A Wish Upon a Star | Yeonbin ✓

LVII

"You mean, you've never opened this closet door before?"

"Nope. Not ever since we moved here."

Soobin and his mum were standing in front of Soobin's open closet door now. In each bedroom of their house, there were two big wardrobes stuck together, in line with the wall. Soobin used one for his clothes and the other one, up to his knowledge, only had his things from his old house. Soobin, even as a kid had always refrained from even opening the door for this one because as much as he wished for the happy family of three to come back, his parents' fights were a bad memory to him that he wished he could forget.

"Woah, there's so many," Soobin's mum commented at the boxes that had been piled upon each other.

The boxes were all wrapped in cute wrappers at the bottom and had slowly transitioned into more plain wrappers as it progressed to the top.

"Oh! These are the ones from just your last birthday," Soobin's mum took out a few of the boxes on top.

"What are these? Presents...?"

"Yeah, birthday presents. Why didn't you open any of them?"

"They were for me...?"

Soobin's mother looked at her son in bewilderment, "Honey, of course they were for you, look it says so right there." Soobin's mum gestured towards the tags on the boxes.

"Oh..."

"Honey, why didn't you open any of them?"

"I didn't even know they were here..."

"What?"

"I don't know... why would you keep it on the closet, mum?"

"I didn't."

"Then who did...?"

There was a small silence before Soobin's mum facepalmed, "Ah it was Ms. Oh, the house help."

"Why would she...?"

"Remember when you were thirteen and told us that none of us were allowed to come to your room? You said Ms. Oh was the only one who was allowed to come in to your room, that too only just because back then you used to get along well with her pet pup."

Soobin awkwardly smiled, the memory coming back to him.

"Well, ever since then she's the only one who comes in to your room to collect the laundry and all. So whenever you leave your presents sitting in the hall for too long, your stepfather would tell her to move them into your room instead. Ms. Oh said you'd become upset if she put stuff into your room just anywhere so I told her she could put the things in your closet instead."

"Oh..."

"Why didn't you ever take any of the presents?"

"I thought... I thought they were for Taeho and Taewook..."

"Now why would you think that?"

"You know you guys never handed me my presents, only left them out the door so... The door to Taeho's room is right across from mine so I thought..."

"Remember Christmas? The one after you had just turned eleven?"

Soobin nodded.

"You remember what happened that evening?"

Soobin looked at his mum, confused.

"It's alright if you don't remember-"

"Oh right," Soobin blushed in embarrassment as the memory came to him.

"Yeah, that happened," his mum commented with an awkwardly laugh.

"Do you remember it well, mum?"

"Of course I do. That was the time I regretted the divorce and marrying Taewoo the most."

"I'm sorry, mum."

"No no, it's alright. You were a kid. Anyway, I shouldn't have taken your words too seriously either. Look at all these unopened presents, we must've made you feel so unloved this whole time."

Soobin thought about that Christmas, he remembered he'd fought with Taeho that evening and had ended up lashing out on his mum when he was told to forgive Taeho after Taeho had apologized. He remembered how he'd said stuff about not wanting to be included in family events and such because he never felt as though he was a part of it, he remembered how he had looked his stepfather right in the eye and told him how he could never take Soobin's own dad's place. Soobin remembered how he'd told his mum that he didn't need the Christmas presents because he didn't feel a part of the family anyway so it was of no use as Christmas was all about family sentiment.

"I'm sorry about that too, mum."

"It's really alright, honey. Like I said, we were all to blame. Your dad and I should've taken care of you amidst the whole divorce thing, it's no wonder you drifted apart."

Soobin solemnly nodded as his mum quickly got back to opening the boxes and showing Soobin presents he had received in the last years.

"It's no wonder I never saw you wear any of these," Soobin's mum chuckled, trying to lighten the mood as she held up a sweatshirt and looked at all the other clothes in their respective boxes.

"Wow, I feel so bad for all of these clothes and shoes that never got to be worn."

"Hey, we can donate them, c'mon," his mum smiled, "You've always been such a sweet child like that."

As Soobin smiled back and let his eyes travel along the inside of the closet, he noticed a big cardboard box towards the back, "Mum, what's that?"

"I don't know. Let me get it out."

His mum got the box out and placed it in front of him, "Must be from the old house."

"Oh," Soobin suddenly became hesitant to open it.

"Just pictures and probably your old toys and things you didn't unpack."

"Pictures?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, mum. Did I have friends back at our old house?"

"Friends? Well, I remember you had this one boy you played with for some time right before the divorce happened and we had to move."