everything will be okay | joyri

02⁰

POV. Y E R I M

"Now come on Sooyoung, your mother will worry like hell if you don't. Besides... you're drunk." Once again, Sooyoung stopped in denial and shook her head, her voice not accompanying this activity in any way. Sighing, I strode towards her again and just wanted to take her by the hand like a toddler to pull her with me. 

This was going to take a long time.

"I don't want to go home or I'll get another beating from Mom," she babbled, turning on her heel and heading in a different direction while I stood rooted to the spot, unable to get my mouth closed in shock, my eyes wide. "W-what...?" While I often didn't miss how some of her areas on her body were adorned with spots, they were usually so small that I only once suspected her father would do these outrages to her if she were ever with him again.

With this confession a completely new picture of her mother drew itself before my inner eye. My knowledge was so far that I could say that she had a little problems with her mother - but we all had them. But these problems were much bigger than the normal ones that every teenager had to fight with their mother. No one should be exposed to domestic violence, after all, home should be the place where one became a part of protection without any exception. Parents should honor their special title and not sully it with disgusting acts that caused trauma in their protégés, making their lives more difficult than they needed to be.

In such moments I was insanely glad not to be someone else, as well as to have a family that one really wanted. The only major problems were that she didn't want to understand or take me seriously in some things, as well as just forbade way too much unnecessary stuff.

I definitely didn't want to be responsible for a few areas of skin recoloring again since Sooyoung was beaten, so I let her know what our new goal would be, "Sooyoung, you can come home with me. If you want...you can sleep there too."

*****

Within seconds, I had Sooyoung's agreement, but actually getting her to my house was more strenuous than I had initially imagined; and all because of the high alcohol content she had in her. In itself, my initial mission had been successful and she was able to really distract herself, but I certainly did not approve of her getting drunk. I didn't mind a little alcohol myself, but in my opinion, you had to know the limit - and that was definitely the limit to being drunk.

"Mom, I'm home," I yelled through the large house, which was not exactly convincing of little income. No matter what I was coming back from, it was kind of a self-appointed duty for me to always announce that I had re-entered the house. I'd been doing it since I was little, because that's how I'd learned it from my parents.

It was only after I had shipped the drunken Sooyoung off to my room that I quietly closed the door and scurried across the hallways to the large living room that my mother occupied, peacefully watching TV while some mobile game was once again about to cast its spell on her and get her hooked. She had probably downloaded Candy Crush again, even though she had thrown it down again just last week, precisely because it was too addictive. Someone needs to understand this woman.

As I got closer to her, my expectations were fulfilled and a sigh stuck in my throat, which I skillfully held back and instead let important information jump out, "Mom, Sooyoung is sleeping over tonight." The older woman let the screen go black and put not only her eyes, but her entire concentration on me. "Park Sooyoung? The one you went out for bubble tea with the other day?" Sooyoung was my only friend that my mother hadn't met in person yet, and so didn't really know her since I didn't tell her about things like that very often anymore. The only ones she always knew who I was talking about were Seulgi, Wendy, Yiren, and her brother Jackson, although I did less with the siblings than I had in recent years. But that was also because Jackson was busy and already going to work, while Yiren was in the process of preparing for her studies. "Yeah it's her." Understanding, she nodded and asked me a few more questions about Sooyoung, which I answered satisfactorily before letting me go and returning to the black-haired girl.

As I quietly pushed the dark wooden door open again and my eyes wandered around the darkened room, I couldn't help but smile as my irises caught a peacefully sleeping Sooyoung settling down on my bed.

Cute.