Rival

wishing everything was like it used to be

Although I didn’t show it, I was extremely displeased. Who was she to order me around? And wasn’t it always her who bothered me when I wished to be alone? Isn’t this situation no better than the one’s I was in before.

                I huffed and stormed my way inside of the classroom again. The class looked excitingly at me as I entered but murmured even louder as they saw Bom has not returned with me.

                “Where is Bom, Hyori?” Mr. Parker asked, but I answered back in silence and shook my head furiously and went back to my seat. It was not long when the bell rang and the class ran out, talking viciously about this new piece of gossip.

                It took me a while to clean up the mess of notes on my desk. I was just about to leave when I glimpsed sideways to see Bom’s desk, which was still equally messy as mine.

                I grunted and gave her desk a hard, fustrated kick. That’s what she got for ignoring me like that. Clumps of papers and notes dropped onto the floor. I sighed and picked them up with annoyance, until I found something that caught my eye.

                It was a small picture that was folded in some places and wrinkled, but clearly visual. There was a small girl in the picture maybe seven or eight. Her arms were around two adults who looked as if they were her parents. There was a little baby boy in the picture the mother was holding with a gleeful smile, and the father held the hand of her daughter with a crooked smile. With no doubt, it was a family picture of Bom, from years ago. Bom, in the picture was smiling more brightly than I have ever seen before.

                I threw away everything that was left of her. Her pictures. Her clothes. Everything my father didn’t burn already, I remembered what Bom told me the day I stayed at her house.

                I held up the picture with a small frown.

                ‘Bom said she threw away everything about her mother,’ I thought, ‘but why would she keep this picture?’

                The face of Bom whenever she talked about her mother popped into mind. I wondered under all that anger and hatred, if there was a small amount of longing, for peace, for everything to be normal and like before once again.

                In silence, I cleaned up all of Bom’s stuff and put it in her bag that left untouched on the floor. Bom was too angered to even bother to bring her things home with her. I made sure I didn’t wrinkle any more of the picture I held in my hand. Carefully I pocketed in my jacket. I would hand it Bom personally, I thought.

Bom’s POV

                I walked along with my little brother in silence. He seemed to know that I wasn’t in a mood to talk, but refused to let go of my hand. Every time I loosened my grip, he hardened his. It was as if he was afraid that I would run away and leave him alone again.

                “I’m sorry Ji-woo,” I spoke as softly as possibly to him. I bent down and looked at him.

                “You have to go with mom again,” I told him, “you can’t come to dad’s house with me. I’ll call mom and she’ll pick you up-

                “I don’t want to go with mom!” he shouted, his eyes roaring with determination. He bumped him hand onto my shoulder and hugged me tightly, “I want to stay with you!”

                “You can’t Ji-woo,” I sighed and hugging him back, “I want to be with you too but I can’t take care of you and dad. You know where dad works right? You know where we live. I have to work everyday and I can’t take care of you properly.”