This Bond Of Love || Lee Heeseung

🪻 Through His Eyes

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I thought leaving was the right choice. I thought I was saving you from the chaos in my life, but seeing you now, I realize what a mistake that was. I never wanted to hurt you like this.

~ Lee Heeseung

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Third person's POV :

Heeseung sat by the window, watching the fading light of the evening. Rowoon's laughter echoed from the living room, the only real family he had left. His nephew—no, his son—was his everything. Raising him was a promise Heeseung made to his older brother, Heedo, a promise that had come at a great cost.

His mind drifted back to the day everything changed, the day Heedo introduced his beloved wife Hana to their parents. They had been so happy, filled with hope, but their parents crushed that hope. They called Hana unworthy, insulted her family and status, and made it clear they'd never accept her. Heedo, furious and hurt, left home and built his own family far from the cold, rigid expectations of their parents. For a while, Heeseung thought his brother had found the happiness they both longed for—a real home, full of warmth and love.

A year later, Rowoon was born. Heedo wanted to mend the broken ties with their parents, believing they might finally accept his family if they saw how happy he was. But the moment Heedo returned with Hana and Rowoon, their parents were as cruel as ever, telling him it would be better if he and his family were dead rather than a disgrace. Heedo left, devastated. On the way home, his car swerved off the road in a horrific accident that took both his and Hana's lives. Rowoon barely survived.

Heeseung's chest tightened as the memory played out in his mind, the anger and grief he felt that day still as raw as ever. His hatred for his parents had festered since then. He had always endured their control over him, obeyed their every word, but after Heedo's death, something broke inside him. His brother was gone, and Heeseung could never forgive them for it.

And then there was Nina.

He loved her. He always had, from the very start. She was his first love, the only person who made him feel alive in a world that had become so cold and hollow. But how could he ever bring her into the nightmare of his family? How could he risk Nina being hurt the way Hana had been?

His phone buzzed on the table, but he didn't look at it. It was probably his parents, another reminder of their control, their bitterness. He couldn't let Nina near them. She was too pure, too precious for that. The thought of his toxic family tainting her life the way they had destroyed his brother's was unbearable.

That's why he ended it, without explanation, without telling her the truth. He sent a text, the coward's way out, but he believed it was for the best. How could he be with her when his world was drowning in misery and self-doubt? Loving her was easy, but protecting her from the mess of his life was the hardest decision he ever made.

Now, as he sat across from her during those therapy sessions, he felt the weight of that choice. She didn't know why he left. She thought Rowoon was his son, and that there was some other life he'd built without her. But the truth was, he never moved on. He never dated anyone else. He couldn't. His heart had always been hers, even when he tried to lock it away.