Rena Moon

There was a girl named Sun that was in the prison cell in front of Jake’s cell. He didn’t know how long she was imprisoned for. He first arrived in prison a month ago. For most of his life, he was hiding in the streets from the Guwon citizens. Every Ezraen knew how dangerous it was to be caught by a Guwon. It meant either living life as a slave or a prisoner. Unfortunately, he was caught stealing bread from a stall. Any crime committed by an Ezraen was amplified a hundred times.

His initial thought was that he would be executed immediately, but that wasn’t the case. He was imprisoned for a few weeks and it seemed that he wasn’t important enough for anyone to remember his crime. They had forgotten about him. He wanted to escape prison, but when he thought about it, it wasn’t too bad. He was at least fed every day in prison and he was able to meet Sun.

Unlike the rest of the prisoners, Sun would always find a way to brush her hair and stay clean. The first thing he noticed about her was that she didn’t give up hope. The prisoners on either side of her had given up completely. They spent their days staring at the wall or crying at night. It bothered him when he noticed her giving up her meal for another prisoner. There were a few prisoners that weren’t given a meal for angering the guards.

He had met all sorts of people living on the streets and no one was like Sun. No one that would give up their meal for someone else without wanting anything in return. He didn’t believe that people were that nice. He could only doubt her. All his life, there wasn’t a single person that cared for him. His thoughts changed when it started happening to him.

For some reason, the guards decided one day that they didn’t want to feed him. There was a noble man that was imprisoned recently. He was sentenced to prison for embezzlement. The noble man was good with his words and easily got the guards to be on his side. The guards gave him more food, but that meant the other prisoners wouldn’t be getting meals.

The guards decided to take meals from the Ezraens. They were quite the eyesore and no one wanted to deal with the Ezraens. They were like rats that took up space in the prison. There was no reason for the guards to want to give them a meal when they could gain favor from a noble instead. The Ezraen they happened to choose was him.

His stomach kept growling and the guards would just laugh at him. He tried to ignore the guards, but couldn’t control his anger. He spat at the laughing guard and flipped him off. The guard angrily wiped the spit off his face and unlocked the prison cell. He grabbed the boy by the hair and began punching him. After being punched a few times and getting kicked, he stopped moving. The guard didn’t bother to check if the boy was breathing. He spit on the boy’s face and left the prison cell.

Jake laid there hungry and beat up. Once the guard left, tears began streaming down his cheeks. It was humiliating. Why did he have to experience this? He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just hungry. Why do the nobles get everything they want while everyone else has to starve? Why is life so unfair? If only he was born as a noble, would things have changed? He stared at his dirt covered hands and wondered if it was even worth living.

He suddenly heard a clanking sound. He turned around to see a tray of food in front of his cell. The girl in front had somehow pushed her tray from her cell to his. She looked worried, “Are you ok? I’m sure you’re hungry. Have some of my food.” Was it her again? Why did she even bother? It was humiliating being beaten up by the guard, but it was worse knowing that the girl was watching him get beat up. He grumbled, “Who said I was hungry anyway?”

His stomach gave him away when it began growling at him. Sun laughed and said, “Just eat it. I know you’re hungry. I ate something too so no need to worry.” He wasn’t stupid, he knew that she didn’t eat. She was also Ezraen. There’s no way that she would get more food. Looking at her, he could tell that she also skipped meals during her stay. Her arms were extremely thin and she looked malnourished.

He wanted to throw the food back at her, but he was too hungry to get angry. He didn’t bother thanking her. He took the tray and turned around facing the wall. He was too embarrassed to face her. He scarfed down the food. He didn’t want her seeing him crying. His tears fell into the bland soup while he ate. She didn’t say anything while he was eating.

The next few days, he realized how stupid he had been. By angering the guard, he had lost any chances of getting any meals. The guard took all of his meals and gave them to the noble man. The girl in front constantly gave him her meals. At first, he ate the meals without thinking about her. It was her choice to give up her meals. Let her know how stupid it was to give away her meals. Life is unfair and she should know that it was her own stupidity that made her suffer. He initially thought that way, but it started to change.

He noticed that she was growing paler and skinnier by the day. She always kept a smile on her face. Regardless of how hungry she was, she would still give her his meal. On the 4th day, he shouted at her, “Why do you keep giving me your meals? Aren’t you hungry? Are you stupid or what? Giving me your meals will only make you suffer. So why?” The girl didn’t lose her smile, “Because I know someone that would do the same for me. She is my sister. I’m sure that if she was here now, she would do the same.”

His heart hurt when he heard her words. He had forgotten for a long time, but there was someone that cared for him. A random stranger that was also homeless had given him his meals. At that time, he treated him the same way he was treating the girl. His heart sank when he realized how awful he was. He never said a word of thanks to any of them. Tears began streaming down his cheeks.

He muttered, “Thank you… thank you..” The girl just smiled back at him as she lay there with no strength. Her eyes were closed but that smile remained on her lips. He was afraid that she wasn’t breathing. He wanted to check on her. His heart grew cold when he didn’t sense any movement from her cell. Was she ok? He didn’t know her name at the time. He shouted, “Hey girl! You! Are you ok? Answer me!”

The girl didn’t respond to him. He shouted again, “WAKE UP! HEY! Get a hold of yourself! OY! Wake up!” She still didn’t respond. The prisoners on either side of him heard the shouts and shouted back, “SHUT UP! I’m trying to sleep here!” He ignored the man and kept trying to wake her up, “HEY! Open your eyes! You have to be okay. You can’t just die like that! OY!” His heart grew cold when he saw her lifeless form laying on the floor with a smile still on her face.

The prisoner beside him angrily banged on the wall, “If you don’t shut up, I'm going to kill you!” He ignored the prisoner and shouted frantically, “HEY! GUARDS! HEY! SOMEONE FAINTED! SOMEONE PLEASE CHECK UP ON HER! GUARDS!” He kept shouting until everyone in the cell heard his cries. The few prisoners that were helped by Sun joined in and began shouting for the guards.

The guards heard the shouting from the prison and rushed inside. The prisoners frantically shouted, “Check on the girl! I don’t know if she’s alive!” The guard saw that it was just an Ezraen girl lying on the ground. He scoffed, “It’s just an Ezraen girl. Why cause so much ruckus over a girl?” Regardless, he still checked on her condition. He hated the stench of corpses in the prison cell. If she was dead, he’d better send her off to get buried.

He placed his finger under her nose to feel if she was still breathing. Jake couldn’t tell what the guard was thinking. The guard just carried her out of the cell and didn’t say a single word to the prisoners. Jake shouted, “Is she okay? HEY!” The guard ignored him and left the prison. He kept wondering what had happened to the girl. He didn’t even know her name.

He waited and waited to find out if she was okay, but she never came back to the cell. His heart grew cold thinking about what had happened to her. Did she die? Guilt began eating away at his soul. He felt horrible. She died because of him? Tears began streaming down his face. He couldn’t stop thinking about that smile. She died with a smile on her face…

Days passed by and he never heard from her again. The prisoners beside him began talking about her. He discovered her name. Her name was Sun. No one knew why she was in prison. All they knew was that she was a kind hearted girl. After that day, the guards started giving him food again. He didn’t know if it was because someone had died of starvation, but the guards gave food to all the prisoners.