Chapter Text
“Eomma!” Hajin’s cry fills the park, and has her mother rushing to her side like a lightning, kneeling down beside her.
“What is it, my dear? What happened?”
“I wanted to take that rose home with me, but it stung me!” She raises her hand, now bleeding from where the thorn broke her skin, crying her eyes out, because even though she knew she could get hurt, she never thought the pain would be so big.
The little girl wants her mother to blow the pain away, take her in her arms and softly whisper things in her ear, until she’s not hurting anymore. Instead, she gains a scolding.
“Hajin-ah! I told you not to touch the roses,” her mother chastises her, but still cleans the blood from her hand, brushing it softly against hers, “Didn’t I explain it to you?”
“But, eomma!” Hajin is not crying anymore, but she’s still upset and pouts when she justifies herself, “I wanted to take it home with me.”
“And where would we put the flower in, Hajin-ah? We don’t have a backyard in the apartment.”
“I was going to put it in that blue jar. It’s empty, isn’t it?”
Her mother sighs, and the girl winces, thinking she’ll be punished. But then she brings her daughter closer to the bush of roses Hajin was playing with, and starts to speak with a soft and caring tone.
“Look, Hajin-ah. All flowers have to be in the dirt, because their roots need to find nutrients,” her mother explains carefully, pointing to where the stem disappeared in the ground, and turning around to see if she was understanding correctly, “If you cut the flower, it won’t have its roots anymore, so the flower will be hungry. Would you like it if someone took out your mouth and didn’t let you eat?”
“No…”
“Even if you put the flower in the water, it will eventually wither and die. The flower doesn’t want that, and that’s why she grows thorns, so nobody takes her away.”
“So I can’t take the flowers home?”
“Just to put in a vase for you to watch it? Why, when you can always come down here to see them?” Hajin sees the logic in her mother’s reasoning, so she nods, acquiescing to that advice, “Now, don’t be mad at the rose for stinging you and apologize properly to it. Remember, it’s always the small and defenseless things that need protection the most. And if nobody protects them, they learn how to protect themselves.”