Losing her…

Like always, Hyun was walking home together with his childhood friend. But this time, it was different. They were walking back home from the cemetery. His father had just passed away and with his mother dying right after giving birth to him, he is now alone.

Walking back, no words were spoken, it was dead silence. The reason for the silence not because of the death of his father but because they both knew that he was inevitably going to have to be recruited to the defence force, as he was now an orphan. Being recruited as a teenager meant that he was certainly going to be in the patrol in his town, looking out for any activist movements.

Goh finally broke the silence as they arrived near her house, “Wait here, I’ll go get the radio.” Her brother was an activist and had hold of a small radio. Radios were banned by the government and as an ordinary citizen, he didn’t own one. So whenever Hyun visited Goh, he would always ask her about it and she always answered that it was in her brother’s room. Now, since she said that she was going to get it meant that she was trying to cheer him up. He was thankful for her actions.

She returned with the radio in her hands and signalled him to move away to a withdrawn area. She then turned on the radio and music started playing. This was the first time he had seen and heard music from a radio. His eyes sparkled and even forgot about all the burdens and future worries in his life. Abruptly, music stopped playing. A man’s voice said,

“There has been reports that there are plans for an activist uprising in a few weeks.”

The same message was repeated again and again for a few minutes. After that music continued playing but Hyun was no longer into the music. He was brought back into harsh reality. Goh realised it and turned it off. After that, they just looked at each other with teary eyes, knowing that this might be the last time that they would see each other. Before tears rolled down her cheeks, she picked up the radio and rushed back into her home.

A few days passed by and Hyun was recruited into the defence force. As he was still young, he was put in the local patrol squad. The squad’s main objectives were to make sure the citizens obeyed the night curfews and to make sure that there were no activist groups forming within the citizens. Due to this, he never had the chance to meet up with Goh. He was worried that suspicion might arise if they were seen together. If the others in the squad were to gain intelligence about her brother being a member of a major activist group, he was sure the whole family would be imprisoned or decimated.

Weeks went by and all he did was patrolling the town. Walking around, he would always look out for Goh. He wanted to meet her and talk to her like they always used to before joining the defence force. But all that happened was getting flashbacks of the times they spent together.

Eventually, he did meet her one day during one of the patrols. Their eyes met, and he felt as if her face did light up for a second. He just wanted to run to her and give her a hug. But his conscience that worried for her wellbeing, restricted him from doing that. Instead, they just walked passed each other and nothing eventful happened. Despite that he was glad that they were at least able to see each other, if chance favours them.

After a few weeks since joining the patrol, he was to attend a meeting. During the meeting, it was announced that the monthly Air-Raid siren would be rung the next day. Only then did Hyun realised that the sirens were practice drills and that it happened monthly. Therefore, members of the patrol force were to continue patrolling the town until the sirens went off.

The next day, just as he stepped outside of their base, he saw Goh standing at a distance. Once she saw him, she stepped towards him and gave him a paper crane that she had been holding on to. Others that saw them, made remarks of how lucky he was, having a girl that would give a paper crane for good luck before a mission. She wished him luck and vanished into the crowded street.

During the patrol, he wondered about the crane and once he got to a secluded area, he re-looked at the paper crane. He realised that the paper crane wasn’t well-made and seemed to have been made in a rush. He unfolded the paper crane and as he had expected, there was a message on the paper. The message states; “Meet me when the lights go out…” . He was surprised that she knew about the sirens. By knowing that Goh wanted to meet him, his desire to meet her increased and decided to go and meet her when the lights went out.

The Air-Raid sirens started to go off, one by one all the houses switched off the lights and in an instant, the town was completely dark. Hyun then switched on the torchlight he was given and started sprinting towards Goh’s house. Once he got into the compound, his sight was attracted to the door. The door was crashed and parts of it were lying on the floor. He went inside the house and there was nobody in it.

By that time, he knew that her family’s identity had been discovered. As he looked around, he saw the radio that Goh brought when they last met. The thought of the radio made him shook him in fear. Someone must have seen Goh leaving the house with the radio, he thought.

Despite not thanking her for all the things she had done for me, I might have been the cause of her death. With this thought in his mind, he dragged his feet along the illuminated street and headed back to the base.