Paradigm

Chapter XIX

TW : suicide, major character death

✨🪐✨

São Paulo, Brasil. Summer 1990.

The Song family had had enough of spending their summer vacations in Thailand. So, in 1990, they made a big decision : try Brazil.

Mingi did not like all those tropical countries with their unbearable climates. In fact, he hated them. But it was the only thing likely to please his aunt. Every year, he swore to himself that he would not give in for the following year, but to no avail.

This vacation promised to be as boring as all the others. They would always be doing the same thing anyway, even if, exceptionally, the location had changed.

Truth was, life bored Mingi deeply. His path was set. He would get up every day to see the same people, go to the same places, eat the same things... Waiting for happiness to come to him. He did not describe himself as an uninteresting person (that does no't go down too well in college CVs), but to be honest, he was. He had started studying business because he had nothing else to do and was living a bland life without passion or intellect.

One day, he went on a yacht trip to Sao Paulo with Yunho - who always had the privilege to accompany them on their vacation since he had always been in Mingi's aunt's good grace - and his sister.

He was too hot. To him, the glittering Atlantic was just an uninteresting, monotonous stretch of blue water. Being uninteresting was something they had in common, at least.

They had stopped their boat in the middle of nothing, with the city in the distance looking like a tiny anthill.

And he was bored.

Shitty country. Shitty ocean. Shitty family. Shitty life.

"Mingiiii, you said you'd come swimming with me !" his sister Minji whined, wading into the water under Yunho's watchful eye.

Supervision was a big word, immersed as he was in the late American chemistry magazine he could find.

Minji's age difference was too great, so he had never really formed a brotherly bond. This did not seem to bother her too much. She was content with the rare moments he granted her.

He let out a long sigh, the only purpose of which was to let her know that he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Mingi hated swimming where he had no foothold, all the more so when he knew the bottom was a dizzying distance away. Then there was the salt and the animals. He would rather swim in a pool.

So be it. Reluctantly, he removed his beige shorts, linen shirt and espadrilles.

He halfheartedly jumped into the water. At least he would not be sticky with sweat anymore.

The warm water swallowed him whole. He barely had time to curse himself for forgetting his sunscreen that a force came out of nowhere and pulled him under inexorably. He struggled, to no avail.

Ineffable pain tore through him, as if every inch of his body were being impaled. A silent scream erupted from his mouth, symbolized by a few bubbles that rose to the surface, wrinkled by tiny ripples that rendered them invisible. He quickly lost track of his position and panic spread through his veins like burning poison. His lungs would explode any second, his body screaming for help, for oxygen. Excruciating noises pounded in his skull. Suddenly, his whole being seemed to turn into lead. He could not understand what was happening to him.

There was no apparent reason for him to drown in this way. Suddenly, he felt water forming directly in his gut, bubbling up. The liquid rose up his esophagus and then filled his mouth. Suddenly, the same unknown force propelled him in the opposite direction and, within seconds, he felt the air against his skin again. The student fell back heavily against the floor of the yacht. His cheekbone cracked with the impact. An extraordinary amount of thick black liquid, overrun with live worms, poured from his stomach. Yunho and Minji could only watch him suffer, helpless.