Love is beautiful || Minwon

Chapter 26

Mingyu walked back to his home from the bus stop. The contentment from afternoon plus evening outing rooted deeply inside his mind that he could reminisce to his child in the future. His nails dug into the black cat plushie, he bit his lower lip, trying not to smile too hard at the thought of giving it to that one particular person.

Mingyu thought that this person's personality fit very well with black cat; cold outside, warm inside. However many people believed that black cats bring bad luck to the owner, Mingyu had another opinion. It's also unfair to the pointy ear animal, through this assumption, many black cats were abandoned and some had a hard time getting adopted. They are the same as human beings, wanting to be loved and cared for.

"Mom, I'm home." Mingyu greeted his mother as usual whenever he got home.

"Oh, you came, Gyu." the troubled tone went visible to the son.

Mingyu narrowed his eyebrow and walked further into his house to meet with a guest who was seated on the sofa while his mother was on the armchair. It's weird to have strange visitors at this hour, unless they are relatives.

The guest looked younger than him, his guess was around thirteen to fifteen years old and obviously shorter than him. He dressed in a pair of denim jeans, a black tshirt underneath an unbuttoned gray shirt while carrying a backpack on his back. He had this slightly confused and scared expression displayed on his face, the boy kept avoiding Mingyu's gaze by looking at his feet.

"Mom, who do we have here?" his mom seemed to be worried as she opened her mouth and closed back a few times. She wanted to tell him but also didn't know how to fit those indescribable words into sentences.

"Should I go to my bedroom so that you guys could continue your conversation?" Mingyu pointed toward his room, genuinely thinking that it was a disclosed conversation between them.

"No, sweetie," she took a glance at the guest, "I think you should stay here since this evolved all of us and this boy right here."

"Okay," Mingyu wasn't sure how he had himself evolved with this boy, he hadn't seen him anywhere before. But he had a bad gut feeling about this.

Mama Kim took a big gulp of water from her glass on the table, mentally preparing herself to reveal the identification of the teenager.

"Sweetie," she started, "this is Chan, Lee Chan."

Alright, a decent start. Lee is one of the most popular family names. The other Lee that he knew are Lee Seokmin and Lee Jihoon. Why did his mother start with the name, though?

"He is your half-brother, Gyu." her mouth quivered, she wasn't sure how her son would respond to this news, "Your- your father's another son."

Hah?

His mom never once mentioned his father in front of him. Not when she struggled to put food on their plate. Not when she was so tired and stressed out from work. Not when young Mingyu cries to her asking why he does not have a father like his classmate. Not when she was hospitalized for her disease. Not when she needed a husband figure to be with her. Hell, he doesn't even know his father's name.

Mama Kim had his family the same as her, one because she took care of him as a single parent and two because she doesn't want to be reminded of his father every time she looked at his full name. There were couples that had the same family name for all he could register.

This was when she despited his father and promised not to associate with the man again. She deliberately released her anger after times, now she even shows empathy toward the child of her ex-partner.

"What is he doing here?" Mingyu questioned, his expression stayed neutral.

She looked at the pitiful child, her eyes displayed pure sympathy, not even an ounce of hatred, even though this is her stepson. She believed the child went through a load of emotion with what was happening to his family.