𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤
𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬
𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

                                             

It felt like I had just closed my eyes for 3 seconds when my alarms blared, annoying the out of my tired brain. My hands stretched out to snooze it and catch another 10 minutes of sleep, but my mother seemed to have a different agenda for me.

Did you know that feeling when you realized how annoying your mother could be when she tried to wake you up in the morning? It was like whatever she did—even the sound of her feet moving in front of your door—was purposefully done to annoy the out of you so you would wake up.

“SEULGI! WAKE UP!” Mom’s voice was a tenfold more annoying and chirpier when she yelled through the door as she knocked on my door.

I hid my head under the pillow and kept it in place over my head with my arms, hoping to muffle the noise. For a few seconds, it worked, but then Mom came on stronger than before. Her voice went up an octave higher, and she must’ve used both of her hands to knock on my door because it sounded like a herd of bulls were stomping on it.

I pulled the pillow away from my head and prayed for forgiveness for the way I was internally cursing at my mother.

Knowing Mom wouldn’t be satisfied with me just screaming I would be downstairs for breakfast soon, I had to actually get off the bed and drag my heavy body towards the door to tell her that myself.

“Jesus, Mom. Couldn’t you have done it any louder?” I said, sarcasm dripping on my voice.

Feeling proud she had dragged me out of my bed by doing what she liked doing best, which was annoying the out of me, Mom smirked. “I’ll try to do it louder next time.”

“Please don’t. I’ll be down in a sec, okay?” I told her. “It’s too early anyway. I could’ve had more sleep.”

I set up my alarm early every day to wake myself up for some quick workouts. There should’ve been more than an hour left for me now before I had to get ready for school.

“Well, I just remembered we need to come early to talk to your homeroom teacher about yesterday,” she denounced.

“What? This early? Why not after school?” I wondered out loud.

Mom rolled her eyes. “I have a restaurant to run, sweetheart. And the mayor’s coming today to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, remember? Both your dad and I have to be there.”

She and Dad had been talking about that yesterday through dinner. I suppose it was a big occasion because the man had booked the whole restaurant for the afternoon. It would’ve been a hectic day in the kitchen.

“Fine,” I agreed, and Mom grinned at me before tapping my cheek and leaving for downstairs.

-

“Yes, Mr. Woods. Seulgi’s aunt is okay now. I was so surprised when she called and said Seulgi was with her. Seulgi has always had a close relationship with her aunt. I suppose if her aunt called saying she was caught in a car accident, she wouldn’t have hesitated to drop everything to help,” Mom recited the lie we had come up with earlier.

“Well, Mrs. Kang, Seulgi is a nice kid. She’s good in her studies and she never got into any trouble before. I think we can just settle with a week of detention,” Mr. Woods said, making Mom exhale in relief.

The school actually had pretty strict rules. Joy told me that a senior was expelled last year because they smoked on school grounds, and some sophomores who got caught skipping was suspended for two weeks earlier this year. For me to just get off with a week of detention was similar to a miracle.

“We just need to make sure this miscommunication won’t happen again, Mrs. Kang. I’ll make sure to write Seulgi a slip if she tells me she needs to be somewhere—with your permission of course,” Mr. Woods offered. “The school has a lot of students who need to be on and off campus a lot. As long as we got the permission from their parents or legal guardians, we actually won’t interfere unless it starts to affect their grades.”

Mom nodded. “Yes, Mr. Woods. Again, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll make sure Seulgi won’t forget to inform me or you when she needs to leave.” She turned to give me a glare, motioning for me to follow her apologize.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Woods. I won’t do it again,” I told the man, bowing my head a little. This made me feel like I was back in elementary again.

After that, Mr. Woods accepted our apology and walked us out saying my detention would start from tomorrow.

I couldn’t wait.

-

The talk with Mr. Woods took sooner than we had expected, so after Mom had taken her leave, I sat on one of the benches in the hallway for some time while playing on my phone.

Suddenly Irene’s name showed on the pop-up notification and I had to stare at it for some time before I finally made up my mind and surrendered the match even though I was clearly winning.

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