YOURS TRULY

Chapter 11: Flashbacks

Danny's POV:

I still remember that day, the day when my mother told me and my brother to be nice to the new kid down the street. It was weird to hear that from our mother, same lady who warned us to stay away from boys in that area. I was very young back then so I don't remember how exactly we met,but I just know that we instantly became friends,him, my brother and me.

Whenever I try to remember something from past, he is there. If I try to remember, he is there in my earliest or oldest of memories, laughing, enjoying, cracking jokes or even playing pranks on someone. Then there are the memories in which he was present but very silent and almost lost within himself. And comes those memories where he no longer existed. He was distant with us, with me and I couldn't even ask him why? Not because I didn't know the reason but because I felt like I was receiving a punishment for something I didn't even do.

My mom said she first met Joshua's mother in community church. They were new there. My mom who was away from her homeland, her childhood, when meeting someone like her she couldn't help but try to make friends with them.

We had a similar background, a Korean mother in farland with her children. I was a hybrid kid, my father, a foreigner.
I didn't know about Joshua's father though because since the beginning it was just him and his mother.

I was five years old when I met him for the first time so I don't remember how was our meet or how he ended up becoming so close to us that I started seeing him as my brother more than my own brother. He was a whole different person back then, crazy, mischievous and even naughty but as long as I remember he has always been the coolest person I have met, he still is the coolest one.

Being the youngest one in the family has it's own cons. You are never taken seriously and you are never big enough to get involved in family discussion. At first I was oblivious and naive so it didn't really matter much, but as I grew up I started understanding my surrounding. After realising I'll never be adult enough to join the conversations I started being observant and conscious about things. That was a good step cuz that's how I found and understand a lot of things that would have never been told to me.

Being observant and attentive is how I found out that Joshua lost his father at a very young age, maybe 5? I would have never known else ways as Joshua never liked to talk about his family and their dynamics, it took me some time but I realised that maybe the reason was because he himself did not had much idea about it.

Most of the things I knew about Joshua's life was information I got when I heard my mother talking about it. How accurate the information was? I didn't know, but that's how I found out most of it. That's how I found out the black cars that were in front of his house out of nowhere on one certain day belonged to his family back in korea and apparently they were filthy rich in real.( Not my words, that's what was being said)

My mom loved Joshua a lot as well. She felt like he needs the love with his given condition. When my brother complained about being less loved than Joshua she told us that he needs the love, unlike us who grew up with both the loving parents Joshua lacked a lot of things he should have gotten. A father who is out of the frame and a single working mother who is giving her all just to earn him the life he deserves, but she was also unable to give him the time and attention. My brother just threw a fit refusing to understand but I didn't understood it either. Only later did I realised how much it may have meant to him, someone's undivided love and care for him, his parents.

Things were great until Kevin came in our lives, Joshua's life. This Kevin guy, Joshua and my brother were the trios, the best friends for life kind of thing. God knows where he came from and how he got involved with us but he did. I was the only one who was annoyed by his presence so there was nothing that could have been done about it. Kevin was also the reason why my brother and Joshua stopped playing with me, "he is a kid, bringing him with us to hang out will only bring problems" was what Kevin said when I tag along with my brother. After that I was never asked to join them and when I asked they will either make fun of me or bully me. Even then Joshua was the only one who stopped them, gently handled me and promised we will do something separately, something that I will enjoy rather than all the rowdy grown up boys things.