“So, as promised, omma, I’ll help you clean up the store room after this.” DaeHyun said as he was doing the dishes. It was already a regular thing for the both of them. One will wash the dishes while the other person will clean up the table. As for that day, it was DaeHyun’s turn to do the wishes while ChanByul will clean the table up.  

With a smile, ChanByul rinsed the cloth she used to wipe the table and said, “Sure. Thank you, love.”

And so, after cleaning up, both ChanByul and DaeHyun found themselves in the store room in their house, both sitting on different sides of the room. Most of the things in the room were ChanByul’s old stuff. And since she took DaeHyun in quite later, his things were not as much as ChanByul’s. A lot of stuff in the room belonged to ChanByul from before she got married, when she was married and after she got divorced.

ChanByul was busy sorting her things out in the room while DaeHyun seemed perplexed and didn’t really know what to do. He tried to be as helpful as he could, but he had to admit, he didn’t actually know what to do in there. Almost 90% of the things inside there were ChanByul’s, and the only thing DaeHyun did was sorting out old documents and albums.

It was really not a difficult job, and he was done within a few minutes. Well, he was only separating old documents and album, which wasn’t a hard thing to do. He really wanted to help but he didn’t know how. So, DaeHyun carefully walked to his mother who was sitting on the floor, with boxes and papers and album in front of her.

From the look of it, it seemed that ChanByul really had a lot of things to do in cleaning up the store room. But even if ChanByul asked DaeHyun to sort out between personal documents and work documents, DaeHyun doubted that he can do it.

He sat on the floor in front of his mother and only looked at what she was doing. ChanByul was looking through the papers, reading them roughly for a few moments before putting them aside with other papers. Some of it was thrown in the plastic bag.

Noticing that her son was sitting in front of her and only looking at her movements, a smile crept on ChanByul’s face as she asked, “What, are you getting bored already ?”

DaeHyun smiled sheepishly and said, “No, it isn’t that I’m bored. But I just don’t know how to help you with the stuff in here. Since most of them are yours and I’m afraid that I might throw anything important or come across things that I’m not supposed to see.”

ChanByul smiled gratefully at DaeHyun’s thoughtfulness and said, “Well, I kind of knew about it right from the start but I didn’t have the heart to tell you as you were so excited about helping me. But I tell you what; maybe you can just help me by keeping me company. You don’t really have to help me to do anything. Besides, it’s a small store room anyway.”

DaeHyun immediately nodded his head at ChanByul’s proposal and just sat in front of his mom, before his eyes spotted a stack of old albums not far from them. Since he had nothing to do, DaeHyun asked while pointing towards the albums, “Do you mind if I take a look at those albums? Or are there things inside there that you don’t want me to see ?”

ChanByul looked at the albums he was pointing and for a moment, she was hesitated to let him see it. She knew what pictures were inside the album, but then decided that DaeHyun was old enough to understand.

She nodded and DaeHyun happily reached out for the albums. They were old and dusty but they were not ruined. He caressed the front cover of the first album and a small smile formed on his face as he whispered, “This is your wedding album.” He knew that it was so as the front cover said it all. There was an image of two rings, a bouquet of flowers and whoever looked at it will know that it was a wedding album.

ChanByul smiled softly and said, “Yes, it is. Only that this album doesn’t really have all my wedding photos. Most of the pictures inside were the photos of me when I was engaged, and also during the wedding ceremony.”

DaeHyun nodded his head and carefully opened the first page. As ChanByul had said, they were the pictures of a few months before she wedded her ex-husband. DaeHyun smiled to himself upon seeing the pictures of ChanByul during her younger years and how nothing about her had really changed.

“You’re so beautiful, omma. And I have to say that until now, your face has hardly changed at all.” DaeHyun praised and ChanByul laughed at his words. “Yeah, right. I’m way older now, love. There is no way I can still look that young.”

DaeHyun ignored his mother and continued looking at her mother’s photos. The next few pages, he saw the photos of ChanByul in her wedding dress while holding a bouquet of red roses. She was smiling blissfully, as if nothing bad had happened to her life. And it was clearly shown on her face that she was beyond happy at getting married that time, and DaeHyun knew she was.

After few minutes, DaeHyun had reached the end of the album but he frowned when he didn’t come across a single picture of ChanByul’s ex-husband. Did she take them out and throw them away after the divorce ? DaeHyun was curious but he wasn’t sure whether he should ask. It could be a sensitive question.

“Has that Kim Ahjussi contacted you again ?” ChanByul asked while going through a piece of paper in her hand. DaeHyun was startled upon hearing the question as he didn’t expect it coming at all. He was contemplating whether to ask ChanByul the question on his mind but ChanByul had asked something else first.

“No, I told him not to.” DaeHyun answered before grabbing another album but left it unopened on his lap. He could feel that ChanByul was going to ask something more. There must be a reason why his mother brought that topic up in the first place. It could be either trying to fill in the silence or something else.

