"All men are vile, vile creatures!"
"Please, might I see Eunseo for the last time? She needs her papa. Every little girl needs-."
"Just leave! We'll be gone by tomorrow…and don't you worry about MY daughter. I'll be sure to teach her how to be nothing like you and if you even think about coming back for her, I'll tell the world what type of beast you truly are. You are a wicked man of sin! She will not grow up to be anything like you!"
Dull brown eyes fluttering in the midst of the ever-looming morning, Eunseo wasn't thankful for waking up to another day. As eerie as it seemed, she had always hoped to die peacefully in her sleep. In her mind, she felt as if the world would be better place without any burden of being the only remnant of her parent's failed marriage. At least both parties would be at peace. Eunseo grew up around many girls her age who strived to be like their mothers. They wanted to be the epitome of beauty and grace while supporting their future husbands, but Eunseo wished to be as strong and masculine as beloved her father, Sangwoo. Oh how her mother Euna loathed it. It had been ten years since Eunseo and her mother left their former family home. Hearing that the secretly wicked woman was a single mother to a six year old girl reeled in pity from neighbors both old and new. It made Eunseo skin crawl whenever a nosy townswoman would ask the single divorcee of her husband's misdeeds. Every single time it was mentioned, Euna swore she could taste the bitterness that surrounded her at all times.
Euna never really went into detail with these strangers, but knowing her resentful nature all too well, there was no telling who she would tell or when. Eunseo braced herself either way. Death was not the only thing Eunseo longed for. She figured if she had to be forced to roam this world with her mother's burdens on her heart, she'd love to run to the man she idolized most, her father. It was like a scene a movie that was stuck in an infinite loop. The days that passed were just like the others. Eunseo would wait for her beloved father to come home from a long day of work with a large basket of polished Granny Smith apples in tote. He would buy them from a young storeowner whom both he and Eunseo later grew attached to.
In turn, the young man was extremely kind to their entire family; Euna would even label him as "too kind". "Eunseo?! My dearest!" He would call from the outside and per usual it did not take long for the bubbly child to run to the front door to greet him. After being scooped up in his burly arms, the cheerful child would bury her face in his shoulder. He'd always smell of strong cigars and cologne. She would come to treasure his scent, having no idea that it was a cover up of the scent of lust with the kind storeowner. Meanwhile, her mother would scowl at the duo from the kitchen window. She wanted Eunseo to depend solely on her and only her. The overbearing woman was the true definition of selfishness. Even before she found out about the affair, she looked for anything to keep her daughter to herself. She wanted to mold Eunseo into the little girl of her dreams, but she was different.
There had been a point where Eunseo's love for Sangwoo turned into a downright obsession. She wanted to exactly like him. It was the ideal way to get back at her mother. Every so often her mind travelled back to that day her mother walked in on Sangwoo with the kind man from the farmer's market. Truth was told, Eunseo didn't view the memory of her father's infidelity as some tragic event but more of a heroic feat. Even as a child Eunseo felt great comfort in her mother's pain even if it were redirected towards her simply because she carried her father's face and his ways. And if she couldn't rearrange her only daughter's DNA she'd erase everything else that was abnormal. From forcing some of Eunseo's female friends away from becoming "too close" with a fear of her taking a liking to the same sex just as her father did to the psychotic woman shredding every piece of "masculine" clothing the teen owned.
Every Saturday morning Eunseo had awoken to pressure against her lithe body. Nothing truly surprised her anymore. "Drunk…again…" The teen whispered to herself, staring at the pile of clothes her mother destroyed out of a drunken rage. "Mom? Get off…" The unruly teenager shoved tried shoving her mother off, but the scorned woman refused rising up to only cuff her daughter's wrists. "Why don't you love your mother? You're just like your father. What are you going to do? Leave me? Am I not enough for my own daughter?" The vicious woman's restraint grew tighter as Eunseo struggled, only stopping when Eunseo begun to scream for her to let go. "Stop it! Get the Hell off!" Her voice grew raw by the heightened pitch. The tortured teen would count down the moments until her mother would inevitably let go. She knew Euna would say word-for-word.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what has come over me. Your clothes…no worries I'll by you new ones. I'll buy you a nice dress with new shows to match." The way Euna's mood would shift frightened her. Rolling out of her daughter's bed, Euna gathered the tattered clothing in her arms and left. Fury at welled up in Eunseo's heart as she stared at her bruised wrists. She hated the woman with a passion and someday she would hurt her just as much. Eunseo could only imagine tearing her mother down and fall short of every expectation she harbored. "Stupid bitch!" She growled, cradling her delicate face in the palm of her hands. She wanted to leave, there was noo doubt about that, but how?