All This Time [Book 3] | Pentagon✔

Chapter 17

Chapter 17
Cookies
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Yeeun's mom looked surprise to see her that night in the kitchen, preparing dinner for the both of them.

"Oh, you're back already? I thought the roadtrip will last for two weeks?" She asked, tossing her bag on the couch. She removed her white shoes and hang her white robe on the rack before she approached in the kitchen. Yeeun gave her cheek a quick kiss.

"It's just... one week. I was mistaken." She lied, preparing the table.

Her mom sat across from her. "So, how was it?" she asked, eyeing her.

Yeeun didn't want to meet her mom's scrutining eyes. "Great. I... had fun."

Her mother began eating and then she nodded. "You had the chance to have fun. Now, you gotta focus on your internship, Yeeun. This isn't a joke. You don't know how big of a deal it is to be Mr. Yoo Hyunmin's intern. A lot of aspiring doctors in South Korea want to work with him and learn from him. You are lucky I've done him a favor in the past. I mentioned you are aspiring to be in the medical field and... he offered help, so I grabbed it."

Her mom talks about medical field with so much passion. She admired it at first, but now it just sickened her along with the pressure on her shoulders. She forced a smile and her voice sounded somewhat choked. "Yeah, I'll... work hard."

"You should. Remember, not everyone gets a chance like this."

She stared at her food, her fingers tightening around her chopsticks. "How could I forget when you always remind me?" She asked, surprised by herself.

Her mom stopped eating. A dread danced in her stomach. "Do we have a problem here?"

The corner of her eyes burned. "No, I'm sorry. I'm just... tired from the trip."

Her mom sighed and continued eatingㅡand talking. "That's what you get for doing such thing. You should have just studied to top in the medical school. You can have fun later in life, but once you become a doctor, you can save so many lives."

She looked at her mom in the eyes for the first time. "Are you having fun?"

"What?"

"You said I can have fun later in life, but when, mom? You've been saying that since I was, like, whatㅡin first grade? It's what I lived by in high school. The promise that I could have fun later in life if I just... focused on my studies. And now, I'm almost twenty-three and I feel like..." she trailed off, her chest tightening. "I feel like I'm just going through the motions of life. I feel like I'm wasting away. I feel like I'm left behindㅡ"

"What do you mean you are wasting away? You are working hard to become someone in this world. You will learn from this one month experience in the hospital. You will get in the medical school and you will practice medicine. Yeeun, I don't understand. We have your whole future mapped out. What do you mean you are left behind? You are at an advantageㅡ"

"No, you don't understand." Yeeun said shaking her head, tears blurring her vision. "Just answer me, mom. Are you having fun?"

Her mother stared at her in confusion and disbelief. "I save lives every day. If feeling accomplished is what you mean by 'fun', then yes, I am."

"No," she said. "No," she repeated, "That is not fun. That is responsibility. I meant funㅡlike being around people you care about and doing spontaneous things with them. Fun, like laughing with your friends around the bonfire, like listening to the waves in the beach and feeling completely contented, like singing along to the song you like in the car. Funㅡlike, opening up to people you trust. Like, like..." Her breath hitched. "Like falling in love for the first time."