ChanByul nodded and tried to appear as casual as ever while having that conversation. They didn’t really talk much about Kim Ahjussi as DaeHyun didn’t like talking about him. Not that ChanByul blamed him though. He had every right to resent the man but she didn’t want her son to keep holding grudge on Kim Ahjussi, no matter how hard it was the situation that he had put DaeHyun and his family through.

“Do you forgive him ?” ChanByul carefully asked, as she could feel that DaeHyun was trying to relax himself while sitting in front of her. ChanByul knew that the question was sensitive but she just wanted to know.

There was a long pause before DaeHyun could answer. “Yes, I do. I forgave him when I first met him again after so many years. But even so, I don’t want him to be around me for a moment. I told him to keep his distance between us. Because I don’t think I can take having him around me without reminding me of JiHyun.”

ChanByul looked at him sadly but still managed to throw him an assuring smile, “It’s okay, dear. As long as you don’t hold any grudge against him, I think you do deserve some space. It is going to take some time to be able to accept him back; especially after all you’ve been through as a child.”

DaeHyun only nodded without saying anything and only stared at the album on his lap. Silence filled them again and as DaeHyun was about to open the first page of the second album, ChanByul’s phone rang and she excused herself to answer the call for a while.

She walked out of the store room, leaving DaeHyun inside it while looking at her old pictures. This time, finally, DaeHyun got to see ChanByul’s ex-husband. Throughout the years, he had been living with ChanByul, not even once had he seen her ex-husband’s picture. When he came to ChanByul’s lives, the both of them needed their hearts to be remedied.

The only thing that DaeHyun knew about ChanByul’s divorce was that when she took him in, she was already divorced for a long time. And DaeHyun could feel that she still loved her ex-husband though she never said it. He did mention about it once, and ChanByul had gotten so sad. Because of that, DaeHyun decided not to touch the subject regarding her marriage life ever again.

DaeHyun looked through the pictures while ChanByul was still talking on the phone. Once she was done, DaeHyun was thinking of putting that particular album away and maybe fetch another one. He didn’t really want ChanByul to see he was looking at that album.

His eyes then landed on a photo of smiling ChanByul, in a wedding gown, standing beside a man who no doubt was her husband then. His mother was smiling and looking as radiant as ever in the picture, as brides should be on their wedding day. His eyes slowly moved to ChanByul’s ex-husband’s face, and he could see why ChanByul had fallen for him.

He was a very good looking man, and from his face, DaeHyun knew that this man must’ve fought so hard to sweep ChanByul of her feet. And that his efforts were paid off with being married to her. DaeHyun was just about to turn the next page when his eyes drifted back to ChanByul’s ex-husband’s face.

Oddly, DaeHyun couldn’t take his eyes of off him. His gaze was fixed upon the stranger’s face and a strange feeling of familiarity was stirring inside his chest.  He looked closely and very carefully, no longer caring whether ChanByul was done with her phone call.  The longer he stared at the man’s face, the stronger he felt that he knew this man.

DaeHyun tried to search at the back of his mind for any possible memories he had with that man. Had he run into him before ? Seeing him on the streets ?

“Wait a minute.” DaeHyun said to himself. “This … this is the doctor who took JiHyun away !” He exclaimed and at the same time, ChanByul returned to the store room and puzzled to see DaeHyun talking to himself, with her old album on his lap.

“DaeHyun, what are you doing ?” She asked as she returned to where she sat earlier. Her brows knitted together seeing the look on DaeHyun’s face as she was confused to what had happened. “Love, are you alright ? Why were you talking to yourself ? Were you on a phone call ?”

Without answering her question, DaeHyun immediately asked, “Omma, who is this guy ?” He pointed at the man in the picture with trembling hand. It was a silly question to ask, really as he could be no other than ChanByul’s ex-husband. But something inside DaeHyun was making him ask again.

Looking at whom he was pointing, ChanByul who was clueless about the real matter, answered, “He was my ex-husband. As you can see, that woman in the picture was I. Why ?”

“Omma, this is the same person who took JiHyun away. He took JiHyun away ! This was the doctor who took JiHyun to another country for her treatment but never returned her back to me ! He never kept in touch with me !” DaeHyun cried and his voice echoed throughout the house.

ChanByul was beyond shock by this sudden situation and said to DaeHyun firmly, “Are you sure, young man ? This is not something to play around with. Look, I know that you’re still sad about your sister, and trust me, I do too. But-”

“This is the guy, omma ! Believe me ! I don’t know how it happened and why, but I know this man was the same man. Just that he looked younger in the picture. What was your ex-husband’s occupation, omma ?”

ChanByul, who still felt this was incredulous to believe, answered anyway, “He was a doctor, and still is. But DaeHyun-”

“Then he is the one, then. Your ex-husband is the one who took my sister away. He and his wife, who I assumed he had married after divorcing you. After all these years of not knowing where he was, finally I do.” DaeHyun said as he raked his hair using his hands.

ChanByul now had lost interest in cleaning up the store room and was paying full attention to the topic at hand. She was confused and didn’t understand how DaeHyun was adamant that her ex-husband was the doctor who took his sister away.

“We shall not jump into any conclusions yet, Jung DaeHyun. Let’s get this straight. You said that this man in the picture was the same man who