Chapter 22

It was the same stormy night at the hospital. A weak figure was laid down on the patient’s bed as the sound of the heart rate meter rings to Ahra’s ears. She was holding her mother’s cold hands, rubbing it with hers.

“Mom, why is your hands cold?” the three-year old Ahra asked.

Her mother gave her a faint smile across her face, looking weak and tired of catching her breath. “She’s ill, Ahra.” The two girls turned to look at the young man that is, Ahra’s father. “So why is ‘ill’ make your hands cold?” Ahra asked innocently. The two adults laughed softly. Her father grabbed Ahra by the waist and pulled her putting her on the bed beside her mother. “Ahra, can you promise mommy something?” Ahra nodded to her mother’s faint words.

“I want these hands of yours to be always warm. Don’t ever let it be cold and weak to be able to help others, just like me.”

The weak mother held tightly the two small hands, looking at Ahra’s eyes, deeply. Ahra nodded saying that she accepted the promise from her mother. The woman smiled at her cute daughter and then coughed off blood, feeling much weaker than before.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Her heart rate increases very fast. Ahra stared at her coughing mother as her father calls for the doctor. Her eyes weren’t blinking as she watches her mother died in front of her. Her hands couldn’t help her own mother made her deeply broken into pieces. BEEEEEEEP. When the doctor and the nurses entered the room, Ahra moved closer to her mother, holding her cold hands. But this time, her mother didn’t squeezed back.

“Mom…?”

“Ahra, you have to go outside. Let the doctors do their job.”

“Daddy, why’s mom sleeping?”

“Ahra, listen to me.”

“It’s still morning. Why is she sleeping?”

Her father grabbed her shoulder and walked her outside the door, leaving her speechless after the scene she just watched and her question unanswered. Her mother died in front of her.

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After that incident, Ahra’s father locked himself after leaving Ahra in Hyemi’s family’s care. He was upset living without his wife, thinking that he needed time to redeem himself as a single father. “Ahra! A phone call from your father!” Hyemi’s mother called for Ahra and handed the phone to her with a bright smile on her face. Ahra was excited, happy to hear such wonderful news.

She has been waiting for her father to call her ever since he locked himself up. Ahra was now 6 and it has been three years not seeing her own father. Hyemi came running downstairs wanting to listen to the call too, but while she was running, she tripped and began to cry. Her mother picked her up as Hyemi her thumb trying to stop her crying.

“Daddy! I miss you! I love you!”

“Ahra,” the manly voice through the phone made Ahra felt really happy, “I’m going to leave to Australia tomorrow.” For Ahra in her age, she knew that Australia is far from South Korea. She knew that if her father goes there, she won’t be able to see him. With her being speechless, her father knew that his daughter was shocked by his sudden leave.

“I’m doing this so I can take good care of you as a single father,” he told her cheerfully, not wanting her to be upset. “Now, give this phone to Aunty, so I can tell her to let you stay there a bit longer.” Ahra did what she was told. Hyemi’s mother looked at Ahra who was frowning trying to hold her tears. Hyemi in her hands was put down, curious to why Ahra was starting to tear up.

Ahra went upstairs, quickly followed by Hyemi.

“Daddy hates me! He hates me!” she began to cry. Hyemi was absent not knowing what she meant but she hugged Ahra telling her that everything’s going to be okay…

But it’s not.

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It was noon; Ahra was nearly seven and was waiting for her father’s return at the airport after hearing the great news from the phone that she had last night.

Hyemi’s parents who had Ahra in their care for 4 years now were there with their also 7 year old daughter, Hyemi. Ahra had this bright smile from ear to ear, impatient to see her father once again, after all her father was the only family she had left.

The sliding door opens and the 4 people who were waiting saw a familiar figure that is Ahra’s father. Ahra ran towards him and hugged her father, happily. The man was happy that he picked Ahra up and let her fly up in the air to see his daughter smiley face. He didn’t change a lot, only his style of fashion. He was wearing branded clothing in black with a tie right at his collar.

“Ehem!” The happy father puts down his lovely daughter as they both heard the harsh sounding woman behind his back.

It was a beautiful lady, wearing sunglasses, a black uniform with blue clothing underneath. Ahra could see she was wearing too much makeup that it disgusts her. Even for a 7 year old, Ahra knew at least about makeup beauty. Her father frowned to see the woman and then turned to introduce her to Ahra with an unsatisfying smile, “Umm, this is your new mother, Ahra.”

Ahra gasped to know that the person was her new mother. She didn’t want this, she wanted to deny it but in a mannered way, “Dad, she’s not the one who gave birth to me. She’s not considered as a mother.”

The woman who was to be Ahra’s new mother clasped her sunglasses and let it a little open to see her daughter-to-be much more clearly. She glared at Ahra made the little poor girl felt a chill on her spine.

Ahra’s father went closer to Ahra and grasped her hands that were 3 times smaller than his, “Ahra, you know that your mother is not here anymore. And you know that, it is hard for me to take care of you alone. This is all for our relationship as father and daughter.” Hearing those words from her own father, it breaks her. She of course had only to agree with her father’s words.

Ahra walked towards the family that took good care of her for those 4 years, she thanked them with a sad face. Hyemi’s mother looked at the little girl with eyes worried for her future, but she can only hope that everything will go well.

And yet it only gets worse.

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(Himchan’s POV)

“Not long after her father and that woman got married, her father died to food poisoning. Everyone blamed the mother and that everyone also includes Ahra,” Hyemi finished her story for me.

As she finished, I became quiet and then glanced at Hyemi whose face looked doleful, staring at her hands that was holding tightly with each other trying to hold her tears from crawling out from her eyes.

I was about to cheer her up but she continued before me, “Ahra also promised to herself that she won’t ever let anyone leaves before her in front of her eyes anymore.”

She turned to the other way, wiping her tears not letting me look at her, crying.

I felt guilty for asking her about Ahra’s past. I made Hyemi cried and I don’t like it. I pulled her hands away from her eyes and kissed both of her eyelids. Her eyes sparkled under the moon light after her crying. Her wet cheeks were colored red, blushing. “Don’t cry,” I asked her.

With that, she smiled and wiped her teary eyes. I looked back at Ahra who was sitting near Zelo who was lying on the coach, sick. I know that Ahra will do everything to protect her love ones. At that same moment, I knew that Zelo is in good hands. I smiled looking at Hyemi who was also staring at Ahra.

‘I will also do the same.’ 

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a/n: This one is long~ finally.. >w<