De Novo

Chapter 38

Yongsun

“Mom, look! I caught a crab!”

A 4-year-old Luna runs towards her mother with a tiny blue crab in its small hand. She was beaming as she lifted the crab close to her mother's face, allowing Yongsun to see that she had indeed caught one. Yongsun smiled at Luna's accomplishments, knowing she had spent nearly 20 minutes capturing the poor creature. But somehow, despite knowing how happy her daughter is, she knows luna has to let it back in the sea.

“Luna, you’ll hurt yourself if you grab it that way. I suggest you put Mr. Crabby back in his home.”

"But its shell and color are stunning. I want to keep him and look after him!”

Yongsun put the book she was reading on her side and give her full attention to her daughter. Luna was still holding the crab but she was now holding it with two hands, taking extra care not to harm the tiny creature. The crab was walking side to side on top of Luna's palms, struggling to find a hole in between the girl's fingers that he could use as an escape path, but to no avail. Its efforts only added to Luna's entertainment, and she now completely refuses to let it go.

"You can admire him from a distance, Luna. If you care about this crab so much, you must release it. It also has a life of its own. You don't want his life to be taken away, do you? ”

Yongsun was concerned by Luna's sorrowful expression. The younger girl is desperate to keep the poor crab in her care, but Yongsun knows that's entirely impossible. If that crab is taken out of the water, it will die and she knows luna doesn't want that. But her daughter is too young to understand what will happen to that crab if it will take away from his home yet. She needs to step up and convince her to return it back before it's too late.

Luna locked her gaze on her mother for a few seconds before looking down at the crab in her hands with sad eyes and a pout.

"But I love it."

Yongsun smiles to herself seeing her daughter’s dreadful expression. She kneels on the white sand, leveling Luna's height and tenderly caressing the younger girl's cheek before guiding her hands downwards, releasing the crab. Luna watches as the crab returns to the water, but she no longer exerts an effort to chase it.

“If you love that crab, you have to let him go. That’s also a form of love, don’t you think?”
---

Yongsun jerked up from her deep slumber with tears streaming down her cheeks, panting furiously as the image of Luna appeared in her dreams. She has been constantly dreaming of her daughter, the way she smiles and the way she brightens yongsun’s world. For the past week, she’d been either woke up crying, or woke up with her friend’s annoying way of waking her up. But this week, she’d been waking up with tears in her eyes, and all of it because of her dreams with her daughter in it.

She crawls back inside her warm sheets, hugging her knees as she pictures luna’s elated face. It’s a bittersweet scenario, for sure. Seeing her daughter having fun in her dreams but in reality, it’s the opposite. Yongsun, on the other hand, is no longer fixated on the negative. She mostly focuses on the thought of her daughter, alive and well, beaming with pure joy as she plays with full entertainment.

“Yongsun! Wake up!”

As she heard a faint banging on her door, the thought of Luna quickly vanished. Wheein was yelling her name from outside, and Yongsun knew it was time she got her ass off the bed before an enraged puppy barged into her room and dragged her with force. So, once she was certain she had wiped her tears away, she slowly made her way towards the door and opened it, revealing wheein with a sweet smile on her face.