At the penthouse, Taemin was struggling to break free of his Umma’s hold.

“Umma, I need to find Onew hyung!” Taemin was delirious from crying, “Let me go!”

“I can’t live without him!” Taemin cried out in between heavy sobs, almost choking, “I want Onew hyung!”

“Taemin, stop your nonsense this instant! Why have you become like that? You were always so mild-tempered.” Adam roared at the young boy, “Must be that bunch of useless fools! Coming to wreck my life again.”

“Yeah! All you care is you and your stupid life! Onew never did anything wrong! It was his grandfather, two generations earlier, why are you blaming him! He’s innocent!” Taemin yelled back, “Why can’t you listen to him! You selfish prick! Just as selfish as Onew hyung’s grandpa!”

And that was what earned Taemin his first slap from his father. How dare he speak to his Appa like that. Taemin was literally thrown to the ground from that abuse.

“Yeobo what’s with that! Did you have to hit your own son?” Eve was appalled as well.

She has never seen this side of her lover. She kneeled down to Taemin, caressing his cheek to sooth the stinging pain. She was heartbroken.

Taemin was shocked. His father has never laid a hand on him. In fact his father was more of the one that shielded him on his Umma’s scoldings, so much so that it hurt Taemin even more, in his heart than on his skin.

“I hate you! I hate you!” Taemin, with his hands still cupping his cheek and tears furiously streaming down, ran up to his bedroom, not forgetting to slam the door.

“Hate? Did you hear what your beloved son just said? Where did he learn hate from?” Adam, still not remorseful of his actions, said to Eve.

“Adam, tell me truthfully. Why? Why, after all these years, you are still so spiteful of that incident?” Eve asked, feeling hurt that the pain was felt by her son and not on her.

“Taemin’s an innocent child. Why’d you have to ruin his chance at happiness? Did you truly think that Taemin’s a happy child in this alternate world? No friends, just strange creatures?” Eve pressed on.

“Why haven’t you let it all go? Now someone’s here to bring us back to reality, why can’t you oversee who’s bringing us back, and just leave this damned place?” Eve felt her heart ache translating into tears.

“Because I hate everything that has happened to me! I never had to go through this! I had a bright future ahead of me, a famous physicist, fame and fortune awaited me! Because of that self-centred er we had to waste the prime of our youth here!” Adam explained, starting to choke on his tears as well.

“We can’t go back, can’t you see Eve? We will be nothing in reality! We have nothing to compete with, no skills, no knowledge!”

“So that’s how you really feel? Everything that has happened to you was a misfortune? Was falling in love with me a misfortune? Was making love to me a misfortune? Was having Taemin a misfortune? I didn’t know you were such a superficial psycho! And hear yourself, Taemin has learnt hate from you!” Eve was flabbergasted, tears pouring down her face like an unscrewed tap.

Eve decided she could not stand looking at Adam for another second, she promptly stomped up her stairs into her shared bedroom and slammed the door for effect.

“Damn that .” Adam huffed and left the house into the forest, slamming the front door.

Mother and son sobbed wildly in their spaces. For family and for love. They were so kind all their lives, heaven would be upset at the sight of them.

As if on cue, droplets of rain started to fall from the overwhelming grey clouds, signifying heaven’s love and sadness for the family. The pitter and patter of the rain on the overhead roof of leaves resounded with crisp, so serene. Listening to sounds of the rain, both mother and son calmed down to steady heartbeats and fell asleep under the effects of dried-up tears.

When Taemin awoke, he was startled by the flashes of lightning and the booming of thunder. The sky was already dark but the moon remained hidden behind the grey clouds, the rain hasn’t seemed to cease. It was a stormy night. 

The occasional lightning that flashed across the sky to the ground lighted up Taemin’s room for a split second, then returning it to complete darkness. Taemin felt a magnified sense of loneliness and yearning for Onew hyung.

“Onew hyung…” Taemin wondered if Onew had left in his metal ship.

Wondered if he’ll ever see that angelic face again. Wondered if Onew would come back for him, to save him from this nightmare like he promised he would. Wondered if Onew would come back to hug him, just for once, in this stormy night offering protection.

If so, Taemin would give all of his heart and soul to Onew.
 

Taemin felt devastated. The more he thought about Onew, the more the number of knives pierced through him. He would compare it to multiple knives stabbing his heart then being pulled out viciously. The evildoer would then continue and repeat all over again, enjoying the pain Taemin was suffering.

He couldn’t stop this overpowering sense of helplessness to ease his pain as Key Umma could, he decided he would go find his real Umma next door.

A little angsty eh? 

Hehe, thanks for reading! ♥