Chapter 23: Twenty Three

Seulgi took her simple salad and remote to the couch and turned on the TV. Amazing Detective Woo was on, so she decided to watch that. Sitting back and decompressing from the day, she lost herself in her dinner and show. It was nice to disengage your brain and do nothing, just so long as it was not a constant thing.

Her phone beeped a couple of times notifying her that she has some personal emails that she’ll need to look at. She also had a text from a few friends asking how she has been.

And one message from her mom. Great. She decided to save that one for last while rolling her eyes.

She read the emails during commercials. Spam. Spam. Spam. Phishing. Spam. It almost sounded like the start of a Monty Python sketch.

She trashed 90% of the emails. There were only two emails that she had to actually respond to. They were innocuous things. One was the local blood band asking for donations as they needed ‘her type’ of person. She was blood type A, they always needed her ‘type’.

She was unsure how her two friends that had texted her found out about her ankle, but they were just checking up on her to make sure she was OK.  These were some good friends.  She confirmed that she got hurt, but that she was much better now. Not quite a lie, but she reassured them anyway. She asked how they and their families were doing.

Seulgi went back to the show, avoiding her mother’s text.

During the next commercial break, she washed her bowl and set it to dry. She checked Suki’s dinner dish and water bowl.

During the last commercial break, she went to the bathroom. Tidied up a bit. Brushed the cat. And generally ignored her phone and thereby her mother’s text, for a bit longer.

When the show was over and it was late enough that she was sure her mother was asleep in case she needed to respond. Seulgi finally read her mother’s message.

The message was strangely benign. It was simply: How is your ankle?

Wait. What? How did she know? She purposely left her family out of the loop about her ankle. And most everything else as well, but that’s another matter.

She spent a few minutes wracking her brain on how her mother would have found out. No one at her workplace would have told her family anything. She did not put anything out on social media. None of her friends would talk to her family. None of her friends knew her family. She has two cousins that are alright but she was not close enough to them to talk about personal things with.

She supposed that it does not matter how her mother found out. Her mother had found out and was asking about her ankle. And nothing else.

Pondering about a dozen responses, from wildly inappropriate to coldly indifferent, Seulgi decided that simplicity was best and sent a very mild: It’s better.

Much to her surprise, she got a response almost immediately from her mom: Good. We were worried.

Seulgi was torn between suspicion and incredulousness. She frowned at her phone, wondering what game her mother was playing at. It was impossible that she was honestly asking about her with no alternate motives.

Wasn’t it?

She sent back: No need. Everything is fine.  Simple, non-committal, and conversation stopping. This was the safest way to talk to anyone in her family – outside of the previously mentioned two cousins.

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She had tried to be open and honest in the past with them. That was a bad idea as they used this against her again and again. So she learned to stop talking and stop caring. She didn’t like it as that is very much against per personality. They were family, she ought to be able to trust them, count on them, and confide in them.  

But, she learned the hard lesson that she couldn’t. So, she no longer does. It’s obviously a bad thing when you cannot trust the people that are supposed to love you most.

Her phone beeped again. Text: How’s work?

She responded: Everything is fine.

Beep: Any interesting projects?

Seulgi gave a death glare at her innocent phone. What was this woman up to now? What information was she trying to gather to use against her later? What did she want?

She started to send back ‘Yes,’ but amended it to ‘Yes, but you would find them boring.’

 Her phone beeped again, but the text wasn’t from her mom. It was from her older brother. With the surprise of the century, it was not antagonistic, demeaning, not insulting.

Brother: Hey 'lil sis. How’s the ankle?

Seulgi nearly dropped the phone. Was the sun going to rise in the West? Is this the End Of Times? WHAT WAS GOING ON?!

The conversation started out the same way as it did with her mother. Just less formal.

She cut them both off by telling them both that she had to go to bed as she had an early morning and wishing them both a good night.

She didn’t trust either of them to actually care about her health. They must have some other motive for asking. She decided for her peace of mind to not think about it and get ready for bed.

So, naturally, her mind would not let her stop thinking about it. Too many horrible memories kept popping up from her subconscious to her active consciousness, greatly annoying her.

In order to distract herself, she got a book, her cat, and the fluffiest pillows to try and start going to sleep. After a half hour, she put the book down, turned out the lights, and cuddled a purring Suki. Eventually, the magic of distraction worked, her mind calmed down and she did not notice when she actually drifted off to sleep.

She had dreams of singing, stages, and cheering crowds. Interspersed in these were strange older women scolding her for not being married. Other were men teasing her for unknown reasons. Then back to more pleasant things. A few surreal images, but those were quickly forgotten.

Suki moved out of Seulgi’s embrace, kissed her nose, and moved to the end of the bed. She checked on her human and made sure she was truly asleep. She was thinking her catty thoughts until she, too, fell into a deep sleep.

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