REPLAY | anime one shots

don't you mind? [9/12]

i put your mother through hell.

rika gave saeyoung a new life, a new name. without any other choice but to leave his brother behind, luciel escapes to a secret agency, thanks to rika's guidance.

though, he is the only one who benefits from that decision. two others' lives were ruined.

"saeyoung!" his mother calls with only silence in return. she bursts through the door of their room to find one empty bed: saeyoung's bed. "saeran! where is your brother?"

the red headed boy jolts awake at the sound of his mother's screams and looks to the right. "i.. i don't know."

she immediately thought of the worst possible outcome. his father must have found him. if he didn't, then he will soon, she is sure of it. saeyoung being out in the real world with nowhere to go, while defenseless and confused, is the perfect time for his father's men to snatch him.

this just makes her even more angry and more paranoid. with one less boy as blackmail, their father is winning. and this isn't the end of their mother's paranoia and suffering.

"do you want to learn what he has?" rika asks the abandoned young boy one day. the mother was already forced to allow her son to learn at a school, but she never would have expected what was to come soon.

"like he did?" the abandoned boy asks, curious. this offer definitely grabs his attention. he could learn about those numbers and letters in those books he used to read? sure, saeran knows the basics now, but he has no knowledge on hacking.

"it's possible, you could be even better than he ever was," she says. she is definitely very persuasive.

"b—better?"

"yes! i can get you out of here, and teach you!" the girl exclaims, a large grin on her face. the boy wants nothing more than to leave this place and see his brother again. studying the same books that he did and doing what he does, would it bring him back?

"w—will i see saeyoung?"

the young lady gives him a sad smile but shakes her head. "he's left you. but if you come with me, i will take you to paradise. you can be happy."

"paradise?" he wants to see his brother. he needs to see his brother, but this nice lady is giving him a chance to leave this abusive, horrible excuse of a mother. he wants to accept.

"yes. there, you won't need your brother. you can have everything," she promises.

it all seemed too good to be true. he could be happy? even though everyone he's ever known has hurt or left him? he can't even picture being happy without his other half. just thinking about it makes him feel depressed.

"how?" he looks at her with admiration. just what is she to be able to heal his lonely heart and fill it with happiness?

"just get rid of whatever is making you unhappy. and come with me." she says it like it's so easy. there are so many things standing in the way of him being happy. how could he just get rid of them?

"b-—but how can i leave?"

she laughs. "by walking through the front door! how else?"

he gives her a weird stare. that is impossible. "b—but...my mother?"

"does she make you unhappy? then you already know the answer."

his heart is racing, and her smile is growing. what exactly does she mean by get rid of his mother? he couldn't possibly kill her. it's his mother after all.

"if you don't do it, you will forever be controlled by this, by her," rika says, and he agrees. now that he thinks about it, his mother is the only thing between him and his happiness.

"i.. i have to do this, don't i?" or he will never be free of her.

rika is the cause of her constant state of paranoia and anger, the cause for her main source of blackmail escaping, and finally, is the cause of her death by persuading her own son to end her life.

life truly was a living hell, and although most of this she did to herself just from being an awful person, rika was the cause for nearly half of her suffering.

–

"rika? rika?"

"i am not. i—i am not a murderer. it wasn't my fault. i.." it was her fault.

"i never said you were," her therapist says, giving her a worried look. she shakes her head, continuing to be in denial.

"i was saving him. she didn't deserve happiness."

–

Another update bc I just wanna end this short story already damn