I'm Yours (Sequel to "You're mine")

Chapter 88: Fwiend

Leah's POV

We parked the car in front of the center. T stopped the car and took the key out, but she didn't get out. I could tell she was wondering why I wasn't getting out of the car. I could feel her look at me.

"Baby," She eventually said. "What's wrong?"

I gulped as my eyes were glued to the center. "Somehow it feels wrong."

T took a while to reply to me, I wondered if she didn't know what to say to that. "What do you mean, wrong? What feels wrong?"

I finally looked at her. "Adoption a child."

At that, she raised her eyes. "So you don't want to have a second child?"

"No, that's not it," I sighed and looked back at the center. "I want another child, it's just..." I sighed again. "We go to a place where they have children. We look around and pick the one we like most," I then looked back at her. "It almost feels like..." I thought about it for a bit. "Like picking a dog."

T chuckled a bit. "You have a way of looking at things..." She showed me a small smile. "If you say it like that, it sounds bad indeed. But adoption is a good thing for children like Emil who don't have parents."

I shrugged.

"Besides, we didn't choose Emil," She put her hand on my lap. "He chose us."

Now it was my time to smile at her. "Yeah, that's true."

"And I believe we gave him the life he deserves," She nodded. "Without us, he'd still be here."

I slowly nodded.

"And if Jin chose you," She said, gaining my attention. "He deserves our love."

I smiled more. I nodded.

"Let's go." She said and we both got out of the car.

We walked to the center. On our way there, T grabbed my hand, intertwining our fingers. I knew that when she did this, she wanted me to feel supported and loved. I guess she felt like I needed it now.

We entered the building and saw the woman at the reception. When she saw us, she seemed a bit uncomfortable. I wondered why. "Hello." She smiled politely at us.

I looked at T, hoping she'd catch the hint.

T smiled from me to the woman. "We're here to talk about Jin."

The woman sighed. "I've told you before, he can't be adopted."

"Why not?" I asked, raising my voice.

T squeezed my hand a bit, making me calm down. "We're wondering why he can't be adopted. My wife had a good connection with him, we've been feeling upset since we left."

The woman looked from T to me, then back to T. "Before a child can get adopted, we try to get a good view of them. We want to have a complete picture of the child so the future parents know everything there is to know."

While she was saying that, T was politely nodding. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but look around. I wondered where Jin was.

"Jin, however, refused to talk to any of our caretakers. He doesn't interact at all. He doesn't want to draw, he doesn't want to do some test. All he does, is hide."

"But shouldn't that be a reason to give my wife the benefit of the doubt?" T tried.

The woman, again, shook her head. "We would love to believe that he finally talked to someone but it just seems very unlikely."

"Are you suggesting I'm lying?!" I shouted.

"Baby," T said, putting her arm in front of me, shielding me, and putting me behind her. It was her way of taking me out of the conversation. "I'm sorry," She said, clearly excusing me. "We just don't understand."

The woman nodded though I could tell she didn't like me now. "Jin has been adopted before," She suddenly said, making T and me raise our eyebrows. "Twice," She added. "But both times, they brought him back."

I huffed.

T briefly looked at me before looking at the woman again. "Why?"

"Because he didn't talk, he avoided them, he didn't want anything to do with them," She sighed deeply. "We think he might have developed a problem with commitment."

"Commitment?" T repeated.

The woman nodded. "We know Jin never knew his parents. His biological mother was a teenager who dumped him on the street."

T and I were lost for words.

"Someone had seen her dump the child so they brought him in," The woman sighed again. "It seems that he never felt like connecting with anyone because of that."

"Let me talk to him," I said, stepping forward again. "He will speak to me."

The woman looked at me. "How can you be so sure?"

I gulped. "Because we understand what it's like not to feel accepted."

The woman looked down, seemingly thinking about it. Eventually, she looked back at me. She nodded.

On our way over to Jin's room, I felt my heart beat like crazy. Suddenly I was worried he might not speak to me at all. What if he ignores me? What if he avoids me as he does with everyone else? What if that first time was just a fluke?

When we reached the room, we stopped. I took a moment to get my nerves down. I didn't want him to think I was nervous about seeing him. I wanted him to feel safe with me. And for that, I had to be calm.

"Look," The woman suddenly said. "If he doesn't talk to you, remember that it's normal. He doesn't want to be with people."

I frowned when I heard that. "Or maybe he feels how people already judge him."

The woman looked down.

I let out a breath before opening the door. I smiled when I saw him play with his toy train. I knocked gently on the door, so he could hear someone enter his room.

Immediately, he looked up. He didn't say anything, he just looked at us.

We all entered the room. This time, T could have a proper look at him. In the corner of my eye, I could see her smile at him.

I carefully made two steps closer to him. I gently knelt to be at his eye level. "Hey Jin," I said softly. "Do you remember me?"

He looked from the woman and T, to me. But, he didn't say anything.

I gulped. "We talked before," I tried. "I'm Leah," I gulped. "We talked about my son, Emil."

Jin looked at me, he blinked but didn't reply. I was starting to worry he might not say anything at all. Perhaps that woman being here, prevented him from talking...

"We also talked about how people could be mean sometimes, remember?" I asked, I could hear myself getting more desperate.

Again he didn't say anything.

I sighed.

T put her hand on my shoulder. She knelt next to me. "My name's Talia," She said softly. "We have a son at home but we'd love for him to have a friend."

He looked at her but once again didn't say anything.

"He's not going to talk," The woman said. "We should go."

T and I got up. I wanted to fight her so badly, but T prevented me to. She took my hand, gave me a look, and sighed.

I know what she was trying to tell me: Jin wouldn't talk, and we couldn't do anything now. Realizing that, I sighed.

T nodded at the woman and we started to leave Jin's room.

"You leave?"

I turned around, facing Jin, and smiled when I saw he had talked. I looked at the woman, who was clearly shocked to hear Jin's voice. I smiled proudly and walked back to Jin. I knelt in front of him. "I thought you forgot about me."

He tilted his head to the side. "Fwiend."

I smiled then. "I'd love to be your friend."

He smiled a bit. "Fwiend." He repeated though, this time, he nodded.