Beta thanks to  aenkr28

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Chapter 16

 

“I’ll go hurry him up,” Heechul spoke softly as he began to walk up towards Jaejoong’s bedroom. Leeteuk nodded.

 

“We’re in no rush. Taemin takes forever to get changed anyways…” He thought about his son, after he finished his dance practice. Heechul continued on his way upstairs and knocked on his son door.

 

“Jaejoong… sweetheart can I come in?” Heechul asked, when he didn’t hear any answer, he walked right in. “Jae…” he called again, he found his son lying on the bed with earphone in his ears. He walked over to the bed and tapped Jaejoong on the shoulder, Jaejoong turned swiftly. Heechul gave him a heart-warming smile, “You should get ready, Leeteuk wants to leave soon.” Jaejoong nodded at his mother as he got of the bed. Heechul brushed his hand across Jaejoong’s shoulder. “Please wear something else other than the hoodie. Nothing with a hood on… I want everyone to see how pretty you are.” Jaejoong looked scared at the thought. “I’m with you Jaejoong, you have nothing to worry about, neh…” He could see Jaejoong thinking about it. “Jaejoong this is a new start for you.”

 

“I know Umma, you don’t have to keep reminding me.” Heechul cupped Jaejoong’s face and turned him to face him.

 

“I reminding you because I love you,” Heechul told him before kissing his cheek. “Come down as soon as you are ready.” Heechul left the room looking back once, before heading back down to the kitchen where Leeteuk was sitting at the table. He looked up as Heechul sat down.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, “I can see the worry in your eyes.”

 

“Isn’t it a parent job to worry?” he smirked.

 

“True… but your worries run a lot deeper than mine… about my own sons. Let me tell you, I worry about each and every one on of mine, although some more than other. Yunho… I don’t know what he does anymore. He won’t even tell me what he does or he just goes out most of the day. Just like what you’ve seen this morning, all I got was ‘’out’’ from him. I don’t know when he started acting like that. Then my second son, Changmin. His mouth… he’s like a walking talking disaster. I don’t know how many-time he’s been in trouble. And then our baby, heaven knows what he’s learning from his brothers. You see, you’re not the only one who worries…” Leeteuk leaned back on his seat. “I do almost every moment of everyday. It’s not uncommon is it, for parents? But it’s good of us parents to get it off our chests once in a while. I would offer you a glass of wine, if it wasn’t so early…”

 

“And I would probably accept it too…” he gave a light smile. He turned when he heard the descendent of steps.  Jaejoong looked in before looking down to the ground. Heechul gave him the one look, his son wear a white jumper with black stars. His couldn’t help but to see at how innocent his son looked so pale… yet his lips were  bright and rosy. Heechul got up from his seat.

 

“Now that’s better, you look stunning,” Heechul reached for Jaejoong’s hand, but Jaejoong took it back looking from his mother to Leeteuk. “Jaejoong, it needs to be changed and re-dress. You remember what the doctors said don’t you?” Heechul told him, “Jaejoong, Leeteuk knows…”

 

“But… but you promised…” Jaejoong answered back, remembering his mother promising not to tell anyone.

 

“Jae sweetheart, your Umma didn’t mean to tell m. I kind of coax’s it out of your mother, I seen it when you arrived yesterday. Sorry… but I promise I’ll keep your secret…” Leeteuk called out to him, hoping Jaejoong would forgive his mother… it wasn’t like Heechul could keep a secret from him.

 

“Jae, it’s only Leeteuk that I only told and no one else, and I’m sorry but I had to tell him.” Heechul made sure Jaejoong look at him dead in the eyes while he listened. “ You know why I did it, don’t you?” Jaejoong glared back at his mother.

 

“I want to talk to Appa…” Jae blurted out. Heechul took sighed, “You can talk to Appa later, this needs to be redressed now, they could get infected again.” He led Jaejoong to the kitchen and asked him to remove his jumper.   Heechul began to unwrap. What was beneath? Heechul clean it softly before wrapping it back up, Jaejoong pulled the jumper over it, knowing Leeteuk was looking at what was beneath; he hated people staring at him.

 

“You don’t need to hide it. Remember you have to open up about these things, you need to tell us when something is bothering you instead of…” he couldn’t, it hurts too much to think or talk about it… but he knew it was probably nothing compared to what his son was feeling.

