city lights - jaemin

26

TW : emotionally abusive parents
( there is only one more of these
kinds of heavier scenes, later in the book. )

IT was surprisingly quiet and empty without her parents. But the mood of the house matched her own. Purely uneasy. She sat on the couch, her hands in her lap as she sat there, the tv playing on low in the background.

She heard the front door unlock and immediately sucked in a breath of air. Maybe she wasn't ready for getting the scolding of her life.

Her parents stepped inside and Micha refused to look up, instead she looked her hands in her lap, fiddling with her fingers.

"So you finally returned."
Her father said, looking at her before taking his shoes off and putting it on the rack. He took his jacket off, whereas her mother just stormed into the lounge room and stood in the middle, staring at Micha.

"So you think that was okay? To just run out like that. Do you understand the amount of embarrassment we feel?!"
Her mother said, her voice raising with every word she said.

"You can't even handle a bit of criticism and instead take it to heart and run off in to the cold night and NOT return? what is going through the messed up head of yours?" Her mother continuously said words that were only bringing her daughter down into a pit in sadness. She hated being scolded but she always found herself in a situation where she would get scolded. Yet this time it felt so different. It felt like her parents were trying to make her upset. Trying to make her cry.

"Clearly, you are not thinking. you never listen to our rules anyway but this act is by far the worst thing you've done." Her mother put a hand on her head as if she had a headache from michas behaviour.

"Where did you go?"
Her father asked, now walking and standing next to her mother. Bitterly, Micha looked up and looked her parents in the eye.

"I stayed at someone's house"
She made a promise to herself to not tell her parents where. Just incase they do something that ruin her and their own relationship with the Na's across the round.

"You just continuously burden the people around you, don't you?" Her father said in a whispered voice, almost like he was too disappointed to even bother to yell.

"Oh please they must've been so burdened to have you show up randomly at night. We can't even handle you, imagine how others around you feel." Her mother chuckled, holding her hand over her mouth as she beamed brightly.

"it isn't like that.."
Micha muttered out. tears were building up in her eyes, The words were getting to her and she couldn't help but feel so upset that her own mother never was nice to her. Both of her parents never waited a second to try and understand her. Just always attacking her with harsh words.

"Oh really? And what? did they tell you that?"
at that very moment Micha felt as though she was speaking to an immature highschool bully who wanted to do everything in their power to make you cry. But this was worse. it was someone who was meant to nurture you, take care of you and be there for you no matter what, that was making her cry.

Micha bit her lip as her mother continued speaking harshly at her daughter.

"Remember how your father and I are. we are nice in front of peoples faces but when backs are turned we are complaining and wishing they would go."
Her mother smirked. "We aren't the only people in the world who do this."

Micha felt tear drops running down her face. She didn't even want to reach up and rub them away incase her parents saw and laughed at her for crying, just like bullies would do. Just like her parents do when she cries over stupid things.

Micha couldn't help but start to ponder of what if her mother was right. What if when the couple when upstairs, they were complaining about having her stay the night. What if they didn't want to help her and only did it because Jaemin brought her inside. Then it hit her that what if Jaemin only did it because he felt pity on her.

Micha felt like bursting into tears and sobbing loudly as her thoughts torment her. Nothing was going right, the world was against her.

"Since you constantly test my limits, I'm grounding you for a week." Her mother pointed to the stairs. "go to your room."

Micha stood up, still looking down at her now she was sniffling quietly and trying to look away from her parent who stared at her.

"And don't you dare think of yourself as lucky because if we didn't have a trip in a weeks time you would be grounded for even longer!!"
Her mother shouted as Micha walked up the stairs to her bedroom, as per her mothers request.

She closed the door behind her gently before jumping on her bed and crying into her sheets, wanting to scream and let all her feelings out but she couldn't. She could only cry and cry for hours while her parents were downstairs, being a happy couple, completely ignoring what just happened.