I'm sorry, sunshine

24

"On the day I fell into the sea with Joanne, did you intentionally save her first? Did you want our child to pay for the life of your little sister's child?"

"Yes, an eye for an eye."

Mon grabbed her collar with both hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Are you crazy? Our child hadn't even had a chance to see the world yet. Our child is innocent!"

Tilting her head, she smiled devilishly. "Then, what did my little sister do wrong? Wasn't her child innocent too?"

Mon looked at Sam, who now seemed like a completely different person. She knew that she would never get over this.

"Sam, I understand how losing your little sister has hurt you..."

Sam's expression shifted, and she yelled, "You don't understand! No one can truly share my pain. My little sister was born premature and had poor health. She had heart disease. She was the cherished treasure of our entire family, and because of your dad, she died so tragically!"

Sam reached out slowly, gently caressing Mon's cheeks. "You will never know how I felt when I identified her body. When I removed the white cloth, I was filled with utter despair. Instead of finding out that she was dead and that I'd never see her again, I wish I had never found her."

Mon opened her mouth but couldn't find the right words to say, and even apologizing to Song would be disrespectful. She finally understood why Sam had been emotional and why she had looked at her like that.

Mon knelt on the ground, gripped her collar, and pressed her forehead against her. "Sam, you must have been in so much pain, but you already took revenge for her. My family has gone bankrupt, I lost our child, and my dad lies unconscious in a hospital bed. Can't we stop tormenting each other?"

Mon hadn't spoken to her like that for a long time. The sound of her voice caused Sam to tremble, and a myriad of emotions flooded her heart. With no knowledge of her thoughts, Mon anxiously waited for an answer. Could they reconcile? She didn't want her to continue torturing herself every day.

After a long time, Sam slowly lifted her head, her eyes bloodshot as she fought back her tears. Brushing her cheek with her coarse fingers, she said, "Mon, you will repay the debt your dad owes me."

Tears streamed down Mon's cheeks. She knew that she and Sam could never go back to how things were before. Sam had betrayed her and destroyed the Fovert, and the Fovert owed her. Those debts could never be settled. Trying to resolve them would only serve to tighten the knots of their relationship, suffocating them and leading to an inevitable end.

Sam held her face with her hands, wiping away her tears. "Mon, don't love me. Hate me instead. I betrayed you, I killed our child, and I can never turn back."

Mon sensed her inner turmoil, but amidst that, she could feel the tenderness she still had for her like a calm oasis in a turbulent desert sandstorm.

"Sam, I already hate you, but at the same time, I still love you, even though you have already done many things to me. I don't know why it is so hard to hate you to the core," said Mon honestly while crying.

"We're the same, Mon. Maybe in another universe, I deserve you. Maybe there's a universe where I'm the right person for you. If you think of it all this way, then it's like neither of us did anything wrong. You just found me in the wrong universe," said Sam. She used her soft tone for Mon. "It's true that I hate you because you are that bastard's daughter, but I already apologized to you a little bit because I know you are innocent in this matter. However, I need to hate you for another reason."

"It's your ego, right?"

"Not only that."

"Can you tell me what the reason is?" asked Mon.

"No, not now. Can you wait for me a little bit? Just a few years," said Sam with a pleading face. "Please bear with my behavior. After everything is over, you can punish me as you wish. I don't care."

"A few years?" mumbled Mon. "I don't want to make a promise to you starting from now."

"Why?" asked Sam.

"Why should I talk to you if you did not talk to me about your other reason?"

Sam silenced herself.

"If you don't see me anywhere, look at the stars at night. In the morning, you can drink milk tea while remembering me."

"You can't go anywhere!" Sam said sternly.

"I'm not going anywhere. I will always be in your heart or somewhere you can't see."

"Are you a kid to play hide and seek?"

"If it's the two of us playing hide and seek, I'm sure I'm the winner. You won't find me unless you follow me," said Mon with a sad smile.

"Enough with your nonsense. Go to your room. Forget we ever talked like this. It's for both of our safety," said Sam firmly.

Mon went to her bedroom. She lay down on the bed.

"Song, I will follow you in a few months. I decided to punish myself for my dad's behavior," mumbled Mon.

At midnight, Mon went downstairs to get warm water. She saw Sam sleeping on the living room table. She could tell that Sam was busy with her work until she fell asleep.

Mon took the blanket from her room and placed it on Sam's back. "I hope Joanne can take care of you better than I can when I am already in a beautiful place with your little sister and granny. Besides that, this is punishment for me. I will leave you. This is more than enough to be called punishment from me."

Mon tucked Sam's hair behind her ear. "In this game you made, I am the winner," said Mon with a sad smile.