“What is wrong with you again?! How much can one take?! I’ve had enough of this!” the woman’s voice echoed from behind the door of one of the apartments, carrying through the entire stairwell of the building.
At that moment, Aino and Matti were ascending the stairs. They stopped dead in their tracks, as if they had run into an unseen barrier. Their eyes met briefly, and in that silent glance, no words were needed. Both understood instantly: it was better to turn back now. They sighed in unison and quietly retreated from the building. Returning to their apartment that evening was clearly not in their plans.
Who would want to spend the night listening to their parents’ endless quarrels? Certainly not them! The siblings strode confidently toward the neighboring entrance where their grandmother, Kaisa Korhonen, lived. In recent times, her home had become their true sanctuary. What used to be weekend visits had turned into almost nightly stays.
The environment in their parents’ home had become utterly intolerable. The parents, oblivious to everything else, shouted at each other nonstop. Worst of all, they increasingly tried to pull the children into their disputes.
Sometimes the mother would turn sharply to her daughter and demand:
“Say it, am I right? You agree with me, don’t you?”
Other times the father, without waiting, would address his son:
“No, I’m the one who’s right here! Back me up!”
Aino and Matti remained silent. They didn’t want to pick sides or become entangled in this never-ending conflict. They simply desired quiet, peace, and warmth all of which they found at their grandmother’s.
These scenes played out day after day, much like a worn-out record that no one dared to stop. The children had learned to detect the subtle cues that a fight was brewing. From the tone of voice, the sharpness of movements, the way the parents exchanged looks these became signals to leave. What child would enjoy living in constant tension, where any conversation could explode into a loud argument in an instant?
The siblings couldn’t figure out what had sparked this disaster. Their family had never been perfect, not like in advertisements, but previously the parents knew how to compromise! Arguments happened, of course, but they ended in calm discussions rather than screams. Mother might frown, father raise his voice slightly, but within half an hour everything was resolved. Everyone would sit at the table again, drink tea, and plan the weekend.
But about two years ago, everything shifted… It was as if someone had secretly replaced their old parents with new ones who found reasons to argue over the smallest things. A dirty mug left on the table? A long lecture on carelessness and disrespect. A shirt hung on the wrong hook? Cause for sarcastic comments about household order. A teaspoon forgotten in the sink? Almost a crime warranting lengthy interrogation!
One evening, Aino sat in her grandmother’s kitchen, absentmindedly stirring her tea. She was quiet for a long time, watching the amber swirls in the cup, then suddenly asked with bitterness:
“How can it be like this, grandma? Everything changed after their joint vacation. What happened there?”
Kaisa Korhonen paused, set her cup on the saucer, and gently patted Aino’s hand. She herself only guessed at the reasons for the family discord, and those guesses didn’t please her.
“Adults will sort it out themselves,” she replied softly, trying to sound confident. “Sometimes people need time to figure out the best way to proceed.”
Aino nodded, but distrust showed in her eyes. She knew grandma was hiding something, but didn’t press. What was the point? As long as they saw her as a child, they wouldn’t share anything serious.
“We can’t handle these shouts anymore!” Matti exclaimed desperately. “We can’t do homework properly or read a book! I don’t even remember the last time we all sat at the table together. If it’s so hard for them to be together, they should just divorce it would be easier for everyone!”
The words came out on their own, but they held the truth of the past months. Matti spoke not just for himself he knew his sister felt the same. There had been no peace in their home for a long time: either mother would say something sharp, or father would respond irritably, and soon another argument would start, with nowhere to hide…
“Matti…” Grandma was taken aback. She set aside her knitting, looked at her grandson carefully, and slowly shook her head. “Have you thought about what would happen if they divorced? You’d have to be divided. Are you ready to live separately from Aino?”
“We’ll live with you!” Aino said immediately, looking at her grandmother with pleading eyes. “We’re here almost all the time anyway! You don’t mind, do you?”
Kaisa Korhonen froze. She understood her grandchildren’s feelings saw how hard it was for them, how tired they were of the endless parental fights. On one hand, the children would indeed be safe here in a calm, friendly environment where they could do homework without shouting, read books in silence, and feel protected. She loved them immensely and was ready to surround them with care.
