Chereads / Mari-am / Chapter 8 - Chapter- 8

Chapter 8 - Chapter- 8

They all sat down on the floor and started eating together.

The hall room becomes silent but not empty as the room atmosphere was filled with silent whispers of happiness reaching through their ears into their hearts, because of seeing their daughter after so many years.

But, there are still some small black clouds wandering in their happy sky, which have covered the sun of comfort and shadowed them in darkness.

But today, they felt the sun shining behind the clouds, which increased their hope of spending more time with their daughter in near future.

Saeng was just silently eating with a neutral look on her face as usual, even though she felt a heavy gaze upon her.

After eating, Saeng just grabs her handbag and hangs her handbag on her shoulder and wishes them goodnight, and starts to walk towards the door.

But, Saeng's legs stop when she hears her mom's voice asking, " Why did you give that as a gift to us? I don't understand. And another thing, my Saeng-a, why did you leave your home, your rabbit plush, and us too? Saeng-a, you will always be our happiness and not some kind of burden"

Saeng turns back to them and tells them, "Eomma ( Mom), these plant seedlings are also rare like that plant, and I have observed since childhood that you are habituated to grow unique things, that's why.

And about the photos inside that gift box, they were also part of your wish mentioned in your stubborn messages sent to me, on my every birthday.

Everything is the same for me, I don't understand these family things, I just believe that I and my parents are separately better and happy alone.

I don't know why you waste your time trying to come close to me. I still respect you but as you know me from birth, I have no emotions within me.

Because of me, both of you were stared at with weird and judging looks and even sometimes were mocked too because of my unique appearance, which didn't bother me at all.

But you both were affected by society's behavior towards me, which later on, always led both of you to sob, devastation, frustration, pain, etc., which as a doctor I know the fact, that it is not at all good for your health.

And, even though, I am not a human doctor but I know that you should stay away from the thing that causes you only pain, so I decided to walk away from your life, which was a correct decision as you both sounded happy recently when I was just standing in front of the door.

And, I am still the same as I was since my birth. So, just carry on with life, and do not worry about me".

Saeng's mom and dad get emotional at her long confession, they had warm smiles on their faces, and they looked at their daughter with admiration.

Saeng's mom asks her, " Saeng-a, Can't you stay here for more minutes? You seem to forget something precious of yours, your rabbit has been waiting years for you in your bedroom. Your rabbit, your eolin-i( child)".

Saeng whispers in a low tone, " My rabbit, my eolin-i( child), My eolin-i( child). Then her low tone shifts into a soft tone and says," My rabbit is my child".

Saeng's eyes have a warm glow in them, right now.

She nods yes to them and stays. Then, she walks upstairs heading straight to her bedroom.

Saeng's mom asks her husband, " Did you see that, her eyes shone with affection for her rabbit kid. She is still our small Saeng, who loves her rabbit the same as she did when I made her this rabbit plush.

Saeng's dad, will we ever get more chances to spend more time with our Saeng? The confession she did before a few minutes ago, clarifies that she does think and care about us and that was the reason she left us. Our negative emotions and society stole her away from us".

Saeng's dad speaks, "You are right. Even if it has been years, we were unaware of the fact that she did read our messages and remembers us. This day is like a gift that will be the most precious to us and when this gift knocked on our door, we got a glimpse of our happiness coming slowly back into our life".

Then time again rewinds to a few hours ago, when they opened the gift and were surprised to see the gift inside that box. There were packets of seedlings, and a small pouch in it, they opened the pouch and found numerous instant pictures of her recent trip to Upo Marshland with Yeong.

They were happy to be able to see their daughter's good moments captured in those photos and also appreciates her thought of sharing her memories with them.

A note was attached to the gift box, on which it was written, "As a duty of daughter, I am giving these gifts as a thanksgiving day present to my legal family".

At that moment, Saeng's mom prays to God and wishes to spend more time with their daughter this year.

After some minutes, their bell rang, filling their hearts with hope to see their daughter again, which was proven true once they opened the door.

Then once again time forwards back into the present time.

The scene changes to Saeng's bedroom, she is laid on her bed, facing towards the ceiling with a neutral stare, and different animal stickers were attached to the ceiling, which glows in the dark, she looks around her room. Her room still looks the same as before, those printed animal characters' curtains hung upon the window, a small cabinet next to the bed, miniature plant dolls tied with a thick thread wrapped to both rail ends of the bed. A small bookshelf is present near the circle-shaped window, and her school bag and other belongings are organized neatly, and its condition looked the same as she left it.

Then her gaze falls upon her rabbit plush, which was placed neatly near the bed corner, those rabbit eyes remind her of a memory, which she doesn't want to remember as recalling it gives her a headache, which she can't afford it right now as she wants to continue her work without compromising her productivity.

Her mental peace and productivity both will be affected if she recalls that memory, as it will give her an intense headache, which ultimately leads to an intense fever.

Till now, Saeng has been unable to figure out the reason behind the occurrence of intense headaches after recalling that memory.

