“I’m home,”

The words escape Sungmin’s mouth before he could stop himself. It was a habit that he had picked up after he came to stay with Kyuhyun. Stepping through the screen door leading to the living room, a silent and dark house greeted him.

I forgot that nobody’s at home…

Sungmin smiled bitterly as he shook his head. He was no stranger to coming home to an empty house. It happened to him regularly before he came here. His stepfather was a successful architect who would only be at home in the evenings. His mother would pick his half-brother up from school and then the two of them would spend the rest of the day together, often in the malls or some theme park. Most of the time, he was just on his own.

Alone, but busy.

His time was almost fully occupied. Besides from going to school, he also had to do the cleaning and cooking at home. It was his stepfather’s idea, saying that Sungmin needs to earn his dues to stay with them. Sungmin did not mind being treated as a second-class citizen though. He enjoyed his chores because it helps him take his mind off things, and helped him feel that he actually had a place within his household. Even if the place was that of a housekeeper.

He only got to enjoy life a bit when his uncle, who is Kyuhyun’s father and the elder brother of Sungmin’s mother, asked for Sungmin to join him in the States during the summer vacation. As unwilling as his stepfather was to see Sungmin enjoying his life, he could not afford to get into Sungmin’s uncle’s bad books. Being a property tycoon, Sungmin’s uncle could have detrimental effects on his stepfather’s blooming career.

Back to the present, it had been a long time since Sungmin felt this drained. Collapsing onto his bed after putting his school bag on the chair at his study desk, he lifted his pillow and buried his face underneath. The teachers at school had unanimously decided that it was a good day to start teaching them new concepts for each subject.

And after the tons of theories, I just have to meet them…

The throbbing in his head increased as the images of the two men popped up. The sudden appearance of the two men had thrown in a dozen more questions into his already packed brain; Questions that he did not have the answers to.

The two men had appeared separately. The older man caught Sungmin as he was just stepping out of the school gates. The guitar club practice had been cancelled for the day because the teacher had an unexpected appointment. The other man, a boy around Sungmin’s age, only joined them later.

Why did they have to come today? Why can’t it be some other day when my head isn’t so jammed with all these new school stuff?

Emitting several yells of frustrations that were muffled by the pillow on his face, Sungmin decided that a hot shower might assist in helping him clear his head. He immediately gathered up his stuff and proceeded to the bathroom.

After a long hot bath which did not really help, Sungmin then turned to doing his assignments to seek relief. By channeling his full attention on the school assignments that were given by the teachers, he managed to calm the frustration that was raging in his head by just a notch.

However, just as he finished the last of his homework and was reaching into his bag to take out the textbooks to some revision, his eyes fell on the small photo frame that stood silently at one corner of the desk. He stared intently at it for a few seconds before his hands reached out for it on its own accord.

The photo was the family portrait that he had shown to Yonni when he moved in earlier on. The smile that his stepfather wore in the picture was one that he had never once shown to Sungmin. His stepfather was adamant in making every second of him living with them hell. He would constantly remind Sungmin that he was the outsider, not even making the effort to conceal his scorn for the boy in front of Sungmin’s mother.

A familiar aching started in his chest as the image of his mum popped into his head. Running his hand gently across the smooth glass surface of the photo frame, his fingers lingered over his mum’s image. He knew that his stepfather hated him because he was not his flesh and blood. To his stepfather, he was simply a liability.

But his mother?

“Omma, where are you going?”

A four year old child looked up questioningly at the tall woman before him, hugging an old dirty teddy bear tightly in his arms. The woman did not even look away from the vanity mirror that she had been staring into for the past hour.

“Omma’s getting married today,”

Tears welled up in the little boy’s eyes as he caught the hostility in his mother’s tone. Little children are very sensitive to such subtle things. the ears of the teddy bear nervously, he inched closer to the dresser. He wished he was half as interesting as the piece of wooden furniture for his mother spent more time looking at it than at him. That’s if she even bothered to look at him in the first place.

“Is there going to be a party?”

He asked meekly as he reached out for the white silky dress that his mother was wearing. His young brain found the similarity between his mother’s dress and those that the princesses wore to parties in the picture-books that he had been reading on his own. With a frown, his mother gathered up the sides of her dress as she shifted away from her own child.

“Don’t touch it. You’re going to dirty it.”

Hurt, the tears b in his eyes started falling silently. He did not understand why he couldn’t feel any love from the woman that had given birth to him. There were neither coddling nor gentle words. When she talked to him, it would often be orders. When she brought him out, he would be following behind all by himself.

What wrong could a child his age have done upon her?

“Do I need to change my clothes?”

Still, the boy harbored hope that his unloving mother would be bringing him along, even when he did not know what the phrase “getting married” meant. It was the weekends, and he did not need to go to school. He blinked his big eyes hopefully at her when she finally turned around and looked at him.

“What for? You won’t be coming with me,”

She said emotionlessly and she brushed past him, heading for the door. Throwing his bear down in alarm, he rushed to the door and blocked it, trying his best to block as much of the door as he could with his small frame and short limbs.

“No!”

Sobbing, the little boy shook his head from side to side slowly as he looked up pleadingly at the aggravated woman. With her arms crossed in front of her chest, the mother glared down angrily at crying child before her, feeling nothing but annoyance.

