Chapter Text
"Ailisu, you get back here now!"
Heavy footsteps echoed behind her, but Ailisu couldn’t stop. If she stopped now, she would never move again. Gripping the handle of the door, she heard a gasp from her glassy-eyed sister.
"If you walk out that door, you are never welcomed back here. Do you understand me?"
His low voice rumbled through the house, reaching her just as she glanced back at him. Her mother stood behind him, holding her now-crying sister. His piercing gaze never left Ailisu.
"I love you. Truly, I do. But my life is my own. I won’t let you control that," she said, turning her head away, determined not to let her eyes betray her.
"I'm sorry."
She didn’t say it because she regretted her decision. She said it because she was leaving them, and it hurt. Her hand pressed down against the cool metal of the door as she simultaneously grabbed the suitcase beside her. With one final breath, she walked out the all-too-familiar door, leaving the shouting man behind. Her steps echoed against the stone path as she made her way toward the car. She finally sat in the passenger seat, and as the car pulled away, her eyes released everything she’d been holding inside. The man beside her remained silent as they drove through the place she could no longer call home, only a place she once knew by heart.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked carefully.
Maybe he thought she’d be scared. Maybe he thought the question would make her want to jump out of the car and run back to them.
A silence settled between them. She didn’t look at him, barely breathing as she thought about her decision.
"This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I will never regret it," she said, turning to him with a determined gaze, almost expecting him to tell her she was wrong.
Instead, he smiled at her. Not a reassuring smile, but a genuine, happy smile.
"Good. Wouldn’t want you otherwise."
At that, she smiled, even though salt-filled drops still streamed down her face like curtains over a window.
But she felt happy.
She was fulfilling her lifelong dreams—bright lights, big stages, and sharing her love for music with the world.
Maybe she would fail.
But at least she would never regret trying. At least she would never regret truly giving her all to something she loved.