Vulnerable Heart

Chapter 5: Day 5: Wounded Animal

The halls of the So Mansion were empty. Not a maid, butler, nor any other working servant in the home lay awake. Yi Jeong himself slept soundly in his own bedroom waiting for the night to end and the day to return. 

"Yi Jeong!"


"Yi Jeong!"

The screams that disturbed the sleep of many were heard first before frantic footsteps came. It was the sound of insanity that would wake Yi Jeong up that morning and with it, that familiar feeling of emptiness filled his air and dread and rage clouded his senses. He knew she was coming closer with her footsteps but he refused to listen. Not again. Not another time. Not when he knew what would have happened each and every single time he became a pawn in their game. 

She would send him off to find him and in return, he would hurt him with his words and his narcissism as he spoke ill of her, of his brother, of him. There was such a void in both his parent's eyes that Yi Jeong was afraid he would one day become them. The loud bang on his door caused him to sit up from his bed. The door shook with ferocity one would think it was about to break. How his mother managed to have such strength Yi Jeong could only amount it to desperation.

"Please. You have to help me!"


"He's out with her again." She cried from outside the door and all Yi Jeong could do was swallow her words, his pain, and this situation without truly letting it go.

Countless of times he had been in this scene. He realized and knew, that the more she begged, pleaded and cried. The easier he gave in. Why? Because even if this was his life and his parents were screwed up he loved his mother. It was watching her and watching his father seeing one-sided love. The cruelty of the situation that sickened him of such a thing. Love? 
Love was anything but that. It was destruction. It was a feeling that faked security to both or one of the parties involved until someone decided their feelings were fleeting. It was then that everything you hoped and dreamed for, that future with that other person, those smiles, that happiness; they meant nothing but destruction. 

Love was something that hurt and ate you up until you became a slave to that other person. A person who did not care about you in the end. Love was something that dragged you down and caused not only loneliness but insanity. 

"Please Yi Jeong!"


"Please!" He continued to hear. His body shook and a lump in his throat formed. 

Yi Jeong was no idiot. There was always this situation but the desperation in her voice led Yi Jeong to know that his mother was close again. How long before they committed her this time? How long before she's taken pills again? Would she slice her wrists? Would she die? 

The last thought in his head sends him into a frenzy while she continues to cry and beg and pound on his door and it's too much. He wants to shout; he wants to tell her to go away. That he's through with this. She begins to tell him about what she knows about his father's whereabouts but Yi Jeong can't take it. Like a child, he covers his ears and he feels that they're going to drag him into their insanity. 


"Shut up!"


"Shut up!" He wants to yell as she continues with more pleads. 

Whether the house has awakened or not Yi Jeong knows he has no help. The servants they silently hear; never once do they help when these moments occur. His father is too careless and far too obsessed with himself to care about the situations he leaves for everyone else to take care of. As for his brother. His brother has left a long time ago and given the duties of sacrifice to Yi Jeong. 

"I hate you!"


"You're the worst of my children!"


"I've sacrificed and given so much for you but you have done nothing for me!"