Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 2

A hand blurred in front of his face, and Siwoo felt himself stiffen. The feeling of absolute defeat spread throughout his body. When he looked up, he saw a hauntingly familiar face staring back at him. He tried to squirm away but soon realized he couldn't move. A wave of petrification began creeping up his limbs and a lump formed in his throat as tears welled up in his eyes. His heart began pounding with fear and sorrow at what was to happen.

"Let's see if that pretty face of yours can save you now."

Hands reached out and pulled at Siwoo's shirt collar. The fabric tore under the force and broke apart. White buttons drizzled onto the floor as a fist smashed into his stomach and blood seeped from his lips. He looked up at the shadow sneering down from above. The swaying light on the ceiling blinked away like his consciousness and cast a shadow upon the face he didn't want to recall.

"...!" Siwoo jolted up.

Laying back down Siwoo realized there was no swaying light above him and no taste of blood in his mouth. Reaching across his bed for his phone, he paused when he heard muffled voices outside his room. Slipping out of bed, he quietly walked towards the door.

"I understand your problem... But let's give him some time." It was his mother. Her hushed voice was barely audible beyond the cracked wooden door frame, but Siwoo didn't need to lean in any closer because a louder voice snapped back in response.

"We already gave him 28 years to do whatever he wanted, and I've worked my ass off making up for the time he's wasted! It's already been three years since he got into that stupid group that made him a laughingstock! How much longer do I have to sit and watch?!"

It was his father. Siwoo felt the remaining sleepiness drain away as he turned away from the door. This wasn't his first time hearing this conversation. He could still hear his father's frustrated voice outside, even when he crawled to the furthest corner of his bed.

"Listen, we're running out of time. You and I are only getting older, and we can't both work forever making ends meet with part-time jobs. I'm saying this because I love him... You know I love him more than anything else. But at this rate, the group's going to disappear... And as his father, I need to prepare him... And most of all, I can't bear to watch the people say those things about him anymore..."

Siwoo heard his mother's heavy footsteps walk towards the kitchen and away from her husband.

"If you cared so much about preparing him for the real world, you should have stopped him when he said he wanted to drop out to become a trainee... I thought we agreed to support him till the end... How can you tell him to quit when he's still hanging on like that? I don't have it in me to tell him... I just don't." She turned on the sink faucet and let it run for a while before she turned it off with a stern thud, "Do you...?"

The silence that followed pierced Siwoo's heart. It would have felt a thousand times better to see his father run into his room, telling him to quit right then and there. But what he heard instead was the front door slam shut.