Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

24 Recount

The steam from the hot cups of oolong tea served to them manages to catch Hongjoong and Mingi's attention, but Wooyoung's attention is solely directed to the people serving them. When the two are already lifting up their cups to drink the beverage, the other is merely looking back and forth between the two other adults with them.

It's easy for him to see where he has gotten his looks from, considering that he looks like a mixture of the man and woman in front of him. Then his eyes rest on the youngest of them all, his little brother he never knew existed. Despite being the older one, Wooyoung feels like he's about to throw a tantrum instead, asking why they'd have another child after him, that he gets to feel the love they can offer while he's left to beg someone else for love in Nyla.

"So it's true then," Wooyoung utters. "That I was supposed to be dead."

"Please," his mother reaches out a hand to touch his hand, and although he flinches at first, he lets her grab it and stays. "Don't ever say that."

"I don't understand," he interjects. "Why go through all the trouble to bring back your dead child to live again, only to abandon him after?"

His mother - his birth mother - as what he has come to know named Min Haneul, cries against his father's chest, and the latter rubs her back to calm her down. All the while, the curious and innocent eyes of his supposed younger brother keep going back and forth between the adults, still too oblivious to know why the presence of the young men to their humble cottage would witness such waterworks. His younger brother, whom they named Yeohan, watches in wonder as Wooyoung proceeds to go over to both of his parents before enveloping them in a hug. Mingi and Hongjoong only proceed with their silence, not wanting to disturb the reunion of the family.

"I thought that after seeing your face, it'd be easier for me to hate both of you, to turn away from you like you did to me," Wooyoung utters as tears roll down his cheeks. "But why does my heart only hurt seeing you live like this?"

"We've sinned too much," Haneul sobs, gripping onto Wooyoung's arm. "Everyday we've lived in misery knowing that we've left you before you could even recognize us."

"Then why..." Wooyoung trails off. "Why didn't you come looking for me? Every day I wondered whether it was my fault that I was left at the Nyla palace, but I was barely a baby who knew about the world. I wanted to scream at you, asking why I couldn't live a life with a normal family, but," he sobs, "As I see you now... I'm just happy to know that you're alive and well. And that," he smiles through his tears, "I now have a little brother that I can really call my own."

Haneul takes a deep breath, cupping Wooyoung's face as she utters, "We didn't come looking for you, because it would be shameless of us to go and find the son that we left tens of years ago." She gazes upon her son, then upon the two young masters, "As long as we knew you're living well with them, we didn't dare to approach you. We only watched from afar," a sad smile appears, "collected news of you from those inside the palace."

Wooyoung frowns as he hears this; 23 years apart from his parents provide too many stories to be shared, that he's sure even if they were to spend all night, it won't be enough to walk back down memory lane. But he wants to know everything that led to him being left at the steps of the palace, why his parents decided to let him go.

"Why did you let me go? When the stories I've heard were that you couldn't bear a child even after getting married for so long? What sin did I commit?"

"You've done nothing wrong, Wooyoung," she utters, the name that he was given feeling so foreign to her, yet it rolls easily off her tongue. "It was true; even after we got married, it was hard for us to conceive." She grabs his hands, "But then you came along, and we couldn't be more than happy. Maybe it was me, as your mother... but when you were born, you weren't so healthy. You got sick easily and I was heartbroken hearing your cries everyday because your small body couldn't handle the pain. Then one day..." Tears cascade down her cheeks and Wooyoung softly wipes her tears away with his thumbs. "We just found you unresponsive... and we knew that we lost our precious child."