On the other hand, what about their parents? How to explain that the children no longer wanted to live at home? Would they agree to such an arrangement? And if they did how would it affect their relationship with the children? Might this lead to a complete break in relations with the parents?
“Let’s not rush,” the woman said, taking a deep breath. “I’m always happy to have you here, you know that. But let’s first try talking to your mother and father. Maybe together we can find a way to fix things.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll talk to them ourselves,” Aino stated confidently, smiling happily. Grandma was almost agreeing, and that was the main thing! “Just don’t refuse us, please! We really can’t stay there anymore! And it will be better for them separately otherwise one day they might actually hurt each other! I saw dad raise his hand at mom yesterday… He didn’t hit her, honestly! But he was on the edge.”
Aino fell silent, recalling that terrible moment. She had gone to the kitchen for a glass of water and froze in the doorway: father stood half-turned to mother, his hand suddenly raised, and mother instinctively ducked. A second later father lowered his hand, but that second stretched into eternity for Aino.
“Grandma, agree!” Matti supported his sister. He moved closer, took grandma’s hand, as if afraid she would refuse now. “We’ll help you with everything around the house. Just don’t make us go back there. They don’t pay any attention to us at all! Yesterday I went to dad and told him about the parent-teacher meeting. You know what he said? ‘Go ask your mom!’ So I did. Guess what mom said?”
“Go ask your dad?” Kaisa Korhonen asked quietly, already knowing the answer.
“Exactly!” Matti smiled bitterly. “And then they argued for another two hours about who would go to the meeting. They sat in different rooms and shouted at each other across the hallway. And I just stood there listening.”
“I asked them to sign the permission for the museum excursion,” Aino added, lowering her eyes. Her fingers nervously fiddled with her sleeve. “And now I’m the only one in class who won’t go. Neither of them signed the paper. Instead, they started arguing again mom shouted that it’s dad’s responsibility, and dad insisted that mom should handle school matters.”
Kaisa Korhonen looked at her grandchildren and saw how exhausted they were. In their eyes was not childish tiredness the kind that builds up over months, when every day resembles the previous one, when instead of family warmth there are constant arguments, instead of support indifference.
“And it’s always like this,” Matti sighed, shoulders slumping. His voice sounded weary, as if he had repeated this hundreds of times. “Any request from us turns into a reason for a new fight. We don’t even want to come home. A couple of days ago we arrived at eleven in the evening and do you think they scolded us? No! They just sent us to bed without even asking where we’d been. But later they accused each other of poor upbringing for a long time.”
The teenagers sighed in unison again. In recent months they had seriously considered that their parents’ divorce was the only way out. But they feared the separation from each other that would inevitably follow the divorce. One would stay with mom, the other with dad, and their usual closeness would turn into rare weekend meetings.
They weighed options, discussing them in whispers in the evenings when alone in their room. Once Matti jokingly suggested running away from home just grab backpacks and go wherever their eyes took them. He said it with a smile to lighten the mood, but Aino unexpectedly took the idea seriously. Her eyes lit up for a moment, then she quietly said: “What if we really leave? Even for a couple of days…” At that moment both realized the family situation had become so unbearable that even the thought of running away didn’t seem so crazy.
Then it dawned on them: grandma! Why not move in with her? This thought occurred to both at the same time, as if they were thinking in harmony. Aino voiced it first: “Let’s ask grandma if we can live with her? She definitely won’t yell or argue. And we won’t have to listen to these endless fights…” Matti immediately added: “Yes! She’s kind, always supports us. And her apartment is big enough we’ll have space.”
They began mentally painting a picture of the new life: calm breakfasts, doing homework in silence, evenings playing board games with grandma. No shouting, no accusations, no need to hide in their room to avoid a heated hand. For the first time in a long while, hope flickered in their hearts. Let the parents sort out their own issues, and they would finally find peace that’s what Aino and Matti thought, imagining life with their grandmother…
The twins stood before their parents and said firmly: “Mom, dad, we need to talk seriously.” They had waited until evening when both were home and entered the living room decisively. Aino held Matti’s hand tightly it helped her stay confident. “But first, promise to listen to us all the way before giving your opinion.”
