Chapter 8: A Not So Peaceful Morning With You (Part 2)

"Well, not even a bite?"

Ivie coaxes her child, soft-soaping him for the pleasant menu considering everyone's hard labor to prepare for their routine this morning.

She endeavored to take one swift glance at his face but to no avail. She could merely move her neck sideways, let alone her head.

How peculiar.

She had acknowledged him as a little glutton monster who notoriously owned a two-headed dragon inside his stomach. His disproportionate appetite, in fact, knows no bounds. So she deceit and can't comprehend the cause why was he forsaking food now.

Her eyebrows persist to frown in deep concern for his sudden change.

Is he perhaps feeling sick?

Noticing that he did not even exert to give a response to her invitation, she figured that his mind was still set to a firm no, and it looked like he was nowhere immediate desiring to withstand his own words either.

She lifts her hand and places it carefully on his back, gently caressing and calming him while dragging his pajama shirt in uncertain directions. His young body was slightly shaking, but it was good that he was not breaking into cold sweat.

Ivie massively exhales a troubled sigh, in distress for his unending stubbornness. She could not count how many excess breaths she had excluded this morning.

Aigoo.

Ivie gradually wraps her arms around her dearest child, returning his desperate and warm embrace as she holds and supports his weight against her on his waist.

She sways their bodies lightly from side to side and teasingly swats his stiff and small behind, "Kieran, I won't be leaving for the office today."

After those words had fled her lips and bounced their way to his now attentive ears, Ivie sensed his meek body flinched against hers. Then she felt the tightening of his embrace before hesitatingly loosening his grip on her, making her somehow breathe secretly in relief.

If her love for him was the strongest to withstand any storm and misfortune, his power hug appears to be worthy of the competition.

She almost couldn't breathe under his impenetrable clutches. Aigoo.

Kieran slowly withdraws his body from hers, now directly looking at her with wide blinking green eyes while his arms persistently stayed around her neck.

He appears to be too probing to utter a single word, and the disbelief on his face was too palpable.

How adorable. She thought so.

She leans in and gives the tip of his nose a small doting peck, "Mommy's taking you somewhere fun today."

Looks like God is on her side today. The conspicuous flag of her victory soared higher. She had accomplished surprising him. But then again, of course, he would, knowing she's rarely at home during the daytime.

Kieran's puerile and bewildered gaze pierces candidly at her, paired with his now broad and focused bottomless green eyes.

"Where?"

His high-pitched whispering voice reverberates sweetly through her earbuds, gone the complete trace of sleepiness on his face.

His cub ears perk up and down. Where?

In the garden to have a walk?

The soccer field?

Now that Ivie has fully captured his attention. She rashly smooches her lips at the center of his plump cheek, stealing another kiss from him as she taps the tip of his small, but straight and prominent nose with her finger.

"The amusement park."

His eyes grew more comprehensive at her revelation, a slight excitement could now be seen in the depths of his emerald green eyes.

Oh, Kieran.

She held him closer to her as there was no one else nearer to her heart than he was. She was melting, happy, and sated at the sight of his genuine smile alone.

Gazing at him this close, she could see her faint reflection inside his crystal green quartz.

The white walls were blessing them with great lighting to pair with their pale complexion and through that faint glow gave off a frame comparable to that of a noble cellar painting with the white linen comforter disheveled around them.

Deep down, she knew this is exactly where she would always want to rest—her peace is to be at his very side.

There was nothing more beloved in this world than catching his delighted dimples popping out from their shell, far from the sheltered child like she used to be when she was young as his age.

And her determination to protect and cherish him intensifies each and every day that has passed. She would be ready to trade thousands of her gold in exchange for this wonderful view to not disappear before her eye eternally shuts.

'So beautiful and so rare' she pondered, referring to his eye color and his ever bit of thrilled smile.

Of course, what parents could not be happier than devoting themselves to their children?

It was the only heeding request she wanted to indulge herself completely without wanting payment in return. It was a job as tiring but as loving to keep and pursue, but she immediately swept the thought away when a bitter taste swept and touched the tip of her tongue, replacing the fleeting emotion in her chest with a bit of agitation.

Well, some parents.

And hers was not an exception.

She was well aware of that. Her parents may not have loved her then, but that cycle ends there. The toxic footsteps of privilege they assume will end in her reign.

Her tense eyelids softened as she settle her gaze on Kieran's fresh face.

Her child doesn't deserve the same thing she did.

It was resentful and downright loathsome.

Even through her mid-twenties could not hide her nightmares of this place that was nothing more than the dark and unfamiliar eyes of her parents from her childhood.

It wasn't as lively as it should be.

"Let's go, mother!"

Kieran said, enthusiastically detaching himself from her and jolting out of the bed in hurry, making her laugh at his frantic behavior.

"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

Because if they ever loved her since then, she would have felt that she was, too.

All those desperate days and anxious nights

He doesn't ever want him to endure such heart-aching doubt as she did.

Never, and she swore it with this life of hers.

Not wanting to ruin the mood as she had never seen him this eager ever since his class schedules started to be hectic in the past few weeks, she kept a light smile on her lips, no longer concerned about her past self.

My poor baby.

At first, she was bothered and worried that they might end up pressuring him, but surprisingly it wasn't formidable for him to catch up—or should she say excel greater beyond her imagination?

He was already jumping to five grade levels in advance.

It's insane, but he ended up receiving and earning great praise from his instructors.

She, too, as his mother, couldn't be more proud of how bright and smart he had become, but as they say, the more knowledge one attains and achieves, the more easily he can sense his disparity and look down on others, which was a trait he's starting to have.

She shakes her pessimistic thoughts away and decided to bob her head to the other side, faking her innocence to test his temper, "Where?"

Kieran's grin stretched wider from ear to ear, "To eat breakfast, mother."

He told her, nonetheless, his voice remained sweet as dew honey, clueless of her stunt as he walked around towards the edge of the bed on her side, reaching out to her hand and tugging her to get off.

Ivie laughed.

"I thought you weren't hungry? I suppose we'll postpone going."

Before she could even finish her sentence, Kieran was already shaking his head from side to side with his eyebrows knitted together.

"I'm always hungry, mother."

He purses his lips while hesitantly looking away from her as he gulps before continuing to speak. "I . . . I feel like eating broccoli."