“I want to talk to Appa.” Jaejoong told him again.

 

“Later, we have to go now, Leeteuk needs to…”

 

“If he wants to talk to his Appa, let him.” Leeteuk mouthed something to Heechul. “We still have a little bit of time, and Taemin usually get distracted very easily so he won’t realise…” he gave a wink and handed Jaejoong the house phone. “Feel free to call your Appa or Hyung anytime you like…” Jaejoong took the phone and left the room.

 

“Sorry about that…”

 

“Don’t be…” Leeteuk told him, “If you want him to start feeling good about himself, the first thing we need to do is the basics and make sure he feels right at home here. I can tell just for the first couple of weeks it’s going to be really difficult and I mean really difficult. So this can be our starting point. I want Jae to be able to come to any of us if he has a problem.” Heechul nodded, it’s what he wanted to… but it wasn’t easy. He knew that from the first hand experience… If he was with Jae, Jaejoong usually wants his father, if his Appa was with him, Jaejoong wants his mother… and if they were both with him he wanted Donghae… it was something he did when he was a little kid, in the hospital just so all of his family were together. He hated that he made them always be apart.

 

“I just want Jaejoong to be his happy self again. Is that too much for a parent to ask?” Heechul answered his own question, “To us it might not be, but to Jaejoong I’m sure it’s a lot… right?” he got up, “Right that’s enough dwelling on the past, we all got to move forward…” he gave a quick smile before Jaejoong came back into the kitchen he handed the phone back to Leeteuk .

 

“Thank you…” Jaejoong spoke softly.

 

“No problem, as I said fell free to call your Appa anytime you like,” Leeteuk said.

 

****

 It wasn’t long until they were parked outside the studio, waiting for Taemin to emerge from the building. Leeteuk text his son telling him they were outside. Even thought they were late, Taemin didn’t come out to them for another 10 minutes. He had a grin on his face when he ran up to the car.

 

“Sorry I’m late… I was practicing some new dance moves.” Leeteuk looked into the rear view mirror at him.

 

“Taemin what happened to your face?” Leeteuk asked his seeing a slightly swollen check.

 

“Oh it’s nothing Umma. We were goofing around and I tripped, nothing serious. Look Umma…” Taemin held out his phone to his mother and showed him the video. While Leeteuk watched Taemin’s video, Taemin looked at Jaejoong. “Hi Jaejoong…”

 

Jaejoong whispered, “Hi” before bowing his head low.

 

“You got to speak up, if you don’t you’ll be lost in our household…” Taemin commented. “Don't get me wrong, my  family just like to be heard a lot, don’t we Umma?”

 

“Some of you have bigger mouths than other.”

 

“See… Like Changmin hyung… He eats and never stops talking…” He crossed his arm and placed his hand under his chin, “I think he even talks in his sleep. That’s the only bad side of him, he’s really smart too, a lot smarter than me and Yunho Hyung. I don’t really know what Yunho hyung’s good at, apart from being mean to me and Changmin, but he wasn’t always like that… And then me, I may not be as smart as Changmin hyung, but I get okay grades. My skills are involves in dancing, you’ll be starting our school soon won’t you? What year will you be in? Will you be in mine? That would be so cool,” Leeteuk couldn’t help but laugh at his son’s point blankness. But he was grateful that his son could be cheerful almost every single day in front of him. He always brought a smile to his face, whenever something came out of his sons mouth. Most of the time not making much sense. “So Jaejoong, what are you good at?” Taemin leaned back as Leeteuk handed him back his phone. “Do you dance? If you want, I can teach you.”

 

“He’s good at drawing,” Heechul told Taemin from the front seat.

 

“Really? Cool, you got to show me when we get home...” Taemin continued to talk to Jaejoong the whole car ride, though Jaejoong didn’t speak much to him, he did listen.

 

“Umma, can we get something to eat? I’m starving.”

 

“That was the plan,” Leeteuk told him, “After that, we’ll get your shoes. You need new shoes too.”

 

“Okay.” Leeteuk pulled into a car park before leading them all into the shop. He turned to Heechul, “We won’t be too long if you want to look around.”

 

“Jae…” Heechul called out to his son who was walking slowly behind him. “Do you want to come with me? If I remembered correctly, there’s a art store here.” 

