She's My Sleeping Pill

Right after eating their dinner, the two of them worked together to clean the dining area and disposed the items that needed to be disposed while Chris washed the plates and other utensils they used.

They rested for few minutes and then left his apartment to send her home and to see what she wanted him to see. The house where Rissy lived wasn't very far which was convenient for him to visit. He already met her family during the class trip several days ago and he went to pick her up. Although it was informal, he visited them again on the next day that they cam back from the trip. He introduced himself as her suitor to them and just chatted with them about her.

He already lost count to the times that he visited her home but this was the second time that he felt very nervous. In fact, he was more nervous tonight compared to the time that he came to meet her parents. After all, their secrets will decide their future relationship.

"I'm home." Rissy announced her arrival to her parents. "And Chris is here to visit again."

"Oh. It's good to see you." Her mother smiled towards Chris before looking at her daughter up and down. "Have you eaten dinner yet?"

"Hn. We had dinner." She walked upstairs and beckoned Chris to follow her. "I'll show him something."

Both her mother and father were stunned with her words and they both turned their heads to Chris. Their expressions can't be described and it seemed like they wanted him to stop from moving forward.

"Excuse my intrusion. I won't be doing anything unnecessary if that what you're worried about." Chris told them but somehow, something was telling him that it wasn't like that at all. There's something else that they wanted to hide from him.

He followed Rissy closely as they made their way to the second floor of their house. There were four rooms on the second floor and two of them rooms have her name on it.

"Why do you have two rooms?"

"Because one room is very special." Rissy said without looking back. She opened the room with the name Rissy 1.0 and what you can see was just a normal room. In fact, it was like a princess room. You can tell from her room that she's loved by her parents and were very attentive to her. She's got so many things and they were mostly pink and purple – it's really a girl's room. She's got so many teddy bears and other stuff toys but, the one that sat on her bed, taking lots of space on it was the teddy bear that her students gave her. Their souvenirs were also placed in different parts of her room and there was also a special box that contained so many letters from her students.

"I didn't expect you'd have a room like this?" Chris stated while looking around. "I was thinking that you're a minimalist type of person because you always looked elegant and composed; always so mature and kind of domineering. I never thought you'd have a girlish side as well. I like it."

"Really?"

"Hn." he looked at the box with so many letters before looking at her. "Do you always read them?"

"Yup. It keeps me grounded and reminds me of why I become a teacher. It calms me."

"You have lots of pictures of your students, too."

"Hn. I like seeing their faces and their happy smiles. I just like being there for them. I want to be there for them when no one else can." Rissy looked around her room as well and shrugged her shoulders. "Now, I don't really want to ruin your mood but, let's move on to my other room, shall we?"

"Okay."

Rissy closed the door of her beautiful room before turning to the other side which has Rissy 2.0 written on it.

"What's that other room there?" Chris asked before she could open her room. He was pointing on the room with no name on it which was just right beside hers.

"That's a guest room. We keep one vacant room just in case someone would come over but that's rarely used since we rarely have visitors."

"Oh." Chris composed himself once again and looked at her. "Alright. Show me this special room of yours."

Rissy opened the door to her second room and what Chris saw shocked him so much. It was just a white room at first with some colorful writings on the walls and lots of coloring materials on the side. It was almost empty but when she turned off the light, he felt suffocated. He felt like his throat was blocked and he couldn't breathe. The writings on the walls became vivid in front of him and he can clearly see the things and words that were written on it.

He can feel her anguish on each stroke. He can feel the searing hate with the colors used. It seemed like the childish drawings were moving and they were showing him the things that she had in mind when she drew them. It was morbid. It was painful. It felt like he'd go crazy if he continued to watch it. There was sketch of someone's head falling off from its body. The written words were full of hatred and they all came from the very bottom of her heart. There was a sketch of a person being burned down in a huge fire.

He didn't notice at all, that he was already on his knees, trying his best to take a deep breath from the onslaught of her emotions. His tears fell on the floor one after another and he couldn't seem to stop them. He wanted to meet the little girl who wrote them. He wanted to give her a hug. He wanted to let her know that he's waiting for her.

Chris never felt so weak in his entire life until this moment. After several minutes, he could no longer withstand it all and he collapsed.