A/N: Finally this is up. Supposed to be up yesterday but everything got in the way. Everything. 20 years is next! I cannot seem to let go… Anyways as always comments are loved <3 I am very sorry for not replying to comments. Trust me, I read every single one of it, relishing each one of the comment because they made my day, my week, my month. Seriously, when I don’t reply, it doesn’t mean I don’t read. I love you all <3333

It was peculiarly silent in the Yoon mansion, the hallways which were always busy with maids and helpers stood lonely apart from the lavish furniture scattered along them, the kitchen which was always running and full of steam ceased its function today. There was an invisible hush, an unusual oppression in the air.

The atmosphere inside The Great Hall of the Yoon mansion was worse, it was suffocating; heavy and intense. Stiff shoulders, suspicious stares, pursed lips, calculated movements. Right in the middle of the expansive main hall was a long black marble table, gleaming ruthlessly under the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. There were only six black metal-chassis chairs with black leather cushions around the table, an immensely exclusive meeting consisting of the most important people in the Yoon clan. The elders in the clan were not invited by Doojoon, not because he was an insolent young man, but because he was kind enough to spare them whatever fights and issues that would commence soon enough. He would deal with everything in this room.

 Madam was not invited as well; Gayoon and Jihoon were though – they were as important as Doojoon and Junhyung were in the clan hierarchy – as they sat leisurely side by side across Doojoon and Junhyung. At the head of the table sat the Executor and the Yoon clan’s financial accountant, both of them busy in a hushed discussion with a piece of paper – the will Doojoon had successfully extricated – opened wide in front of them on the cold marble table.

The muted conversation had been going for a while now and Doojoon had grown impatient fast. He whispered restlessly to Junhyung who was sitting on his right, “I need to be with him. I need to get out of here now. I have to go to him.”

Junhyung quickly placed a comforting hand on Doojoon’s shoulder, trying to pacify the increasing anxiety radiating from the older man. “A bit more, Doojoonah. A bit more and everything is done. You need to be here for him and everybody else in the Yoon clan, this is the moment we have all been working towards. Our goal. You can’t turn your back on this.”

Doojoon let out a desperate sigh, his heart clenched, “I should not turn my back on him.” But he nodded nonetheless, looking at Gayoon and Jihoon whispering to each other, just like Doojoon and Junhyung did. Both powerhouses of the Yoon family – one was the legitimate daughter of the previous Yoon leader and one was the man who bestowed the full power of the Yoon leader – with their respective right-hand people, staring at each other; not in hatred, but in impatience and disquiet.

On that faithful day, the day when Yoseob ran away from Doojoon, when Doojoon’s life ran away from him, Doojoon had been nothing but a broken shell. He stayed on the floor of Yoseob’s apartment and fell apart, shattered and battered. It had been Gayoon and Jihoon who hauled him up to the car and drove them back to the mansion. They quietly helped him to his extravagant room and called up only the most trusted maids and butlers to tend to his needs. They did not make a spectacle out of Doojoon, they did not even breathe a word about the broken man inside the room, telling people Doojoon was exhausted instead of heartbroken to the core. There was never bad blood between them. Yes, they were vying for power, reaching out for authority, but they were never cruel or mean or deceiving. They were only driven by their own selfishness and they lost control that day. They lost control and Doojoon did not blame them. Desires blinded people, and Gayoon and Jihoon were only humans. It was a complicated relationship among them but they loved and understood each other in a very peculiar way any other people could not comprehend but only them.

That day they did not get the ring because Doojoon could not function, he could barely breathe. So Doojoon decided that he would go back two days later – and maybe Yoseob would be back and calmed down by then, and they could talk. Big fat hope, because when Doojoon came back, the apartment was empty; unlocked and undisturbed, exactly like how it was left two days ago, nothing was missing, nothing was touched. He tried knocking on the kind ahjumma and ahjussi’s apartment one floor above, but no one answered. He knocked on the neighbors, Lee-sshi and Park-sshi, but found out theirs were empty as well. Doojoon frowned, it was as if the small apartment building had been abandoned by their tenants.

Determined to get everything over and done with, Doojoon grabbed the jewelry box from the wardrobe and headed back to the mansion, with a quiet Junhyung driving beside him. The younger man had been asking for forgiveness profusely to Doojoon; he believed that everything happened because he lost track of Jihoon for a while, he was too caught up in running the clan and he forgot that Yoseob was top priority. Junhyung was hard on himself until Doojoon put his foot down and convinced him that everything would have been revealed at the end of the day.

