puzzle piece | jeong jaehyun

13

"Minhyuk, how about we do something fun today?" She said, looking up from her paperwork and deciding to free the child from reruns of paw patrol and spongebob

"Like what?" Minhyuk asked, ears perking up at the idea but his face showing slight reluctance, what did fun even entail? Because as far as he was concerned, leaving the warmth of his house was not fun.

"Like...let's go to the park or something...it's been a while since we went right? You can try to ride your bike again" she suggested and Minhyuk practically froze.

Uh oh, not the bike...

"Come on, it'll be fun. I'll go take it out of the storage room" Yunhui said, leaving him in the living room to go a find the dusty old bike that he hadn't used in months. Yunhui remembered the last time he rode this bike just as clearly. His father was insistent that he could ride the bike perfectly fine without the training wheels, giving the child an unsteady push when he wasn't ready and accidentally sending the boy into the ground with a few scrapes by his side.

Most fathers would rush to their child and comfort them, apologise for their bad foresight and for not protecting them from harm. Instead all he did was shout at the helpless little boy for being too wimpy for still needed training wheels. He would then proceed to shout at Yunhui for raising a mama's boy that can't even act like the other children. Minhyuk was five when this happened...barely even old enough to master balancing a bike.

But Yunhui thought this was the best way she could listen to the doctor's orders. Whatever trigger he had or traumatic thing he experienced, all she wanted to do was make new positive memories that he could remember instead. Swapping out all the bad to good, until he had nothing else but good memories to look back on. That was her masterplan. And it was going to take a while, but like the doctor said—it's not impossible.

"I don't want the bike" Minhyuk said with a small voice as his mom crouched down to zip up his jacket

"Why not?" She asked, looking into his eyes with a small smile

"It's scary" he answered, his fingers casually picking at a strand of her hair, something he tended to do when he was scared and wanted to be close to her without actually mushing his body into hers for a hug.

"Is it because you fell last time?" She asked and he took a minute to think before he nodded—probably not being able to express the real reason as to why he was scared. Yunhui pursed her lips into a thin smile and patted the back of his head lightly

"Okay well can I bring it anyway in case you change your mind? The training wheels are still on and I promise I won't make you take them off if you're not ready. You don't even have to ride the bike if you don't want to okay?" She said, reassuring him as much as possible and it took him a few seconds to consider the risks before he slowly nodded his head. He knew deep down that no matter what, his mommy would always be there to protect him anyway, like always.

"You're so brave, you know that? So small but so brave" she whispered, trying her best to not start bawling her eyes out before she pressed a kiss onto his forehead.

Within a few minutes, the two were finally at the park that was just below their apartment complex, walking against the fallen orange and yellow leaves on the pathway. She held his hand while her free hand held the bike, its wheels smoothly rolling against the tarmac.

"And then what happened?" He asked, looking up at her to finish the story about when she was a kid and how her mother would take her for a walk in the park almost everyday after school

"Well the snow was pretty thick so we ended up making snow angels but it was really cold and we all actually got si—" the sound of a bicycle bell cut her story short and the two turned to see a toothy grin on Jinah's face as she rode her bike towards them.

"Hyukie!" She said excitedly, hopping off her bike quickly and waddling over with her thick jacket before giving him a hug, almost making him fall over if it wasn't for the fact that Yunhui was holding him steady. She looked around to see if the girl was unsupervised, sighing with relief as she saw Jaehyun jogging to catch up with them.

"I told you not to come down this path, there's so many leaves here!" Jaehyun scolded, slightly out of breath with his hands on his hips while his chest heaved up and down.

Yunhui almost licked her lips at the sight of him, the golden ray of sun shining against his skin that was rather pale, highlighting the brown orbs in his eyes and making them look like a sea of the most delicious honey. She could honestly keep going—but what caught her attention the most was the dimple that seemed to poke out by his cheek even when he wasn't smiling, softening the slightly intimidating look he had going for him—stop it Yunhui, he's gay!

"I saw Hyukie and...um...what's your name?" Jinah asked politely, looking up at the woman she had met many times but never knew the name of

"Yunhui" she smiled down at the little girl

"That's a pretty name...my daddy calls you the mean neighbour lady—"

"That's a really cool bike Minhyuk" Jaehyun said, quickly cutting her off although the damage was already done. Yunhui rolled her tongue against the inside of her cheek before her eyes met the sheepish ones of Jaehyun.

"Daddy look! Hyukie still has to use his training wheels!" She said with a giggle, pointing at it innocently without knowing her words hurt more than the other two would have known. Jaehyun noticed the look of sadness immediately in Minhyuk's eyes at her words before he corrected his daughter

"That's not nice Jinah, say sorry. Don't make fun of people" he said strictly

"But I wasn't making fun...sorry Hyuk" she said quickly with a pout as she realised her dad would only give out to her more of she didn't

"Hyuk, do you want to race with Jinah?" Jaehyun asked, crouching down to his height and Minhyuk immediately shook his head, hiding behind Yunhui's legs until she crouched down as well

"He's a little scared. It's been a while" she said, patting his back to not put any pressure on him and make him do something he would later regret

"Hyuk don't be a baby!" Jinah said with attitude and Jaehyun glared at her

"Jinah! What did I just say?" He muttered and she whined

"Riding a bike is easy!" She said, ringing her bell a few times before she started to circle around them with her barbie bike while Minhyuk's dinosaur one remained on the ground unattended to. His eyes slowly raised to watch the little girl's movements, seeing her hair flow with the wind from her speed with a wide smile on her face.

"Promise you won't let go?" Minhyuk asked, turning to his mom with his pinky held up to her face and she practically felt her heart burst in her chest at the thought of her son finally breaking through whatever barrier he had built up from his trauma

"I promise."