Ji Woo was a happy kid, always laughing with his friends, always running around, he loved to draw. He said that when he would grow up, he would become a painter. Joo Won had a birthmark on his forearm which he hated. Ji Woo drew a star on it. For the first time, it made him like his birthmark.
The morning he woke to find Joo Won's bed empty, a cold dread seized Ji Woo's heart. He searched everywhere—the dormitory, the garden, the dining hall—his voice growing more frantic with each unanswered call- Joo Wonaaaaa Joo Wonaaaa. He questioned the Sisters and confronted the warden, but they all offered the same hollow explanation: Joo Won had been adopted by a wealthy family.
But Ji Woo knew it was a lie.
He remembered Dong Geun's adoption—the paperwork, the meetings, the slow and careful process. There had been no such formalities for Joo Won. His disappearance was sudden, silent, almost secretive. A terrifying thought surfaced in Ji Woo's mind—had his friend been stolen? He recalled a conversation months earlier with the orphanage guard, who had warned him grimly that sometimes children who wandered too far were taken, never to return. Ji Woo had asked, his voice small with fear, "Do the bad men kill the children?" Before the guard could answer, a Sister hurried him away to prayer.
Thinking about that, a small, broken sound escaped his lips. Then another. He drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, trying to make himself small, so small he could disappear too. But he couldn't. He was still here. In the silence. He could not protect his brother.
The first sob was a ragged tear in the quiet room. It was followed by a wave of others, so violent they shook his entire small frame. He cried not with the graceful tears of a movie, but with the ugly, gasping, desperate agony of a child. He buried his face in his knees, but the sounds couldn't be contained. They were sounds of pure loss that felt, in this moment, exactly like an ending. But he will save his friend. His brother. Thoughts like these kept on running in his mind. He took a chance on escaping the orphanage to find his brother but all five times either the warden or the guard or the Sisters found him and punished him. He was under strict vigilance. He decided that he needed to get out of the orphanage first and get adopted in order to be able to save his friend. When parents came looking for children to adopt, Ji Woo put his best foot forward. One month went by.
One family, quite humble one adopted him. They had no kids of their own. The lady was a painter, and the man was working in a big company. Ji Woo said his byes to the orphanage and quickly adjusted to his new life. Started going to school. His name is now Kang JI Woo. He finally had a family. He also has a golden retriever named Jerry. His parents are Mr and Mrs Kang who are really kind and generous. They bought new clothes for him, shoes, made him his favorite foods, the parents are so nice as he saw on the TVs.
Time passed by. It's almost 15 years now. He tried to find Joo Won but it seems like he didn't exist. He tried to go back to the orphanage but his mother fell ill due to breast cancer. Ji Woo had to look after his mother. Cook meals for the family, the dog, finish his homework, go to school, do the laundry, work part time in the cafe nearby. His father could not come home all the time. He had to do overtime to be able to afford the hospital bills and chemotherapy. Ji Woo gave up on his search of Joo Won.
Despite the care and support of a dedicated caretaker, Mrs. Kang's illness eventually came back. A few days before she passed, she called Ji Woo to her side, her voice soft with emotion. "My son," she said, her eyes glistening, "how can I ever repay you? A mother should care for her child, but instead, I became your burden. You managed everything—my treatments, the house, even comforting me. I don't know what I did to deserve a son like you, but you never deserved a mother like me." Tears streamed down her face. Ji Woo, holding her hand, replied gently, "Mom, please don't talk like that. You know how much I love you. I love to take care of you."
Now, with his mother gone, the house felt emptier than ever. Only Jerry, their loyal dog, remained. Ji Woo let the caretaker go; there is no need of a caretaker now. He begged his father to come home more often—the silence and his mother's absence haunted every room, gnawing at him. But they couldn't afford to move; they were trapped by memory and financial strain.
When Ji Woo visited his father, they shared a meal at a nearby hotpot restaurant. He was shocked to see how thin his father had become—the hands that once felt so large and secure when Ji Woo was a child now seemed frail and shrunken. It was clear his father had been drinking heavily to numb the pain of loss.
Ji Woo learned that even after his wife's death, his father's manager had scolded him for being late. Anger and heartbreak swelled in Ji Woo's chest. "Why do you still work there?" he pleaded. "I'll take on more part time jobs. We can sell this house, find something smaller, somewhere cheaper. Just quit, Appa. Please." His father said "Ji Woo-ya, I am working less now. Don't worry about me," he said softly, deflecting the concern. "You just focus on your studies. That is your only job."
After the meal with his father, Ji Woo went to the college. Due to his mom's condition, he had decided to study in a local one. He got a chance to go to a foreign university but cancelled it. Used his education fund for his mother's treatment.
Despite witnessing his father's grueling life—working day and night as a low-paid, unpromoted employee for the Hwang Group, almost never coming home—Ji Woo held tightly to his dream of becoming an artist. And to avoid his father's fate, he chose a lucrative creative path: majoring in Visual Communication Design to become a graphic designer. He is determined to build a successful career, make a lot of money, and finally retire his overworked father.