listening. I was just sitting and staring into the floor now still trying to understand that my parents were dead, that they wouldn't be home for dinner and that I wouldn't ever be able to hear their laughs or that I would never be able to taste moms special kimchi that only she knew the recipe to.

Nothing felt right, nothing at all. Everything felt upside down and inside out. I was all alone, sitting in the hospital frozen and scared to death. With no one, no one to love. No one to lean on. 

I had to leave to hospital after a few hours, there were so many forms to fill out and since I was 16 I had the choice and opportunity to live by myself and not with a foster family, I agreed and told them that I would be fine and that I would have a job in a few days, which was not true.

 I was pretty confident in my words and knew that was the right thing to do, after all I had no one at this point. I was still very stunned, yes, but for some reason I wasn't sad, I just wanted to move on. It was around 8 o'clock now and I had school tomorrow. So I walked home, as I passed the local park, it hit me once again. My parents were dead. 

Sure this doesn't seem right, and nothing at all seemed to be correct in the way I reacted, its now a year later, I live in my old house and I have an income from my family, but theres still so much to do. This is where my story begins.