One way to know if an apology is deep or not is the actions that follow the apology; the fact that one apologised means they are remorseful of their actions and have come to the realisation that they were wrong and should not have done that, but if they go back to doing those things right after apologising, that only means the apology was not deep and they only did that probably because courtesy demands that. Sometimes we apologise not because we are wrong or because we feel sorry but just because that is what courtesy sometimes demands of us and we just have to offer that.
"Bro, my aunt has been picking on me." Ifeanyi complained
"What do you mean your aunt is picking on you?" Emmanuel asked as we laughed, wondering how his aunt can possibly be picking on him.
"Do you know she has been throwing shade at me and talking down to me and waiting for me to react so she can tag it that I have disrespected her?" Ifeanyi explained
"Why would she be doing that?" I asked, "What exactly does she stand to gain from that?" I added
"She just likes the humiliation on my face when I am forced to apologise to her even though she was the one who ragebaited me," Ifeanyi explained further.
"So for how long has this been going on?" Emmanuel asked.
"Since time immemorial, bro, she just keeps doing things to get me to react, and when I do, she calls the entire extended family and reports me to them, and then they all start calling and forcing me to apologise to her." Ifeanyi said with a facial expression showing disgust.
"So nobody cares to hear from you?" I asked
"That is why she keeps doing it, and that is why it is even more annoying," Ifeanyi complained more.
Ifeanyi was in his late 20s and living with his aunty, whose husband promised to help get him a job, and that caused him to leave his hometown and come live with them, but since his arrival she has made his stay very uncomfortable and keeps looking for ways to get him to disrespect her just to get an apology out of every disrespect. Once he finally gives in to her demands, she rushes to call his parents and the entire extended family and sometimes even exaggerates a story that favours her and makes Ifeanyi the bad one.
In return for peace to reign and so that she does not kick him out of the house before the husband secures the job for him, the entire extended family forces Ifeanyi to apologise, and he always does that, either on his knees or in a position that hurts his ego, and she really enjoys that for reasons best known to her, but on Ifeanyi's side, every apology and every begging haunt him afterwards.
"So nobody wants to hear your own side of the story; I think that is very unfair." Emmanuel chipped in.
"They want me to now worship her because of the job her husband is supposed to get for me," Ifeanyi said as he leaned against the pole.
From the look on his face, one can tell how much every apology hurts him and how hurt he is at the moment because of the number of apologies he has made so far.
"The funny thing is that I already owe her an apology for today's exchange of words that happened before I left the house." Ifeanyi said with a forced smile on his face.
"Let's follow you home; don't kneel, just stand and say sorry, and then you can follow us out, and when asked by family members, you just tell them you have apologised, and with us around, she cannot tell you to kneel." Emmanuel suggested it, and we all agreed and made our way to the house.
In a few minutes we arrived at the house, and she was sitting in the living room chewing gum and feeling like she had all the power on earth under her feet.
Immediately, Ifeanyi moved to get in front and stood before her. "Aunty, I am sorry about earlier." He said, standing in front of her but with a facial expression that said, 'I am sorry but not sorry.'
"I have heard you; just be more respectful from now onwards." She responded and tried to touch his hands out of pretence because we were there, but he avoided her completely.
Immediately after the apology, we stepped out of the house before she could even say another word.
"What was that expression you had on your face while you were apologising to her?" I asked
"Well, that is because the apology is not that deep; I just did it for peace to reign, and so she continues to feel like the god she is not." Ifeanyi responded with a mischievous smile.
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