Eyes Wide Open
Ji Hyeon looked at the ceiling above her bed, thoughtfully. There was a time when she thought she was going insane from being trapped in Dae Won's basement. She thought she heard voices. Jun Hyeon's voice. She waited every night for him to burst through that damned door. But that never happened. It was a cycle of pain and hatred, self-deprecation and anxiety.
A radio program changed everything. It was a pirate broadcaster, the KWB. The announcer was a kind man, who twice a week at 11 pm, talked about profound matters, focused on the lonely and misunderstood hearts. Certainly, during her teenager days, she would have found it all too tacky. But invariably, she cried until her eyes burned, hearing words that seemed to be said especially to her. That man's words gave her, little by little, the strength to recognize her sickness, and to get rid of her Stockholm Syndrome, among other toxic and twisted behavior patterns. Each day, she put that DJ, Mr. Kwak, in her prayers.