It's A Messed Up Day

"Heart-rending Divide"

Juhyuk left Hotel Blue Area and went straight home, feeling a volatile mix of anticipation and dread gnawing at his insides. There were three people standing in front of his house: his mother, father, and sister, all waiting anxiously. Juhyuk quickly hugged his mother and sister, relief and love flooding through him in a bittersweet rush, but when his father put his hand on Juhyuk's shoulder, Juhyuk rudely pushed it away, anger blazing in his eyes like a wildfire. Seeing this, his father was taken aback, hurt and confusion etched on his face, a painful betrayal in the sudden recoil. Juhyuk invited them inside the house, his voice cold and distant, a sharp edge slicing through the tension.

Juhyuk's sister asked, with a hint of frustration and concern, "Aren't you going to talk to Dad?"

Juhyuk replied, "Why is it necessary to talk to him?" His tone was sharp, filled with bitterness and resentment, each word a dagger thrown at his father. He said these words rudely in front of his father, who looked visibly hurt, a deep wound opening in the quiet of the room.

Juhyuk's sister hit him on the head, exasperation and disbelief in her actions, and asked, "What is wrong with you? Why are you looking at Dad like that, as if he did something to you?"

Juhyuk said, "He has done something," tears streaming down his face, his voice breaking with pain and anger, each tear a testament to the wounds inflicted. "Because of his actions, we have to suffer. He committed the sins, and we had to bear the consequences."

He was glaring at his father angrily, his eyes filled with a mixture of hurt and rage, a storm of emotions swirling in his gaze.

His mother asked, her voice trembling with worry and confusion, "Son, what happened? Why are you talking like this?" Her words quivered in the air, a desperate plea for understanding amidst the chaos.

Juhyuk angrily confronts his mother, "Why don't you ask your so-called husband?" His voice dripping with resentment. The harsh words strike his father like a bolt of lightning, leaving him deeply troubled. With a pained expression, he asks Juhyuk, "Son, please, tell me what have I done to deserve this? What is it that makes you act this way?" Inside Juhyuk, emotions churn like a raging volcano, ready to erupt at any moment.

With a sharp tone, he said, "You must know Namhyuk hyung and his father, right?" Juhyuk's father, bewildered and anxious, replied, "Nam-Namhyuk? Yes, I know him, but how is he involved in this?" Juhyuk, his voice trembling with anger and hurt, then laid bare every painful detail of what had happened to him and his brother Sujeong. His eyes filled with a mix of sorrow and fury, he held his father responsible for it all.

Upon hearing Juhyuk's words, his father's heart fractured into
myriad shards of anguish. His eyes brimmed with a potent blend of sorrow and disbelief, his voice a fragile whisper, "Son," each syllable laden with unbearable grief, "what you're saying... it cannot be true. I have committed no wrong; it was Namhyuk's father who bore the blame."

Juhyuk, tears cascading down his cheeks, fixed his father with agaze so filled with profound betrayal and hurt that it tore the very essence of their bond."Dad," he managed to choke outamidst anguished sobs, his voice quivering with unfiltered pain,
"Namhyuk hyung's father severed his own wrist before his very eyes. How could one descend so deep into the abyss of despair, stooping to such depths, and perpetrate such a grievous act in the presence of their own child?"

Juhyuk's father, his voice quavering with exasperation and desperation, declared, "You don't know the veracity, Juhyuk. Everything you've been indoctrinated with is fallacious; nothing of that sort transpired."

Juhyuk, his voice oscillating between ire and desolation, retorted, "Dad, I perceived the vehement animosity in Namhyuk hyung's eyes. They were brimming with acrimony towards us. Who am I to trust? That person who showed no clemency towards my brother, and yet you avow your innocence? Dad, you're a hypocrite."

Hearing this, Juhyuk's sister, her visage twisted with torment, clasped his elbow, pivoted him towards her, and exclaimed, "Juhyuk, have you lost your sanity? How can you address Dad in such a manner?"

But Juhyuk remained mute; he was so internally fragmented that his emotions were both burgeoning and being stifled. His eyes were aflame with a blistering abhorrence for his father. Witnessing this, his sister, now profoundly perturbed, implored, "Juhyuk, are you alright?" She then beseeched their parents, "Mom, Dad, we're standing outside, let's proceed inside the domicile."

The father, his voice laden with agony and weariness, responded, "No, my child, we shall reside in a hotel. We shan't ingress a place where our own progeny indicts us of mendacity. I shall not set foot in that abode until my exoneration is substantiated before him."

The daughter, her voice fracturing with desperation, persisted, "But Dad..."

The father interrupted her, his voice incisive and fatigued, "Come on, let's depart," addressing his wife and daughter.

The daughter, her concern evident but not crying, acquiesced, "Dad, you proceed. I'll remain with Juhyuk."

Before departing, the father, in a voice imbued with bitter resignation and melancholy, inquired of his son, "Just divulge the name of the infirmary so we may visit Sujeong?"

Juhyuk, his heart rending and eyes glistening with tears, provided the name, Asan Medical Centre, and they vacated.

Juhyuk's sister, guiding him tenderly, escorted him inside the domicile. Upon entry, she was appalled and heartbroken to witness the disarray—the entire house was in chaos, with even the mirror shattered.

**Past moment:** Juhyuk had once more obliterated everything that the doctor had painstakingly mended. When he left the psychiatrist, he first returned home and, in a paroxysm of fury, wrought this havoc. Then he proceeded to Namhyuk.

Juhyuk's sister, her voice quavering and eyes wide with shock, approached the mirror and lamented, "What have you done to the house, Juhyuk? You weren't like this."

Juhyuk, his voice laden with despair and remorse, responded, "Nothing was ever like this."

While cleansing the shards of glass, his sister incurred a laceration on her hand. Juhyuk, his hands trembling and eyes filled with concern, administered first aid, and as he did, his emotions began to cascade once more. His sister, observing his tears, said, wiping his tears with gentle care, "The wound is on me, yet you're the one weeping like a child."

Juhyuk emitted a slight sob. His sister enveloped him in a tight embrace, her own emotions evident, and murmured, "Don't suppress your tears." She gently patted his back. Ultimately, Juhyuk allowed his emotions to surge forth and began to weep uncontrollably. His sister, holding him close and her voice saturated with empathy, consoled, "It's alright, wail as much as you need."