Saeng tries to divert her mind from the recall of that memory in her head, but those innocent rabbit eyes were intimidating to ignore, so she just closed her eyes, then suddenly felt sleep taking over her mind, and she falls asleep.

After a few minutes, Saeng wakes up and looks outside through the window, and realizes that morning already rose, she immediately stands up and grabs her handbag and walks downstairs, and finds the hall room empty.

Saeng just walks out of the house, looks straight, and observes people rushing in and out of the streets, kids in their uniforms rushing towards their schools, parents escorting their kids to the bus stand, and a few people jogging in the park.

She walks a little ahead, and stops, then tries to book a taxi, but no taxi is available right now even in the daytime.

She then thinks of going to the bus stand to take a bus to reach her home. Saeng then walks to the bus stand, which is just nearby that street.

She has been waiting for 20 minutes long but no bus has arrived yet, then finally one bus arrives but that bus route is different from her home address.

She again waits for another bus, as many buses came but she didn't find any bus which passes through her street colony, and then she felt hungry as it was already afternoon.

So, Saeng buys a packaged lunch meal box and eats it in a local convenience store, she then pays up the bill, grabs the bill receipt, then walks back to that park as she felt tiredness in her body.

She sits on the bench and takes out her phone to send a message to Yeong about a notice that today's singing class will be held in the early evening.

But the message didn't get sent due to some network issues, so, she keeps back her phone inside, then she checks the bill and something catches her eye, which made her confused, and assumes that it might be a mistake.

Then suddenly Saeng hears her name being called, she ignores it, then she hears a girl's voice which felt familiar to her ears, she stands and walks towards the source of the sound.

She then notices a girl of 5 years old, shouting at someone, so she steps closer and closer towards that girl, then next what she saw was like some sort of magic as she notices a small Saeng boldly standing against that shouting girl, she observed the small Saeng, who had a same neutral look like she has till now.

But that shouting girl was saying some stupid statements, trying to mock her or tease her for her weird looks, but small Saeng looked neutral and unbothered, which is her nature, then that shouting girl stepped closer to her, anger and hate in her eyes.

That shouting girl now was standing close to small Saeng, then that girl holds small Saeng's both hands tightly, still, small Saeng stood like a statue, then that girl picks up something from the ground and harshly rubs it against her thick black patches wing shape surrounding her eyes.

But she remained still, as she felt nothing until she felt something sliding down her face when she touched her face, she noticed that her fingertips were covered with blood. Then she realizes that girl has injured her.

So, in defense, she tries to escape from her grip, so she, at last, pushes her with impactful force, which made that girl stumble and trip her feet upon the stone, fell on her back, and her one arm falls against the hard bench causing her to scream, and shouting her parent's names.

Slowly crowd gathered around them, and all started blaming small Saeng, no one noticed her swollen large wound around her eye area, and blood trickled down her face unto the grass blades, which became slightly red.

Small Saeng remained still and did not respond to anything, then suddenly she felt someone embracing her, and after that her vision became blurred.

Saeng wakes up from her memory, she realizes that she was embraced by her parents just like the small Saeng used to get embraced.

Her parents called out her name softly and shook her body to wake her up as her hands were shaking and she was covering her face with her hands when they came to check upon her.

Saeng's parents immediately ran to her and tried to wake her up, they removed her hand away from her face and held her hand, and tightly hugged her.

When Saeng opened her eyes, Saeng's dad asked her, " Saeng-a, What happened? Did you have a nightmare? Are you okay, Saeng-a?".

Then Saeng's mom speaks, " Don't worry, dear. Now the nightmare is over, no one can hurt you. Come here".

Saeng clears her throat and says in a neutral tone, I just experienced a childhood memory of a small Saeng was injured by that shouting girl.

Their eyes widen in worry and concern for their daughter, as they could never forget that painful memory of Saeng, they looked lost, wondering about their daughter's state of mind right now.

Then the scene once again changes into the scene where their small Saeng was standing still in the center of the crowd in that park and people blame the small saeng and shouting noises were audible to Saeng's parents.

So, Saeng's mom followed by Saeng's dad ran to their daughter, they observed her condition, there were two swollen bleeding wounds surrounding her eyes, and they felt a heavy pain in their heart seeing their daughter badly injured.

They tightly hugged her and covered her from those people who were trying to harm their daughter.

The crowd started complaining, blaming small Saeng and badmouthing her, which made Saeng's parents angry, and they defended their daughter as they know that their daughter never hurts anyone without any reason.

They asked small Saeng in a soft tone," Saeng-a, what exactly happened here? Tell us, dear".

small Saeng narrated the whole incident in a neutral tone to them, then that shouting girl accused their daughter of lying, then showed her hands, which were swollen around her knuckles due to her arm hitting hard against the bench.

small Saeng replies in a neutral tone," It was just a defense act because you were trying to harm me, so I just acted out of defense, which was fair and served you right ".

The crowd was speechless by her blunt statement, Saeng's parents felt anger towards that girl, who did an ugly act to cause harm to their daughter.

Still, no one believed small Saeng, then their daughter went somewhere.