The Golden Ring • ChanBaek | ENG

[CHAPTER 080]

Trigger Warning for; pedophilia

            Mom's eyes got round to the size of tennis balls, even her breath stopped. It was clear that she never wanted to share what happened to me, but now she has no choice.

She lowered her eyelashes, took a deep breath and began to speak in a trembling voice.

"Baekbeom always wanted to go to the amusement park, it was an innocent dream of his, but since we weren't really doing well financially at the time, unfortunately we always had to postpone it. Your father and I thought that we would always put some money aside and by the time we have enough money, you will be old enough to understand where we are going."

"We collected enough money not to worry about other things, so we bought four tickets. Beom and you were so excited, you took your favorite toy which was a transformer.. I still remember your huge smiles."

"So we set off happy and excited. We were able to ride so many things, although the money ran out quickly, especially since the food was very expensive there. When we ran out of everything we decided to leave and thank heaven you were both grateful that we brought you to the park and when we wanted to leave, you didn't get hysterical at all."

"When we got to the gates, I looked behind me... and..." she got stuck in her words as she bit her lips. ".. And you weren't there. I immediately panicked, I started shouting your name, but there were so many people around us, we had no chance to find you, so we turned to the security guards. Thank goodness they were helpful, but they didn't want to cause panic in the place. With the help of the cameras, we were able to see when and how you got lost. When we passed by the house of horror, you stopped because you saw a man holding a sign in his hand, pointing at you with the other. Even in the recording, we could see that he was talking to you, he was getting closer and closer to you. He held out his hand, which you accepted.. Two guards started looking for you and as a mother, I went with them, and I told the your father to stay with Beom.. I was worried about you, while I was killing myself from the inside for not paying more attention to you, oh God, I'm so sorry," tears escaped from her eyes, she sniffed loudly, then carefully wiped her face.

"It's okay mom, it's not your fault at all, I stopped and accepted his hand, even though you told me more than once not to trust strangers, I acted stupid.. but please continue.."

"Right... So the guards had their walkie on them, so I could clearly hear how they were being directed, where the man could have taken you. It felt like we were just walking around, I started to get frustrated and although they really did everything to find you, there was a small gap that was located behind one of the buildings, I think they didn't look there because the field of view of the camera didn't reach that far and in the recording it didn't seemed like he would have taken you there, but so much time had passed, I just felt like we need to check there too."

"While I was trying to move forward in the narrow place, I saw a shoe on the ground. It was yours. My heart started beating so fast I thought it was going to explode. I was afraid, terrified that the worst had happened to you, but all my hope returned when I heard you cry out loud. The two guards went ahead for safety's sake, of course I didn't slow down for a second."

"But what was waiting there.. it completely broke me. The man took all of your clothes off. Since it started to get cold, your whole body was shaking, you were so scared that you didn't dare to move, you just sobbed while repeating 'stop touching me please.'. Your kidnapper.. he just." mom shook her head violently... as if she didn't want to continue, she didn't know where to look.

"Just tell me.." I encouraged, although some part of me didn't want to hear the truth.

"He was caressing your thighs.. the security guards immediately forced him to the ground, you looked up, noticed me and ran into my arms. I hugged you as tightly as ever... But the nightmare was far from over," she took a deep breath. "The police arrived at the scene, arrested that.. that disgusting person, and they took us both to the hospital, of course I informed your father that we found you and asked him to take Baekbeom home, which he wasn't really happy about, but he had no other choice."

"The nurses tried to calm you down, but you didn't want to get off my lap, you just wanted to go home. They had to sedate you. Thankfully that monster didn't do any harm to you.. physically.. The nurses thought you were still too young to understand what happened to you, they didn't recommend anything, they said you will forget it anyway, and I believed them. In the first days, you were a little shy, you didn't want me to leave your side, if you didn't see me around you for even a second, you started crying out loud for me."

"Then, as the days passed, everything seemed to fall into place. But I was very wrong. One morning I went into your room to wake you up and give you a kiss on the forehead, but you backed away and yelled at me not to touch you.. I felt helpless, your father told me you were still too young to take you to any kind of doctor, I listened to him so we stumbled around in one place. As time went by, you closed yourself off from us more and more, we left things to fate, hoping you would get better.. and from there you already know everything.." she ran his fingers through her grayish hair in frustration. "I'm sorry, darling, that we didn't do anything for you to have a better life.. I screwed up.."

"Mom.. I never blamed you for the way I am, and I never will.. Even though I hate being touched, you raised me very well.. Look at me! I'm here, alive and everything is fine. Thank you for telling me.. it meant a lot to me.." I smiled at her, which she returned.

"When did you grow up?" she laughed with relief.

"It doesn't matter, the point is that I will forever be your little son" I chuckled.

"Damn rigth!" she nodded with a cute grin.

Ah, she is just like me.

|| x ||

I climbed the stairs while cursing in my head how tired I was. I spent the whole afternoon with my mother, I took her to dinner, her face changed when she saw my car.

I told her that I got it from Kibum, which made her cried, she is happy I have such a good friend and she misses that blonde idiot a lot, so I told her, Bummie has a boyfriend and he doesn't have time for anyhting else right now, but she was really happy about those news too, I mean, Bum is like her third son.

It was nice to be able to spend some time with mom and I think she liked it too. I should call her more often.

What will she do now that she and father are divorcing? If I understood correctly, she was promoted not so long ago, so her salary has also become much higher, which means that she can still pay for the house and my apartment, well, I started to put my own money into the apartment, so there is that.

Maybe it would be a better idea to move back home, I don't really want mom to be alone in that house that has so many memories.

But I love living alone too.. I don't know what to do.

A soft sigh leaves my throat as I reached the top, my eyes wanted to close. I want nothing but my bed, my pillow and my blanket.

As soon as I looked up, deja vu hit me.

This man doesn't understand when someone tells him 'leave me alone'?

Ignoring him, I walked to my door.

"Baekhyun," he says my name, but I don't answer.

I take my bag off my shoulder and start searching for my keys, which is quite difficult.. that's exactly why I hate putting them here, they always get lost in it.

"Baekhyun, please..." I pulled out the key just as he touched my hand.

Disgust raced through my body, the object that opened the lock clattered loudly on the ground. I looked at him with wide eyes, slapping his arm away.

"Don't you dare touch me again.. It's disgusting.."