The Reason we Broke Up

03.

Ah, was today that day?

Lisa froze in front of the front door when she heard the boisterous noises coming from inside.

“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.”

“Aigoo, our Yuri is a good talker. Say ‘Happy birthday, Mommy’.”

“Omo, look at him babble. So cute, our Yuri!”

Harmonious voices flowed out from behind the door. They belonged to her stepmother and her stepmother’s sisters. They were having a party celebrating her stepmother’s birthday.

Now that she had a stepmother, they were technically her aunts.

However, it was still very awkward between them. Whenever they met Lisa, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. Lisa was the same. She couldn’t call her stepmother ‘mother’, so there was no way she could call them ‘aunt’.

“Thank you. I’m seriously so happy thanks to all of you.”
Lisa could hear her father’s gruff voice saying, ‘Happy birthday.’ She could even hear her two-year-old brother gurgling.

Her father must have presented her stepmother her gift. She heard her stepmother’s deeply moved voice, and she heard the sisters let out envious sighs. While the group of them chattered in the bright light, Lisa remained silent in the dark.
Lisa’s hand, which was clenched around the doorknob, limply fell down to her side.

“She’ll be back at nighttime because she's at school for self-study, right?”
Was this the reason why her stepmother had gone out of the norm to ask her about it this morning? She answered back with a ‘yes’, and her stepmother merely replied with ‘I see.’ as she gave her a relieved smile. Lisa gazed at the light coming out through the windows before turning around.

This was the one and only gift she could give her stepmother. It was to not participate in her birthday party.

‘The school ceiling was leaking, so they canceled self-study. I haven’t eaten dinner yet.’ If she said these words, her stepmother would do her best not to betray her true thoughts, but she would ultimately be disappointed.

Her stepmother loved her father, and she loved Yuri, who had been born between them. However, she only raised Lisa out of a sense of duty.

And her father didn’t know what to do with his grown-up daughter from his previous wife. Rather than conversing with her, her conservative father merely gave her orders and commands.

“You need to go to medical school.”

“A woman must be modest. That’s how you’ll meet a good husband.”
These were the only kinds of things her father said to her.

After leaving her house, Lisa stood in the street as if she were lost. She was overwhelmed by loneliness. She felt as if she were being pushed out of the entire world.

She didn’t have anywhere to go, so she stopped by the convenience mart and bought herself a triangle kimbap before heading towards the playground. She sent Mina and Rose a text, but there wasn’t a response. They said they were going out for karaoke, and it seemed that they had left their phones somewhere and were having a grand old time.

How many hours should she stay at the playground?

She sat on the swing and looked up at the sky. She saw the white cherry blossoms shaking against the black night sky.

They bloomed at their peak but only lasted for a moment. But they shone so brightly when they were in bloom. Was that why they were her favorite flower?

Lisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She imagined how the cherry blossom petals would sprinkle down in a few days’ time.

However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t imagine the beautiful sight. She could only recall the conversation she had happened to overhear a few days ago.