Me After Meeting You

Because Amber’s father was drunk, he slept very well through the first half of the night. But after that, he started making a big fuss, and grumbled about his head hurting for so long that Amber was forced to run out, buy him medicine, and then give him a massage. Only then was he able to sleep again.

So she woke up in the late morning, and the first thing she saw was her mother sitting by her bedside, holding her phone, and chatting endlessly with someone unknown.From NôvelDrama.Org.

And she must have been feeling pretty good, as there wasn’t even a trace of the evil stepmother’s face that she had worn until finally meeting Ian yesterday. She even greeted Amber particularly warmly. “Good morning, daughter.”

Amber was caught by surprise, speechless.

She felt as if the mother in front of her was a fake. Her father’s behavior last night had made her mom deathly angry, but in the morning, she wasn’t even lecturing her husband, and instead even felt good enough to be waiting by her daughter’s bedside…. What was going on?

Amber rubbed her temples. “Good morning. How’s Dad doing?”

“Sleeping like a pig. I can’t be bothered to deal with him.”

Amber stilled for a moment before climbing out of bed to check on her father. Good, his temperature was normal, his heart rate was normal, and his face was normal despite causing a big fuss last night, he at least hadn’t damaged his body with his drinking.

Amber went into the restroom to clean her face and wash up, but she didn’t have a change of clothes prepared. So, she had to wear her old clothes from yesterday, though she was able to wash her hair, which was feeling gross and sticky.

When she came out, she saw that her mother was still chatting with someone on her phone. Amber found it strange, and sat down by her mother’s side as she dried her hair. “Mom, who’re you talking with….”

When Amber glanced at the phone screen and saw that the nickname of the person in the chat was Sister Feng, one of her mother’s best friends, she relaxed. But then she heard a snippet of their conversation and became speechless again. “Why are you telling her about all this?”

Her mother was bragging to her close friend. “Ah, my daughter has a boyfriend now. He’s a really, really handsome lad, who even has a good family background…?

What happened to not rushing and taking things slowly?

Her mother fiercely responded, “What do you know? Your Auntie Yance said that it’d be very hard for you to get married because you’re too well educated and your job’s too good. So, I just wanted to provoke her a little.” She pushed Amber aside. “If you’re done packing, then head back first. Go home and dress up. Aren’t you going to go on a date with Ian later?”

Amber was shocked. “How did you know that?”

“He told me. Look.” She handed Amber her phone and tapped on another conversation.

Amber’s mother. “Good morning, thanks for coming yesterday.”

The other person. “It was nothing.”

“Are you busy today?”

“Yes, I’m going on a date with Amber in the afternoon.”

The nickname that Amber’s mother had given this other person was ‘Daughter’s Boyfriend, Ian Axton’.

Amber caressed her forehead in distress. She didn’t even know that the two of them had added each other on Whatsapp, and this gave her a bad premonition.

In truth, her premonitions were startlingly accurate, because in the future, Amber’s mother and ‘Daughter’s Boyfriend, Ian Axton’ would have many conversations, each of them simple and short, just like the following example:

On a certain day, Amber’s mother asked, ‘Did the two of you not go out today?’

Ian Axton, ‘We did.’

On another day, Amber’s mother asked, ‘No plans today?’

Ian Axton, ‘I’m accompanying her to look at her patients.’

And on yet another day, Amber’s mother asked, ‘The two of you aren’t together?’

Ian Axton, ‘We had a fight, and she’s ignoring me.’

He always responded very quickly and never hid anything from her. Amber’s mother felt that he was far more honest than her daughter!

But all this would happen in the future, and even if Amber felt a bad premonition from this, she couldn’t simply ask her mother to unfriend Ian. All she could do was say, “Don’t bother him too much. He’s a very busy person.”

Amber’s mother quickly responded, “Do you think that I don’t know that?” She looked at her daughter superciliously. “Worry about yourself! Quickly go home and change your clothes. How can you go out and meet anyone like that?”

And so Amber was chased out of the door heartlessly.

At least Amber was able to take solace in her father being all right. Amber then called Ruby, had him pick the two of them up, and then returned home as her mother had commanded.

***

But instead of going home right away, she instead went to the hospital first. On the sixth day of the new year, the psychiatry department normally wouldn’t have been very busy, but this year, there was a big commotion in the department.

On the third, they had accepted a new patient who was suffering from an emotional impediment. When she first entered the hospital, she was only a little depressed.

But on the morning of the sixth, as the doctor on duty, Dr. Beryl Alva, was performing psychotherapy on her, that child had suddenly exploded, saying that the doctor had teased her with vulgar words….

Because the girl hadn’t been exhibiting any serious symptoms when she first entered the hospital, she had been assigned to an unrestricted ward. And since her family was worried that she wouldn’t acclimate to her new surroundings well, they visited her daily.

And they had been present on the morning she had made her allegations. When they saw her make such a big fuss and repeat those hurtful words that were incongruous with what a teenager would say, they immediately believed her. In their anger, they rushed into the therapy room and started making a big fuss too.

When Amber arrived, the fight was still going strong. The patient’s family did admit that their child was mentally ill, but they had never heard her say anything akin to those words before, and what’s more, would a teenager even understand what they meant? So, it could only have been the doctor who did something to the girl, and the hospital had to provide them with an explanation.