Jimin paused at the doorway to his room and mentally prepared himself before entering. After a few seconds, he opened the door and stepped inside. His mom was seated on his bed, a book in her hands. Jimin recognized the book to be the one he’d left on his nightstand. When he entered the room, she looked up and offered him a small smile as she set the book aside.

“Jimin...it’s nice to see you.” She said as Jimin closed the door and leaned against it. He nodded to her in acknowledgment but otherwise remained silent. He didn’t know what to say and he could tell she wasn’t sure how to start their conversation either. He could also see how sad she was that this was how they were meeting each other. Usually, when Eunji went away on a long trip, Jimin would be the one to pick her up when she returned. And once they saw each other, Eunji would hug Jimin so tight Jimin would have trouble breathing. Even so, he enjoyed those hugs and kind of wished they could have one right now. Of course, this time was different though so that kind of scenario wouldn’t be happening.

“I know you’re upset with me… but please… sit next to me?” Eunji requested, her eyes filled with sorrow and pleading with Jimin. Her whole body was rigid and tense indicating her uncertainty about the situation. Her shoulders were slumped forward indicating her weariness. And it was obvious she was close to tears even if she wasn’t crying quite yet. He could see she was hurting from his lack of response to her and Jimin did feel bad for that. He’d been worrying so much about their confrontation and now that it had arrived, he couldn’t bring himself to keep up this cold act. He let out a small sigh and walked over to the bed and sat down to her left. Without another thought, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her shoulder. His mom seemed surprised by the sudden action as she tensed up for a second. But her arms wrapped around him within a second and she squeezed him tightly, kissing the crown of his hair before resting her head against it. They both sat there hugging for a minute before Jimin felt something wet land on his head.

“Are you crying?” Jimin asked with his face still buried in her shoulder.

“Hmm… I.. I wasn’t sure if...if you’d still let me hold you...I was afraid you’d take forever to forgive me.” She said beginning to sniffle slightly.

“I haven’t forgiven you,” Jimin responded but not as harshly as he thought he would. “I just don’t like seeing you sad… You’re unfair, you know I can’t stand seeing you sad and you’re using that against me right now.”

“I swear it’s not on purpose… I just can’t help myself… it hurts to think you wouldn’t let me hold you anymore...that you’d pull away from me and hate me.” She replied holding onto Jimin a little tighter.

“...I’ve said it before I could never hate you...I’m just upset and feeling a little betrayed...Mom” Jimin said hesitating a little at saying the word mom.

Eunji pulled away and looked at Jimin surprised that he’d actually called her mom. Jimin didn’t say anything else instead he reached out and swiped at her tears recalling how she’d done the same thing to him whenever he’d cried in front of her.

“That’s...that’s going to take some getting used to..” she finally whispered out reaching up and taking a hold of Jimin’s hands and bringing them down into her lap.

“Do you not want me to call you that?” Jimin asked softly, after all, he still didn’t know the reason she’d kept it a secret for all these years. Maybe she never told him because she didn’t want a son, but Jimin kind of doubted that that would be the reason. Eunji had played the role of a mother ever since Areum died so it was highly unlikely that she didn’t want Jimin as her son.

“No that’s not it… I’ve always wanted to hear you call me mom… I just never thought it would happen. I never planned to admit it. I planned to take that secret to my grave.” Eunji responded lightly squeezing Jimin’s hands.

“Why?...Why did you want to keep it a secret?” Jimin asked.

“The reason is a little silly…” She began and let out a light chuckle, “...It was really all your grandparents doing… I’ve never talked about them much have I, my parents I mean.”

“No, you haven’t… and I only met them a few times before they died.” Jimin said remembering meeting his grandparents once in a while at family gatherings.

“Yea… I didn’t have the best relationship with my parents... Our family was filthy rich and because of it, your grandparents were rather stuck-up and petty. They didn’t like associating with anyone who wasn’t on their level. They forbade me and your da-uncle from associating with anyone they deemed unworthy. Your uncle didn’t agree with them but he listened, but me...I never did. I associated with whomever I pleased or at least I tried to… but when you are sent to a private school for rich kids and kept sheltered at home all the time...it’s kind of hard to associate with anyone other than those who your parents approve of to some degree… Anyway, that’s not the point here. The point was your grandparents were ashamed of me. Ashamed that I was so young and unmarried but already pregnant… It’s like any other story you’d hear about a sixteen-year-old girl getting pregnant, my parents were disappointed and kept the pregnancy a secret as best they could.”

“So no one knew about it besides close family?” Jimin asked.

“Yes. Only them, my brother..meaning your uncle, his wife or as you know her Areum, and a few of the servants along with our personal doctor knew about it.”

“Oh...so grandma and grandpa did what exactly that made you keep it a secret?”

“Well… they actually wanted me to get an abortion, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that… we fought a lot because of it. Since I refused to get an abortion they demanded I give you up for adoption when you were born but...well I didn’t want to but at times I did think about it. I was only sixteen after all, how was I supposed to raise you without any help? Because that’s exactly what would happen if I kept you...they’d disown me and I’d have no one to turn to. I knew my brother would help me but he wouldn’t be able to do much since our parents would have kept us apart as much as they could...and so I did think about it more than I’d like to admit. But...I couldn’t, the moment you were born I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I let them put you up for adoption...I wouldn’t be ok with not knowing how your life turned out or seeing you grow up. I knew I wasn’t fit to be a mom but I couldn’t imagine just giving you away to a stranger and never seeing you again. It was then that Areum offered up an alternative solution.”

“She offered to raise me as her own child?” Jimin questioned figuring that was probably what had happened.

Eunji nodded before speaking. “She was married to my brother already and they’d already been discussing adoption at the time since she was barren… So she proposed that she could raise you as her own son that way I’d still get to see you grow up and stay close to you, and your grandparent's name wouldn’t be slandered since no one would know you were actually my child. It was killing two birds with one stone I guess. Your grandparents readily agreed and while I was hesitant. I knew it was the best choice. I couldn’t possibly raise you on my own at the time and it was a better option than an orphanage, so I agreed as well under the condition I was allowed to see you whenever I wanted. Everyone agreed and things went from there. For the first two years though you stayed with me for the most part since I wanted to feed you. But as you grew older I spent less time with you and Areum took over the mothering role.” Eunji said and stopped noticing the questioning look Jimin had in his eyes.

“...If my grandparents were the reason why you couldn’t tell me the truth, why didn’t you tell me once they died? They died before my adoptive mother did.” Jimin said confused.

“...Well by that time you were already seven, you already saw Areum as your mother… It would be unfair of me to tell you otherwise at that point...and Areum didn’t want me to” Eunji answered.

“Then what about when she divorced uncle? You agreed to the arrangement to keep me close to you so when she wanted to leave, why did you let her take me?”

“I didn’t just let her...I protested it quite a lot. I wanted to keep you with me, and even said to Areum that you should stay with your uncle because you weren’t even her child...but in the end, she took you simply because you were attached to her more than your uncle.”