“Wait ‘til I catch you! You’ll regret-”

“I can’t hear you old man! Hahahaha!”

Her laughter is drowned by the honking and motor sounds of cars and motorcycles passing by, but she remained careless as ever, running across the street, passing through the rush hour despite of the risks at hand, just like when she was a kid.

Ever since she was a kid.

By the time she reached the other side of the road with a huge grin on her lips, the one chasing remained to be slouching, catching his breath and cursing the fact that she’s much younger to be able to get away easily.

Waving while jumping playfully, like a bunny with a twitching nose due to excitement, she felt like her summer is really nearing its end.

“See you soon! I hope you’re not bald yet when we meet again!”

“That brat-!”

--

“We have a new dish and-”

“I’ll just get the usual, but thank you for the offer.”

“Of course, it’s our pleasure miss.”

Smiling out of courtesy, she returned her gaze at the glass of cold water half-finished already, face glowing after remembering the day a promise was left to her, when the person whom she considers as one of the most important persons in her life, became her coach in swimming for her to lose her fear of drowning and maintain her golden girl image knowing that those who are behind her strict upbringing belong to the higher members of the society.

Knowing that it’ll be less than a week now before they meet again, she can’t help but think how great summer has been, but it’s got to end sooner or later.

“Jen?”

As the newcomer sat across her, instead of saying anything, she just smiled, trying to hold back from showing her excitement, from resembling her mother who got too hyped up every time her husband comes home from the office.

After all, she’s never known to be affectionate.

--

 “Stop being a stupid brat, you need to go home already. You know you can’t hide in that closet forever.”

“No! Ma’s the one who’s stupid! Why would she want to replace Pa with that ugly guy?!”

“Hey, remembered what you wished during your birthday? The one you wrote in that crappy-looking notebook of yours.”

 “Rabbits are cute!”

“Fine, fine, but you remember right?”

Silence.

“…You wished for Ma’s happiness, isn’t it? Well, this is it, it’s now happening. She’s never smiled that brightly ever since Pa died. And you know it. Do you really want to be selfish this time? That person’s not stealing her away from us, but we do need to understand, her life should not revolve around us only.”

By this time, with the help of her words, the boy opened the closet slowly, before hurrying towards his older sister and hugging her tightly.

Right at that moment, with the two clinging towards each other, and tears straining their cheeks, he hates that he’s still a kid and can’t do any action that would strengthen his words, while she misses being a kid when she could breakdown and have someone immediately comfort her.

“It’s not wrong to feel that pain kid. You’re hurt, because you care so much for her. Be aware of that feeling… you don’t want her to feel the same way, right?”

--

“Hey watch out!”

Feeling the jolting pain from the accidentally gripped fresh bruise on her right arm brought her back from spacing out. Realizing the cause of the stranger’s commotion was out of the fact that she almost killed by suddenly stepping forward as if crossing the highway, in the middle of rush hour, she faced him and quickly bowed, suddenly asking for forgiveness due to the incident she caused, which seemed like her about to do a suicide.

“If you want to die, do it somewhere else without anyone or anything that could disturb you, not in a place where you could be the root of other accidents!”

“I’ll be going now, I’m sorry again for my carelessness.”

“W-wait!”

Looking back at the direction of the person who just saved her, she saw distress on his face, as if something’s wrong and she’s the only person who doesn’t know anything.

“Your arm, we’re you… I’m sorry as well, I… I probably used too much force. You looked hurt so-”

“It’s fine. I’m fine. It was my fault anyways. Thank you for the concern. I’ll cross now while the green light’s still on. Sorry for the disturbance once again.”

With this, she walked straight without looking back, gritting her teeth from the pain still pulsing from her bruised arm. She can’t wear any sleeveless clothes, or she’ll have a hard time dealing with the questions around her. After all, despite of the anger that had already filled her mind after all the beatings she received from her own parents, she was born because of them. She’ll stay alive and care for them as long as they live, until they’ve all grown old and have hard time to move around.

“I’ll be fine.”

Feeling the first drops of rain touching her cheeks, she let the tears out, thankful that she could hide her pitiful self like a tree in a forest.