Chapter 8

Taemin walked the halls of the spacious, yet comfortable, house until he found a seat in the living room, across from his grandfather, the one and only, Kim Jongin.

Taemin saw his Grandfather Jongin as a role model from a young age, so, naturally, he decided to try to become a journalist as well, and who better to question than his super-successful grandfather? His visits and interviews became a normal occurrence.  

But there was something different about this visit, and though Jongin lost a bit of his mental sharpness with age, he still had the skill of reading people from so many years of it being his very profession. There was a curiosity in Taemin's eyes, the same curiosity that he recognized from so many years ago. 

The same curiosity that surged through himself when he laid eyes on a certain streaker.

"Well, out with it, I don't have all day, son." Jongin said, his impatience growing with age. 

"Right. Thank you for letting me come today, Grandfather. Is there anything you can tell me about the series of news articles titled "Real or Fiction"?

All of a sudden Jongin's cool, professional demeanor changed. Utter shock took over his features, so much so that Taemin feared his grandfather would have a heart attack. 

"Grandfather, are you ok?"

"Yeah, son, I'm fine. Just surprised...where did you find those?"

The Week Before

Taemin made his way to the attic after helping his Grandfather dust the many bookshelves in his home (he was getting too old to climb on ladders to reach the top shelves, which were very high, and Taemin was always glad to help). Taemin then finished and looked up to find the string to pull down that would allow him access to the house's attic, which he hasn't visited in years. With happy memories of exploring his grandparent's old possessions as a child, he decided to visit the "wonderland" of sorts again.

Once he climbed up the ladder and made his way inside, the first thing he noticed was how much smaller it was than he remembered. He was then tall enough to reach shelves that seemed tall as skyscrapers when he was little. It was on one of these shelves that he witnessed a strange sight: sitting by themselves he found a series of books and a stack of papers next to them, with nothing surrounding them. He wondered over to the peculiar sight and picked up a book first, the first book in the series of about four. He recognized it immediately as the book was rather popular, and though he had never read it (he, like his grandfather, was more interested in real stories, rather than fiction) he had heard a few details about the plot from friends and family who adored the series (especially his great-uncles Baekhyun and Chanyeol). He then picked up the stack of papers and recognized them immediately as newspaper articles written by his grandfather. Judging by the dates, he figured out they were written about fifty years before. 
'Grandfather would have been about twenty-two or twenty-three, my age, when he wrote these. What was he doing at this time?' He thought, 'it would've been before he worked for the World News Series, around the time he graduated college...What did he say his first job was? Were these articles even published? Why would he write these for them not to be published? It doesn't make sense...'

Taemin then pulled his phone out and his Google search confirmed that the series of articles was never published, nor did his grandfather publish much of anything of importance at the time they were written, as he was just starting out as a simple local columnist, exactly what Taemin was, meaning the grandson understood how little freedom of word is given to someone in that position. He skimmed the first article and found the story humorous, but definitely not appropriate for a local newspaper. Again, the same question filled Taemin's thoughts, 'Why would he write these?'.

Deciding to ask his Grandfather about them later, he put the papers and books carefully in his satchel, a birthday gift from his Grandfather Jongin, and left to do some more research on the topic before he asked questions. 

One week later

"Taemin, are you okay?" Jongin asked.

"Yes sir, sorry Grandfather. I found these articles in the attic sitting next to S.M.'s The Past and Present series, I was just wondering why you wrote the articles? I researched and figured that you would've been about my age, twenty-three, when you wrote them, long before you had such freedom to get the articles published in your career, so, why did you write them in the first place?"

Jongin thought for a moment. He held the articles in his hands and stared at them, coming up with a response, before lifting his head. 

"Did you read them?" He asked.

"I skimmed them. The first one was pretty funny. I think it was about meeting a streaker..."

Jongin smiled at the memory. Though fifty years later, he remembered that day perfectly. 
"Did you read the others? Or the books?"

"No, I didn't know the context to read from with the articles...and I didn't see how the books would be relevant."

"Read them if you want the information. I'm afraid,before this interview can go any further, you'll have to gather some more research. Dig a little deeper, son." Jongin told him. 'Dig a little deeper', the phrase became a common reoccurrence in his teachings to his grandson.

Taemin left shortly after and did as his grandfather told him. He stayed up and read the entire book series, then all the articles, and he found the similarities. They were written practically clear as day, and before long, Taemin put the facts together and concluded that S.M., the author of the critically acclaimed series, was indeed his other Grandfather, Do Kyungsoo. 

'They're...connected. The stories are so similar...how is that possible? These books are fiction, but grandfather wouldn't write fiction. These articles are reality, I would think, but Grandpa Kyungsoo wouldn't write reality...he never has. What is this?' Taemin thought in the early hours of the morning, he ran his hand through his blonde, straight hair and became determined to find the answers to this unraveling story. 

Later that day, Taemin entered his Grandfathers' house with the key he had been given, as he was invited to "come over any time he felt like it", and the access was a safety precaution for his aging grandparents. 

He found his Grandfather Jongin sitting in his chair reading his newspaper while his Grandpa Kyungsoo was in the kitchen cooking lunch (or, probably dinner to the older gentlemen living in the house), and he greeted both before sitting down across from Jongin, notebook and research in hand, finally ready to conduct this interview. 

"Are you finally ready, son?" Jongin asked.

"Yes, Grandfather, I am. My first question is the same as the one from yesterday, why did you write these articles? I mean...they were...entertaining and, I'm assuming, true, but you weren't in a position for them to be published, and they weren't ever published, but sitting in an attic for many years, instead."

Jongin nodded his head along, following what Taemin asked him.
"Because you asked the same question as yesterday, I'll ask the same question I asked you yesterday, did you read the books?"

