The Search for Freedom

Lil

I knew if a couple didn't really love each other, there was a high possibility for them to break up. Because even though they were already married, change was constant. There was a big chance that someone's wife would be out of zest when she was with him. That could be a reason for separation. just like what happened to my friend's parents.

I was going back home when I saw France Lim. It had been many days since I last saw him. He wasn't going to school anymore, and I didn't know why. I didn't want to make an inference about him, because it wasn't my business if he wanted to do whatever he wanted to do.

He was sitting on the bench near their house's gate. I went near him and sat down there too. Walking back and forth from home and school could be exhausting, even though it was only a kilometer away. If I became rich, I would buy a lot of transportation so that students would not have to exert effort or waste time walking.

"Hey bro, why are you not going to school anymore?" I asked.

France had changed. He seemed to have his own world. He was playing games on his phone, unlike me, who has never touched a phone ever since I was born because we were indigent and I didn't want my parents to waste their money on that. I didn't need it in order to live.

Perhaps he wasn't going to school because nobody supported him. He had told me once that his father didn't care about them. Everything was his father's mistake, because if he had not cheated, they would have been a happy family until

now.

I noticed that the curse didn't hurt those good people. Perhaps if it thought that somebody was fighting, it would stop them. However, I could not let it go because they were also humans.

He didn't answer me, and it seemed that he didn't have a plan to go back to school. He might be addicted to playing Mobile Legends. Though I didn't have a phone, I could hear those games they were playing because of those students who would ask others to join them. Even those teachers sometimes played Mobile Legends with their students.

"France, are you okay?" I asked again.

However, he didn't say anything. His eyes were stuck on his phone, and his fingers were busy tapping its screen. Maybe it was very difficult for him because he had no parents anymore. He only had his siblings, but he also told me that they were not that close.

"Okay, if you won't talk with me, then I will go now," I said.

Someone said that those who couldn't understand your silence surely couldn't understand your words. He might need time to think, but he wasn't thinking if he'd play all day. I didn't care. His life wasn't mine.

Therefore, I stood up, carried my backpack, and continued walking down the street. France has really changed. Before, every time that I would say or ask something, he would always respond on time. However, I knew I couldn't blame him. I must be the one to be blamed because I was the reason his mother died. It was all my mistake that he was doing that.

Even though I would say that I didn't care, my conscience was telling me it was all my mistake. He was so kind to allow that to happen; he was the one who protected me from bullies since we were young. whereas it didn't cross my mind that his mother would die because of me. I was curious about why I had not seen him before, and I had not identified the woman.

It is really difficult to move on from the death of someone you loved. I believed that others were just saying that the death of their beloved was causing them depression, though they were the ones depressed because their beloved didn't want to see them sad.

Those who died also didn't want to die, but what else could they do if fate was against them? that they were wasting their time on someone they cared about who had already found peace in the land of spirits. They were really not meant to live longer in the world.

One more thing: dead people received more flowers than living ones because regret was stronger than gratitude. That was the reason why we needed to spend more time with someone we loved, because we didn't know when we would die, and it was inevitable.

France might be lamenting because I could hear what he was talking about, even though I was far from him. Poor France. He was thinking that nobody cared about him and he was alone. He didn't know what to do anymore. He told me once that he wasn't lamenting his mother's death too much. He told me that he knew that time would come and he had prepared for that, but it seemed to him that he had underestimated the power of change.

There was one more thing. I realized that it was weird because I could hear a lot of things, such as people fighting, laughing, crying, teasing, etcetera, etcetera. The noise was getting louder and louder.

It was incredible and cool, but I knew it had a bad effect. Many weird things have happened ever since the old man demonstrated. Perhaps it wasn't only that, there would be many things to happen. It was all my mistake that I agreed to have the bluish cloud without thinking. But everything was done, and I couldn't go back to fix what I screwed up.

It baffled me. I couldn't think well. My head was aching, and it seemed that the whole world was talking in my ear. I could hear them even when I was covering. I should go home to find a way for them to stop. After a few minutes of walking, the noise had disappeared. I realized that it was really hard to hear the whole world because everyone seemed to have problems. Many people were sulking everywhere.

I was already at the front of our house. I opened the wooden gate and continued to the door. It was good to know that my mother wasn't scared of the person who killed the two women. Before it was even afternoon, my mother already closed the door, and even my father was infected by my mother's smartness and bravery.