𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐁𝐎𝐘.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫.

❝
you get in my bed,
you twist up my head.
boy i'm changing for you,
changing for you.
you die with the lie,
you lie and a piece of me dies.
inside, out, i pray-
so much i can take.
❞

***

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯.
𝐚 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫; 𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐞.

"they say i only have one more year of treatment left. isn't that nice jagiya? do you think he will be excited?"

there is a love that only a mother can have for her child.
this type of love is often the strongest one; one that can pull people through tough times and motivate them to do the impossible, one that can move moutains and shake the earth- or it is the exact opposite. not everbody, though well deserving of it, gets to experience a mothers' love. some may even say it's a rare privilege; one that is too much of a blessing to be kept and hidden even when tucked away for years simply because-

everybody deserves a second chance.
right?

"i'm sure he will.. be surprised." yosef hummed, running his hands through his neat brown hair as he looked out the window where a group of high schoolers- or more so, fresh college first-years gathered on the lawn in a rather excited manner. they had to be excited; he could hear them all the way in his home. "he hasn't seen you in seventeen years min-jee, and when he does he'll be completely different then the last time you saw him."

"oh.. you mean the piece of metal in his face?" the woman chirped. "i think it's cute! anything my baby does is very handsome."
"you mean everything?"
"you know what i mean yosef." the woman huffs. "english is not even easy."

"well you speak it very well." the doctor pointed out genuinely, a warm smile that could barely be prevented gracing his features that despite a year older, looked the same- only a bit calmer because if the past year had taught him anything at his age, it was patience.. a deep one. "please call me back soon. i don't think you need another year of treatment. i think they've kept you for much too long."
"me too, but you know it is not theirs. it's father. he's keeping me here because of ji-moon. he thinks i act like a child.. which means i shouldn't have one."

"i'm not sure he knows what one is." yosef murmured. "we'll get you out of there, okay minnie? then you and jae can catch up. it won't be easy. he's very stubborn right now and it'll take work, but it'll happen. i'll make sure."

much far off from the small suburb of a las vegan neighborhood, a woman sat on the other line of the phone, dressed from head to toe in white lougewear. she sat alone in the temporary bedroom that she had lived in for nearly eighteen years, with not one glimpse of the outside- not one- not one glimpse of hope except for the one picture she looked at through her oval-shapped glasses she was nearly blind without at every-single day in her rocking chair. she held it in her hands while the "helpers" combed her hair, while she was given breakfast, even while those pills were forced upon her. she held it tightly, and somehow the single picture- the only physical picture- that jae's mother possessed of him had not worn or faded in more than a decade.