The Eyes Are the Best Part

by Monika Kim

I felt sorry for her. Sorry that every part of her life had been characterized by misery. Sorry that even now, she was suffering.

There are some things that you can never truly escape. Not really. Maybe that’s why, even now, she’s stuck in the past, long after everyone else has moved on.

Help im still at the restaurant

More than anything, he hated that everything in his life served as a reminder of his failures.

I don’t blame him. Maybe because I know what it’s like, to live a life so defined by want. That’s why I was able to recognize it in him—it was what I had been feeling for so long.

The door creaks open and in the doorway, our doorway, is George. His eyes are twinkling. “Whoa, whoa. You guys having a pillow fight without me? At least let me watch!”

Gag me with a damn spoon! Yuck

Her tears dripped onto my hands, onto the carpet; I watched them fall and had the sudden realization that our roles had reversed. Somehow, I had become the mother and she the daughter.

What is it like to live freely, to live a life untethered, without having to be responsible for everyone around you?

all the lip balms I keep buying and forgetting.

Me af

I feel sorry for her, and even sorrier when I study her features and see Ji-hyun and myself in them, all the pieces of us weaving in and out of her. We’re tangled together in this ball of yarn, my mother, Ji-hyun, and me.

I help her brush her teeth and tie her hair back into a sleek ponytail. I’m reminded of my childhood, when she used to get me ready for school. It seems like it should be funny that our roles are reversed, but it makes me go numb.