Lovely Nights || Zhong Chenle

3

The broken glass of shattered plates covered the kitchen floor.

I was asleep when I first heard the commotion coming outside of my bedroom. My mother had been fighting with my father again and I heard as he angrily stormed out of the house.

I carefully avoided the glass shards as I walked into the living room to check on her.

A bottle of anxiety pills lay open next to a bottle of alcohol. My mother lit a cigarette after taking another pill and puffed out the harsh nicotine smelling smoke.

I walked back to the kitchen and began to sweep away the broken glass. Using a small box, I carefully emptied the dustpan into the box so I could safely dispose of the shards.

After making sure the kitchen floor was safe, I checked on my mother again. She sobbed loudly as she took another pill with a swig of alcohol.

"Eomma!" I raised my voice and pulled the alcohol bottle away from her.

"Give that back to me." She tried to take it back but failed.

"You are going to end up killing yourself." I walked to the sink and drained the bottle of its content.

"Yah!" She yelled. "Who do you think you are to talk to me that way?"

I stayed silent as she yelled at me for the millionth time.

"Is that all you can do? Stay quiet. Are you mute?"

I looked down and tried to ignore her intoxicated words.

"It should have been you." She scoffed causing me to stand in place.

"You should have been the one to die!" She yelled, her eyes overflowing with tears.

My mother has yelled and called me names numerous times before but she has never told me those hurtful words ever before.

"You deserve to die you worthless brat!"

Although she had never said it, deep down I knew my mother held a strong hatred for me ever since the accident almost fours years ago.  Even though I wasn't shocked to hear her words they still hurt.

"If I could turn back time I would gladly trade places with him." I calmly stated. "I never asked to live in the first place."

My mother slapped my cheek causing me to fall back on to the ground.

"Worthless brat." She spat out in anger.

I rubbed the burning sensation on my cheek. Without saying another word I left and found myself knocking on the door of my cousins university dorm room.

"Y/N? What happened, what are you doing here?"

He pulled me inside his room and sat me down on his bed.

"Jungwoo it should've been me." I lightly sobbed, trying hard to hold my tears back.

He placed his hand around my shoulder.

"Don't ever say that again." He raised his tone before softening it again. "Listen y/n when the accident happened Jungmin made it clear that he wanted you to be saved first. He wanted you to live."

"But he shouldn't have had to make that decision in the first place. He wasn't suppose to be their Woo, it was all my fault because he came after me."

"It wasn't your fault, it was an accident."

"An accident caused by me."