Just One Chance, Please?

Middle-school Krystal

7:04 am

The doors of her room opened and her mother came in to wake her up. With the slightest of touch on her daughter’s arm, Mrs Jung gently shook Krystal, “Krystal-ah, time for school.”

Krystal turned to lay on her back, and one of her eyes slowly opened and blinked at the blinding sunlight enclosing the white-walled room. The back of her hand began rubbing her still weary eyes before she replied to her mother, “Five more minutes, please?”

“No can do,” her mother immediately responded, “This is the fifth time you’ve asked for five minutes. You have to get ready,” she told her.

“School starts at 8:30, Omma. It’s too early,” she complained slightly as she grabbed the nearest pillow and stuffed her head into it as she attempted to go back to sleep.

“Let’s see,” her mother began thinking, “You take around twenty minutes to eat breakfast as you bicker with your brothers, around half an hour to take a shower, ten minutes to get ready and then walk to school, which takes you around half an hour because you’re a lazy princess. I think you’re going to be late if you don’t get up,” she ended. However, Krystal stayed with no movements. Her mother had rolled her eyes and began shaking her robustly, “Come on, Krystal, you’re going to be in high school soon. You are such a lazy 15 year old.”

“Who did I get the genes from?” Krystal’s voice was muffled as she spoke through her pillow.

“Your father, of course.”

From the hallway, they heard a louse masculine voice, and the sound of footsteps. Mr Jung was then passing by halted in front of Krystal’s room, “Don’t lie to our dear daughter like that, sweetheart. It has always been ‘like mother, like daughter’.”

“Oh, hon, don’t kid yourself,” Mrs Jung shot back.

Refusing to form an argument, Mr Jung laughed it off and continued on his tracks down to the dining room.

“As for you, Krystal,” Mrs Jung spoke again, “Get up now. If you’re late to school, no internet for you.”

With those words, Krystal pushed her pillow away, sighed and gave her mother a whine, “How can you blackmail me like that?”

“It’s not blackmailing. It’s a statement. If you’re late to school, we’d get a ring from your school, which makes you be in trouble. And you know that if you get in trouble, we punish you. Well, maybe not you. Most probably your brothers, you’re the good child.”

Krystal only began blinking continuously.

“Now, when it’s your brothers, they usually get their guitars and video games taken away and get sent to their rooms to be die in boredom. You, however, are always in your room so sending you to your room is more like a reward than a punishment. If we ask you to go down, you’d bring either your laptop or your phone with you. So as a punishment for you, you can’t use the internet or any of your devices.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Yes, it is. Now get your butt up and get ready.”

Her mother then left her room and returned to the kitchen to continue her cooking. Krystal, however, let out a groan as she sat up and rubbed her still weary eyes again. “She got all my time right, except for the shower. I take like freaking three minutes. Plus, I don’t always walk to school. Please, I don’t have the energy for that.” She said to herself.

She went down to the dining table and began eating.

Realizing her younger brother was missing, she swallowed what she was biting and asked her older brother, “Where’s Sungha?”