🦋 LEO 🦋
I've never felt tired, sad, lonely, frustrated and angry at the same time.
All the emotions came pouring down on me, I didn't know how I got to the house, or how I walked into it, I was like the zombie version of myself, a shadow of myself.
The next thing I knew, my parents were standing in front of me.
"You went to see her again," my mother blurted out, "Didn't you?"
I kept mute, ignoring them. I just passed by towards the direction of my room.
"I'm going to make her life and the life of her family miserable if you don't let her go," my father threatened.
I paused, looking back at them with a swollen face, "I sure wish I were still an orphan; I wish you didn't adopt me; it would be better dying hungry on the street than being here," I stated truthfully.
A slap landed on my cheeks. "How dare you, Leo! After all we have done for you? We gave you life, we gave you money, we gave you a name."
"God gave me life!" I yelled back, "Take your money and your name, all I need is Mira."
"You are so naive; do you really want Mira Bellwood to lose her life because of you? We can take it from her and then send her family to her also," my mother muttered, laughing sarcastically, "If you want your Mira to live, then do as we told you, be the model of this family like you have always been… don't put us to shame because of that thing."
"Mother, please…" I cried out, "Can't you see you are going too far? Mira's life is hard enough, stop complicating matters. She has to accept an offer from the defenders because you made them kick her out. She's also someone's child."
My mother's eyes widened, "I see she's trying to make her comeback, tell me more…"
"I don't think you will ever change," I snapped and walked away.
Getting to my room, I slammed the door shut, making sure I locked it. My parents banged on the door, but I ignored them, burying my head in my pillow. I couldn't stop my tears from falling, weeping until I fell asleep.
**🦋**
🦋 MIRA 🦋
I barely got into the house before I collapsed onto the bed weeping, "What sort of life is this?" I couldn't stop thinking.
The tears flowed with no sign of stopping, and I just knew that I needed to cry it out.
The pain was too big to swallow, with every step I forced Leo to take away from me, my heart aches, it aches so much that I'm clinging onto it, thinking I'm going to die.
I can't contain the pain, and honestly, if it weren't this tough, I'd choose Leo over everything. I didn't and still don't want him to leave; I want him in every second of my life. I'm so in love with Leo, I only survived my family pressure because I had Leo – how hard will my life be now?
After a while, my tears subside, and a beep to alert me of a notification got my attention.
"It's probably the defenders," I thought, picking the phone up.
But what I got was the shock of my life, another anonymous post.
"Mira Bellwood, a well-known Korean fencer player is said to make her comeback. Mira Bellwood is abandoning her country, Korea, for money. A Russia-based team, known as The Defenders, has bought one of our players to use her against us, Mira Bellwood, as she's planning on making her comeback."
My world froze as I stared at the shocking news on my phone. The words seared into my brain, each sentence feeling like a blow. My heart sank, and my hands trembled as I read the accusations that threatened to destroy everything I'd worked for. For a moment, I felt like I was drowning in panic, unable to catch my breath.
The views doubled, and soon it had 60 billion views. The comment section was like the coming together of billions of people to protest against me; they dragged me down with everything they could and made me miserable.
"Traitor."
"She's such a bitch."
"I used to like her! I'm so ashamed of myself."
"The prodigal daughter, you'd better not come back to our country or you really wouldn't like it."
"I knew nothing good would come out of her."
"You will never know peace, Mira, sadness and pain shall follow you."
"How could she?"
"If greediness were a person!"
"People who betray their country should be brought to court and sentenced to death by hanging. Why do we keep letting them go?"
My heart was racing like a runaway train, pounding in my chest so hard it felt like it might burst free. Sweat drenched my palms, and my breaths came in short, ragged gasps. The world around me began to blur, and I felt like I was drowning in a sea of anxiety.
Every thought spiralled out of control, my mind racing with worst-case scenarios. My body trembled. The room seemed to close in around me, the air thickening into something suffocating.
I tried to grasp for calm, but it slipped through my fingers like sand. Time seemed to warp, stretching out the moments into an eternity. All I could think was: "How do I get out of this?"
Suddenly, a call came in, I picked it up at the second ring, it was my best friend, Ariel.
"Mira, did you see the news?" Her tiny voice echoed out, hanging in the air.
"I swear I didn't do it; I wasn't offered any money to leave Korea, I'm only leaving because no team wants me in Korea and they made me an offer, and honestly I haven't been picked yet because I have to pass a contest, I - I - I…"
I struggled to find the words, my mind racing with the need to defend myself, but every phrase that formed felt inadequate. The weight of false accusations hung heavy, and the more I tried to speak, the more tangled my thoughts became. Frustration welled up inside me as I searched for the right words to convey the truth.
Each attempt felt like grasping at smoke—elusive and impossible to hold onto. My voice trembled with emotion, and the silence that followed my faltering attempts felt like a verdict, as if my words had been deemed insufficient. The injustice stung, and the inability to articulate my denial left me feeling powerless.
"Mira, take a deep breath," Ariel screamed out at the other end of the call, "You are having a panic attack."
My chest felt heavy, like a weight was crushing me. Each breath was a struggle, as if the air had thickened into something impenetrable. I inhaled deeply, but it felt like my lungs weren't expanding, like they were trapped in a vice. Panic crept in, my mind fixating on the desperation to breathe.
"Mira!" Ariel yelled as she burst into tears.
The dam broke, and I cried alongside her, still struggling to breathe, my lungs were on fire, and at that moment, I just wanted to sleep for a very long time.
It took a few hours to calm down, and I could also hear Ariel sniffing at the other end of the call.
"If you haven't even been selected, then how did the world get to know of it? Who made that anonymous post?" Ariel asked.
"I don't know Ariel," I responded, slamming my eyes shut.
"Mira, who did you tell about it? Aside from your family?"
"I told only one person about it… Leo," I declared.
"Do you think Leo might have told his mother? She's the only one who could have made such an anonymous post, just like how she spread lies about you playing drunk."
A sudden understanding hit me. It was like a light turning on in a dark room. I finally saw the truth, and everything made sense. My mind quickly put the pieces together.
"Leo's mother," I repeated.
"Whatever you do, Mira, do not read the comment section," Ariel pleaded, "I'll be with you as soon as I can, please."
The call ended with a beep. I scrolled down my contact list and tried to reach out to Leo, hoping to connect. Unfortunately, despite my many attempts, he didn't respond. It felt disheartening to be ignored, especially when I just wanted to ask if he really did inform his mother about my plans, even though he knows how dangerous she is to me.