A Man with a Wrong Decision Taking Tendency

Lim kept his eyes on Miya. She was cleaning up the kitchen, the last messy room full of dirty dishes. "She's good at cleaning," Lim talked to himself. He tried to convince his mind that everything was supposed to be good if he allowed Miya to work with him. All he had to do was as simple as deciding. But, for people with issues from their past, to take a leap of faith and to decide, wouldn't be that easy.

Lim was staring at his drawing tablet. He was dwelling on his past.

***

Eighteen years ago, the 10-year-old Lim was busy packing his pieces of stuff. He was so excited because tomorrow he would go to the beach with his parents. He put his goggles, a bar of his favorite chocolate, some comics, sunglasses, and a Dodge Blade into his backpack. He always brought the Dodge Blade with him whenever he traveled. Because Dodge Blade was the most popular kid toy brand at that time. Popular enough to make you invisible in your circle if you play around without bringing one or two sets of Dodge Blade with you.

All packed!

Lim carried his backpack to his bedroom and changed his clothes.

Lim's mom chuckled seeing Lim wearing his swimsuit, his beach hat, and his brand-new shoes to go to bed. She could understand that children in Lim's age, most would go to sleep with their new things or their favorite stuff whenever they get excited. But Lim even wore his new shoes without taking off their label.

"Lim, you have to take off your shoes' label," Lim's mom tried to take off the label, but he hid his foot with a flash move.

"No! I'm willing to tell all crabs on the beach that I wear a pair of new shoes."

"My Liemmy… Showing off is not a good thing to do, right?"

"Mom… I'm not showing off! I just wanna spread the good message."

"What message?"

"Study hard always pays off. Me, I study and get a good score. You, have to pay of… of all of my toys, snacks, gifts, and holiday expenses!"

"You want to tell that kind of message? To crabs?"

"Maybe… Someone will listen when I'm talking to the crabs…"

"Who?"

"Umm… Dad?" Lim was laughing together with his mom.

"That's my boy! Next time, make sure you ask your dad to pay the bills for your toys, 'gree?!"

Lim's mom gave him butterfly kisses and a good-night-stroking-hair before letting her beloved Liemmy fall asleep.

***

Lim woke up at 04.00 in the morning. He couldn't help to stay in bed. He rechecked his belongings to make sure that nothing was left. His excitement bothered him. He wanted to go to the beach as soon as possible, but his parents were still sleeping. He tried finding a way to wake his parents up.

AHA! Lim got an idea!

"I have to prepare the breakfast, so right after they wake up, they can eat and we can go immediately!"

Lim rushed to the kitchen to make three slices of sandwich, one for each. Acting like a professional chef, Lim did his best to plate up the dishes. He put a bellied-heart-shaped mayonnaise on the top of the sandwich, arranged the french fries, and drew a sandcastle using tomato sauce, but failed. He then improvised, changing the shape of the sandcastle into a big block. He also served a glass of milk and a glass of water on the table. After all breakfast was ready, he went to his parents' bedroom for a morning wake-up kiss.

"Morning, Mom, Dad!" he kissed his parents as annoying as he could, wishing they're going to wake up immediately.

"Morning, Liemmy…" Lim's mom tried her best to fight her drowsiness.

"I've prepared breakfast for both of you! You have to try that! Come' on!" said Lim while kept kissing his parents until they fully woke up.

They just smiled at Lim's act.

***

Lim's dad was being touched seeing the breakfast his little boy had made, "Look at this! This is too lovely to eat! How could you make all of this?"

"We have practiced making them at school during our cooking class."

"But whose heart is this? Why this one is so fat? I bet this was mom's heart because she never did any exercise lately."

Mom was irritated by dad's joke, "Give it to me, then!"

Mom was about to take dad's sandwich, but HOP! Dad pulled his sandwich to his side. His agility honed enough to encounter any kind of mom's surprise attacks. He used to it. That's their love language. 

Mom took her milk after finishing her sandwich, "I wonder, is there any other heart-shaped thing inside this glass of milk?"

"There's no way I could put any kind of heart shape inside the milk, mom. But you could feel that I use my whole heart when I pour that milk for you both. So, hurry up! Finish that milk so we can go to the beach now."

Lim's parents were laughing as they knew how excited Lim was.

Dad tried to make fun at Lim, "How about if I turn on my slow-motion mode just for today?" he started to eat slowly.

"Dad, come on!"

Lim's mom hushed her husband for making Lim nag, "Dad, stop! Why on earth do all men were so happy spoiling their children?"

Lim's dad tried to irritate Lim even more by hugging him too tight so Lim would struggle to get loose. And the war of tickling is about to begin. They would tickle each other until their face turned red because of too much laughing. Lim begged his dad, "Dad… Please stop… Please… Hahahahahaha…"

"Nope! I can't do this again after you grow up!"

"Dad, please… Mom… Stop him… Hahaha… Stop him… HELP! HELP!!!"

"SIGH… You both… Take care of this man's business on your own. I need to pack things into the car."

Mom was about to leave the table when Lim asked, "Mom, can we go by bus?"

"It's too far, Liemmy. Besides, we bring too many kinds of stuff."

"Dad, please… I really want to go by bus. All of my friends have spent their time together with their parents getting around by bus. We never do that, right? Please…"

"You choose, young man!"

"BUS!!!"

"OK," said dad.

Lim was yelling and dancing, "Yes! Yes! Hurray! Hurray!"

***

At a meandering track with many cliffs, the bus they were riding in, was in trouble. The right tire of the bus exploded. The bus was about to fall down to the cliff on the right side of the road. The driver swung the wheel to the left as much as he could. The bus slipped to the left and bumped into the rock cliff on the left side of the road. The left window near Lim's seat was broken. The shard of the glass slashed Lim's left cheek. Lim tried his best to endure his pain to help an old man who was sitting next to him. The old man was holding his chest. He was in pain. Lim cried for help. He took a look at his parents who were sitting at his right, across the aisle. His parents were about to reach him, but all of a sudden, the bus turned right sharply. At that moment, a car hit the right side of the bus, exactly at Lim's parents' seat position.

Everyone screamed.

Lim couldn't see anything but hear the scary chaotic sound of the bus, of the car, of the people, and his parents. The old man tried to protect Lim by covering Lim's head with his body. The bus dragged and rolled upside down several times.

How strange!

Suddenly, Lim couldn't hear anything, even the heartbeat of the old man.

Lim couldn't move his body. His eyes tried to spot his parents but their seat was empty, even badly damaged. Lim was about to lose consciousness when he heard the rescue team said that no one survived.

Me… Me… Please save me…

Lim tried to talk but he was too weak to speak. His tears busted out. He was in pain. He didn't know what just happened. He couldn't find his parents. He was scared. He wished for a miracle, that his parents were saved.

"Please… Please… Just take my life… Not them…"

***

Back to Lim's room, his eyes watery. His breath was heavy.

"Why? I always making wrong decisions?" he thought while wiping out the unwanted tears he had. Lim tried his best to keep his legs on the ground. He was looking for Miya's whereabouts through the CCTV control screens.

He couldn't find her. He spotted the CCTV monitor screen one by one.

Here she was!

But Lim was shocked. He saw Miya was sorting tools from the toolbox.

Getting panicked, Lim opened his drawer. There were two guns, one was a dummy while the other was real. Lim was about to pick up the dummy only to scare Miya, but when he found that Miya had disappeared again, Lim decided to take the real gun, checked the bullet, and went away in silence to catch Miya.