The Family That's Ours (Sequel to Family)

Grief is such a hard thing to accept

The sound of Dae's broken, cracking voice would forever scar her fathers. They witnessed her kick and scream, her convulsing cries; they saw what they meant to her.

Dae, however, saw how little she had meant to them. She saw her hard work, her giddy childhood; it all fell apart in a matter of minutes.

It was only fifteen minutes she was able to see them. Months had gone by, but those fifteen minutes melted away the past thousands of minutes previous.

As soon as she was dragged away and the sight of her fathers was once again a memory, she had begun her persistent headaches. It was a cycle. Unbearable pain, regurgitation, fainting. However, this time, she didn't just hear her fathers. She felt them.

"I've missed your voice," Chan had started. "You had such a beautiful voice."

"The accident doesn't define you," Felix added.

"We've missed you so much," Hyunjin concluded. He sounded as if he was crying.

But then she felt it, a hand on hers. Hyunjin was crying; she felt a tear fall on the hand in which was being held.

It felt too real to be a dream. Her hand was damped, and she felt the warmth of whoseever hand was placed on hers.

What was her reality?

It wasn't... for now. She was released, banished from teaching at JYPE. Dae was still under close watch by JYP. She wasn't kicked out, but she wasn't particularly needed either. With this method, Dae wasn't killed for not being under JYP, but she would be if she tried to do anything else with her life. She was powerless, nothing more than a pawn in JYP's game. Jinyoung was in the same boat. He knew too much and was too close in affiliation to Dae.

Dae didn't mind this fate too much: her mind was nothing less than broken. Her concept of love was shattered; she didn't know how to give or accept love. It all ended the same for her.

Reuniting with Jinyoung was a lot less rejuvenating than Dae had expected. She loved him; she was sure of that. But she longed for the loving embrace of her fathers at this point in time.

Jinyoung understood he wasn't what she sought. He felt selfish for wanting to feel needed.

"You've barely touched your food, my love. Please eat."

Jinyoung pushed the almost full plate of food back towards his girlfriend.

Dae shifted her attention away from the pristine white table and towards Jinyoung. She warmly smiled and shook her head.

"I'm fine! I had enough to eat earlier," She rung.

At first glance, Dae looks back to normal. Her voice did beam with enthusiasm, and her smile was bright and cheery. It was all a script, however. Dae had fabricated a reality where her emotions were undimmed. She knew what she was feeling, but she didn't want to believe them. So she grabbed the pencil of her mind and drew her own.

Jinyoung could see right through her traumatic facade. He didn't know how to help her, though. Jinyoung loved Dae more than he will ever love another. His emotions and his understanding of people just weren't deep enough to aid Dae in the way she needed.

He decided his way of helping would involve being the only consistent thing Dae has.

Like he's always done.

Dae and Jinyoung had been living with Got7; JYP knows. He liked the plan: Got7 lived off-campus, therefore Dae and Jinyoung weren't ever going to accidentally be in the presence of JYPE. However, they were under the supervision of a JYP group. Got7 had joined the game of JYP chess.