Mikko looked up from his phone, surprised. Elina, who was sorting things on the couch, straightened up abruptly. Her face showed an expression as if the children had said something unthinkable.
“This is all your upbringing!” she huffed, crossing her arms. “The kids are already setting conditions for us! As if we have to report to them!”
“And who are you to talk!” the man flared up instantly, putting down his phone. “I’m constantly at work, trying to provide for the family. You’ve always been with them! And what have you taught them? Why are they commanding now?”
The twins exchanged glances. They had expected something like this that the conversation would immediately veer into the usual mutual accusations. But they couldn’t back down.
“Enough!” Aino exclaimed, almost with tears in her voice. She took a step forward, trying to speak clearly and calmly, though everything inside was trembling. “Matti and I have thought about it and decided that you need to get a divorce.”
The room fell silent instantly. Elina froze with her mouth open, and Mikko slowly rose from the couch.
“Now that’s news!” the mother’s voice sounded threatening. “Aino, you’re still too young to tell adults how to live! And what else have you ‘decided’? Maybe you’ll divide the apartment for us too?”
“If you don’t divorce, we’ll contact child welfare services,” Matti gripped his sister’s hand tightly, drawing strength from it. His voice was firm, though he himself didn’t fully believe he was saying this seriously. “And then, dad, you might lose your job. Your company doesn’t welcome scandals, right? You said yourself that reputation is everything.”
“And you, mom,” Aino continued, looking straight into her mother’s eyes, “will lose respect from the neighbors. They won’t even talk to you! Everyone knows how you yell at each other, and we’ll add details!”
“They’re threatening us! Just look at them!” Elina finally managed to say, shifting her gaze from one child to the other. “These are our children! How can you do this to us?”
“We’re not threatening,” Matti said quietly but confidently. “We just want you to understand: living like this is impossible. We’re tired! Tired of the shouting, of you not listening to us, of even simple requests turning into scandals.”
“You’ll divorce, move apart, and we’ll live with grandma,” the children finished in chorus, as they had rehearsed beforehand. “This will be better for everyone: peace for us, no constant conflicts for you. We don’t want to be between you like between two fires anymore.”
The parents froze. For the first time in a long while, they had no response. Usually in such talks they would start arguing right away, interrupting each other, finding blame but now both seemed speechless.
Their thirteen-year-old children were behaving completely unexpectedly! Aino and Matti stood side by side, holding hands, and looked at their parents firmly, without the usual timidity. And they spoke of such serious matters that the adults themselves tried not to think about.
The spouses themselves had often thought about divorce. But they were always stopped by the same question who would the children stay with? Separating the twins seemed unthinkable they were incredibly close, always did everything together, supported each other. The parents couldn’t imagine tearing one from the other, making them live in different homes, seeing each other only on weekends.
The option with grandma they hadn’t considered before. For some reason this thought had never occurred to them perhaps because both were too absorbed in their grievances and mutual claims. But now, hearing the children’s proposal, Mikko and Elina involuntarily wondered: what if this is the solution? Grandma loves the grandchildren, has a spacious apartment, is always happy to see them… Maybe this really would solve at least part of the problems?
“I’ll call my mother,” Mikko finally said through gritted teeth. His voice sounded muffled, as if the words were difficult. “If she agrees…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Elina interrupted him sharply, and in her voice was such weariness that it surprised even herself:
“Then we’ll finally stop tormenting each other. Call. I’ll be happy not to see your face every day.”
Her words hung in the air. She hadn’t wanted to be so harsh, but after years of accumulated grievances and disappointments, these words escaped on their own.
“And I’ll be glad too!” Mikko replied, trying to hide behind irony the pain her words caused him.
There was no anger in his tone only a bitter smile at what their family life had become. He took out his phone and slowly dialed his mother’s number. As the rings sounded, both spouses looked in different directions, avoiding each other’s eyes. They didn’t yet know where this conversation would lead, but they understood: the point of no return might already have been passed…
That day the Korhonen family made a fateful decision. It all began with a long conversation between Mikko and his mother. Kaisa Korhonen listened attentively, not interrupting, only occasionally asking clarifying questions.
