A story of brotherhood.
Chan was just 20 years old and about to take on a responsibility that he wasn't sure he could handle.
Born to a drug addicted mother, and never having known his father, he grew up taking care of himself. When his mom had mor...
When they got back to Canada and finally got back home, it was around 5:00 pm.
Jeongin was very eager to tell Byron about his trip, so Chan let him go over right away as they were unpacking the vehicle.
After a couple minutes, Amelia came out to say hi.
Chan was a bit distracted, and only saw her once he turned around.
"Oh!" He said, "Hey!"
"Hey. How was your trip?" She asked.
"It was so nice!"
"You must be tired."
"Oh. I'm always tired." Chan said.
"I feel you. And I only have one kid." Amelia laughed.
"Yeah. But still. It can't be easy." Chan said sympathetically.
Amelia nodded with a smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Then Chan's curiosity finally got the better of him. "Byron's dad, is he. . .?"
Amelia shook her head.
"Oh. I'm really sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have asked? I didn't mean to pry." Chan said.
"No. No! It's okay. I just.. I don't want to burden anyone with our problems either." She replied.
"It's not a burden..." Chan said sincerely.
Amelia laughed awkwardly. "So what about you guys? I mean, I kind of assumed Hyunjin isn't really. I mean, when you told me how old you were, I... Well, you would've been REALLY young when..." Amelia started to say, trying to choose her words carefully.
"None of them are my kids." Chan confirmed.
"Oh! What?!" She said, shocked.
"They're my brothers... All of them."
"Jeongin too?"
Chan nodded.
"Oh." She took a second to wrap her mind around it. "But they call you "Dad"..."
"Yeah. Well, they're basically my kids. They've never known their real dads. Except Hyunjin."
"Oh. . . Oh wow. And so, you just took them in?"
"Well, kind of." Chan said, having a hard time knowing how much to say.
"Well, you definitely seem like a dad to them."
"Well, they needed one. So I became one."
"That's really good of you. You're great with them."
"Thank you. So then, what made you decide to settle down here? Are you closer to family here?" Chan asked, quickly switching the topic to be about her instead.
"Umm. No. Not exactly. Kind of the opposite. We came here to get away from that. It was a bit. . . Dangerous."
"Oh?" Chan said with an expression that conveyed real interest.
"Well, Byron's dad was close with my family. So he'd come around a lot. I was only 16 when I got pregnant, and he was 19. And he was really abusive. But, my family kept letting him in while I was at work. It was hard because I couldn't afford to move out. And when I'd come home, he'd be saying he was going to take Byron. Eventually I just had to leave. Leave everything. You know?" Amelia explained, opening up to someone for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Did you get a restraining order?" Chan asked.
"Well, I didn't have evidence of any danger to us, so they couldn't give me one."
Chan nodded his head. He couldn't help it now. His protective instincts were kicking in. "Has he ever come here?" He asked seriously.
"Well, yeah. I don't know who told him where we were, but he did come a few times. Byron was at school thankfu-" she started to say.
Jisung ran out of the house and right into their conversation.
"Jisung, why don't you go inside and set the table?" Chan said.
"But you said we were ordering pizza." Jisung said, confused.
Chan nodded toward the house.
"Ummm. Okay.... Bye." Jisung said.
"Bye." Said Amelia.
"I'm sorry. It's really hard to have private conversations around here." Chan sighed.
Amelia smiled. "It's okay.
"So you were saying?" Chan asked.
"Oh. Nothing. It's nothing." She dismissed.
Chan nodded.
"Well. I better go." Amelia said, taking a step back.
"Amelia?" Chan called softly as she began to turn away.
"Hmm?"
"If he comes again, tell me."
"Oh. I don't want to troub-" she started to say.
"Tell me." Chan interrupted. "I'll make sure nothing happens to you and Byron."
"Oh. Well," She said, looking down. "Umm." Suddenly she felt tears building up in her eyes. "Sure." She finally said. "Well, I'll see you around."
"See you." Chan gave a light smile as she turned and walked away.
She quickly walked back to her house, trying not to cry. She didn't even know why she felt like crying. Maybe because no one had ever said anything like that to her before. She had been protecting herself and her son for as long as she could remember. It felt strange to have someone care about them with no strings attached. But she couldn't help but feel that there were strings attached. There always were. And likely what Chan said was just meaningless words. No one ever kept a promise to her before, and this wasn't going to be any different.
