Not Even One Year

January 1st, 2027 (Friday)

Incheon International Airport, South Korea

Outside the Incheon International Airport, a light drizzle starts. No one would suspect anything of this drizzle, but little do they know that this drizzle was welcoming something tragic.

Sujin sighed as she looked at the dates on her wrist:

December 25, 2027 (6:30 PM)

December 25, 2027 (6:31 PM)

December 25, 2027 (6:32:00 PM)

⌠It has finally come⌡ She thinks.

⌠My last year on Earth. I only have 359 more days to live. Not even a year.⌡She laughs.

The baggage carousel starts and Sujin looks for her worn out, navy blue suitcase. Just as she has taken the tattered suitcase off the baggage carousel, she feels a light tap on her shoulder. Sujin turns around and smiles at the sight of a girl who is about three years old.

"Hwayoung-ah," Sujin says, "What are you doing here? Did your mom bring you to pick up Aunty?"

The little girl nods, then holds her little arms up as if asking to be held. Hwayoung also jumps several times indicating that she wants her favorite Aunt to hold her. Sujin bends down and scoops the girl into her arms, and Hwayoung buries her face in Sujin's hair.

"Did you miss me a lot Hwayoun-ah?" Sujin asks. The little girl nods furiously. Sujin laughs and pinches Hwayoung's cheeks.

Sujin still holding Hwayoung grabs her tattered navy blue suitcase, then starts walking towards the automatic doors of the airport. Just as she has started walking a panicked voice rings out.

"Hwayoung! Hwayoung! Hwayounh-ah! Where are you?!" The voice cries worriedly.

Hwayoung pats Sujins arm, and Sujin puts Hwayoung down. The little girl runs to a woman that looks very worried. Hwayoung grabs the woman's hand. The woman turns around and sees Hwayoung, and starts to scold her. Hwayoung tugs the woman's hand and points at Sujin. Once seeing Sujin, the woman stops scolding the child.

"Hwayoung! You should have told me you found Aunt Sujin!" The woman says as she walks towards Sujin. "Sujin-ah, I have the car waiting outside, why don't you give me your luggage, and you can take Hwayoung. I swear that girl never listens to me anymore. Ever since you've left, she's been a little terror, causing trouble for all of the family."

"Thanks for coming to pick me up Unnie. I see that my niece and brother have caused you lots of stress, seeing that you're highly agitated right now."

"Your good for nothing brother has been bothering me so much," the woman sighs exasperatedly. "Sujin-ah I'm so glad you're back. Whenever you're gone, the whole family attacks each other. You're dad and brothers have been going at each other for the past couple days now, and refuse to speak to each other. They won't even eat together!"

"It's that serious YoungMi-Unnie?" Sujin asks.

"Yeah, it's been terrible. Nothing your Mom and I do can stop them from arguing. Even your brother-in-law, Jungwoo is getting into the fights too. It's been very tiring the last couple of days." YoungMi sighs. "Speaking of home, we should probably go. It's almost time for lunch, and Mom is making Vietnamese food today."

Sujin nods and the three exit the airport and get into a white sports car that is parked at the curb.

After a thirty minute car ride, the three arrive at the house. As soon as they enter the house, they hear raised voices and yelling. Sujin glances worriedly at YoungMi, and YoungMi just shakes her head. The sound of glass breaking causes YoungMi, Sujin, and Hwayoung to run towards the noise. In the kitchen, five men stand yelling at one another, and pieces of what had been a cup are scattered all over the floor.

"Now gentlemen—" a older lady starts to say.

"Don't get involved Mom," one of the men says. "We need to sort this out."

The men continue glaring at each other before one explodes, "Jungwoo! What are you doing?! Do you think you can avoid consequences! If not for you—"

The man named Jungwoo angrily says, "What did I DO?!! I've done nothing wrong! All I did was tell Dad that we should take the collaboration offer that Han Group offered!"

"Why should we collaborate with them!" Another one yells. "Jaehyun, stop pretending like you don't have an opinion."

Jaehyun raises his voice, "You think you aren't in the wrong Jaeyoung! Because of you we've lost some of our most valuable customers because you didn't show up at the meeting!"

Then Jaeyoung starts to yell, "What about JaeSeong? He didn't show up either! He was playing video games at the PC Cafe! He's at fault too!"

"SILENCE." The older man says. "What have you brothers got to say for yourselves? It's true that we lost a valuable client, but that was no one's fault. We lost the client because they no longer wanted the product. They've refunded us and that's it. Now stop arguing. Jaeyoung, Jaehyun, JaeSeong, and Jungwoo. I know you are stressed because of work and since Sujin isn't here I feel that we've all been hostile to each other. I'm thinking about having Sujin work for the company. If we have her in the company, she would be able to get us more clients. So let's just forget about this incident, and have lunch—"

"AHEM." YoungMi coughs. "We're back."

The five men turn around and see YoungMi and Sujin who is holding a terrified Hwayoung.

"SUJIN!" They all say as they run over to hug her. The five men all take turns hugging her and saying how much they missed her.

"Now gentlemen," Mom says. "It's time to eat, so if you would kindly stop squishing our dear Sujin, we can eat lunch."

The five men nod hurriedly then rush to take their places at the table. Like dogs, they wait eagerly for the food to be served. The women shake their heads at the men.

"You guys argue about the silliest things," Sujin says, "but you guys are obedient when it comes to food."

The men look sheepishly at each other, and Sujin laughs. "You guys must have really missed me. I was only away for a couple months though."

Jaehyun nods, "We really missed our little sister Sujin."

Everyone laughs, and they start to eat the delicious food that has been prepared by the mother of the house.

⌠I really wish I could live longer.⌡Sujin thinks to herself. ⌠I'll miss being here at this table. I'll miss these brothers of mine and this wonderful family of mine.⌡

"Sujin," Jaeyoung says.

"Huh?!?" Sujins replies as she snaps out of her daze.

"We're thinking about putting you through training in order to be CEO." Jungwoo says. "If either one of your brothers or I was the CEO I think we would be holding each others necks. So, what do you say?"

"I'll do the training," Sujin says. "I just hope I can do enough for the company. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to do some unpacking."

Sujin gets up, places her dishes in the sink then heads upstairs to her room. Once in her room she sighs. ⌠Thank God they don't know this is my last year that I'll be alive. I'm glad that people are unable to see each other's life dates.⌡

Sujin looks at the picture on her desk. All of the family is in the picture smiling happily in front of the company headquarters.

"I'm sorry brothers, YoungMi, Sumin, Hwayoung, Mom, Dad. I'll only be able to take the CEO position for a short period of time. Don't worry though. I'll make sure to improve the company and set up a system for you guys that will ensure that our company will never fail. I'm sorry that I can't be with you guys for longer. It's just how fate works. It takes the one you most loved away from you."

Tears start to roll down Sujin's beautiful face, just as rain starts to pour outside. The rain pours outside, welcoming the start of Sujin's tragedy. Welcoming the tragic and dreaded last year of her life.