Chen looked at his brother. “Our…father?” he slowly asked. “But hyung, I’m still trying to get over the fact that you’re not dead. You’re not dead.”

            “I’m not dead,” Xiumin repeated. “I’m here, standing right before you.”

            “I have to be dreaming, this has to be a hallucination, right?” he asked.

            “No, it’s no hallucination,” Xiumin told him.

            “But you…you wouldn’t leave me right? Why would you leave everything that you had to fake your death? You Minhyuk, your wife, and me. You left me to deal with our alcoholic mother by myself. Do you know how much trouble I got in over the past four years? She would hate me going out and she would hate me doing things that reminded her of you. If I went to go visit your grave, which I did once a year, then when I would come home the next day, she would hit me and beat on me. Do you know how much I had to endure?”

            “No, I don’t,” Xiumin said honestly telling his brother. “But Chen, there’s much more important matters on our hands right now than me lying.”

            “What?” Chen asked. He was angry at everything. He was angry at his brother for lying and somewhat angry at himself for the conversation that he had earlier with Ellie.

            “Our father is more important right now,” Xiumin said as he attempted to get the conversation back on track.

            “But why is he more important right now?”

            “Because he was the one that caused me to run away.”

            “I don’t understand.”

            “I didn’t expect you to, Lay didn’t understand either.”

            “Lay?” Chen asked. “You mean Ellie’s boyfriend?”

            “Ellie’s boyfriend?” Xiumin asked. “That’s beside the point. Anyway, he didn’t understand at first either.”

            “Why would he understand? What relation does he have to our father?”

            “Let me just get through this first,” Xiumin said slightly begging his younger brother.

            “Alright,” Chen said with a nod of his head.

            “Look,” Xiumin began as he took a deep breath, “our lives are…complicated, as you probably already know. Our parents…they have three children.”

            “Three children?” Chen asked in confusion. “But there’s only me and you.”

            “And there’s also another brother, a second hyung to you. His name is Zhang Yixing.”

            “Why does he have that name if he’s my hyung?” Chen asked.

            “Because he was put up for adoption. His nickname is Lay and—”

            “Lay?” Chen quickly asked hearing the name. “You mean Ellie’s boyfriend Lay? The one that I already saw before? He’s my brother?”

            “Calm down, calm down,” Xiumin said.

            “How can I calm down?” Chen asked as he looked at his brother. “How can I calm down when you, when everyone kept this information from me? I had a brother? Why did they give him up? Why not me? I’m the youngest, why did they give up the second one?”

            “Because…” Xiumin said with a sigh. It was a complicated subject to talk about, but Chen had to know sooner or later, he had to know what happened in the past. “Look, Chen, I was young during that time, but I remember some of it. I remember the arguments that our parents used to have and I was able to dig up some of the past myself.”

            “Arguments about what?” Chen asked as he started getting tenser. He wanted to know what Xiumin was talking about, but at the same time, he didn’t want to know either. If it was something complicated, then Chen was sure that it was kept from him for a reason, but why it was kept wasn’t known, only Xiumin seemed to know.

            “Do you want to know why our mother always drinks? Why she always has a temper with you? Aren’t you curious as to why our house is always empty and dark and doesn’t have any pictures around?”

            “Well, I have been curious in the past,” Chen started off, “but I just automatically assumed that it was just because that was the lifestyle I was born into.”

            “You were born into that lifestyle, but that doesn’t exactly mean that it was always going to be that way. Things happened, before you were ever born.”

            “Things like what?”

            “Your second hyung, Lay, was born,” Xiumin said.

            “It’s because of him?”

            “Sort of…but I wouldn’t put the entire blame on him. After learning the story, he blames himself for the entire situation that you’re going through, which is one of the reasons that we’re trying to help you.”

            “But Lay was the one that took Mom,” Chen said as he remembered when Lay came to the house and silently took their mother. “Why?”

            “That’s…that’s for a different story,” Xiumin said. “This story involves the past.”

            “Oh,” Chen silently said.

            “Anyway, the story behind Lay’s birth is quite…complicated. You see,” Xiumin said as he attempted to form the words that he wanted to say, “Now, whatever I tell you, don’t take offense to it, alright?”

            “Why would I take offense to it?” Chen wondered.

            “Just promise me that you won’t be offended with what I say.”

            “I…I promise,” Chen said as he looked at his brother. “Now just continue.”

            “You see, Lay’s birth…he’s our half-brother,” Xiumin slowly explained.

            “Half…brother? Then that means…” Chen said as he attempted to think. “But…”

            “Exactly,” Xiumin said as he looked at the confused face on his younger brother.

            “But neither of our parents…”

            “Our mother,” Xiumin said clearing it up with just one phrase. “Our mother was the one.”

            “She cheated on our father?”