When Mikko finally finished explaining everything, a pause followed. Grandma took a deep breath and said:
“If you both understand that this will be better for the children, I agree. They will be safe here, I will take care of them.”
In the evening the spouses met in the kitchen for the first time in a long while without shouting and mutual reproaches. They sat opposite each other and began discussing details. Gradually, step by step, they agreed on one thing: divorce was the only reasonable way out of the situation. The children would move to grandma’s, and the parents would transfer euros to her monthly for their support.
At the same time, no one intended to abandon the children to fate. Both father and mother solemnly promised to visit on weekends but on different days to minimize contact between themselves.
“I’ll come on Saturday morning to take them for a walk, and you on Sunday,” the man said wearily, to which his still wife nodded in agreement. “This will be simpler. The main thing is that the children don’t feel abandoned.”
Their main goal was to minimize communication and thus avoid new conflicts. They agreed not to discuss each other in front of the children, not to try to pull them to their side, not to argue in their presence.
“We are still their parents,” said Mikko. “And we must remain so, even if we are no longer spouses.”
And as time showed, the decision was ideal. The children were finally able to relax and start living like ordinary teenagers. Aino enrolled in an art club she had long dreamed of it, but previously there wasn’t time due to constant worries. Matti started playing soccer, found new friends on the team. They began spending time together again: walking around the city, going to the movies, discussing school matters without fear that another scandal would start at any moment.
Stability returned to their studies as well. Now they had a quiet place for homework, no one distracted them with shouts and arguments. Assignments were done calmly, without nerves, and this immediately reflected in their grades. Teachers noticed the changes: “You’ve become so attentive, kids! Keep it up!”
Gradually life settled into a new rhythm not perfect, but calm and predictable. The children no longer hid in their room, no longer flinched at loud voices, no longer worried about every step. They simply lived as teenagers should, who were lucky to find support in the most difficult circumstances…
Five years later, life in the Korhonen family flowed steadily and calmly. Aino and Matti had long grown accustomed to the new routine: studies, clubs, meetings with friends, warm evenings at grandma’s. The parents still visited alternately each on their day, with gifts and attention, but without mutual claims. Over these years they had learned to communicate restrainedly, politely, without the old outbursts of anger.
The first personal contact between the former spouses occurred at the children’s graduation party. The school organized a formal evening, and both parents, of course, attended. They were initially cautious, sitting in different parts of the hall, but gradually the ice melted.
When the dancing began, Mikko unexpectedly approached Elina:
“Shall we dance? Remind ourselves of the past.”
She hesitated a moment, then nodded.
After the evening they sat for a long time in the school yard, watching the graduates having fun by the fountain. The conversation started naturally first about the children, then about the past.
They talked a lot that evening, recalled happy moments of their marriage and behaved quite decently. They spoke not of old grievances but of the good things that had once connected them. The twins, watching their parents from afar, couldn’t have been happier. Yet it hurt them to see how two of their closest people treated each other almost like enemies.
But suddenly thunder struck from a clear sky. The next day Mikko and Elina invited the children to a cafe. Over tea, glancing at each other, they held hands, and Mikko announced with a broad smile:
“Kids, your mom and I have thought about it and decided to get married again. Over these years we’ve realized our feelings haven’t faded! We still love each other and want to become a family again.”
His voice sounded joyful, as if sharing the happiest news of his life. Elina beamed, clearly expecting an enthusiastic reaction.
The twins exchanged glances their faces darkened instantly. Distrust flickered in Aino’s eyes, Matti clenched his fists under the table. Again the same mistakes! What were their parents thinking? Could they really live together without conflicts?
“Are you serious?” was all Aino could manage to say.
“Absolutely,” Mikko replied confidently. “We’ve both changed. Learned to listen to each other. And we want to give our family a second chance.”
The children were silent. Inside, conflicting feelings raged: on one hand, they wanted to believe that the parents had truly changed; on the other they feared a repeat of the pain they had once experienced.