Doojoon’s train of thoughts was broken by the sound of the Executor clearing his throat. He looked up to see the middle aged man rearranged his black suit jacket and thick glasses before giving a last glance to the financial accountant sitting next to him. The accountant was well into his sixties and had been in the Yoon clan since forever, he knew every single penny and investment of the Yoon family. When the Executor looked at him, he nodded slightly in agreement.

The room was suddenly quiet, the temperature dropped down to below zero as everyone was on full alert, extremely attentive of every word coming out of the Executor’s mouth. Doojoon listened impatiently, wanting to search for Yoseob right away after all of this was done with.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

“Appppaaaaaa!!”

There was a loud shout from the second floor of the nursery school as sounds of rapid footsteps echoed in empty space. It was too early in the morning for Daejung to be awake and Yoseob rushed up to his little sunshine’s room, abandoning the breakfast he was making in the kitchen to find his son sobbing on the bed. His messy hair sticking up into different directions, his blanket was clutched tightly to his chest. Yoseob would normally find it beyond adorable, but the wide teary eyes and wet streaks on his cheeks had Yoseob running to the bed and enveloping him in a big warm hug.

“Shhh… It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.” Yoseob was rubbing Daejung’s back softly, trying to calm the sobbing bundle in his arms. “Are you having a nightmare?”

Daejung nodded.

“Oh, baby.” Yoseob looked down to the crown of Daejung’s head and kissed it. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Daejung looked up and his bottom lip quivered, fresh new tears b his red eyes. Yoseob frowned and pulled Daejung closer, rocking him back and forth in his arms, whispering soothing words. “It’s okay. Forget about it. Shhh… baby, I’m here. Do you want to sleep some more?” Yoseob asked and Daejung shook his head roughly, burying his face deeper into Yoseob’s chest.

“Okay.” Yoseob continued rocking them back and forth when he heard rushed footsteps on the stairs approaching towards them.

Minje appeared in the doorway with a worried face, she tiptoed inside the room and panted a little bit from the running. She frowned, thin lines of her age obvious with worry, as she whispered, “What happened?”

Yoseob shook his head softly and whispered back, “Nightmare. He is okay.”

“Oh baby…” Minje sat down on the bed beside Yoseob and hugged both of them – Yoseob and Daejung – into her warm embrace. “You scared me. I heard Daejung’s scream outside the house and I was running like a mad woman. Goodness, I’m old, don’t do this to me.”

Yoseob chuckled lightly, still swaying Daejung in his arms, “You are not old, Noona. Come on, you can have any man you want. What you say, Daejung baby?” Daejung, who had calmed down significantly, nodded and answered in a soft voice, “Nana is most beautiful.” Yoseob winked teasingly to his Noona at his son’s answer and Minje tightened her hug while crooning at Daejung, calling him a player and warning him not to learn bad things from his father.

This was good. All of them here, together, it was wonderful. She could still remember vividly that afternoon when Yoseob came running to her. The nursery school was still running and she had to worry for the next two hours before the school was done and she could talk to Yoseob properly. He was a heartbroken mess, not angry but desperate. Desperate to forget Doojoon from his life, desperate to accept the fact that he had nothing to offer anymore. Oh, her Seobie… everything about him broke her heart, and she could do nothing but take everything in. She could not fix him, no one could, but she would try to hold him together as best as she could.

But Daejung was so happy that his Appa was back because he missed him terribly during the absence. He innocently asked for Ahjussi when he did not see Doojoon with Yoseob and this caused some awkward silence and tears-holding moments. Minje had previously told him that his Appa needed to take care of Ahjussi and that was why he could not visit too often. Daejung nodded and grinned, happy that his Appa was taking care of Ahjussi, because his Appa was the bestest man in the whole wide world. 

And when Yoseob had Daejung back in his arms, Minje could see the shine and happiness in his eyes. He was smiling and laughing uninhibitedly, it was almost painful to watch. But Daejung made every single thing better in her and Yoseob’s lives. Their little sunshine, Daejung had brought so much happiness and love into their lives, although the little boy was not even related by blood to any of them.

After the screaming and the nightmare, Daejung brushed his teeth and came down for an early breakfast. He refused to shower and was now sitting in his pajamas on the booster seat attached to the wooden chair of the multifunction table, grinning from ear to ear, watching his Nana and his Appa preparing a breakfast full of love for him.

