Ki-joon stood next to his mother as he watched her greet all the mourners who came with a creeping feeling of anger and disgust. He glanced at the smiling picture of his father which hung above the altar and released a deep sigh. Someone came up to him and grabbed his hand in both of theirs and he noticed it was an elderly lady who used to be their neighbor.

“Ki-joonah, I’m so glad to see you. Your mother said you went to live in America for a while? It’s so nice to see you again. I’m sorry for your loss, your father was such a kind man. Aigoo, I don’t know how your poor mother is going to carry on, she loved him so much. It’s a good thing she has you now, ah it’s good that you’ve come back.” The lady said with a smile.

Ki-joon looked sideways at his mother who dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief and he had to keep himself from scoffing out-loud. “Thank you for coming.” He replied instead. When the lady left, he stepped outside and his mother soon followed him.

“Where are you going?” She asked,

“Don’t you have to go back inside and pretend like you actually gave a damn about my father?” He replied.

“Han Ki-joon, you will not disrespect me on this sorrowful day.” She replied firmly.

“Oh spare me your crap. Do you think I’m the same boy I was fifteen years ago? Do you think I’m scared of you?” He laughed in disbelief. “America? You told people I went to America? I guess you do have some shame in not wanting people to know that I ran away from home. You’d have to admit you’re not the perfect angel people believe you to be.”

“You have no idea how much I worried about you after you left like that, your father and I searched everywhere for you.” She replied, dropping her head.

Ki-joon laughed as tears filled his eyes, “You have got to be kidding me. How long have you been telling yourself that lie? It seems to come so natural to you. Father was bedridden the day I left because he broke his leg from “falling” down the stairs.” He spat at her.

“Ki-joon, you have no idea how much I loved your father, don’t say things you know nothing about.” She replied with clenched fists.

“You loved him? You loved him? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You brought him down every chance you got after he lost his job. You think I didn’t notice every time you threw things and broke things and he begged you not to go out with that man? You think I didn’t see every morning when he woke up with a black eye and he passed it off as walking into the door? You’re going to claim to love him even when I called the police but he had to pretend it was nothing because the neighbours would talk about a man being beaten up by his wife? Don’t ever come and find me anymore, the only relation we have to each other is gone. If you come to me, I will file a restraining order against you.” He said and walked away. He took firm steps towards his car as he felt his mother’s stare bear into his back. He climbed behind the wheel and loosen his tie and released a deep sigh. He wondered how he would visit him without running into her.

 Ah-reum was setting the table to prepare for lunch when the Mother Superior at the orphanage approached her.

“Ms Ah-reum, thank you so much for doing this every year.” The nun smiled at her.

Ah-reum smiled back, “It’s really nothing. I love coming to play with the children as well.” She replied.

“I’ll go and call them out and we can have lunch.” The nun said. Just as she was about to go back into the building, she noticed a car drive up the driveway and she saw Ki-joon step out. She smiled and went to him, and Ah-reum wondered what he was doing here.

“Omma.” Ki-joon said as he went up to the nun and hugged her. He was the only one who called the nun mother while the other children called her sister or mother superior. She had told him she didn’t mind either way what she was called.

“It is so nice of you to come and visit your mother after all this time.” She scolded good-naturedly.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been really busy trying to keep my café afloat. I’m wondering if I was too rash in my decision to open it.” He smiled at her.

“Oh come on, I believe in you. By the way, how is your sister?” She asked.

“Oh, she’s doing very well. You know how strong she is; she doesn’t let anything trouble her for too long.” He replied.

“Excuse me, but do you want me to go and get the children?” Ah-reum asked.

“Oh I’m sorry, I get carried away whenever my son comes around. This is my son Han Ki-joon, Ki-joonah, this is one of the benefactors of the orphanage, Hong Ah-reum.” She said in the way of an introduction. “I’ll go and get the children, you two talk amongst yourselves.” She said and hurried away.

Ah-reum and Ki-joon stood in awkward silence for a few minutes before they spoke at the same time.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Thank you for taking me to the hospital.”

Ah-reum indicated that he speak first, and he said “Thank you for taking me to the hospital. How did you find me?

“Oh, I came by the café because I was craving the delicious sandwich you made before. I was on my way home from running some errands and it was on the same route so I decided to stop by. Were you very sick? The doctor said you passed out from fear.”

Ki-joon didn’t feel the need to answer the question, so he changed the topic. “So, how did you come to be a benefactor of the orphanage?”

Ah-reum realized what he was doing and went with it, “Oh, benefactor is such a fancy word. I only come by every year to have lunch with the children is all. My mother grew up in this orphanage a long time ago and she was very attached to it even after she left. She made a lot of donations whenever she could because she said she received a lot of love here and wanted to give back. She passed away a couple of years ago so I come every year on her birthday to honour her childhood home. The children are also very nice too and we end up having a lot of fun together.”

Just then, the mother superior arrived with the twenty children who lived in the orphanage and they all sat at the long bench to eat their lunch. The mother superior told them all to hold hands as she led them in prayer and after she was done, they chorused “amen” and started to eat. When lunch was over, Ah-reum decided to help with clean and Ki-joon offered to join her.

“The children love it when you come over, it’s the one day in the year they don’t have to clean up after themselves at mealtimes.” The mother superior smiled. She sent the children off to play and Ah-reum and Ki-joon cleaned the table and did the dishes.

“This might be a very personal question and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” she said as she and Ki-joon washed plates side-by-side. “I knew Hae-kyung back in middle school and I didn’t realize she had a younger sibling. Well, she didn’t talk much to anyone back then anyway.”

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and placed a clean plate in the basket before he answered. “Hae-kyung is the only sister I’ve ever had. We met for the first time here in the orphanage. You could say we were kindred spirits. We both didn’t talk much to anyone back then. I remember my first day here, I saw her sitting on the bench and looking so far removed from her surroundings that I wondered how she ended up here. Every single one of us children who come here have things that we are scared of, that’s the reason we end up here, isn’t it? This place is like a safe space for us.” He finished.

Ah-reum imagined a young Ki-joon and a young Hae-kyung and she felt her heart constrict in her chest for them. She wanted to reach out and hug them both. “Is the thing you’re scared of the reason you passed out the other day?” She asked quietly.

Ki-joon picked up the basket full of now clean dishes and said, “We’re done, let’s go.”

Ah-reum watched him as he walked away from her and she felt tears fill her eyes. “Why am I crying?” She wondered as she wiped her eyes, she was beginning to feel very strange.

Author’s Note: Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. This story is taking longer than I thought because I am much busier than I have been in a long time. If anyone is interested in being my co-author, please let me know and I’ll inform you of how to send in your applications. I would like to thank misscookie13 over at Ilaria shop for the beautiful poster I got. As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to comment, subscribe, upvote and all that good stuff.