“Omma… Omma! Please don’t leave me at home… It’s really scary to be all alone here…”

“I already told you th--”

“I… I promise I’ll be good! I won’t bother you! I’ll stay far away from you! Just… Just don’t leave me alone at home… Omma…”

“Step away from the door,”

His pleas fell upon deaf ears as the woman answered him frostily. Biting his lips, he shook his head vehemently, pressing his body against the door more. With an irritated groan, his mother stamped her foot and put her hands on her hips as she glared at the child with pursed lips.

“Yah! Lee Sungmin! Why must you be such a difficult child?”

“Omm-”

“Shut up! And step away from the door now before I punish you!”

“Omma… Please! I prom-”

Sungmin’s sentence ended in an “oof” as his mother reached out and grabbed one of his outstretched arms. Scoldings rained from as she spanked him repeatedly with her free hand for his misbehavior. Poor Sungmin was still begging for his mother to bring him along with her despite the pain that radiated throughout his whole body. His mum never held back on the occasions when she punished him, utilizing all of her strength on a child that was barely a third of her age.

“Now go stand in a corner and think about what did you do wrong!”

Sungmin’s mother spat as she ended her punishment of the child with a final resounding spank before heaving him in the direction of his bear. He lost his balance because of the hard shove and collapsed onto the ground. The loud bang that followed soon told him that his mother had left. Running to the door, a sobbing Sungmin tried the handle a few times, but the unyielding door refused to give up its locked state.

Dropping down onto his knees, the young child crawled into the furthest corner of the wall and balled up, sobbing uncontrollably. He eventually drifted off into a sleep when he tired himself out with his tears.

Sungmin snapped out of his memories when he felt a drop of liquid hit his arm out of nowhere. He was very surprised when the fingers, which he had brought up to brush at the tickling sensation on his face, came back damp. The many years of undergoing the same ordeal had seasoned him and he was already used to the pain.

But apparently getting used to the pain didn’t mean it didn’t hurt anymore.

Just how much tears have I shed for her?

He was never close to his mother. She was never part of his life anyway, given that she hardly even participated in it. In fact, Sungmin had exchanged more words with his stepfather than with his own mum. He did not understand why his mother was so aloof towards him. She was capable of being a wonderful and caring mother, judging by how she was always so patient towards his half-brother, even though the kid was a spoilt brat.

She did not have the same level of tolerance for Sungmin though. It was as if she wished Sungmin never existed. Whenever he tried to talk to her, she would only speak as much as two sentences, sometimes even ignoring him completely. When he tried to get closer to her, she would move away with twice the distance.

But, if that’s the case, why didn’t she just put me up for adoption when she remarried?

He smiled bitterly to himself as he wiped his wet fingers on his pants while he set the photo frame back down gently. Resting his chin on his right hand, the question resounded in his head as he chewed on it. Abandoning him seemed like the perfect way for his mum to get rid of him.

So why didn’t she?

With a loud groan, Sungmin held his head tightly between his hands, his previous headache coming back on a full scale as the confusion within grew. He decided to go for a jog in the neighborhood. Perhaps the night air would do him good.

However, his phone rang just as he changed into his tracksuit. Adjusting his jacket in the mirror as he picked up the call, Sungmin saw that it was an unfamiliar number.

“Yoboseyo?”

“Annyeonghasaeyo, Sungmin-sshi, it’s me,”

Sungmin froze as he recognized the voice of the caller. It was a voice that he had heard just a few hours ago, from a boy who almost scared the living daylights out of him. Moving his eyes onto his reflection in the mirror, Sungmin tried hard to swallow past the lump in his throat as he focused on his Adam’s apple which was moving visibly in the process.

“Sungmin-sshi? Sungmin-sshi, are you there?”

In his mind’s eye, he saw his reflection opened its mouth and spoke out those words that the caller had just said. That’s who the caller was.

A reflection.

“Ne! Ne, I’m still here,”

Sungmin hurriedly replied as he heard the caller heaved a loud sigh of relief in a manner that was exactly similar to his when he was relieved. A voice that was familiar, a face which he had looked at many times. It suddenly occurred to Sungmin that this person might have been just as confused as he was.

“Is this a bad time?”

“Ani, I’m not really doing anything,”

“Ah… This is too sudden isn’t it? I must have scared you with my sudden call,”

“It’s… It’s fine.”

“I wanted to call earlier… But I wasn’t sure if you have already gotten your bearings together yet…”

The voice on the other side of the line sounded as hesitant as Sungmin’s. It was one of the men from just now. The younger one. Walking away from his mirror and towards the windows, Sungmin cleared his throat as inconspicuously as he could before speaking up.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

 “Oh… It’s just… I just wanted to make sure you are fine.”

“Ah… Thank you for your concern. I was really surprised but I am fine now,”

“I just wanted you to… I-I just… Appa didn’t let me know that I was going to meet you today as well. So I am just as equally shocked,”

“Ah…”

Silence reigned as both Sungmin and the caller kept quiet, both equally unsure of what to say to ease the awkward situation. Strangely, the silence didn’t seem half as bad as it should have been. It was as if the two boys on either sides of the line understood what the other was thinking without the need for any words. Finally, Sungmin gave up and decided to make the first move to end the call. However, the guy on the other line was a step faster than him.

“I’m glad that you are fine. Sungmin-sshi, it’s getting late so I shan’t disturb you any further. Till we meet again then?”

It was exactly what Sungmin wanted to say.

No wonder they said that twins were often telepathic.

“Ne, Sungho-sshi. Till we meet next time,”