The Perfect Boyfriend [Daragon]

Chapter 16

2 Weeks Later

Mom pinned my hair into a clean bun with her hands running smoothly over my hair, bringing order rather than chaos, which I usually bring whenever I style my own, and despite the many twists she had to make because it was too long, her face looked as if it was easy, not a single sign of distort or frown can be seen. I felt queasy, butterflies rampaging inside my stomach as if in a war, and my face kept on producing sweat. If it weren't for the air condition my make-up might have been ruined, which I fear the most because I don't want to ruin my make-up since it takes too long to apply and re-apply it. I wore the dress Jiyong gave me as a graduation present, because he wanted us to be wearing the same color on graduation-blue-and my blue wedges. Mom smiled at me through the mirror, her face radiating her ageless beauty and it sort of glistened, as if it was made from glitters. "You look beautiful." She complimented, adding the last hairpin. Wind brushed through my nape, and I shivered. "You look like me when I was your age."

I deliberately bit my lip as she removed her hands from my hair and placed them on both my shoulders. I turned towards her, which made me look down at her because I'm a head or two taller. "Thanks, mom." I held my tears in, because applying make-up takes a lot of time and we're running out of it.

She cupped my cheeks, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she smiled. That's when I noticed that she wasn't ageless-she was aging, not to be rude or anything. The years of stress from work just to help us go by, even with the help of my father's money, is now seen through her face. "Your father will be so proud of you." She whispered, placing a stray hair behind my ear with her hands now on my cheeks, and gave one of my cheeks a soft peck. "If not because of that family of his, he'd be here and he'd be walking with you on stage. Sandara Park, magna cum laude. He's going to be so proud because you grew up just like him."

I know she misses my dad more than anything else, more than anyone else. My mom tried, when I was still little, to fly to France and follow him there, but the fare was too much for her and her savings were insufficient, yet alone for a ticket. Dad is probably the first person on her list of people she loves, with us her children following him short. She may hide it, but I knew she kept her stash of Dad's pictures inside an old tin can and their couple pictures in an old photo album, the only photo album we have. After work, she would carefully look at them to please or assure herself. Maybe to remind her that he's still alive and existing or maybe to assure her he loves her and being away is just his way to protect her-no, us. Mom never shares anything, so I don't have a clue, and she acts as if everything is alright when in fact, nothing is.

"I'm going to find him, mom." I promised, wrapping my hands around her waist and when I closed my eyes, I saw my dad's face-with his brown wind-swept hair and eyes. The photograph mom gave me must've been burnt into my mind like a seal. "I'm going to forcefully and brutally drag him here."

She sobbed, and it was heartbreaking to hear. She never showed that side of herself, the side who's completely and doubtlessly in love with a man who's not physically present in front of her but married to her. She never showed the weak, frail and incapable mother. She wanted to be the best that she had continued to become the least. Mom had forgotten how it like is to rest. She desperately needs my father now. He can cure her broken heart. He can cure anything we can't.

I arrived at school with my toga already on, as per instructed by the dean. I really liked our toga, since it's all black with the inside colored so when you wear it, only the upper part of that color is seen, purposely tucked out and standing out. Bom was the first one I saw as soon as I reach the students-only area, and she charged up to me as soon as she saw me, almost knocking me off my senses.

"You're breathtaking." She said, after breaking the hug and had looked at me in arm's length. "And it's already over!"

I smiled, but before I could say anything Top arrived behind her back. He wore a white button-down under his gray toga, the color for Business Administration students. Mine was red while Bom's was purple.