For The Love of Us | KingUea & MaiJade Special Novel | ENG TRANS |

Chapter 7 - Family

I suspected that this problem was not recent, but had existed since those two were children.

"You have to admit that your mother loves me as if I were another of her children, so you can't stop us from meeting." King returned to his desk while dragging out his words to annoy his friend.

I saw Jade huffing and cursing behind his back, but since he had work to finish, he quickly returned to his desk and sat down, asking me again, "So what? You are free?"

"Yes, we are." King replied.

I nodded in confirmation. We still didn't have anything special planned for this Friday and knowing that Jade's parents wanted to see me made me happy.

"Okay, I'll call my mother. I saw that she wanted us to meet at the restaurant near our university, remember? It's that restaurant where you ate with us for the first time."

That sentence awakened my deepest memories. I was silent for a moment before answering and moving the mouse to continue working. I remembered it.

Of course I remember it, because it is one of the few good memories of my adolescence that others have left me with.

*******

From childhood to adolescence I had never been surrounded by love like other people my age. While other children had parents and guardians who provided them with a home as a refuge, I was totally helpless. I therefore tried to create as few problems as possible and concentrated hard on studying to get good grades, maintaining a small fraction of hope that, if I were a good boy, my mother, who had remarried and who devoted all her attention to my little sister , she would turn her attention to me too and feel proud enough to praise me.

But all this wasn't worth it because a compliment never came out of my mother's mouth when I did something good. Uncle Sorn (whose intentions I didn't know at the time) always encouraged and praised me, but praise from a stranger was not the same as praise from one's own mother. And yet, she had never done what I wanted most, not when I won an academic competition or when I earned a 4.00* grade point average for several consecutive semesters. She just nodded and moaned, making a gesture of annoyance when Uncle Sorn came over to pat me on the head encouragingly.

(*The Thai system generally uses numbers as a ranking system with 4 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.)

Even then, being just a high school student, I realized that my mother no longer cared about me, she was no different from my biological father, who didn't even care about me. To her I was just a remnant of her old life that she wanted to get rid of, but she couldn't. Even though I tried to convince myself that I was just thinking too much, deep down in my heart, from the first ten years of my life I knew everything, I just didn't want to accept the truth.

"Mother's Day?"

"Yes."I said enthusiastically. I was a thirteen-year-old second grade student at the time. I had passed the semester with top marks, so I was chosen as class representative and the teacher asked me to invite my mother to participate in the Mother's Day event the following week...

"Oh no, I won't go, it's a waste of time. I have to take your little sister to school, tell your teacher to find someone else."

My mother had rejected my invitation without even listening to my words fully.

"But... it's only an hour. We can take my sister first. Mom, you just have to go sit in the auditorium and let me give you some flowers to pay homage and honor you, that's all...

"No! I already said I won't go! Are you going to urge me to go to that senseless event? If you have nothing to do, hurry up and do your homework, don't stand there and talk so much, you annoy me!"Mom had pushed me, angry.