“Ya… why is everyone wearing black clothes?”
I lifted my head and saw Zion standing at the entrance.
Behind him stood a woman dressed in bright red with heavy makeup, curled hair hanging over her shoulders.
She carefully leaned half her body forward, her eyes moving across the room, finally stopping on the memorial photo of my mother in the center of the living room, as if she only just understood.
“Ah… today… Someone passed away?”
Then she seemed to realize she had spoken out of place, quickly pulling a red flower from her hair, holding it between her fingers as she walked toward my mother’s memorial stand.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t know… can I put this flower here?”
Seeing her reach toward my mother’s memorial, the blood in my body went cold. I almost acted on instinct and pushed her away.
“Leave! Who told you that you could come in!”
The woman stepped back in a rush, almost losing her balance, but Zion caught her with his hand.
I stared at Zion, my voice shaking from trying to hold myself together, “Zion, didn’t I tell you not to bring those cheap women from outside into this house, messing up the place!”
“And today is my mother’s death anniversary!”