VHope Fluffshots

Cowboys and Angels pt 2

Fourteen years passed since Jung Hoseok fled from my world.

My mom was still renting out rooms in our house, despite my sister having moved to New York and all six of my children living at the house. My wife had given birth to two sets of twins, my oldest son, and my third daughter, who was the middle child.

Unfortunately, my wife recently passed away due to extreme illness that our local doctors couldn't fix. 

I continued running the farm with Jungkook's help; he had been promoted to our head stable hand, so everyone answered to him when I wasn't present. My son, Jinwoo, liked to spend time with the sheep, so I could usually find him learning how to sheer them. 

Today started off as any other day; I woke my children and got them dressed in time for breakfast. Jinwoo would walk to the elementary school down the road with my twin girls, Jana and Gillian. My twin boys, Will and Jaewon, stayed home and waited for the tutor, since they were only four. Seven-year-old Somin usually helped my mom until her tutor came in the late afternoon. 

I worked in the fields today, since there was hay that needed to be gathered and pressed into bales and not enough staff to do it. The spring was beginning to turn to summer; the kids would be home for the summer in about a week, and the sun was beginning to blaze down upon everyone on the farm. My shirt lay over one of the stalls in the barn. 

"Taehyung!" Joseph's voice was gruff with age, but he still managed to make it ring through our entire property when he needed it to. 

"We got it from here, sir," Kinley said, giving me his lopsided smile before taking my pitchfork from me. "We're almost finished for the day, anyways." 

I nodded and made my way back to the barn, a sinking feeling in my heart when I passed Baron's empty pen. The poor ox passed away a few days after my wife did; they were both gentle souls I learned to love over the years. Despite marrying on a whim, Sylvia was my best friend and I really loved her. 

I threw my shirt on, not bothering to button it back up, then followed Joseph back to the house. "Is there something wrong? You sounded pretty urgent." 

Joseph rolled his eyes. "Mr Kim, I always sound like that when calling for you. You have a visitor, a very important one, at that." 

I couldn't think of anyone visiting that I needed to meet. We had tennants that passed by every time they had a business trip or visited the area with their families, so I ended up learning their names. Other than Mrs Heddie O'Malley, none of them ever demanded to see me when they stayed. 

My mother intercepted me in the kitchen, Somin clutching her dress like usual. I smiled at my cute daughter, bending down to kiss her head. "Hey, baby." I straightened back up, frowning when I saw the distress on my mother's face. "What's going on, Momma? Did something happen?" 

She sighed, holding my dirty hands in hers. "I...I don't want you to lose your head, Taehyung. So promise me you'll stay calm no matter what happens, alright?" 

"Momma, I --" 

"Promise me, Taehyung." 

I nodded once, swallowing hard. That seemed to be good enough for her; she started dragging me to the front parlor, Somin keeping up with us the best she could. Ever since one of our roosters chased her, she became very  light on her feet and fast. 

When we entered the parlor, the one I expected to never see again stood up straighter, giving me a half smile.

"It's been a while, Taehyung." 

No. No! This could not be happening to me. 

"No," I said quietly, but firmly. I refused to lift my eyes from the floor.