"Yes. I did. That's another thing I was going to ask you, why are they so much alike? I understand that Grandpa Kyungsoo has to be the author of the series, judging by what was written in the articles, it's a given, but I don't understand why they are so much alike. Grandpa's books are a work of fiction, you don't write fiction, you're a journalist, that's the first thing you taught me about journalism, but Grandpa's writing can't be real, he always told me writing reality the life out of him... I just don't get it, can you explain the articles, the books, and their correlation to me?"

"I'd love to." Jongin said. "I was twenty-two years old when I started writing those. I had a project close to the end of my senior year of college, assigned to me by the one and only Mr. Choi Seung Hyun, God bless him..., anyway, the assignment was to write an article about something we found in our everyday life..."

"...and that something was Grandpa Kyungsoo?" Taemin interjected.

"Yes, it was indeed. I started writing the article and found myself writing more than enough for the assignment, so I took out a lot for the final draft, but what you're reading in the article is the first, unrevised draft. I just couldn't throw it away, still can't. It reminds me of a person I used to be, a person your grandpa used to be, and I suppose I kept them out of gratitude for those people."

"Uh-huh..." Taemin jotted down what was said and couldn't help but notice how different his grandfather was suddenly being. Usually he had colder demeanor, not mean or uninviting in the slightest, just terse, like anything other than hard facts wasn't necessary, a trait he picked up from many years of working as a journalist, a trait he tried to teach Taemin to have, until now, it seemed. He couldn't help but wonder if he was really as cold as he let on all the time, and judging by how easily he slipped out of it from reminiscing, Taemin assumed there was a different side to his grandfather than he had ever been shown. 

"Anyway, after the assignment I didn't find work for a little while, and began spending more and more time with Kyungsoo, your Grandpa, of course. I realized I liked writing about this person that seemed too fictional to be real, but he was, so it was like he wasn't off-limits for me to write about. That first year brought many changes to both of us as people, as you probably read, and eventually the articles became less like documentation of an interesting topic to research, but an irreplaceable record of our love and lives and how that love and life began, how we essentially began as the people we became today. I didn't really recognize this at the time, of course, but I knew that whatever my life with him was, it was definitely a news worthy adventure, an adventure I'd be glad to go on again and have continued for fifty years now."

"Then why weren't they ever published? If anything, they're proof that S.M., famous author whose work has spanned many generations, is indeed still alive and is Do Kyungsoo...and even if you didn't want to reveal the actual name, the articles tell an interesting story of how the books were written."

Jongin nodded at this. There was a pause as Jongin thought of what to say next. Before he could think of anything, his quick-witted grandson interjected his thoughts.

"Can I publish the articles?" 

Suddenly Jongin didn't have to think of what to say. "Please don't, son." He told Taemin. 

"Why not?"

Jongin then looked to Kyungsoo in the kitchen, who he knew has long stopped cooking and had been paying attention to the conversation in the living room. They locked eyes and seemed to agree, even without saying anything. Jongin then looked back at Taemin.

"Son, it's not news."

"Why not? It happened didn't it?"

"Yes"

"Then why can't I publish it?"

"The very reason I couldn't." 

Jongin allowed himself to leave the confused Taemin and admire his husband of many years, decades, and lifetimes. Suddenly all the things and memories that made him fall in love with him come to him. He didn't remember much about his life anymore. He didn't remember what his first big scoop was, what he wore on his first big interview, he didn't even remember just how exactly he landed a job on the World News Series, but he vividly remembered the parts of his life he shared with Kyungsoo. He remembered their first night in their new house after leaving the first house they lived in together. He remembered the time they realized the house was too big and too quiet for just the two of them, and the conversation that would lead to them being parents. He remembered the first night they brought their baby girl home. She was swaddled in a pink blanket and she curled her toes up when she was happy, and she screamed at the top of her lungs when she cried and Jongin tried to soothe her. Kyungsoo then grabbed her and she stopped, and her toes curled up again. He remembered lying in bed with Kyungsoo and hearing her little feet echo on the floor. He remembered raising her with Kyungsoo, through all of her happiness and heartbreak, and just how great of a father Kyungsoo was to her. He remembered, many years later, when she got married. He remembered when Taemin was born, and Jongin fell in love all over again, just as Kyungsoo did as well. He remembered the phone call that their daughter had been in an accident, and he remembered the burden and heartbreak of burying his child too early, but he also remembered how Kyungsoo stayed with him through it, and together, they began to heal. He remembered it all, but mostly, he could never forget how much he loved his husband, Do Kyungsoo. 

Jongin then thought out loud, "...and he stayed."

Taemin heard this and asked, 
"Grandfather, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just... Thank you."

"For what?"

"For reminding me" he paused and looked at his husband and back at Taemin, "he stayed."

Jongin shifts and doesn't give Taemin a chance to question anything when it's obvious the aging man isn't comfortable.

"Ok, grandfather, I think it's time I get you to bed."

So he did go to bed, and that night he laid beside his Kyungsoo like he had every night for fifty years. 

"I see a lot of you in him." Kyungsoo said.

"Me too." Jongin pauses, "I hope he finds what I found."

"And what did you find?"

"Do Kyungsoo, over fifty years I've found words, opportunities, and lifetimes to last me centuries, and I can't wait to spend every second of those centuries with you."

"Really? Because, I just found you, Kim Jongin."

AND THIS IS HOW KIM JONGIN FOUND HIMSELF UNTIMELY, UNCONVENTIONALLY, AND UNDENIABLY FALLING IN LOVE WITH DO KYUNGSOO, AGAIN, AT NINE O'CLOCK AT NIGHT ON A WEDNESDAY.

The End.