Orphanage Arc - Chapter 1: The Cabin in the Middle of the Storm

"Hey, Aren ran away again because of the storm, didn't he? If you find out where he is, be sure to let me know."

Because there was a storm outside again, Aren had hidden in the orphanage's storage room, sitting with his knees pulled to his chest and crying. Most likely, the memories he would never forget had come to his mind once more. He was struggling with the hardship of growing up in an orphanage. Actually, the memories that would restless him for years had begun when he was only 6 years old. One morning, Aren was woken up by his mother as usual. He got dressed and was quite cheerful, just like every other day. There was heavy rain and a storm outside. The place they lived in was actually a cabin. It was made of wood, small, but big enough to support a small family of three. That day, Aren sat at the breakfast table with excitement. He was experiencing the excitement of going to school again, and this excitement was reflected on his face with smiles. He was eating the chocolate pancakes his mother made quickly, like a monster.

"Be careful, Aren, you're going to choke. Don't worry, your mother can always make them for you. So slow down a bit."

Aren turned to his father after swallowing the last bite in his mouth. He looked intently into his father's eyes with a big expression of curiosity on his face.

"Mom, will you really always make this for me?"

His father put a small smile on his face and

"Always..."

he said. Then, he wiped Aren's nose with a tissue he took out of his pocket. Aren's father was quite a gentle man. He was a good person who always did his job properly. Without losing the smile on his face:

"If you are careful, you can eat all the chocolate smeared everywhere."

After thoroughly wiping Aren's mouth with the tissue, he pulled the tissue back and contented himself with placing it on the table because it was stained with chocolate. After breakfast, Aren's father took Aren by the hand, led him outside, and started walking with him to school. Sometimes Aren wanted to live in the city and sometimes he envied others taking their children to school by car. However, every moment he spent walking with his father was still worth gold to him. There was no extra event at school that day. After school, Aren started walking back home with his father again. As they walked, he constantly looked around, admiringly watching the falling rain slowly turn into snow. When they arrived home, his mother greeted them at the door. That day was passing like any other normal day, the only thing that changed was the restlessness in the house that day. In the late afternoon, the door of Aren's house knocked. Aren's father looked through the peephole and with a dark facial expression:

"Hide Aren..."

he said. Aren did not understand what was happening yet. The happy expression on his face turned into great astonishment. His mother hid him under a couch and told him not to come out from there no matter what happened. As soon as Aren's father opened the door, two people who looked like humans but definitely had a different aura than humans entered inside. One of them with a contemptuous facial expression:

"You weren't going to give me money today, were you?"

He pulled a gun from his belt and pointed it at Aren's father's head. For Aren, all these events seemed to pass slowly before his eyes. Maintaining his composure, Aren's father said:

"I'm sorry, I won't be able to give you money these days."

"Look at that, there is no such luxury for you. If you won't give it..."

He pointed the gun at Aren's mother and said,

"First I will kill you, then your wife. After all, if you don't have your money, how are we going to eat? Right? Idiot. If you're not going to give the money, you're already a carcass that deserves to die..."

Aren's father was still maintaining his composure.

"Like I said, I'm sorry. Kill me if you're going to. But don't touch my wife..."

Every time the tears flowing from Aren's mother's eyes dropped onto the wooden floor, Aren felt it very echoing. Even though Aren's mother was crying, she ran and grabbed her husband's arm, saying,

"If we are going to die, let's die together..."

The person holding the gun was annoyed. With the sound of two gunshots, the lifeless bodies of first his father and then his mother fell before Aren's eyes. Aren was crying, but he tightly covered his mouth with both hands so as not to scream. The blood oozing from his mother's head reached right in front of Aren's eyes. The killers walked out freely. Ever since that day, Aren became afraid of stormy weather. Minutes after the killers left, the police arrived. They took Aren and interrogated him. Then they placed him in an orphanage.

In the storage room, 9-year-old a child startled by the sound of every raindrop was constantly coughing along with the heavy dust smell hitting his nose. He had clasped his hands together, pulled his knees to himself, and hugged his knees even tighter every second. Then Aren heard the sound of the storage room door opening. The person who entered was teacher Erika. After stepping into the storage room, Erika looked around, removed a few boxes from their places, and coughed in the room due to the smell of dampness. Even though Aren tried hard not to cough, he ultimately coughed harshly, revealing his location. Teacher Erika advanced toward him with confident steps. She walked in front of him and extended her hand toward him. Although Aren was initially hesitant, he later took Erika-san's hand and stood up. Erika-san was consumed with the joy of finding him. After leaving the storage room, Erika-san pulled Aren to a corner and, with curious eyes, asked him:

"Why do you run away every storm?"

Although Aren initially did not want to answer, he later told everything that had happened. For the first time, he had told all his memories to someone in the orphanage...