            “And so, she just made him believe that Lay was his child, until when Lay was barely even a year old, our father figured out that Lay wasn’t his child and he was put up for adoption without our mother’s knowledge.”

            “He just took him?”

            “So rumors tell me.”

            “But,” Chen began. He didn’t know where to begin. All of this information was just too much for him to handle. What else would he be able to say? The mother that he knew and loved, despite everything that happened in their lives, she was the one to betray their father? “But why did our father run away? Why did I never know him then?”

            “He…didn’t run away,” Xiumin said spilling yet another secret. “I’m sorry for lying to you all these years telling you that he wasn’t around anymore, but maybe that’s part of what you should know, too. That’s why all of this stuff is happening to you right now.”

            “All this stuff? There really isn’t anything different from normal happening to me.”

            “Mom getting kidnapped? You suddenly here in this hospital with bruises and scars that would last you months?” Xiumin asked. “All of that stuff you consider normal?”

            “Well…normal no. But it’s part of my everyday life, for the most part,” Chen said with a simple shrug of his shoulders. “And I guess if you lied about him running away from the family, then I guess that there was a good reason, right?”

            “After he found out that Lay wasn’t his son,” Xiumin slowly started to begin, “and after he gave him up for adoption, our father our mother.”

            “He her?” Chen asked and Xiumin slowly nodded his head.

            “He her to prove to her that he was more of a man that whatever guy she was screwing around with. Don’t you ever wonder why Mom always seems to hate on you the most? Didn’t you ever wonder why?”

            “I always figured that it was because I was the youngest and because I was the easiest to pick on,” Chen said as he stared into his brother’s eyes. “Don’t tell me—,” he started to say when Xiumin cut him off.

            “Yes,” Xiumin said reading Chen’s thoughts. “Our mother got pregnant and thus had you.”

            “But that doesn’t explain our father running away now, does it.”

            “It doesn’t,” Xiumin said shaking his head, “but you see, our mother actually ran away from him. She didn’t find out that she was pregnant until after she ran away, and she ran away that night.”

            “Then why is he back now?”

            “To claim the son that’s rightfully his.”

            “But if I don’t remember anything about him.”

            “And that’s why he wants you.”

            “But it doesn’t make sense,” Chen said. His head was spinning. There was a lot of new information that he didn’t know about his family. How was he supposed to react to it? He hadn’t been awake for that long and already there was a war erupting with his family.

            “It doesn’t, you’re probably confused and I completely understand,” Xiumin said. “But I want to offer a proposition to you.” Chen didn’t say anything and just kept staring at his brother. “I want you to come away with us.”

            “Go away with you? Why?”

            “Our father knows that you’re in this hospital, he already knows what Ellie looks like and let me say that he’s not the nicest man in the world.”

            “He does something illegal, doesn’t he,” Chen said. He could already feel the vibes that were coming from his brother.

            “I just think it’s in your best interest if we were to all run away. You, me, Lay, Minhyuk, and Miyoon. The five of us should just go away from Korea and all of the drama here.”

            “You never answered my question,” Chen said interrupting his brother before he could continue talking about getting out of Korea.

            “What was your question?” Xiumin asked.

            “Our father does something illegal, right?” Chen repeated.

            “Ah, that question,” Xiumin said before he chuckled a little.

            “Hyung?” Chen asked as he began to grow worried for him.

            “Chen, are you sure you want to know the truth?”

            “I’m prepared for the truth, I want to know who my father really is,” Chen said with determination.

            “Our father is Kim Changwoon. You’ve never heard of the name before, but ask the wrong people, and some people on the good side, and they’ll run away faster than you can say another syllable.”

            “What does that mean?”

            “That means that our father is an underground drug lord, Chen,” Xiumin said spilling the news to him. “He controls things all over East Asia that involve the drug and trafficking business. He’s also owners and founders of one of the largest gangs and currently sits with them.”

            “But I don’t see what this has to do with me. Why would he be looking for me?” Chen asked. He couldn’t believe it. The man who’s flesh and blood was a part of him, was an underground drug lord? Chen thought that Xiumin basically made it seem as though their father was in charge of everything that had to deal with illegal things.

            “Because he’s trying to play nice to you,” Xiumin started to explain. “He’s not going to tell you what he does for a living because he wants you to come to his side and join him.”

            “Why would he need me to join him? Why now of all times?”

            “Our father is growing old day by day and he needs someone.”

            “You’re saying he wants me to take everything?” Chen asked in disbelief.

            “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Xiumin said with a simple nod of his head. “Our father wants you to be the heir to everything he has.”

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What is Xiumin's plan? Will Chen meet with his father? What will Lay and Kris do? Will Ellie ever be with Chen again?

Here's Chapter 28. Hope you enjoyed :D

And I know that a lot of things were revealed in this chapter about Chen's background, so if you have any questions or are confused about something, don't hesitate to ask :)