Colliding Stars (Minsung)

Chapter 15: Curtains and Helmets

(Credits to the rightful owners.)

Note: Double pov ahead (might be common from now on)

Wordcount: 3k

Jisung P.O.V

~In Malaysia~

Home.

Merely a four lettered word.

And that is all it is.

Just a damn word, a meaningless word that is non existent in reality.

Home means nothing more than concretes constructed by and for selfish human need.

Home is a myth. Just like fairytales.

"Eomma! I am done eating!"

A chirpy voice brings me back to a myth-less reality as my gaze returns to my daughter's face. Across the mini dining table adjacent to the open kitchen, I looked at her beaming smile, his glimmering doe eyes and the cutest half pigtails that I had tied a few minutes ago on her hair...that was dark brown...reminding me of a certain someone. Someone my memories latch onto like a parasite. Someone I wish my memories could let go off.

"Good. Did you like the pancakes?" I asked, smiling as my daughter's smile grew wider.

"Yesh! But I liked the pudding more!"

He liked puddings too. Before every basketball match, that was his staple meal, a lucky charm.

I hate pudding.

But my daughter likes it. She takes after him. More than my liking sometimes. No...I can't hate...even that's a big word...I can't even dislike any of her qualities or likings. How can I? She is my daughter. A part of my very existence. I love everything about her. Even those features and characteristics that I used to love about him.

"I'll get you more pudding tomorrow Ryu. Since you been such a good girl! You even got a star from Miss Anne at school!" I praised.

My daughter's giggled in response.

"Thank you eomma!" She said.

Unlike a young me, my daughter knew how to receive compliments, very well in fact. I made sure to shower her with every kind compliment and every drop of praise I could as her eomma. I made sure that she felt every bit of warmth I craved as a little child.

Warmth.

Such a deep word and a fickle emotion. It holds the power to make you feel the most secured and loved person in one moment and in the next moment that feeling can be snatched away from you like it was never even present in the first place.

I only pray every passing second of every day I live through, that my daughter never gets to know the feeling of the cold after warmth.

"Come on. It's time for school!" I said as I put on my shoes near the front door to my apartment, and reached out a hand to my kid who stood next to as tall as my waist. She stopped fidgeting with the straps of her school bag and grabbed my hand.

It's feels strange...almost funny everytime I let the fact that it's been almost six years already sink in my mind. Almost six years with my daughter, who is now old enough to go to pre-school with her little bag filled with crayons. Six years in this new place, which now has grown much more familiar to me. Six years away from an old place where I experienced all of my childhood and a glimpse of my adulthood. Six years way from people...friends whom I treasured like family, the true meaning of both such words they had taught me.