Adopted Soldier

Rachel fled from the scene, she couldn't take it anymore. Her deadbeat father suddenly returned, and now without any difficulty, the family simply accepted his return. Why? Was she the only one who truly hated their father for leaving them?

Rachel was now at an empty park near her house. She sat at a bench looking dazedly at the sky. Rachel couldn't understand what was happening. Everything was happening too fast, a mysterious boy suddenly appears and disturbs her daily routine. Then they created a club full of the most colorful characters in the school. Now her supposed dead father miraculously comes back... All of these events happening in a span of a week and a half, It's a lot to process, and it all started with a single boy.

As if hearing her thoughts, Alex suddenly appears. Rachel whose eyes had turned hollow looked at Alex and smiled a bit. Of course, this guy will show up at this exact timing, like a protagonist of some story, Alex would appear at the right moment.

Rachel after looking at Alex went back to staring at the night sky. Alex who saw Rachel's hollow eyes felt pained. Alex walked slowly towards Rachel but was stopped by Rachel suddenly talking.

"Hey Alex, do you think my feelings are wrong? Do you think, I should be like them? Simply forgive and forget... Is that the correct path?" Rachel was talking while looking at the sky which was still a bit dark. She waited for Alex to answer, but like she thought Alex had no answer to her question.

Alex hearing Rachel's words somehow made him feel even more pain in his chest than ever before. Alex clenched his teeth, and walked onward, he then sat beside Rachel.

"There is no such thing as the correct path, there is only the path you choose. Whether it becomes the correct path, that you are talking about, depends on you." Rachel who heard Alex's answer was bewildered for a moment and looked at him. She then went back to staring at the sky, with a gentle smile on her face.

"As usual, you don't give me a proper answer... Right now I'm feeling conflicted, and I don't know what I should do. On one hand, even though he's a bastard, and a deadbeat, he is still part of my family, and I'm happy that's he's alive... On the other hand, the bastard actually came home, proceeded to beat up his sons and expects to be welcomed with open arms, and the irritating part is, he actually was welcomed with open arms." Rachel clenched her fist and continued talking.

"So now, not only am I like the bad guy, for going against my family's wishes. I actually feel like the bad guy, for hating that shit*y father of mine. You know Alex, in the past ten years, I have seen my mom doing the best she can, to support the family. Before the dojo became a success, my mother had to work in multiple part-time jobs. She would always come home tired, but even in the face of all the hardships, there was always a smile on her face... At some point when I was eleven years old, I saw my mom crying in front of my father's picture. My amazing, powerful mom, who I thought could do anything, was actually crying so pitifully, wishing for him to come back... She was practically begging the picture to come to life... It was at that point when I truly started to hate my father. Yet now he has returned and my mom who was crying for him is now smiling so cheerfully..." Tears started falling from Rachel's beautiful face.

"I'm happy for my mom, and my brothers, truly I am... But for the first time, my home doesn't feel like a place where I belong... I can't understand my feelings... All I know is, right now, I hate him, I hate him soooo much! Yet my family simply accepts him just like that! Is it wrong for me to hate him for leaving us?! Is it wrong for me to hate him for making my mom cry?! Is it wrong for me that I wish that he should never have returned?! HAHAHA... the last one was too much I guess, but this is what I'm currently feeling, and I can't stop it." Rachel was chocking while saying those lines, as she looked at Alex, her hollowed eyes had tears flowing down her face like a broken faucet, her sad, forced smile, could make anyone who looked at her hear their heartbreaking. It was so beautiful and at the same time so tragic.

Alex who was looking at her eye to eye, felt the pain in his chest getting heavier. Alex didn't understand the changes that were happening inside him, all he understood was that he wanted to somehow ease the pain of the girl in front of him.

Alex stopped looking at Rachel and had his head lowered. "Let me tell you a story." Alex sighed, not wanting to look at Rachel's sad face. He continued on with what he was saying.

"There was a child, who was like any other child, he had a family, he played around with his friends, and he lived a normal, boring, blissful life. Then one day a man who his father thought as a friend came into their house, and started arguing with him. The child unaware of what was happening was shocked to see his parents die in front of him." When Alex got to this point in his story his voice trembled a bit.

Rachel unaware of the significance of this story to Alex simply listened on.

"Did you know what the boy felt after his parents died?... He felt nothing... That's what it looked like from the outside, but in truth the boy was scared, he was angry, he was sad, the boy felt a multitude of emotions at that one moment, and locked them up inside of him." Alex noticed that he was getting a tad emotional, so he stopped for a while to calm himself down.

"The boy was then adopted, he had gained another family. His new father, uncles, and aunts, loved him like they were a true family, with that the boy felt the pain of loss was slowly going away... But every now and then, the boy would wonder, if it was alright for him to survive that day... Will his parents resent him? Will they curse him, for living on, and leaving them behind? Yet the thing that haunts the boy the most, was that he simply wants to meet them once more... Rachel, I don't understand what you're going through, but your father is still alive, and that's something worth celebrating." Alex's voice cracked a little in the end, but the expression he has shown, will forever be unknown, since he was looking downward, blocking Rachel's view of him.

Rachel who heard Alex's whole story, wasn't stupid to not understand the boy in the story was Alex himself.. Compared to the pain Alex had felt, her minor inconvenience seemed so trivial.