forever | sungtaro

↳ one

"jung sungchan!" a woman called from downstairs, "come get your breakfast!". the young boy groaned as he rolled himself out of bed, rubbing his eyes in the process as he tried to wake himself up.

the morning light shone through the window, and so there was no need to light a candle to head downstairs with. sungchan cleaned himself up a little, which consisted of patting his head hair down, and headed downstairs.

the smell of freshly cooked fish and vegetables invaded his senses and all the young boy could focus on was the food. sungchan quickly stepped down the stairs, each step creaking as the tall boy hurried down. he then pulled out a chair, which created an unpleasant sound on the floor, and sat down at the table.

"can you be any louder?" the woman sighed, handing him the food she had cooked.

"yeah yeah, sorry." was all sungchan said as he reached for chopsticks and began to gulp down the food. each bite he took felt like heaven, or what he imagined heaven to be like.

"your father comes back from the protests today," the woman spoke as she also sat down at the table, "he's been trying to get the japanese government to pay back what they stole."

"and the american soldiers to leave." sungchan added, pointing a little with his chopsticks in his left hand.

"that too, but he's more focused on the japanese. the whole country is." the woman explained, taking a sip of water, "they controlled us for so many years and so us koreans only deserve to get what was stolen back." she said as sungchan nodded along, not paying too much attention.

"thank you, ma'am. the food was great." sungchan stated as he stood up from the chair. the tall boy picked up the, now empty, plates and bowls and put them near to where they would be washed.

"you should try to become more like your father, you know." the woman sighed, picking at her food.

"i don't want to be too involved in politics, ma'am," sungchan said, "i also would like if you didn't suggest such things to me. you aren't my mother."

"sungchan-"

"you're simply my father's lover." sungchan said, picking up a bucket of water to go and wash himself, "a replacement to my mother." the young boy muttered the last sentence so the woman couldn't hear it, but the woman had an idea of what the boy said.

•••

sungchan stepped outside his home and turned left, the note in his hand being crumpled as he gripped onto it tightly. the young boy was tasked to find the food his 'step-mother' wanted to cook for his father. this meant sungchan would have to search for hours in the market to find the things she needed.

"salmon, lettuce, spring onions..." sungchan said as he took out the note from his hand, "why does she need so much?" he rolled his eyes and continued to make his way to the market.

as he walked he noticed all the signs on the side of the road. one sign was how 'we should rise up and take back what was ours', another was about communism, and another about how we should follow the american democratic system.

as much as sungchan didn't want to be too involved in politics, he knew that what the japanese did was cruel, and he agreed they should give back what they stole. however, where the boy would draw the line was when innocent japanese civilians living in korea would be beaten up on streets and have rocks thrown at them for being here. sungchan did know why they felt the need to do this, after all so many koreans were kept under strict rule of japan, and their soldiers would harm the women, but he felt that the civilians were innocent. they didn't have any say in what the country did.