The Afterlife

6) Scars Mean You're Okay

You, my best friend, are very similar to me. Even when we belong to two different worlds. You, my best friend, are the reason I was granted life and life whole, and there is nothing that I had left out. You, my best friend, are the reason the stars hug regularly, bringing in every night a warmth never before seen by me.

Days are not mathematical equations.

They are not countable, nor do they add up to what makes sense.

Even if science tells us otherwise, even when the earth orbits the sun regularly, meticulously, missing no minute and never swerving out of its own way, and even when the ticking of the clock never lies, days are never to be expected, and there can never be guarantees for the success of a mere plan.

A day, after all, is not always our best friend.

Kim Jayoung realised it on a very early our of a severely raining day. Her feet were bare, and mud smeared the entirety of the thin clothing she wore. She was sat on said mud, the floor then her new home, and she looked nil at the countless shadows behind her.

Her thirties were multiplying with the minutes, and ages seemed to pass by like that. Whenever someone approached her, she smiled at them, and whenever someone talked to her, she laughed, as if all the comfort they spewed was ironic, funny, and unreasonable.

Jayoung had no idea, then, why everyone but her was crying. It did not add up. She did not understand why, when everyone was shattering and spilling their hatred for what come upon them, she was sat calmly on the ground, as if the earth was fair and it was created fair only for her.

When things got even louder, Jayoung had to stand, because all the crying seemed to wash the rain in its mighty presence away, and she wanted not to waste the blessings that weighed no definite promise to come back.

"Where are you going?" Jayoung felt her sister's hands hold her, and she felt her warm breath brush against her cheek when she drew closer.

Jayoung closed her eyes, and she slowly brushed off her sister's hands. She replaced them with her own, and then her mouth opened to bid the world farewell, "I am going to get the kids," she looked forward, "the outside is not for us anymore."

"What are you-"

"We shall not see the light, for light is what buried my love away," and then she looked back at the already sealed grave, "we shall not leave our home, for everything beyond it is doomed."

"You are not making sense, Jayoung," her sister held her again, and this time, Jayoung looked at said hands, wondering if they, too, were liars; if they, like her days, were unexpected and might turn on her one day, "I will get the kids later, so stay."

"What reason is there to stay for?" Jayoung smiled up at her, and she put up two hands to hold her sister's face, "hanging on to things that are gone is what makes no sense."

"Jayoung-"

"The spirits of those to whom hell became home roam the world at night," Jayoung said lastly, and she walked outside of her sister's hold again, "take good care, and always stay inside."

Jayoung's words hanged around her house's walls, repeating themselves over and over, reminding its listeners with the only truth they should know, and warning them of the misery it would bring them if they ever break the rules.

"Mom," Taehyung's feet could not reach the floor yet, and while he sat on his usual chair around the table for breakfast, his eyes never left the fourth, empty one on his side, "is dad really never coming back?"

Everything looked the same, and everything was as he had always seen it, but why was he uneasy, and why was his heart pounding faster every time he tried to chew.