Young and troubled Kaia realized that she is slowly losing it all, she is slowly being swallowed by blackness and emptiness. It started from the bottom of her heart; then one day she learned that inside her body, within her skinーis a void.
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It is hard to explain when it all started to go wrong or when it started to feel that way—even Kaia herself has long been entirely oblivious to what's happening with her body, what's going on in her mind, and what has happened to her heart.
The tumbler that her father bought had been kept by her mother for months since he got it for Kaia. It was a cute, hello-kitty design, with pink almost everywhere— but it's fragile.
She can't use it for now. She is six and reckless. There was a high chance she would break it. Her mother has thought. She has known her kid enough to observe destructive her hands were. As a child, it could have been normal. Mostly, as a kid, Kaia is unusally clumsy and recklessly feeble.
Her mother tried her best to pamper her. To protect her from harm. She resents seeing things on her skin. Whether it was a insect sting, an abrasion, a bruise, or a wound. She would scold her, she would treat her wounds. From then on, Kaia learned to protect herself from any harm, not really to protect her skin but to protect herself from the threat of her mother. She just doesn't want to be scolded. She doesn't want her to be mad.
"I told you to stop scratching so much. Look at your legs; it's all messed up!"
Her mother made her wear knee socks to school, always in pajamas; she kept her moisturized; she kept her skin with no dents or scratches.
"Aren't you going to join?" A classmate asked, referring to their game. Kaia shook her head shyly.
"B-baka magalit si Mama," Kaia mumbled, and she understandingly nodded.
As much as she hated why she seemed bound by her mother's preference, it never really crossed her mind why her mother was so tight. She's smart enough to perceive it as a mother's love and care, and yet she isn't composed enough to question it, hence the obedience.
She is the obedient daughter; she is labeled and complemented by other parents as such.Or at the very least, she once was.
She used to, they used to, and now who would have thought her head would turn as hard as the stone she once threw upon her father due to her stubbornness?
Who would have thought the gentle and pampered young girl who's always on knee socks, frequently sent and fetched to school, timid young Kaia would be out there jeopardizing her own skin and body?
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Dumadagdag kalang sa problema!"
"Aren't you embarrassed?! Because I am! I am literally the president of the PTA board, and my child is involved in such an awful, disgraceful shenanigan."
"Are you part of some gang, huh? Tell me so that I can drop you out of that school!"
That's just a few of the things she heard from her mother after she learned that the 11-year-old, 6th grade Kaia is involved in a seemingly trend on their elementary campus that caused her to get into the principals and guidance office for that.