 

“Meet up in 20 minute or so?” Leeteuk asked, before they parted way. The minute Jaejoong and Heecul walked away, Taemin turned to his mother. “He doesn’t talk much does he?”

 

“He’s just nervous, give him a little time to get used to all of you. Come pick out the shoe you like, but remember you’re on a budget, this is the sixth new pair of shoes that you’ve gone through in 3 months,” Leeteuk lead him into a shop. “Umma, can I ask you something?” Leeteuk turned to his son, giving him his full attention.

 

“This morning, you said Jaejoong was going through a lot… What did you meam?” Taemin questioned.

 

“I can’t tell you everything right know. But Jaejoong is dealing with a lot at the moment. And right now he needs a friend and people to help him open up… can you help with that?”

 

“Of course Umma.”

 

“Good, I know I can count on you sweetie… I need you to be careful with your brothers, your boyish action the other night was so much for him to deal with. Can you promise me you’ll take it down a notch?” Taemin was about to speak but Leeteuk continued, “I know it may seem so normal to you, but lately things have been flying off the handle… and don’t get me wrong, Yunho and Changmin can be the main cause. I just want you to be understanding in Jaejoong’s case.”

 

“Doesn’t Jaejoong have a brother too?”

 

“Yes…”

 

“Don’t they have silly fight too?”

 

“Probably, but getting used to a new family, can be quite different…”

 

“So that’s why he freaked yesterday at us, and why Appa was mad at us.”

 

“Yeah… So try to be friendly with him.”

 

“Will do… Look Umma, I want those shoes…” Taemin didn’t finished, he was so distracted with the shoes. Leeteuk knew as soon as they entered the store, the budget went out the window.

 

****

 

Heechul looked at his son walking closely beside him. “Jae, you know when you were younger, your father and I took you here… You always liked that ball pit over there.” Heechul pointed to at the direction, he was happy Jaejoong looked up as he spoke. “Every time we came here, you had to play it, if we didn’t let you, you’d scream your lungs out the whole way home.” Heechul laughed, it was quite funny when he looked back at it now. “One time here, your father took his eyes off you for a second, he lost you here… I almost had a heart attack. I thought maybe someone had even taken you. You were so cute at that time, it was Yunho that found you while he walked toward the car park… he brought you to Leeteuk and they brought you back to us. I can’t tell you, how freaked and panic we both were for you, from the second we thought we lost you, you came back to us in tears… though you dried your tears and still remembered you father promised you ice-cream.”

 

“That was before I got sick, right?”

 

“Hmmm... two week before... I think it was around then. You were always running around and you were a very happy toddler, when you had your stuff elephant with you. You brought it with you didn’t you?” Although Jaejoong didn’t want to admit it, he… did in fact bring it with him.

 

“Umma, did you ever wish you never had me?”

 

“Jaejooong?”

 

“All I did was caused Appa and you headaches… I got sick and took you away from hyung. I made our family break apart.”

“Jaejoong… No...”

 

“I did thought, that all I ever caused you and Appa was trouble and cost you a lot of money. I’m nothing but something that shouldn’t have be born right?

 

“Sorry what…?” Heechul couldn’t believe Jaejoong was saying these thing to him now, “Jaejoong what are you saying? Your father and I have never felt like that…”

 

“But you have Umma, I heard you and Appa…” Jaejoong spoke out with a shake in his voice.

 

“Heard what Jaejoong?” he held onto Jaejoong’s shoulder, “Because I know I never regretted having you. You father too…”

 

“The bills… the hospital bills. You couldn’t afford it.”

 

“Jaejoong, just because of that… who cares about the bills? You are our son and we love you. Parents do everything in their power for their children.” Heechul shook his head, “is that what this is all about? Why you did what you did or is there something else you’re not telling me?” Jaejoong turned from his mother, “Did someone say something to you?” Jaejoong pulled from his grip. “Jaejoong, I’m ready to listen when you feel like talking. I won't rush you, just understand we love you, and will wait until you're ready to speak to us.” Heechul called after him as he walked forward into the shop. The words stucked into his mind the whole time.

 

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Happy with myself... two stories updated... which will be my next ^_^

enjoy returned...

remeber to comment and tell me what you think....

alway look forward to your comments