TAEYEON & THE ONE - LIKE A STAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIKlrQ-r2xc

After her father had left, Summer took in a deep, uneasy breath. When she let it go, it was shaky and full of nerves. She had only cried for a bit, but it was enough to show her mother how vulnerable she was in that moment. She wiped her eyes and got up. She held out her hand to her mother, who without hesitance took it in a firm grab.

“Oh god, hon, I don’t know what I was thinking! I’m the worst kind of mother. I should’ve protected you in that moment. What is wrong with me?” her mother cried into her hands.

Summer wiped the tears off her cheeks. She could feel the skin on her left eye beating in a sort of numbing pain. She didn’t shed tears because of the pain though. “Mom, don’t let him come back here. Please, he’s not a good man anymore.”

Her mother peeled her hands away from her face. She looked up at her daughter with a crestfallen expression. “Does your eye hurt? Do you want to go to the hospital?” She began to raise her hands to touch the forming bruise but Summer stopped her.

“You act like I’ve never had a black eye before, Mom. I’m okay.” Summer reassured her.

Her mother dropped her gaze in shame, and covered her lips with her hands instead. A thousand thoughts running through her mind, like what is going to happen? He had to come back because all his things are here. “I don’t know what happened to him,” she sighed, on the verge of tears again. “He was not like this when we moved here. I don’t understand how he could change so suddenly. Maybe he’s just stressed from work…?”

“Bull. He overreacted over nothing; spouted nonsense about you when he’s the one not returning home to his family at the end of the night. He’s in the wrong. Let’s forget about it Mom, go to sleep, tomorrows a new day.” Summer tugged onto her mothers wrist but she pulled back.

Her mother wiped her tears. She shook her head and said, “At least put some ice on your eye before it gets worse. I don’t know how you’ll be able to go to work looking like that, hon.”

It completely slipped Summer’s mind that she had work the next day. She cursed inwardly to herself. “I’ll think of something.”

“Come, let’s put ice on it and then I promise I’ll try to sleep.”

Summer nodded, and watched her mother go back into the kitchen. She glanced back at the door where her Dad had left thirty minutes ago. She bit her lip, and then strode towards it. She made sure all the locks were locked. The last thing I want is to have this come home and hurt us again. Good riddance.

Summer sauntered back to the kitchen, only to see her mother slumped over the kitchen sink with the empty bottle of beer in her hand. She had poured its entire content out, and now was crying again. Feeling heartbroken at the sight, Summer came over and hugged her mother from the back.

“I had so much hope for us as a family…” her mother sobbed. “I wanted us to be like how we were in Hong Kong before all of this. I want those moments back.”

She listened to her mother’s woes, and felt nothing but pity for her mother. She couldn’t remember those memories at all. She was too young at the time to even make sense of things. All she had was flashbacks of certain moments from Hong Kong, but those moments were not worth being stored in her mind, so as the years went on, the memories began to lose its touch.

“You’ll always have me, Mom,” Summer vowed. “You’re pretty and amazing daughter, Summer!”

Her mother sniffled her nose and let out a small chuckle. “You’re the one who has the black eye yet you’re trying to cheer me up. Aren’t I a terrible, Mom?”

“No, you’re pretty