However, Aino and Matti did not try to dissuade them. They didn’t even comment on the statement, which greatly offended the parents. Elina looked at the children in confusion:
“What, you’re not happy? We thought you’d be happy for us.”
But the twins only exchanged glances and shrugged. What could they say? “Don’t do this! Don’t ruin your lives!”? The words stuck in their throats. They didn’t want to seem cold, but they also couldn’t pretend everything was fine.
The conversation didn’t flow until the end of the meeting. The parents tried to talk about their plans, the children nodded politely, but their thoughts were elsewhere. On the way home Aino quietly said to her brother:
“I hope they know what they’re doing.”
Matti only sighed in response…
“Does that mean we’re going to Helsinki?” Aino opened her laptop, about to browse university websites. “Farther from this madness. I can already imagine how this circus will end!”
“Of course we’re going,” Matti said firmly, and his voice carried a maturity beyond his years. He ran a hand through his hair, as if trying to shake off the burden of recent months. “They might live peacefully for a month, at most two. Then everything starts over: shouting, slamming doors, accusations… I don’t want to be a hostage to their relationship anymore. I don’t want to wonder every morning what mood they’ll be in today and who among us the next stream of complaints will fall on.”
He stood and paced the room, mechanically gathering scattered textbooks. One thought kept circling in his head: why do adults, who should be examples of wisdom and stability, behave like unbalanced teenagers? Why, instead of solving problems, do they keep stepping on the same rake over and over?
“We need to leave,” he repeated, stopping at the window. Outside, dusk was slowly falling, painting the city in soft orange hues. Matti gazed into the distance, as if trying to glimpse his future there. “Far away. So far that their arguments can’t reach us. Let them sort it out themselves. We’re no longer their psychologists, no mediators, no lightning rods. We have our own life, our own dreams, and I won’t let them destroy it with another round of parental madness.”
“When do we submit the documents?” Aino asked calmly.
“Tomorrow,” Matti answered without hesitation. “So we definitely won’t change our minds.”
The girl nodded silently, not taking her eyes off the monitor. On the screen flashed pages of Helsinki universities’ websites she had been studying programs for a week, dorm living conditions, job prospects after graduation. In her notebook next to the laptop grew lists: pros and cons of each option, required documents, deadlines, admissions office contacts.
“The main thing is to study calmly, without being distracted by their fights,” she said quietly, as if summarizing her thoughts. “Good that we’ll be so far.”
“Exactly,” Matti agreed, sitting down beside her. He tilted his head slightly, reading the lines on the screen. “And when they start figuring out who’s to blame again, we won’t even hear it. Let them call, complain, try to summon us to a ‘family council’ we’re not participating in that anymore. And their desire to ‘give the relationship a second chance’,” he smiled bitterly, “that’s their choice, not ours.”
Elina and Mikko did go ahead with the second wedding. This time they consciously refused a lavish celebration: they didn’t want extra expenses, didn’t want to attract attention, and honestly, didn’t feel they needed anything grandiose. They limited themselves to a modest ceremony at the Helsinki registry office and dinner with the closest parents, a few friends, the children.
In the photos from that day they looked truly happy. Smiling, holding hands, looking at each other with tenderness and warmth. In the frame one could see their intertwined fingers, soft gazes, light touches. It seemed all grievances were forgotten, that the years of separation had been beneficial, that now they knew exactly what they wanted, and only a bright future awaited them ahead. The children, looking at these pictures, couldn’t help but wonder: maybe this time everything would really turn out differently?
But… alas, no. The first weeks after the wedding passed surprisingly peacefully: the spouses tried to be more attentive to each other, said “thank you” more often, didn’t nitpick over small things. However, gradually old habits began to return. Already after a month, raised voices were heard in their apartment again. At first these were restrained reproaches quiet but biting: “You didn’t clean up after yourself again?”, “Why didn’t you warn me you’d be late?”, “You could have helped since you’re home.”
Then open conflicts started. Arguments arose over trifles: someone left wet towels in the bathroom, someone forgot to buy bread, someone turned the TV on too loud… Words became sharper, voices louder, pauses between fights shorter.
