Toddler - [TAEBIN FF]

Chapter 41

A/N: Brace yourselves because this is gonna be an emotional ride

🎶: 'You Were Beautiful' by DAY6

The old copper bell buzzed throughout the little house, disrupting the Sunday peace. A woman in her early fifties, wearing a red and white floral dress, started walking towards the door.

"Are we expecting any guests?" she asked her husband in the kitchen.

"No, not that I know of."

Funny.

Without another thought, she opened the front entrance door.

"Hello, how can I help—"

"Hi Mom."

Mom.

How long has it been since Taehyun last said that word in his life?

A word that nearly every child says in their life.

It may even be the first word they say when they become a toddler.

It was a word... that every mother loves to hear.

Kang Sohee's hand flew to her mouth, staggering back as her heart pounded in her chest.

"This can't be..."

Tears began to fill her eyes.

"It can't be real."

But it was.

There stood her son.

With the same sparkle in the eyes as her. With the pale tan skin and build of his father.

It was him, even with all the wrinkles on his forehead and the brown hair falling over his perfectly arched eyebrows.

It was her son.

"Taehyunie..."

Her words were choked up as tears began to dribble down her cheeks.

"It's... is it really you?"

Her hand flew up to Taehyun's face, cupping his cheek, just as soft as she remembered. Taehyun placed his hand over hers, shutting his eyes as he didn't want any tears to escape him either.

Sohee only felt her heart bloom with bittersweet relief as she realized she wasn't dreaming, and that her son was standing before her in his flesh and blood.

"It's me, Mom. It's me," Taehyun replied.

"Oh my god!"

The mother pulled her son into her embrace, before sobbing and bursting into tears.

Upon hearing his mother break into wails, Taehyun let go of his own tears, crying into her shoulder, finally in his mother's embrace after so long.

"What's going on here—" a raspy voice began.

A clank could be heard from the other side.

Taehyun glanced up to see a man standing by the door of the living room. He had balding gray hair that framed his sharp face and facial bone structure, dressed in blue attire, and had just dropped a magazine.

His mouth parted in shock.

"S-Son?"

"Hi Dad."

Taehyun let go of his mother and walked to his father, just as Kang Minjae walked in long strides towards his son.

They met in the middle and Minjae, just a centimeter or two taller than him, pulled his son into a warm and longing hug, patting his back.

Soft sobs escaped the old man as he felt his son, now a man, in his arms again.