Broken Mirror

Chapter 12

"Hello, Mom, Dad. How are you?"

Wooseok's nervous sweaty hand was holding his phone to his ear, his doe eyes shifting side to side, asking for encouragement from two people sitting before him in his bed – Jinhee and her father, Doctor Cha. They were there to be his trusted mental support while he tried to take a baby step forward. Giving him a little boost of courage, they shot him their brightest grins and raised their fists, mouthing a, "Fighting!" that managed to earn a small nervous smile from him.

"Oh, Wooseokie! We're doing really well, you don't need to worry about anything. How are you, baby? We missed you so much," a soft motherly voice answered. The father and daughter could hear it through the loud speaker. Wooseok had initiated it himself, so they could help him come up with answers when he couldn't.

"I'm okay, Mom." Wooseok looked down and smiled. He could visualize his mother's pretty smile just by hearing her cheerful voice that he had missed so much. "I've been happy lately. I'm sorry I didn't call you earlier."

"How is your health?" His father asked. "We called your uncle last week and asked about you, but he said you were sick and couldn't talk."

Wooseok's smile faded away and his face lost its color at the mention of the man he feared the most. His uncle had lied to his parents, they had no idea that he had run away. Knowing his uncle, though, Wooseok knew exactly that the man didn't like to be put in that kind of situation. He must have thrown a tantrum after the phone call with his parents.

Right, Wooseok thought he'd be dead meat if his uncle managed to find him.

"I'm... I'm fine now, Dad. Don't worry." Wooseok forced a smile out, although his parents couldn't see it anyway. "But, can I... ask for something?"

"Do you need something, honey? Does your uncle feed you well?" His mother began to sound restless on the other end.

"U-Umm." Wooseok answered with a hum that clearly wasn't a yes. "It's... Could you keep this call a secret? P-Please don't tell uncle about this."

The silence that came after reflected his parents' perplexity. "Why, son?" His father asked.

Wooseok had a miserable look on his face that caused Jinhee to tug on her hair, frustrated that she couldn't be of any help. Her father gave the boy a reassuring nod and motioned his hands telling him to calm down and proceed slowly.

"I..." Wooseok breathed out and bit his lower lip. "I don't... want him to worry about me. R-Right now I'm... I'm not with him, but with a nice doctor... who's taking good care of me."

"A doctor?? Are you still si—"

"Mom, please don't worry." Wooseok cut before his mother could start crying on the phone. "I'm in good hands now. This doctor is my f-friend's father. He and his family are helping me a lot, they treat me like I'm a part of them. I can't tell you about this illness now... but I'm... I'm healing." Wooseok tried his best to sound convincing, even though he wasn't at all sure of his own words. "Can you promise not to tell uncle anything? I-I'll come back to him when I get better."

No matter how hard he tried to put it in a nice way, still he couldn't prevent his mother from bursting into tears. The moment he heard her sniffles, that was when he began to cry along.

"My son... My only son is sick now and I can't take care of him. I can't do anything for him," the woman cried. "Sometimes I think I've done a big mistake by giving away the responsibility of a parent because of the past hardship. Maybe if we had struggled harder, we could have lived together, no matter how hard it would have been! As long as my son could grow up well with our love... But we always thought it was best for you to get the best education and chase your dream. We didn't want to see you go through hard times with us... Even when your uncle and aunt divorced, we didn't come to take you home! Because we believed it when your uncle said he could still raise you well and we should take time to recover, but has he really raised you well? Why... Why is my son sick now if he really has..? Have we... Have we made a terrible mistake, my son?"