This was supposed to be a part of a real fic but I lost the idea and well...because it's not likely that I would continue this I decided that I could put it here anyway since I kinda like it... It's a short drabble, only with kid!Hyukjae. Idk, tell me what do you think?

004  /  b e t r a y a l

The kids are playing around the park, bathing in the resplendent sunlight gleaming through the green-leafed trees above them, giving the sight a dream-like essence. Their mothers and fathers – or both – are lingering close enough; some of them watching closely after their children; some parents talking to the other parents. The smiles seem real, and the warm sun seems to be embracing everyone and everything it is able to caress.

A little boy, playing close to the water fountain, is blissfully unaware about the real world around him when he douses the red bucket in the water again and again. A cheerful smile is lingering on his small lips when he sees the turquoise, glittering liquid irrigating his precious bucket and filling it with the warm water which reminds him of the hot summer days at the beach a while ago.

He doesn’t remember it well, but he is sure he has been there when he was a little bit younger. Just a toddler who got his mother running after him with amused giggles when he toppled over at the shoreline of the sea.

He didn’t cry back them, but he only remembers himself staring at the water, eyes wide and mind curious.

His mother, dressed in a white, ankle-length dress looked really beautiful, and he could remember himself gurgling to her when seeing her so happy.

Although the nostalgic feeling makes this day seem like a day very similar, it is different from the past. That day he is not going to find himself falling asleep in her mother’s arm, feeling secure and peaceful. That day is going to change the path he thought he would have.

The boy is still too into his own play, when two men with broad shoulders and darks suits approach the woman sitting on the white park bench. When she sees them, she calmly puts her novel down on the bench and looks at the men with unreadable look in her eyes, unlike the tender expression she had just a mere minute ago when she looked at her son not too further away.

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t say a word – because she knows; she knows what the men are up to.

The men in black let her walk freely between them, but clearly saying that if she would try to make for a run, things would get dirtier – and fast.

She gives a meaningful glance at the man on his left, and the man with dark sunglasses nods discretely when they halt close to the little boy at the fountain. She doesn’t even need to say anything, when the boy with a sable black hair and a long fringe – which almost covers the same single-lidded eyes as hers – turns around like someone had just called him directly.

The boy jogs to his mother and she crouches down, to the same eye-level with the boy, and smiles to him lovingly before she brushes the boy’s fringe to see his eyes.

“Mommy?” he asks, unsure why there are two scary men watching over the situation, showing no emotions when he lowers his eyes back to her mother’s. “Who are those people staring at us?” he asks again, nuzzling his cheek against the familiar palm.

She suddenly sees a man, his husband, approaching them from the other way behind their son, but she doesn’t show him what she is really thinking at the moment. She doesn’t care when the other parents throw suspicious looks towards her; her focus is entirely on her son, not caring at all about all the cold eyes throwing daggers towards her.

“Honey, you’re a big boy already, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m a big boy!” he answers with a proud smile, but he furrows his eyebrows when he sees a glint of sadness in the eyes looking into his. “Then you should understand that mom can’t always be here with you physically.”

“What do you mean you can’t? But you’re my mommy!” he frets, looking like he’s ready to start a tantrum, frowning.

“Honey, today you might not yet understand, but someday you will. Mom will always be…here.” She places her palm fondly on the left side of his chest and keeps a smile on her quaint, almost picturesque face. “I will always be with you, sweetie, inside your heart.”

“Ma’am,” one of the men says timidly, but yet she doesn’t budge.

“What do you mean, mommy?” he asks again pleadingly, lips pursed when he doesn’t understand what is really going on. “Mom has some important things to take care of. Dad is going to take care of you while I’m away. Mommy loves you, you know that?”

“But mommy…!” he inquires with a loud sob, when plump tears escape his eyes and she grabs on her wrist.

“Honey, you’re a big boy already, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes,” the boy sobs, tears soaking his reddening cheeks. She sighs and caresses her son’s cheek for one more time, until she stands up and shares a glare with her husband when their son doesn’t see. “You’re going to be alright. Dad is here with you. Everything is going to be alright,” she says, her voice already cracking when she knows that it’s the last time she will ever see her son. “I love you, Hyukjae.”

“Mommy!” the boy screams when she walks away, trying to run after her, but his father is fast enough to take a tight grip of his slender waist and prevent him from running away; from running after the woman who betrayed him and everyone else.

“Come on, Hyukjae. You’re with dad now,” the man says, almost kindly when he looks at the side profile of the boy pressed against his chest. “Dad will take care of you.”

But the boy doesn’t hear that, and he keeps screaming even after the sight of his mother is long gone by now; and he only stops when he’s so exhausted that he falls asleep on his father’s arms while they walk away from the life they used to have.