CLICHÉD

C-49

C-49

I skeptically open the door. I take my shoes off and wear my inside slippers before entering... then I see my family. Mum and Dad are on the phone while my brother is pacing back and forth in the living room.

"Mum."

They stand up upon hearing me. My mum crushes me in her hug and bombards me with questions.

"I was so worried! Where have you been? Are you hurt? Have you eaten yet?"

"Y/n, don't do that again. We almost called the police, your friends just came and barely stopped us. They said you're safe wherever you are," Dad says.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

My brother runs to me and flicks my forehead. I pout at them as they all sigh seeing me unharmed. They pull me towards the sofa and they all sit in front of me.

"I'm sorry, sis," my brother starts. "We shouldn't have kept it a secret, but we just did it for your own good."

My dad pats my head. "We lied to you because we love you. We saw how you suffered because of that incident. You couldn't sleep alone for days, you're so scared of the dark."

"After a while, you slowly recovered from your PTSD. But then you start to forget parts of your memory, including your childhood. You grew up thinking that you only had your brother as a friend. We can't bring to tell you about it because we're afraid that your trauma might go back. We're so sorry, sweetie," Mum says.

I hug my mom and wipe her tears. I don't like it when my family cries because it hurts me too.

"It's okay, I understand now."

The rest of my family joins in a group hug.

"That's my sister." Taeil-oppa ruffles my hair.

"I remember Jungwoo and the others now, but I can't recall anything aside from them."

"Just them?"

I nod. "Am I forgetting something else? What was that incident by the way?"

My parents look at my brother. He sighs and puts his arm over my shoulders. "You sneaked out with the guys to stargaze at the playground. There was a thug who caused a scene and you ran and got separated, then you got hit by a car in the process."

I understand now. That must've been really traumatic for a young kid.

"Promise me you won't hide something as big as this. Please don't lie to me again."

They all paused but eventually smiled. "Promise," ...and that's enough for me to trust them again.

I've always been honest and I don't know what I'll feel if another promise gets broken. I always try to understand everyone, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that if they keep on depriving me of the truth. I just want to know.

A person can only take so much lies.

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

"Bestie- mm!"

Seungmin slaps his hand over Felix's mouth to stop him from shouting here at the library. The three of us are grouped for self-study in English class again. We're just going to read whatever we want since the grades are mostly done because graduation is near.