117 Damage Control

In literary works, having a protagonist without parents search for their blood relatives is often used as a dramatic device.

The protagonist of 「Nobody's Boy」 is rewarded for all the suffering they endured and finds salvation by locating their parents.

The protagonist of 「A Little Princess」 finds a way to survive by using her bloodline after becoming an orphan.

Reality, however, is harsh.

How many children in modern-day Korea could become orphans because their parents accidentally lost them?

Even when parents abandon their children, the police keep bringing them back home; as long as the parents are willing to look for them, it's highly unlikely the child will end up in an orphanage.

That is why, even if children raised in orphanages find the parents or blood relatives who abandoned them, a positive ending is far from guaranteed.

I knew that too, and with my parents already dead, I had no desire whatsoever to find my blood relatives.

If anything, I was more afraid that my actual blood relatives might come looking for me and try to claim legal custody of me.

“Damn. I feel like a cigarette.”...