THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DISTRACTION

CHAPTER-1 (When tears don't fall)

Everyone dreams of breaking free from their chains, weighed down by the weight of their past.

But much like all things we've spent time with, however painful, becomes tolerable. Once heavy, now glides with ease.

The problem is, the same can't be said with our past. Tell me, if you marinate a chicken in a kilo of salt, does it not get more salty over time?

Would you eat it? Would you consider it inedible and start anew? Would you try to salvage it? Or, Would you find someone who prefers their chicken to taste like the seven seas?

The problem with today's generation is, we think that eating it, starting again, saving it, and finding someone to tolerate it are different separate situations. But the truth is, those realization happen simultaneously, an all in one process of wisdom.

So what does it all mean? What's the point of the analogy?

The point I'm trying to make, is that when you let your salty past marinate you for a long period of time, you would lose all sense of its effect, and the only thing that shows you its severity is that you would feel nothing at all.

And when you've come to the realisation that you've changed for the worse, you would've only been left with those four thoughts of just staying the same, can I still change myself? Can I start over? And, Someone would still love me, right?....

*Bell rings*

As the students prepared to leave, the teacher gave an announcement

"Before I dismiss you, I would like to give you an assignment."

"Create an essay about how love sustains you, and how the wrong interpretation of it could corrupt and kill a man."

"Isn't that a little too deep Mr. Erwin? Shouldn't we at least know what love is first?" Said a student.

"This Isn't even the shore, how would you survive life with such a shallow judgement of things. Do as I say, I will allow complaints after. And for its length, it is up to you, as long as you think it would satisfy my standards."

*students sighs*.

"This is stupid, how are we supposed to know what to write about that essay, we don't even know what it is, we don't even know if we've experienced it. Zig, say something man."

Jun uttered angrily.

Zig became silent, as if he's heard nothing, knowing that nothing he says could possible persuade his friend.

"Forget it, I'm gonna go home, I'll use a.i. for thus anyway. See you bro."

Jun said as he was leaving.

"Alone again" Zig murmured under his breath. "As I've always been" he followed.

The slow paced walk, the tired eyes, the fleeting smile, how pretentious of him. Smiling around the campus like life's been good to him.

Time passed, and he finally arrived home, a dark yet spacious place.

As he opened the door, the warm embrace of its emptiness greeted him with a smile, once again, tormenting a part of his mind he chose to hide away, while his four walls speaks, asking how his day has been.

The once fleeting smile of this teenager now completely gone, held the burden of his day's suffering. The TV was on, in this well lit house, yet his eyes could no longer hold entertainment, and how the light that fills the place, once shared with a smile, now only serves to keep his dark thoughts away.

He took out his assignment, and pondered on it whole walking aimlessly around his house.

"Love? What a joke,  as if I could write about something that does not exist".

"I grew up alone, and I'd probably die alone. Why do people think it's sad, or it's a burden to end that way? Well, at least not for me, I find it comforting knowing how I'd end up one day."

Zig said as he was walking around talking to himself.

Much like any frustrated teen stuck in a question, he took to the Internet to find the answer, only to be put in more confusion about false interpretation and exaggerated testimonies.

"Bullshit" that's what the older generations call it, something unbelievable, or close to a lie. In todays modern world, the closest affection we could have is from an artificial intelligence chat bot.

"That's too good to be true, it's probably not impossible, but I don't think it's for everyone as well. I can't believe how naive people can be, thinking that love is destined for everyone HAHAHAHA"

He said laughing in exaggeration.

As he continued to scroll,

 his eyes began to fill themselves with desperation, 

tears compounded in his eyes for each second it took for him to realize the weight of his word.