I'm just going to warn you for right now, this chapter will be pretty dark. If suicide is something you don't want to read about, just skip to the next horizontal line.

I didn't sleep that night at all. I only stayed in an aware- frozen state. I stood up from my bed and got dressed in the auction uniform. Joel argued with me about wearing it, but with a little convincing, he put it on eventually.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"Alright."

I stepped out of the cabin and made a b-line for the public restroom. I opened the rusted door and stopped in my tracks.

Gunhan was in the tub. She was up to her chest in bloody water. I ran to the edge of the sink and pulled her out. I could faintly see a kitchen knife at the bottom of the tub shift from being disturbed. She must have taken it after dinner. That meant she left her cabin after I had gone back to mine.

Oh my god! What have I done?

I laid her on the floor. I pulled my shirt off and draped it over her. She deserved at least some dignity.

I grabbed her face. "Gunhan, wake up!"

Her head lolled to the side. Her skin was so cold and her lips were a light shade of purple.

Joel rushed into the bathroom, stopped, and backed out to the door. "Oh god. I'll get an officer."

I pulled her into my lap and held her tightly. I choked on a cry. "Wake up!"

It didn't take long for a small crowd to form in the door. They all whispered amongst the others.

"Get out!" They didn't move.

"Get the fuck out!" I grabbed the knife from the tub and threw it at the wall near the door. They got the picture and scrambled away.

An officer stepped into the room and stared at the knife embedded in the wall.

"Go away." I pulled her closer to me.

She grabbed her walkie talkie. "We got another one in the bathroom. Cut her wrist." She looked at the weapon, "knife from the kitchen."

"Not again. We need to start keeping a closer eye on these kids. We can't have them offing themselves every few weeks in our jurisdiction. We can't afford another lawsuit." Her walkie talkie beeped.

"Hey, kid. I need you to step away from the bod-."

"Gunhan!" I yelled.

"-Gunhan," she corrected. "I need to step away from her. There's nothing you can do for her now." She stepped closer to me.

I pulled her closer and away from the woman.

"I know what you're going through. My girlfriend did the same thing."

I shifted away from her on the floor.

"We fought a lot. I really regret the last one. I know I wasn't great to her, but I didn't think I was so bad that she'd kill herself." She sat down near the stall across from me and leaned her head on the stall door.

"I didn't think anything was wrong." I whispered.

"You never really do."

"What's this?" I saw a piece of paper under the edge of the tub. I picked it up.

"Looks like she left a note."

"Dear Nick, I wanted it this way." I let out a sigh. "I wasn't about to go back to what they were making me do when I was younger. I couldn't go back to that. I needed to do this. I'll make sure you and Joel get employed by good people."

"She didn't want what was going to happen."

I folded the note back up and shoved it in my pocket. I pulled her closer to me and buried my face into her cold neck. The officer scooted over to me and held me to her. I cried into her chest and she started to sniffle into my hair.

"She could have left."

"She did."

Two men wheeled in a stretcher, another man following behind them with a notepad.

"We need you to back away, kid. We need her on this stretcher so she can get a respectable going away."

I pulled her away to look at her face. She looked like she was sleeping. I stood up and laid her down on the stretcher.

They lifted the sheet over her and gave me a fresh shirt. They wheeled her off. I stared at the knife in the the door frame, still dripping with water. I walked out of the room and out into the fresh air. The crowd from before had reformed around me. They stared with wide eyes.

"Fuck yourselves." I walked through them as the made a path. I walked to the stage where the bidders were already situated.

"The auction doesn't start for another thirty minutes." The auctioneer stated matter-of-factly.

"It starts now."

"Who do you think you are, kid?" He looked ready to hit me.

"I'm the guy telling you that you can do your fucking job a few minutes early. It's not that fucking hard to call out a price."

"Well, then get your ass on the platform, you shithead."

"Gladly, you arrogant, self-entitled, piece of shit." I stepped up to the front of the stage as the crowd stared at me.

"Starting bid is three dollars."

I glared at him. "Starting bid is three hundred. Nick McKinnley. Seventeen. Six feet and three inches. Two hundred pounds."

"Three hundred!" A man in the back shouted.

"Three fifty!" A man to the left.

"Four hundred!" A woman to the back.

Numbers were being called off so fast, I couldn't keep up. I looked over to the auctioneer who was fuming.

"Seven... hundred... dollars." An old man shouted from the front.

"Going once."

"Going twice."

"Sold to the Chinaman to the front." The auctioneer was sulking in the corner of the stage.

"I'm Korean, you asshole."

"Whatever. You get the kid."

I stepped down to meet up with him. He had a cane and a shoddy suit. He didn't look like he had seven hundred dollars.

"My name Yung. My daughter, Nari, she need help with chores and socializing, and sometimes schoolwork. She need help. She has friends you can play with. She even in band. She can show you how to play instrument."

The man spoke butchered English but seemed kind enough He even shook my hand. I liked him enough.

Joel was sold to an old woman. He said she just wanted a son again. Gunhan did what she said she would. I felt the note in my pocket.

The auctions were now over and I was sitting like a duck in Yung's truck. My stuff was on my lap and I had details on Gunhan's funeral service in two days. I looked over to see Joel in his employer's car. I waved to him and he rolled down the window.

"Hey, I see you got a new mom."

"I see you got a new father-in-aw."

"Funny, I want you to know before we leave that I'm sorry we weren't close when we were little. I want you to know I love you. This may be the last time we see each other. I'll write."

"Gay. I love you, too. Sorry for being such a brat all those years. You better write."

Mr. Yung started the truck.

"I'll miss you, asshole."

"Me too, limp dick." Joel whispered.

We flipped each other off for the last time and we drove our separate ways.

"Who was he in next car?"

"My little brother."