They reached home early and managed to make Junho’s mother happy. She beamed out during lunch because it’s been awhile since they have a meal together. They have a few conversations after lunch until Lee Sangmin asked Junho to come with him to his home office.

“Junho-ya, you know I don’t have anyone I can rely on other than you. I’m getting older and who know how much time left for me.” Lee Sangmin started the talk.

“Don’t say like that aboji. I’m always there for you and I hope you and ommoni can always stay with me for a long, long time.” Junho gently said to his father.

“I want you to come back to Seoul. Our Incheon branch can handle the project since you’re already acquired the land. I think it’s easier for me to train you to be my successor when you’re near to me.”

Junho raised his eyebrows when he heard his father’s request but immediately returned to his normal expression. Well Seoul and Incheon was just 2-hour drive so he still can see them every day. “I’ll be there in our headquarters tomorrow.”

“One more thing… I hope you will never return to Incheon again.” Lee Sangmin cautiously chose his words while analysing his son reaction.

“Why?” Junho questioning his request while looking straight into his father’s eyes.

Lee Sangmin couldn’t remember when was the last time Junho dared to look into his eyes. But now, his sharp eyes didn’t even blink while waiting for his answer. “Do you think you can freely going out on a date without being scrutinised by other people? The fact that you are having an affair with a single mother… do you want to humiliate our family?”

“It’s not an affair! We are both single and we are in love. I love her and I love her son too. There’s nothing wrong with it.  Plus you said you will give your full support on who will I choose to be my wife.” Junho slightly raised his voice towards his father.

“And I stick with my words. I can accept her without judging her personal background but how can I accept her child? Son, you are my only heir. All of our family wealth will be yours someday and you can’t just simply give it to an outsider.”

“Junwoo will be my son if I married his mother so he is my family and not an outsider.”

“You grow up in a western country so I can’t blame you for the lack of understanding about our tradition and culture. You don’t understand the important of blood lines in Korea. Family is everything here. Who you are and your character is based on your family so if you don’t have information about your family, you are nothing. So is the kid.”

“No! Kids are like a plain white sheet. They are pure and untainted. The one who responsible to draw the pattern on the sheet is us, the adults.”    

“Have mercy for me Junho-ya. You have to choose between me and that kid.”

“Aboji, I…”

“It’s impossible for me to accept him.” Lee Sangming immediately cut his words as an indication that there was no room for discussion.

“But…”

“You’re contemplating… I guess I’m not an important person for you huh?”

“Aboji! You know you and ommoni means everything for me. Of course you are important.”

Lee Sangmin immediately hugged his son tightly. “Thank you Junho-ya, I thought I’m going to lose you too.”

Junho felt the warmth from his father embracing him but he could feel the cold sweat started to build up on his body. He lost any words to say and he couldn’t move his body to hug his father back.

It’s so unfair. It’s not even something that’s possible to choose. He didn’t know what to do.

Junho closed his eyes, and imagining the time when his parents need to choose between him and his brother Junsang. Must be hard for them too but in the end, they chose him to live. So he should choose his father too, right?

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Without he even realised, it’s been almost a month since Junho cut all his ties with the Kims. He made sure he buried all his time with works and he started to take his sleeping pills again. He won’t let himself to have any second of free time or he will start to think about them. He didn’t even want them to appear in his dream.   

His condition became worst. Physically he still looked healthy but inside, he could feel his soul being eaten away. The pain was unbearable but he needed to pretend that he was not hurt which make it even chronic. He didn’t know how much time he had left to survive because he couldn’t find a cure for his illness. He was slowly dying…

He dragged his foots to greet his mother when he came back from work. He failed to realise the worried looks plastered on his mother’s face.

Park Minjung was not dumb to not realise the tension between her husband and her son. She usually preferred to be an observer and let them settle their own conflict but she sensed that her only son was going back to his old self who trapped in a guilt of losing his two brothers.

She thought it was impossible to heal Junho from the guilt but she saw a miracle happen. The long lost smile appeared back on his face. She almost forgot that her son has the shiniest bright smile she ever seen. His eyesmile always managed to brighten up her day and she didn’t want him to lose his smile again.

It’s time for her to intervene so she went straight to the source of the problem, her husband.

“Yeobo, what are you doing to our Junho?”

“What do you mean?” Lee Sangming took off his reading spectacles and changed his focus to his wife.

“Do not play ignorant. Who else can make my Junho miserable like that?”

Lee Sangmin couldn’t hide his surprised at his wife accusation. He put down the documents and his spectacles on the table and slowly rose up from the chair and towering his petite wife. “I’m… making his life miserable?” His deep voice questioning back his wife with the visible hurt plastered on his face.

Park Minjung didn’t show any sign of fear at his husband. Their kids would run away when they heard their father’s tone down deep voice because it was a silent warning to tell them that he was angry, but it didn’t affected her at all. She knew him too well to know that he couldn’t be mad at her.

“Maybe you don’t realise it but I witnessed everything so I can understand Junho’s feeling.” She gently talked to her husband. “You said you don’t blame Junho when Junsu drown to save him but… I saw how you distance yourself from him. He was just a little boy who always clinging on you and suddenly your hands was not available for him. Don’t you think he won’t be affected by your cold treatment?”

“Then you sent him away to the foreign land because you said he needed a new environment to make him forget everything. I followed your decision although I think it was the best for him to be with his family. When we have to choose between saving him or Junsang, you were taking too much time to make the decision and almost costing his life.”

“They are both my sons, how can I choose between them?”

“Then what about me? I’m their mother! I carried them inside my womb. I gave birth to them and the bonds between us are far more stronger. It was not a choice, we already lost Junsang and you were hanging on at uncertainty that almost killed Junho too. Now you’re destroying him again. It makes me wondering, maybe you hate him after Junsu died and you don’t even care about his life!”

“I never hate him! Never! I love all my sons. They are my life, burying them with my bare hands was the most agonizing thing to do. I lost my life twice and Junho is the only one left. I will do anything to protect him.”

Lee Sangmin told his wife about what had happen. He hoped his wife could understand his point of view but no, Park Minjung instead rolled her eyes unbelievingly.

“And you said you can’t accept his girlfriend because you wanted to protect him? How can her son be a threat to our Junho?”

“How can we accept an outsider who is not our blood as our grandchild? If that outsider gets our family wealth, how can I face our ancestor later?” Lee Sangmin pressed further.

She sighed. “You know what exactly your problem is? You are too attached to the ones who already left us that you’re ignoring the people who actually stay by your side. Yeobo, do you need to lose your precious person in order to feel their preciousness? The pain of losing our sons… I shared the pain too. In fact, as their mother you have no idea the pain I felt when I sent them away.”

She choked on her words. Every time when she reminisce her life with all her sons, she couldn’t help to cry. Giving birth to them was a blessing for her. Watching them growing up gave her happiness and joy that every moment of her life felt complete. So when one by one were taken away from her, she felt like her heart was ripped out twice and she couldn’t believe that she still alive.   

“But I need to be strong for the one who’s still by my side.” She continued. “For the one who’s still breathing, the one who returned my hug, the one who returned my call, the one who return my kiss and the only one who I can talk to. Please it’s not too late, don’t take away the source of my strength.”  

Lee Sangmin stared at his wife’s teary eyes. His heart softens when he heard her plea. He and his wife was a living proof that an arranged marriage could be happy too. They both came from a wealthy family and their unification was meant to strengthening and expanding their family business but at the same time he found the love of his life. His wife was the backbone of his life and he definitely didn’t want to make her sad.

He gently hugged his wife and caressing her back to soothe her. “Then what should I do?”

“At least we should meet them first to judge them. I really want to meet the girl who can make our Junho happy and I want to see her son too. For some reason, I don’t know why but I can’t wait to meet them.”

He sighed in defeat. It’s not like his wife was asking him to accept them. If she wanted to meet them so be it, maybe he could convince her to be on his side after she meets them.

“Okay, whatever you want my love.”

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Author's Note: Sorry for the late update. I'll try my best to update once a month. Thank you for your reviews because I love to read your thought about my story :)