Secrets Revealed

We Are Your Family

Lao K was content. Content though not happy. They were on the bus on the way back to the base after going on the trip to the events. He was glad to be back at home even though he did have fun on the trip. He was laughing with Cat as they all got off the bus and in front of him he saw that Ming and Rui had stopped for some reason. They were talking to somebody. He couldn't see over everyone else that was in the way but recognized the voices but his brain couldn't place why he knew those voices. Until he stepped out a little to see and saw that it was his mother and father who were there. He felt every blood cell in his whole body freeze when he saw them. They were shouting at him but he could understand everything that they said as he ran away.

He never had wanted to see them again. Every time he does it just ends in pain. For him. It never hurts his parents but it hurts him so much every time. When he looked behind them he saw Cat running after him which made him run even faster even though they both knew Cat would easily catch up to him because of his never ending exercise routine.

"I'm not going back in there. So don't even try." K spat at Cat. "Alright. We can just stay here for a bit. Last I saw Rui was talking with them." "Why are they back?" K asked though his voice didn't sound like him. It was a voice of a frightened child not of a professional gamer. "Are you okay?" Cat asked and laid a comforting hand on the youngers shoulder. K only shook his head in response. "I should probably go talk to them and see if they would leave." He said walking away from Cat and back towards the base.

When he walked into the base he could hear Rui's voice along with the voices of his parents. The two voices that caused the most pain in his life, the voices he tried so hard to escape from but can't, those were the voices of his hell. He already knew why they were here and it was confirmed when he heard them talking Rui.

"Stop it." He said walking into the conversation and placing his debit card onto the table in front of his parents. "These are my savings since I started playing professionally. In addition to the money I give you every month and my daily expenses, the rest is all here. You can take it all. Do whatever you want to do. Build a house for my brother, pay a bride price for him too. Go gambling. You can go waste it all. This is all yours now. Ba. Ma. I really do thank you for raising me. But I ask that you don't come here anymore. Don't bother me or my teammates ever again." "You brat!" His mother yelled at him making him involuntarily flinch back away from her as she stood up. "K." Rui started standing up next to him. "Rui, book tickets for their flight home. Just deduct it from next months salary." K told him and walked away before the tears started to spill. He didn't need to give his parents the satisfaction when they had already seen him cry enough.

K walked outside to the cliff edge. He took the SIM card from his phone and threw it away, without any remorse. He never wanted to talk to them again.

"Once you throw it away, you might never get it back." Tong Yao told him. It surprised him but when he looked behind him a little bit he saw that she was standing right beside him. "There are somethings that you never want to get back." K told her. "Ever since I was a kid, everything that I've done has always been wrong. While my brother has always been right. When I wanted to study them told me I was not cut out for it. I was told to learn a trade and to work with my father. But I didn't want to. I wanted to go to school. That's when I developed my gaming skills. Making money by playing for others. Tong Yao, you know what? I didn't even like playing games at all at first. It was just a tool to make money. If I hadn't met Ming later, I might not have ever known what E-sports was. But then I got into it, I understood it and I started to enjoy doing it. But to my parents it was just another tool to make money." "Isn't understandable? We just need to communicate more with the older generation. My parents are the same. Haven't you seen them?" "Tong Yao. We are not the same." "How?" "Your parents are good, and they love you very much. But my parents, they have never loved me or been good to me. I grew up hearing them say constantly that they wished I had never been born. Tong Yao, your parents never hurt you. They never shoved you to the floor and beat you until you couldn't walk for almost a week. Tong Yao, you still have your parents. I have nothing, except for E-sports." "That's not true Lao K. You still have us. We'll be your family." Tong Yao told him.

Just like that the tears he didn't want to cry in front of his parents he started to cry right then. Tong Yao wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug and gently pulled them both down so that they were sitting on the ground. They heard footsteps behind them. Tong Yao turned her head to see who and saw everyone else coming out from the base and walking towards them. They came and gathered around K and made him the center of a giant hug as he cried. They stayed there until K's crying had stopped. "Come on K, lets go back home. It's getting cold out here." Ming said softly to him.

On the front door was a note that had been written by his parents. Cheng tore it of and crumpled it into a ball and threw it away. "Don't worry about what they have to say. We're your family not them." He told him.

So they ignored the piece of paper in the drive and walked into their home. And if they all fell asleep on the living room floor with K in the middle from watching movies all night no one has to know.

So, I'll say I'm fine just so you don't worry.

But why don't I ever see.

You are my family.

No scar, or past can hold you back

You'll still be on my side.

No secret can make you leave

So let all secrets be revealed.