And after two months, as Matti had predicted, the situation reached a boiling point. One evening an argument about who should buy groceries escalated into a real storm. Mikko, losing control, in rage threw a cup at the wall it shattered with a loud crash, shards flying across the kitchen. Elina, no less furious, grabbed a plate from the table and threw it to the floor with force. The sound of breaking dishes echoed through the apartment.
After such scenes the parents invariably tried to call the children. Each time the conversation started the same: one of them dialed the number, barely catching breath after the fight, and immediately poured out the accumulated grievances.
“Can you imagine what he said today?” Elina would break into tears when Aino picked up the phone. “He doesn’t even try to understand me!”
“Son, you have to understand me, she can’t control herself at all,” Mikko would say agitatedly to Matti. “I’m trying, really trying, but she seems to look for reasons!”
But Aino and Matti had learned to gently but firmly interrupt these monologues. They no longer got drawn into long discussions, no longer tried to figure out who was right and who was wrong. Their responses were short but firm.
“Mom, I’m in class right now, I’ll call back later,” Aino would say calmly, glancing at the clock: twenty minutes until the lecture started, but she didn’t want to listen to another monologue.
“Dad, I have urgent work, let’s discuss this on the weekend,” Matti would reply, not looking up from his laptop screen. He knew if he let the parent vent, the conversation would drag on for an hour, and then he’d have to calm them down too.
“Later” and “on the weekend” invariably got postponed. The children found excuses studies, part-time job, meetings with friends and gradually calls from the parents became rarer. Aino and Matti didn’t feel guilty about it: they were simply protecting their nerves and time, knowing they couldn’t change what was happening between mom and dad.
The twins truly had their own life rich, meaningful, far from parental dramas. Each of their days now consisted of their own concerns, interests, and plans, not of waiting for the next fight behind the wall.
Aino immersed herself in studying psychology. She liked figuring out how the human soul works, why people act one way or another, how to help those in difficult situations. In her third year she began volunteering at a center helping teenagers from troubled families. There she led group sessions, helped the kids express their feelings, find ways out of complex situations. Aino saw echoes of her own past in these teenagers and tried to give them what she had once lacked: attention, support, the feeling that they were heard.
Matti found his calling in IT. From the first years he got into programming he was fascinated by the logic of code, the possibility of creating working systems, solving complex technical tasks. He spent a lot of time at the computer, studied new programming languages, participated in student hackathons. In his fourth year his team took third place in a regional competition for developing mobile applications this gave him confidence and showed he was moving in the right direction. Matti got a part-time job at a small IT company, where he quickly established himself as a responsible and capable employee. Working on real projects, he learned to interact with colleagues, distribute time wisely, find solutions in non-standard situations.
The twins began planning their future without looking back at parental scandals. Aino dreamed of opening her own practice, helping families find common ground. Matti considered his own business. They discussed plans over tea in a cafe, built schemes, wrote ideas in notebooks. And in these moments they felt: they have support. They have a path. They have a life that belongs only to them.
When Elina and Mikko once again tried to draw them into their problems called in tears, began telling how everything was bad, how they didn’t understand each other the twins responded calmly and firmly. They had discussed in advance how they would conduct the conversation so as not to break down, not to fall into the usual role of mediators.
“Enough, dear parents, sort it out yourselves,” Aino stated firmly. “You have your life, we have ours.”
“But you’re our children!” Elina sobbed. “You have to support us!”
“If you behaved normally and not like little children, we would support you,” Matti declared immediately. “You made a mistake by marrying again, and you continue to torment each other. You can’t coexist normally in one space, so why torment each other? Divorce already and move apart.”
Even if these words seemed harsh, the brother and sister simply wanted to live peacefully. Through all these trials, Aino and Matti came to understand a profound truth: while family bonds are precious, individuals must safeguard their own mental peace and establish firm boundaries. They learned that one cannot fix others’ relationships and that true growth comes from focusing on personal development and choosing paths that lead to stability and fulfillment, rather than remaining entangled in cycles of conflict.
