Jinyoung: How It All Started

He appreciates everything that his fathers have ever done for him. Every little thing, every little memory. Ever since he was adopted at 12 years old, he finally felt like he was a part of a family. To finally be applying for college, it was almost like a dream come true. Jinyoung was one lucky kid. At least that's what he's always thought. That's why when he found out that his given essay prompt was "the events that brought me to this point of my life", he decided to dedicate his college essay to his fathers.

Although they had divorced five years after he was adopted into the family, he wanted to know their story. The story that they never seem to speak of.

It was strange really. Jinyoung used to see a couple of your fathers' friends around when he was first adopted. Each and every one of them told him how lucky he was to be adopted into such a perfect family. They told him how in love that the two were. Back when his two fathers were in school, they were known to be the most radiant couple.

If Donghae was the princess, then Eunhyuk was his prince.

All those happy memories, yet they were never ever brought up in front of him by his parents. At first, Jinyoung thought that it was because his parents liked keeping a private life, but after awhile, he realized that his parents just disliked the subject completely. There were a few times in which he would try to get an answer out of them, trying to figure out what was so magical about their love life. He wanted to have a relationship like theirs, with the exception of the divorce of course.

It just always seemed like their friends were jealous of their love.

But after the confirmed divorce, everything seemed to come to a standstill. He never saw his dads' friends ever again. His parents completely stopped talking. Something in the atmosphere changed 180-degrees, but he didn't know what it was. That was what was so alarming.

Prior to the topic of divorce, there were no fights, no arguments. Absolutely nothing. Everything seemed to happen out of nowhere. That night, Jinyoung had went to bed just like he did every night. The next morning, his dads sat him down, and they announced that they were going to be leaving one another.

And that was that.

Jinyoung didn't understand. He didn't want to understand. He finally got himself a family, and they just decided to separate out of nowhere. Did they even consider how their son might feel?

Now that they had left one another, Jinyoung was staying with Donghae. His fathers had not officially filed a divorce yet, so he was eager to do something that might bring them back together. He wanted to use this essay to find the spark that brought the two men together. He wanted to re-ignite the love that once was.

He just wanted his life to be complete again.

That's why he was determined to take a weekend and visit all of his fathers' friends. He vaguely remembered their names, but he knew enough to be able to find them. Using an old yearbook, he found a list of familiar names. With the help of the neighbors and his own connections, he was able to find out enough about quite a few of them.

With all this information, it wouldn't be too hard to dig a little deeper into his parents' lives.

By telling his father Donghae he was going to work on a project with a classmate over the weekend, Jinyoung packed his things and left, trying to find out the truth behind everything, trying to find the spark that ignited his parents' love.

author's note