A smile returning to Na-young’s face after ordeal

The girl had the sparkle of mischief in her eyes.

She would hide behind a pillar and would stick her head out laughing whenever the door opened.

She asked for a pen and a sheet of paper and started drawing. A baby bird was giving a present to its mother in one, and a child in a red dress - just like hers - was flashing a big smile in another.

It hasn’t been that long since Na-young once again began drawing happy pictures. Na-young is the pseudonym for the victim who was 8 years old at the time of the brutal sexual assault by Cho Du-sun.

Only this summer, Na-young once drew the image of Cho in tears after he was pounded by a hammer in a prison cell full of bugs. She had been suffering from depression and it showed in her sketchbook.

Na-young had stopped smiling and had forgotten how to enjoy herself. She was irritable and abrasive, and even at the faintest of noise, she would be frightened and cover her face with her hands.

Na-young was assaulted in December 2008, but it was two months later that she started receiving psychiatric treatment by Dr. Shin Eui-jin at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital in Seoul. Shin acknowledged that at first it was difficult to open Na-young’s mind. The first and foremost goal of the therapy was to remind the girl that the assault wasn’t her fault at all and to help her restore her self-esteem.

Na-young’s father said, “The generosity of others made her live again.” After the JoongAng Ilbo’s interview with Shin ran on Oct. 31, those who learned of Na-young’s conditions - she had lost 80 percent of her colon and genital organs - offered to help.

Soon, Na-young herself began to change. She said she wanted to go to school again. Though her parents wanted to transfer her to another school, the young girl said she’d be fine back at the old place. She started bringing her friends home. Since September, Na-young has been attending a hagwon (private academic institute) for arithmetic. Her father was hesitant at first because the hagwon was next to the scene of the crime, but his daughter was insistent.

Na-young recently sent Shin a Christmas card, thanking the doctor for helping with her recovery. The young girl is aspiring to become a medical doctor one day, too.

“I would say Na-young has improved to about 70 percent,” Shin said. “I hope this child never loses her dream.”

By Kim Jin-kyung [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]