The abusive parent...

Dinner

Eddy carefully handed the food he had prepared to Brett. It was a proper meal, with fried rice, dumplings, garlic broccoli, and wonton soup. Brett didn't even know how much he wanted and needed proper food. Brett started eating really fast, even faster than ling ling's scales, he was starving. Eddy caught notice of this and said "Woah Brett, I think you should take your time eating. You might get a stomach ache if you eat too quickly!" Brett replied with "no it's Oki! The food is delicious by the way! Did you cook this?"

Eddy smiled, "hehehe yup! I made it earlier".

Brett couldn't believe that his professor knew how to cook so well, he asked "How'd you learn how to cook?"

Eddy replied with, "I'm self-taught actually, I guess it's because no one was really there to give me food, so I made my own. Looks like you are going through the same thing as me before. I hope you feel better now!"

Brett said, "I do feel much better now! Thank you so much for helping me out! I'd probably be stuck with my dad for the next 10 years..."

Their conversation continued with Eddy replying,

"It's not a problem with me! Oh yeah, about the book earlier, I have actually read it before...sorry I didn't have time to tell you earlier. Just thought that it would be nice for you to know that I understood your call for help earlier because of that book. That book helped me a lot too, my mom and dad used to abuse me when I was your age. A police officer was the one who helped me and he was the one who took care of me until the time I could graduate college."

"I can't believe you experience suffering like that too... that book is really helpful! I'm glad someone came to help you! It must have felt like forever trying to wait for someone to help... Well, it felt like forever to me, every day was the same, beatings here and there..." Brett said in a soft and sad way while fidgeting his spoon and fork around.

"It did feel like forever but I managed through it, so did you! Cheer up, Oki! You are very strong Brett, be proud of that!" Eddy said while trying to motivate Brett to be happy again.

As just what Eddy wanted, Brett smiled. Brett was a ball of sunshine into Eddy's dark life. Same did as well for Brett. At that moment, they looked into each other's eyes, everything was frozen. For once, both of them forgot the hardships they have been through.

They had finished eating dinner after five minutes. Eddy helped Brett stand up from his chair but just as they were heading back to the couch, Brett felt uneasy.