The nursery school looked like an old one-storey house from the outside, with gardens and plants and wooden fences around it. But inside, the nursery school was warm and inviting and welcoming, and at the corner of the house was a sturdy wooden stair that lead up to an almost hidden second floor, where Minje and Daejung lived – and now Yoseob too. Each of them had their own room, but Daejung slept with Yoseob all the time since the younger man had returned. Minje thought it was good, because it chased Yoseob’s demon away.

“It’s Sunday, where do you want to go, Daejungah?” Yoseob asked in his signature sing-song voice and Daejung immediately lifted up his head from his bowl of rice.

He frowned and tilted his head slightly, “Ahjussi coming today?”

MInje stopped cutting the leeks for the Jiggae and Yoseob swallowed the lump that miraculously appeared in his throat.

“No.”

Yoseob’s answer was short but Daejung was too young to understand anything behind the harsh tone as he pressed on, “Is he working? But it’s Sunday!”

Yoseob bit his lips and Minje quickly cut into the conversation with a wide smile. “Daejungah, Ahjussi is really busy now. He is in another country to work and cannot be with us for a long time.”

“Another country?” Some of these words were making Daejung a little confused.

Minje cleaned her hands on her apron and squatted next to the curious boy, patting Daejung’s hair softly. “Yes, another country. Not here in Korea, baby.”

“Long time?” Daejung’s frown got deeper.

It was Yoseob’s turn to explain to Daejung with a surprisingly steady voice which betrayed the raging hurt in his heart. “For a really long time. Daejungie can Appa ask you a favour?”

Yoseob stared lovingly at Daejung and the three-year old nodded enthusiastically. “Can we not talk about Ahjussi anymore? If we keep talking about him, he will have nightmares. Do you want Ahjussi to have nightmares?”

Daejung scrunched up his nose in annoyance and shook his head violently. “No. No talking Ahjussi.”

Yoseob blew his son a kiss and a lovely thank you from the back of the kitchen counter as Daejung grinned up at him and went back to eating messily off his small bowl of rice. Minje leaned down and placed a kiss on the crown of the toddler’s head before going back to cutting his leeks, next to Yoseob.

There was a moment of silence until Yoseob broke it. “What do you want to ask, Noona?”

Minje smiled, Yoseob always knew these things about people, he was so sensitive, so attentive, so eager to please, and again, it broke her heart to realize that nobody was returning the favor to him.

“How are you holding up, Seobie?”

Yoseob sighed, “I’m heartbroken, Noona…” He trailed off and continued, “But I’m holding up fine for our little boy.”

Yoseob did not feel Minje move until he felt a warm hug from behind, enveloping both of his shoulders. “I am so proud of you, baby. I really am.” She tightened her arms around Yoseob when she felt a drop of water on her hands, followed by another and another.

“I – I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Yoseob sobbed.

“Shhh… It’s okay. It’s okay to cry. Let it all out. It’s okay.” Minje cooed in his ears and left a chaste kiss on his cheek for comfort.  

“This will be the last cry, I promise.” Yoseob sobbed as he supported his weak body with his hands on the kitchen counter.

Suddenly Daejung was already standing next to them, he was looking up to a sobbing Yoseob and frowned in pure worry, tugging on the hem of Yoseob’s shirt, his lower lip quivered, afraid something was wrong with them. “Appa, don’t cry. Stop… why cry…”

Both adults looked down to the confused and scared toddler. Minje loosened her hug so Yoseob could kneel down and hug his son tightly. Yoseob sobbed, unable to hold the waterworks, “I’m sorry I scared you, baby. I cut myself and it was so painful.”

Daejung hugged Yoseob back, resting his chubby cheek on his father’s shoulder while his pudgy hands wrapped around Yoseob’s shoulders, not reaching each other because his arms were too short. “Cut by knife?”

Yoseob chuckled lamely and nodded, burying his face on Daejung’s neck. “Yes, the knife. That’s why you should not play with knife because it cuts you and it hurts you.”

Daejung nodded, “Uh-huh. Appa careful.”

Yoseob was silent and Minje knelt down to join them and hugged both of them, they way she was hugging both of them this morning in the bedroom. “Appa will be careful, thank you Daejung baby.”

Daejung grinned and chuckled, “I love Appa and Nana and hugs!” He tightened his hug on Yoseob and leaned deeper into Minje’s embrace.

That was how one of their mornings went. With Yoseob sobbing into Daejung neck, Daejung feeling absolutely loved and Minje hugging both of her babies with all the love she could offer.