They weren’t married when they had me, it was an accident, a mistake of two teenagers probably getting high on ‘love’ and not thinking about the consequences, me.” Jimin was about to deny it but he just let his friend continue “My mother, she didn’t want to get rid of me, she kept me even though she was a senior and only 18, she was a good student and had a bright future ahead of her but she chose me over that future. My father…he didn’t want to give up so soon, so he left my mother a letter saying he’s sorry and that he’ll come back when he was ready and can support both of us. She had no choice but to believe in him. My grandparents, until now I never saw them once. When she decided to keep me they cut her off completely. And she had to survive while being pregnant with me with the little money they gave her.”

Taehyung in a deep breath slowly letting it out then continued “Five years later, my mother had worked her off to put a roof over our heads and put food on the table. We were barely living when he showed up in his fancy suit and fancy car. He actually came back for us. Mom was overjoyed but I didn’t understand then why she was so happy to meet a stranger. Then when we moved in with him, I understood that that man was my father.

We lived together for the next couple years, life couldn’t get any better for us three. Mom returned to school, she graduated high school and moved on to college. On her third year in business school, my father’s company started going downhill and before we realized it, it was bankrupt.  No more fancy clothes, no fancy car, and no fancy house. We were back to level zero. My father probably couldn’t take the hard life, so he took on drinking thinking it will numb his suffering but it alcohol was never the solution, it just made everything worse without the actual person realizing it.

He wasted the little money we had on his new found hobby, gambling. Like matters couldn’t get worse with a drunkard gambling husband and father, he turned his anger at us, two people he saw as weaker than him. For every game he lost, for every cent he wasted, he would beat us. My mother was never brave enough to ask for a divorce. She wasn’t strong enough to confront him and ask for an end to all of it. So we were stuck to that life style for months, until his violence got too far and my mom ended up on the floor, spitting blood and in pain with every move she made. He kept kicking her in the stomach for so long that she couldn’t even talk anymore to beg him to stop. When his bottle was empty he ravaged the house for money and went out to get more, I sat beside her on the floor, I was only a kid. I didn’t know what to do but hold her hand and pray to every god that I can somehow rid her of her pain. Then it happened...”

“For the first time in my life I found myself in a whole new word, one that is all black with only a white branch coming emitting a light that shone so brightly in the darkness. I didn’t understand what it was but I walked closer to that branch, it had one leaf on it. It showed a woman giving birth. I touched it and it grew into a small tree, with several leaves, each showing some kind of memory. Soon I understood that those memories were my mom’s. It was like I can watch all her life, every moment. I don’t know how long I’ve stayed there. But I learned everything that I know now.

 Then I saw that day, the day he kicked her so hard. I touched it, the leaf and it withered at my touch, I got scared at first.  The tree that enlightened the whole place disappeared little by little and the next thing I know I was back on the floor with my mother who was slowly waking up. She sat up like she wasn’t in pain at all, looking around the room. Then it all came crashing on me together, a pain I’ve never felt before. Like my body was burning and being torn apart. When I woke up, I was in my bed in our house, the pain was gone but I was super hungry and my head hurt like a . I called for my mom, in a second she came rushing inside our room and hugged me so tightly I thought I couldn’t breathe anymore. Apparently, I was unconscious for three days and in that short amount of time, my mom had everything sorted out. Of course, she was an outstanding student in business school.

She put my father in jail for domestic violence, drinking, gambling, and every crime he pulled on us. She had her divorce, all of this while she looked over me and searched for a job.

Then I understood. That day when I prayed with all my being, I was given the ability to rid people of their pain, and make them focus their eyes on the things they truly wanted and needed to do. They wouldn’t even remember their suffering, but my power came with a side effect. The same amount of pain I removed from someone’s memory will be directed at me. Their pain, I take it…when we met, I saw how much you were suffering and making your mother suffer. At first, I honestly hated and really thought you should suffer forever but