𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 /GXG/

🔸️Overprotected

''If it is sometimes allowed to be overzealous, it always ends up becoming a source of danger.''

''Take your medicine.'' Mom hands me the cup. It's been a few days since I went back to the old bedtime routine.

I pull the blanket away from me and drink, grimacing. She crumbles the pill into the water to make sure I'm taking medicine.

''It's for your own good.'' She, sitting on the edge of the bed, takes the cup from me and ruffles my hair.

''I know,'' I say and close my eyes. ''I'm sleepy, mom.''

I am not sleepy. My eyes are dry. I just want her to leave me alone.

I lie down again, pulling the blanket up to my neck and snuggling into it.

As soon as my mother leaves and closes the door, I open my eyes in the dark. Throat hangs. Breathing increases. Hands clutching the blanket, pressing my mouth so I wouldn't be overheard. The crying comes suffocated with sadness.

''Where's the key?'' Mom with her screams. She ran into the bedroom, ran into the kitchen, and looked everywhere.

Me with the cell phone trying to call, desperate.

Where was the key?

Chae won in shock and didn't speak, pressing a bath towel to her neck ㅡ which was getting dirty, forming a growing stain. She wanted to drink water, but she couldn't.

I was in a panic, and the ambulance never came.

Dad, in those moments, arrived. He was in a catatonic state when he saw her. He asked her to calm down and carried her out of the apartment in his arms. Mom and I followed him out into the parking lot. I wanted to go too, but Mom yelled at me not to go near her. Dad closed the car door.

It all went downhill from there. My hands were shaking. The back of my neck hurt terribly. My lips were cold, dizzy, and vision blurred. I was really scared.

I lay in bed, not taking off the dirty sheet, not caring about anything. The thoughts of when I saw Mom at the bedroom door and Chae won with her hands around her neck ㅡ the blood spreading between her fingers ㅡ, came.

I miss her.

The anxiety was extreme, and I prayed to God, making every promise to give what I had so that the worst would not happen.

Only a few minutes passed, and I heard the bedroom door open. Mom had already returned, entered the bedroom, and came straight to me.

Then she shouted, ' WHAT HAPPENED HERE!!''

My lips trembled, and my heart wanted to come out of my mouth. I looked at her disconsolately. ''I-I don't know how it happened.''

Mom turned away from the bed and looked at the floor. The crockery shards were still strewn across the rug and drops of blood. She bent down and picked up the knife.

"Where did you get that?" Raising the knife to me, I threw myself backward, cornering myself against the wall. My eyes fixed on the chrome blade.

''AKARI, SAY IT!''
Another shout from her was making me shake even more.

I got out of bed and threw myself into her arms, crying into her shoulder. ''Ow, mom, forgive me... I feel horrible!''

It was weird when Mom took me out of her embrace and made me move away from her.

''I thought you loved your friend.'' Eyes wet with sadness.