I hear muffled cries coming from my mom’s room at two in the morning. My first instinct is to not do anything but I remember crying late at night, needing someone to be there for me, so I tiptoe to her room to find her hugging a picture of my dad. 

“Mom, what’s wrong?” I realize I’ve started her since she quickly looks up, hiding the picture. 

“Nothing, honey. Go back to bed.” She tries to unsuccessfully wipe her tears but it’s no use. I’ve been here before. 

“Mom, don’t bull me… Is it because of dad?”

She quietly nods her head and pats the space next to her, beckoning me to sit down. 

“I’m sure he loved me.” She mumbles. “I guess he just stopped looking at me the same way.”

I sit down and stare at the window, light from the moon glowing behind the curtains. 

“I’m sorry.” 

She rests her head on my shoulder and shakes her head. “You don’t have to apologize. I used to think it was my fault, but men just sometimes, right?”

I laugh and nod. “Oh, yes they do.”

“I heard Jiyong is in London.”

“He is.”

“Why were his parents looking for him?”

“He kind of disappeared for a while and they got worried.”

“Oh.” We stay silent for a while and instead of thinking about him, for the first time, I think about my mom. She must have suffered for so long watching him break their marriage. I was such a little to her when I was younger. I wish I had just asked her once if she was okay. 

“Did you know he was cheating all along?”

“I think I knew when I called the hospital one night to see how he was doing and they said he wasn’t on call that night. He came home later that night and I found a lipstick stain on his jacket. I think I cried for months.”

“Why didn’t you file for divorce?”

“I thought he would stop. I thought maybe if we got away together for a couple of days, he could see that we still had the magic we once had when we were younger. I thought things would change so I waited, and waited, and waited but that time never came, so I had to give up.” 

“Do you miss him?”

“All the time.” She continues. “That’s why I stopped being so hard on you when you came home with Jiyong. I could see he made you happy and by wishing him to go away, I wouldn’t actually be doing you a favor. He made you smile and being the rebellious teen that you were, that was a huge feat.”

“Well, he did go away.” I say bitterly. 

“Where do you think things will go from here?”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter