Chapitre Seize

>And black keys never looked so beautiful. And a perfect rainbow never seemed so dull<

MinNeul

It was a weekend, and MinNeul had taken a day off from work to spend some quality time with her twin. MinHyuk had seemed to be a little bit stressed because of work lately, and when she asked him of it, he only gave her a tired smile and said that there was a new project the company was undertaking, and it took all of him to ensure that everything went smoothly.

It was still early in the morning and MinHyuk was still sleeping, tired from coming home late the night before. MinNeul had prepared his breakfast, and once he’d woken up, washed and eaten, they would start their activity then.

As for now, she decided to clean the house, much to the house cleaners’ protests. Her mother wasn’t home, again, and MinNeul knew that she’d been spending many nights in her office lately. The company felt more like her real home compared to her actual house.

And after convincing the house cleaners that she just wanted to vacuum the whole house, the maids gave in to her request, after having MinNeul promised that she wouldn’t do any other work besides vacuuming. She had wanted to do more, actually, but decided not to argue with the maids as they somehow felt a little guilty too.

MinNeul grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming around the house, careful not to get to close with MinHyuk’s room as to not disturb him. Once she was done with her room, the hallways and other rooms, she decided to wrap it up by vacuuming her mother’s room last, since MinHyuk was already awake and in his shower.

was singing happily to her favorite songs as she cleaned, feeling extremely cheerful as she remembered her last meeting with MyungSoo. Not that it was anything new. Each time she recalled those times she spent with him; they would always make her smile to herself. Her heart felt light and her spirit was lifted high up in the sky, and just by the mere thought of seeing him again next time would leave her grinning all by herself.

She unplugged the vacuum after feeling satisfied that her mother’s office room was clean enough. MinNeul didn’t dare to touch anything else though, as she feared that she might misplace any of her mother’s things. Although she doubted that her mother would notice anyway. Each time YoonHe kept herself locked in this room, MinNeul knew that she was only focusing on these stacks of papers on her table, which now looked scattered and all over the place.

“Should I at least try to rearrange them?” MinNeul asked herself, suddenly feeling that she wanted to do something nice to her mother. However, she thought of the possibilities of her mixing the papers wrongly or lost any of the important papers. She understood nothing about the contents, apart from some of them being contracts and whatnot, hence she decided to leave them be.

“Don’t purposely get yourself into trouble, MinNeul, no matter how kind you are to help.” She muttered to herself again. She was just about to walk away from the table with the vacuum in hand when she noticed an old photograph on the table, almost being buried by the strewn papers.

She found herself being drawn towards the picture, though she didn’t know why. A part of her told MinNeul to just walk away, and pretended she saw nothing. But a bigger part of her was extremely curious, especially by what she saw in the picture.

MinNeul shook her head and took a couple of steps back from the table, eyes still fixed on the old photograph. “No no no. Curiosity killed the cat, MinNeul. Don’t be the cat.” She told herself, and began to walk away from the table.

However, before she could even go far, her curiosity got the best of her and she dropped the vacuum cleaner on the floor and rushed towards her mother’s table again. “Consequences be damned.” She mumbled. “I’ll be the curious cat just for a few minutes.”

Very gently, she picked up the picture while trying so hard not to move the other papers at the same time. She held the photograph ever so lightly as if it might break, and quickly laid her eyes on two individuals in the picture, who were smiling back at her.

MinNeul couldn’t help but to smile herself, seeing how happy the woman in the picture was. She looked so contented, with a man sitting next to her and his arm was hugging her shoulder. Both of them beamed as good luck would have it in the photograph, and they looked very much in love.

It didn’t take long for MinNeul to learn that they were lovers, seeing how close they were with each other. Even a fool could tell.

MinNeul kept her eyes on the woman’s face, sensing some familiarity as she stared at the woman. Those eyes that lighted up when she smiled, those dimples, it reminded her so much of someone. MinNeul thought hard and realized that the woman reminded her of MinHyuk, her brother.

MinNeul gasped lightly as it dawned on her that the woman in the picture was her mother, way back when she was in her younger days. MinNeul had never seen any pictures of her mother before she got married, and it wasn’t that she was brave enough to ask. She knew that MinHyuk had never seen them too, as her mother kept the albums away so securely that they weren’t sure where to look.

Besides, they didn’t think their mother would be happy if she found out that they’d been looking at the old pictures, which would only remind her of how happy she was, before she married their father and got divorced few years after.

And be left with two kids.

MinNeul couldn’t seem to tear her eyes off her mother’s face. She looked extremely lovely in the picture and somewhat different too. She was younger, yes, but in the picture, YoonHe was smiling the kind of smile that she had never seen on her mother’s face. She was beaming widely, as if there was no worry inside her head, only pure happiness.

How she wished that she could see her mother smile like that to them. Her face always looked so serious that MinNeul often wondered whether she’d smiled. But now, she knew how her mother had looked like when she smiled.

MinNeul’s eyes moved towards the next person in the photograph, who had one arm on her mother’s shoulder, mirroring the same expression as her mother’s. MinNeul kept staring at the man, trying to figure out who he was. She still recalled how her father looked like, and this man was nothing close to her father.

If she could say it honestly, the man in the picture looked so much better than her own father. It could be due to the time and age as years went by, MinNeul thought, but she was certain that even if this man was now older, he must’ve been good looking still.

She tried to rake her brain to identify this man, but she’d decided that she couldn’t figure out who he was. He looked so happy and close to her mother, that MinNeul was sure this man wasn’t merely a friend or a sibling. Seeing the both of them in the picture, she knew that they were more than that.

Perhaps MinHyuk knew who this man was. She asked herself, and quickly took the vacuum with her as she raced downstairs to the kitchen, with the picture in her other hand. She heard some noises coming from the dining table and she knew that it was MinHyuk.

He was sitting there, enjoying his breakfast when he saw her. MinHyuk smiled. “Morning, little sister. I was up a bit late, I know.” He said as he continued eating the hearty meal MinNeul made. “Thank you for the superb breakfast, by the way.”

MinNeul grinned back, put the vacuum aside, and rushed towards the chair next to her brother, who only looked at her oddly, as to why she seemed rather jumpy that morning.

“You’re most welcome, oppa. Anyway, I need to show you this.” MinNeul quickly gave MinHyuk the picture, couldn’t fight the curiosity inside of her. She really wanted to know who this man was, because it seemed that he was the only person who could make her mother smile like that. MinNeul couldn’t remember the last time her mother ever smiled, and she was certain that she never did even after she married their dad.

MinHyuk took the photograph from her and studied it with interest. Whatever it was that had gotten MinNeul all excited, it must’ve been something big, or not. With one fork in hand, and the other hand holding the picture, MinHyuk tipped his head to the side. “Is this omma?”

MinNeul nodded her head excitedly as she too looked at the picture. “Yes! She was so pretty, wasn’t she? When I first saw it, the first thing I could think of was how pretty she was and how much she reminded me of you.”

MinNeul pointed to the man next to her mother. “Oppa, do you recognize who this is? It’s not appa, right?” She asked, hoping that MinHyuk knew. MinHyuk looked at the man closely; his brows met, and slowly shook his head. “No, I don’t, sorry. Why do you ask? You want to know who this person is, right?”

MinNeul grinned at her brother and nodded. MinHyuk knew her so well. “Yes, actually, I do. I really want to know who this man is, because from the looks of it, he seemed to be very special to omma.”

MinHyuk looked at the picture again. “Do you think so?” He asked, and after a while, MinHyuk smiled to himself. He couldn’t help but to agree with his sister. Pushing his finished plate aside, MinHyuk said, “Well, as much as you are interested about it, I would suggest you to return this photo from where you found it, otherwise you would be in a big trouble.”

MinNeul pouted at that at first, and made a move from the dining table towards the stairs again. However, before she could take the first step, MinHyuk called her. MinNeul turn