Outsider Syndrome | ✓

Chapter 25 - "Irretrievable Words"

"Shiina," Dad hissed. Breaking from Chie's grasps, he extended his palm. "I know this may feel sudden, and you have a lot of thoughts, but I didn't make this decision likely. I've never thought for a single second these past few months that I wouldn't marry Chie—"

"So you'll abandon Mom, then? This quickly? This easily?"

He was struck dumb.

Mao clenched her bag pack to her chest, speechless as could be.

"It's only been a year," I sputtered onward, eyes hot, poise rupturing. "Only a year since we had to say goodbye. Yet you started dating some random woman within the first three months, brought her here to live with us. . . had her cook, and clean. . . Now you're tying the knot? Is that. . . Is that all Mom meant to you?!"

I could hardly see. The thoughts I'd buried, emotions I'd concealed, ugly words better left unsaid—all of it exploded in a torrent of blind rage.

"You never even asked how I felt. Expected me to nod and go along with this all, knowing damn well what I thought. You're the selfish one. I bet you don't even love her like you say you do—just needed somebody to reflect Mom onto—"

Numbing pain blazed across my cheek.

It took me a split second to realize I'd been slapped. Chie stood before me. Tears poured from her eyelids in copious amounts, smearing her makeup, and leaving me shell-shocked.

My senses rushed back to me.

Dad's miserable countenance.

Mao's hushed sniffles.

Words I could never take back.

Chie's chin wobbled. She sprinted up the stairs in a heap of sobs.

"Ch-Chie!" Dad shouted after her.

His footsteps scurried behind her, followed by indecipherable conversation.

Mao collapsed onto her legs. She snivelled against her bag. "Sh-Shiina."

My heart tore in two. The strength in my leaden legs vanished. I fell right beside her.

"Sorry," I whimpered, wrapping my arms around her to comfort her. "I said some horrible things."

Chie had never wronged me. No matter how much I pushed her away, made it clear I wanted nothing to do with her, she never backed down. Toward me and Mao, she always smiled, and did so much. Not only because she loved Dad, but because she wanted to close the distance between us too.

Tiny and frail beneath my fingers, Mao's shoulders convulsed as she cried. Gone was her cheerful persona that never batted an eyelash in the face of hardship, who'd served as my anchor whenever I'd gotten depressed. Like an infant, she bawled; harsh as the day we found out about Mom.

I wasn't the only one who felt awkward around Chie. I wasn't the only one who wished time could go back. Mao forced countless smiles, ate Chie's meals, let her fawn on her like Mom once did. . . She was so much stronger compared to me who only ran from reality. Dad, too. He loved Mom as much as us—no, more than that. Who knew how hard losing her must've been to him. Yet he was moving forward. Chie wasn't a replacement, I'd known that all along.