Time to Wake Up

Harold claimed he was busy, so I busied myself setting up our wedding venue alone until midnight. Over the years, he'd refused to marry me 108 times for various reasons—including but not limited to—his career that was just taking flight, not having a fitting suit, and ugly flowers at the venue. This time, it was because of my future assignment to Touden, the capital city. He didn't want to be in a long-distance relationship.And so I gave up on my bright future and organized the wedding by myself, down to the details. I assumed that he was picky because he wanted to have a perfect wedding, but now, I was watching camera footage of him kissing another woman passionately in bed. Elise leaned her head on his shoulder, scoffing. "What excuse are you planning to give her this time? I think you should just end this and marry her."Harold frowned. He grabbed her wandering hand and kissed it. "Don't make a fuss," he said. "You know that I proposed to her just to rile you up. I didn't

Before I knew it, Harold had left me alone by the roadside. "Elise wants nothing but to make it up to you, but you won't accept her goodwill. You're always wearing that frown on your face too. "Walk back home alone and reflect on your atrocious behavior along the way!" he said.And so I dragged my battered body back home. After what seemed like forever, I arrived at the front door, which I wouldn't open no matter what I tried. When the alarm blared loudly, Elise strutted over and opened the door, her head held high. She said, covering her mouth in a mockery of an apologetic expression, "Oh, it's you, Shana. I'm sorry. I couldn't remember the complicated passcode, so Harold changed it into something simpler."I nodded expressionlessly instead of breaking down like she'd wanted, so she pouted in disappointment. Harold, on the other hand, was satisfied with my reaction—he probably assumed that I'd taken his words to heart. He picked a fallen leaf from my hair, as gentle as he'd b

I didn't reply, merely blocking him and turning off my phone before leaning back on my seat and falling soundly asleep. I dreamed of those dark days, when Elise had kicked the urn holding my mother's ashes. When its contents spilled on the ground, I freaked out and tried to scoop them up, only for her to crush my fingers beneath her feet. I could only watch as Mom's ashes were blown away by the wind. "Your mom's a dumb bitch," she said with a sneer. "I told her that I'd give Dad back to her if she jumped down from the building, and she believed me!"I tried to tell Dad what kind of person Elise and her mom were. Before I could finish, though, he slapped me across the face, sending me falling to the ground. "You disappoint me, Shana! How dare you spill your mother's ashes and try to frame Elise for it?" After Dad left, Elise gave me a gleeful look. She yanked on my hair, scorching my face with a red-hot curling iron. She held it there until it hurt so bad that I couldn't even

I buried myself in my work. Cirro Village was hidden amidst the layered mountains, secluded from the real world, and hence was underdeveloped.Many villagers were afflicted with severe psychiatric illnesses because of their stressful lives, but had no idea how to improve their negative emotions. Even after I'd arrived at the village, they refused to consult me because they found voicing their thoughts and emotions out loud to be embarrassing. In order to change their minds, I visited them at their homes one by one and explained basic psychology to them. A month later, one of the villagers sought me out himself. More and more villagers came to trust me after that, and they fought to consult me, filling my days to the brim. Little did I know that Harold would manage to find me in such a secluded place. When I saw him, I thought that I'd mistaken him for someone else. It'd only been a month since I left, but he looked as weathered as a man in his 50s. He'd grown out a moustache