Returned// Stray Kids

-28-

She was standing there.

There, in the garden where she was. She tended to the various roses that surrounded her as the scorching summer sun shone down on the beige straw hat that covered her wavy brown hair.

There was a smile on her face. It was small
however, noticeable from the large, second floor window that the young lady watched her from.

There, a beautiful melody rang through the empty place. Her hum was delicate and beautiful as the flowers she tended to.

There, the delicate hum was the only thing to accompany her small smile as she was surrounded by various roses.

There was where she drowned her sorrows.

Until they drowned her.

-

"Sorry I had to stay late to finish some reading some expansion proposals." The gruff man said as he tried to readjust his messy collar and tie.

"With Ms. Morales?" The boy in the black suit asked as he sat in his chair and stared at the painting in front of him, without bothering to look at the man.

"Of course, She is my secretary after all." he responded in a slight panic before reverting to his usual flippant tone.

"You know we are not stupid, right?" The boy responded With no emotion in his voice. He sounded as empty as his sister looked.

She had not moved from that spot nor uttered a single word. She only stood there, next to her brother, in hopes that maybe she could take her mother's place.

" I hope that's true with all the money I put into a private education for you too." He responded half heartedly. He almost had the audacity to laugh at his own joke, on a day like that.

" we've known about the cheating since the very beginning, But you know about that. Everybody knows about that. You humiliated her when all she could return you was a smile." The boy responded not leaving his seat, Not looking away from the painting, not even tilting his head.

"Now son-"

" no, Don't. To have so much money as you do, I just asume you're a smart man. Then you're smart enough to deduct why we're all here, all in one room without the flash of the cameras, all dressed in black,all regretting to be part of this wretched family. We are here for your wife's funeral. We are here for our mothers funeral. We are here for the death of the only light that was left in the dark hell."

The words that were announced from her older's brothers voice, such words of pain and hatred and regret, scared her.

She has been taught that love was such a beautiful thing, But all she saw in that room was the symptoms of a fatal disease.

" i'm leaving."

No one questioned it. No one dared to say a word. No one followed her. No one tried to comfort her. No one was there. No one.

that night, the night she disappeared from her old life, the night she escaped from her old life, was the night she realized that the only option was to protect herself by only trusting her self.