From Killer to Lover - Minsung

Chapter 2

"Mommy, Mommy!" Jisung let out, his eyes sparkling.

"Yes sweetie?" His mom answered, smiling weakly, her shift had finished a mere 15 minutes ago.

"Look at this!" He said, showing his mom a torn magazine he found while rummaging in his room. The magazine showed a little boy building a small castle using LEGO bricks.

"Oh.." His mom's smile faltered at that. "Fun, yeah" She continued, hesitantly.

"I know right!!" Jisung said, giggling brightly. "Can I have that?! Please!!! I'll do ALLL the chores for a week"

His mom sighed. "Jisungie, mommy's money can only afford food, and other veryy important things." She started, kissing his forehead gently. "We can't."

Jisung pouted, making her weak expression turn pained. "I'm sorry baby. Maybe one day."

"When?" He asked innocently.

"I.. uhm..." His mom's eyes fell to the ground in shame. "I don't know sweetie.." She sighed. "But I know it'll be soon, so no sadness, okay?" She lied, not wanting her poor baby to realize the harsh reality of this hell so soon.

"Okay!" Jisung said, flashing a silly bread smile. "No sad"

"Yes, exactly" She said, chuckling weakly. She wondered when her son would begin to see through her obviousness.

"Jisungie, it's time for bed now—"

"Nooo!!" He protested. "I wanna hangout with Mommy! I wanna go to park i'm boredd, please?" He begged cutely with broken grammar.

His mom gulped, trying to find the right words. She felt incredibly bad having to reject Jisung twice.

"Baby, look at your arm" She started, pointing to the bandages placed all over his small and fragile arm. "This is what happened when we went to the park last time." She winced, hating her past self for not being careful and letting this happen to him. "Outside is full of bad guys, we need to be careful and stay safe. Once the park is safe from bad guys, we'll go, okay?"

"Aww.. ok!!" He responded. "Why bad guys in park?" He asked, eyes glistening with curiosity.

"Well.. bad guys like to make smart plans, they only target certain areas to get the most out of their bad behavior." His mom explained, trying to censor the truth as much as possible to not scare the little boy. "Staying inside is best for us, it's safely locked away from these bad people"

"No fair!" Jisung pouted, crossing his arms.

"I know Jisungie I know.. soon we'll be free though." His mom responded, stroking his hair.

"Why everything 'soon'? Why not now?" He asked, now frowning at all his dreams being postponed. Why couldn't he do anything besides lay in bed?

"I.." His mom fell short on words, and it didn't take long for Jisung's eyes to begin watering after seeing the sight. He had tried so hard to stay delusional, but his emotions took over today, it was too much. No park, no LEGO, no hangout, nothing.

"I want fun.." He sobbed, his voice wavering. "Lonely." He blurted out inbetween his broken cries, not registering he was admitting this.

"Baby.." His mom started, but was interrupted by Jisung's dad from the other room. "Honey!!! Come here ASAP. One of our documents has a huge chunk of it missing, and we don't have any backups of it." He yelled out so he could be heard. His mom took a deep breath, before turning to the voice. "Coming!" She responded. She slowly turned back to Jisung, engulfing him in a lazy hug. "I have to go now, Jisungie. No sad, okay?"