“Give me!” Junhong’s hand shot out and he grabbed the toy car from his nephew.

            The little boy glanced up in surprise and smiled a little. His uncle wanted to play with him. He’s always loved his uncle. But when the little boy tried to weave his hand between the car, he was surprised to see his uncle’s angry look.

            “Hands off! This is mine.”

            Chanhyuk’s face fell and his lip quivered. “Uncle,” he plead and leaned his head against his uncle’s arm.

            Junhong jerked his arm away. “Don’t touch me!” And that was when his hand reached out to smack the little boy.

            The strength with which he hit the boy had him rolling on the floor and crying. Immediately, Junhong’s brother and his wife ran into the living room. His brother lifted Junhong up and held him still. “Calm down. Calm down,” he soothed. The younger man thrashed in his arms.

            “He touched my toy! And he tried to take it!”

            With both Junhong and Chanhyuk crying, the entire house was filled with noise. It took a while to get them settled down and when everything was quiet, Junhong’s sister-in-law sat down next to him.

            “Junhong, you and Chanhyuk are like brothers. Can you learn to share with him?”

            “No,” he said stubbornly and she stared at him sadly. Her hand reached out to touch him but she let it fall to her side when he looked at her. His face, strong with the cheekbones of an eighteen year old, also contained glimpses of childhood. It was in the soft pout of his lips when he rejected her and the slightly hurt glare in his eyes.

            In the accident, Junhong had sustained injuries to his brain and he reverted back to being a five year old. The doctors had said there was little to no chance of him recovering his old abilities so his brother had taken it upon himself to take care of his little brother.

            Junhong sniffled and tucked his long limbs underneath him, curling into a ball, a feat that so resembled a sulking child but only seemed ridiculous in his grown up body. “Junhong, you need to learn to share and not to hit people. You’re a lot bigger than Chanhyuk is so you need to be very careful.”

            “No,” he muttered stubbornly.

            She sighed and tried a different approach. “You don’t want to be punished like Chanhyuk, do you?”

            “Junhong is a big boy.”

            “That’s right, and big boys don’t hit other boys, okay?”

            “Okay,” the man-child said sulkily.

            Her heart wrenched to see the formerly so intelligent boy reduced to this and she opened her arms for a hug. “Do you want a hug?”

            He did, and it was with surprise that she felt his grip tighten around her almost as if she was his source of comfort. “There, there,” she patted his head. “You’ll be alright.”

            To let him go to school was impossible. An eighteen year old with a mind of a five year old still meant a lot of harm to the children in the classroom. And so the couple kept him at home and tried to teach him slowly.

            Junhong learned all his basic skills again quite quickly, his body had muscle memory. But there were moments where his body told him to do certain things but his child-like brain could not register. The first time they let his girlfriend see him, Junhong had cried.

            He cried because he knew he wanted to hug her but his brain just had no interest and the conflict in interest made him distressed. She had taken his face between her hands and stared into his eyes, hoping for recognition. Instead, he jerked away and fidgeted, uncomfortable with the contact.

            The worst part for him was the physical reaction he received when he saw her. He could not understand the increased rate of his heart, the rush of euphoria that overcame him. It made him feel flushed and he squirmed away. “I don’t like you!” he burst out and started to cry. Junhong shrunk into his sister-in-law’s embrace and turned his head away from his girlfriend.

            He whimpered when he felt her his hair. “I’m sorry Junhong.” Even as a child, he could hear the pain in her voice and that made him feel worse. He did not understand guilt and the foreign feeling made him hate the strange girl even more.

            Time passed too slowly for him. He struggled to push his brain and too often, would hit a dead end only to throw a tantrum. But as time went on, Junhong slowly understood human connections but had no ability to act upon his feelings. It took him a long time before he could finally turn to her and ask her, “Why are you still here?”

            She understood immediately, even if the question was awkwardly phrased and bashfully asked. She cautiously took his hand in hers and waited for a reaction. He flinched but didn’t move away. Emboldened by this, she slid forward and stared at him. “Because, five years old inside or not, I still love you.”

this is for epiphany--

I tried with this one but it came out meh but I think the next one should be better :)

thank you for waiting for me everyone