Blue Betta

13. The End

She's standing there staring at her feet planted on the carpet. The sound of her parents fighting had woke her up. At first she thought she was stuck in some nightmare...especially the past four months. She didn't know what was happening. Her parents where perfect, they were so great to her and her sisters. She had only known love growing up. Affectionate love from her father's hugs. Unconditional love for whenever she got in trouble at school. Tough love whenever her mother would make fun of her hip-hop outfits. There was another love but only between them. Or that's what she thought.

She thought they were in love.

Curling her toes in the fringe of the carpet she cringes when she hears glass break. The tears are starting to form again but her sister from across the room is shushing her. It was Sulli and it was always Sulli there for her when they fought. Their protector was in college probably living it up party after party. Not even realizing her sisters where at home staying up all night for other reasons. She didn't understand why her parents fought so much when they seemed happy when they were around them.

So she cried in silence in her sister's arms. Hoping that without any more tears to fall, happiness would come back.

One night when Sulli was at a sleep over and she was all by herself letting her toes skid across the carpet while listening to the distant screaming she suddenly didn't want to cry anymore. Standing up she sneaks her way into the hallway and down to the living room where the two booming voices where bouncing back and forth. She peaked around the wall and watched with fearful eyes as her drunken father yelled at her mother who was crying.

The argument was jumbled and going nowhere until both of them seemed desperate and tired. Then it happened. Something that made her realize that love was probably not real. Since it didn't even exist between her parents. The two most perfect people in the world.

"I've never loved you."

"It's all a lie."

"It's all fake."

From then on she listened carefully to the arguments. How her father had been seeing multiple women and even had a few more children. How her mother was suffering just for them. Her father telling her all these years how they haven't been real for him. All the I love you's and all the kisses...fake. Just a front just a show. She didn't know if she wanted it to be a nightmare she could wake up from anymore. Maybe she wanted it to be real, but for it to be over.

It felt wrong. How they stayed together despite the truth being so painful. She would watch as they would laugh at dinner and it seemed normal. She was the only one that knew though. Sunmi had no idea and Sulli only thought they were having trouble since they were poor despite their fathers booming watermelon business. She knew it was because he was taking care of multiple families. She had never noticed how much he was really gone. She then started to wonder if his parenting was fake.

One night though when they were fighting and she was listening to every word her heart broke.

"I love you in one way."

"Those girls are everything to me."

"Sooyoung, Sulli, Sunmi...they're my whole world."

"I love you for giving them to me."

Her mother's words is what broke her heart even more.

"I know that but I love you. Not only because we have children but I fell for the person who I thought you were."

Her sisters started to notice her change. How she once was a romantic wooing everybody in high school but in college how she seemed to be disgusted by the fact of being with someone. They noticed how she hated her girlfriend despite being with her. Sulli even yelled at her the same way their mother had yelled at their father. That's when she realized she was starting to become her father. Faking a relationship just like he was and for what? Because she was supposed to she didn't really know anymore. She had changed a second time with the help of her sisters knocking sense into her. Quite literally.