With heavy feet JaeJoong stepped into the dark apartment shared by him and his family. A deep sigh of relief fell from his lips when he put down his luggage and got rid of his shoes. Just when he walked through the entrance hallway whilst dragging his luggage along, he noticed that he was alone in the apartment.

'Guess they're at a neighbour's place,' he thought, sure that his mother would never take his younger siblings with her to work or leave them all by themselves despite how unreliable she might be.

"Good, that means no one's disturbing my napping time," he muttered when he walked into his room at the end of the hallway left from the living room. The walk from the train station towards his home had been exhausting, and once the door of his room clicked shut he felt his muscles giving up. It was a miracle that he still found the strength to change his clothes and to reach the comfy zone of his bed.

*

It was silent in the Kims' apartment, light not shed and only the constant ticking of a clock audible. The silence was disturbed though at the late hour of eight p.m. One by one three people ushered into the entrance hallway, two of them barely half as tall as the female with long brown hair.

"Hyungie's back!" a young boy of eight years exclaimed, a wide smile on his lips when his eyes caught sight of his older brother's shoes.

"Always the same with him," the older female mumbled when she put her oldest son's shoes in line next to the pair of her daughter. The two younger children rushed through the living room, shedding light on their way before they turned left to the hallway leading to their brother's room.

"TaeGoon, HaNeul! Come back here," their mother called out. The young boy with short auburn hair and his six years old sister halted in their steps.

"But mommy, JaeJoong-hyung is ..." TaeGoon whined. He was happy that his older brother was back. After all, it had been two lonely months without the older one who had stayed at his father's place.

"I know that he's back and that you want to greet him, but he's probably sleeping and you don't want to disturb him, right?" the older female remarked, assuming that her oldest was fast asleep otherwise he would have already welcomed his younger siblings.

"But eomma," her youngest whined whilst shuffling back into the living room together with her brother.

"Just greet him tomorrow morning. It's late and the two of you should already lie in bed yourselves," the brown haired woman remarked, TaeGoon and HaNeul pouting whilst shuffling over to their rooms. Half an hour later it was silent in TaeGoon's and HaNeul's bedrooms, their mother checking on them with a smile when she found them fast asleep. Whilst walking through the living room to check on her oldest, JaeJoong, the phone rang.

She picked up whilst continuing her walk, "Yeoboseyo?"

"Ah, SooJi. Here's MinSoo, I just wanted to know if JaeJoong is home. He wasn't answering my calls so I was a bit worried," JaeJoong's father replied from the other line, SooJi about to clink JaeJoong's door.

"Of course he's here. He's sleeping," she responded, quite a bit irritated at her ex-lover's words. “Where else should he be? Do you think he's too dumb to use a taxi, or what,” she muttered with furrowed eyebrows. “And here I thought you knew him best.”

“I most certainly know that, thank you,” MinSoo replied, slightly annoyed. “And I wouldn't have asked, if he actually had had the chance to use a taxi, but he went by foot so I was worried, of course.”

“Why would he walk by foot?” SooJi asked, dumbfounded when she turned midway and walked over to the sofa in their living room to sit down.

“He didn't have money to call for a taxi,” MinSoo replied, sighing through the speaker.

“Why didn't he tell me? I could have asked my boss, if it were possible to take 30 minutes off,” SooJi responded, surprised that JaeJoong didn't say anything.

“You're unbelievable,” MinSoo muttered after a few seconds filled with silence.

“Why are you so angry?” SooJi asked, feeling a bit attacked by MinSoo's tone.

“He did tell you, you just didn't listen like so often,” the older male replied, very irritated at the mother of his two sons.

“Are you implying that it is my fault?” SooJi fought back, trying to not raise her voice as her children were all fast asleep.

“I indeed do, yes,” MinSoo threw calmly through the speaker. It left SooJi speechless. Now that she thought back to JaeJoong's call earlier the day, she remembered that he indeed had wanted to tell her something but she was so caught up with her work that she just .... didn't listen.

“Listen, I don't want to fight with you again, I just want to say that JaeJoong feels pretty neglected by you,”  MinSoo said softly. “It's just that every time he needs you, you aren't there for him. He's a frustrated teenager and comes to me for attention, but he actually wants some from you. You just need to think more about him. He may be 18 already, but deep in his heart he's still the little boy of eleven years who doesn't want his parents to split up.”

“I know,” SooJi replied meekly. “I guess it's my fault. I seem to push him away with everything I do. It's not my intention, but it still happens every time. It is no wonder that he's more of a daddy's boy.”

“Don't say that. He loves you, just as much as me,” MinSoo replied, trying to calm down his early love. “We have been just too young back then,” he said, remembering about the time when he and SooJi had had a relationship. The younger female had been 16 when JaeJoong had been born, MinSoo 19. The young boy hadn't been planned, but together the two had tried to give him a good life where he was loved in. Their lovely relationship had lasted for five years. During this time SooJi had been caught up with her school whilst it had been MinSoo taking care of JaeJoong until he came into primary school. He had been working in a delivery service half the day and at the evening, when taking care of his beloved son, he had tried to get successful in writing novels. SooJi on the other hand rather had met up with her friends in clubs instead of saying goodnight to her son. Back then it had started that she came home late or just the next day. MinSoo had assumed that she had betrayed him, but he had never confronted her for the sake of JaeJoong.

They had lived this agreement for another four years before TaeGoon had been born. MinSoo knew that the young boy wasn't his own flesh, but he was the father TaeGoon probably wouldn't have had anyway and he loved him dearly as if he were his own. By this time he already was a successful novelist and he didn't mind taking care of his sons. But it was SooJi who had changed everything. When TaeGoon had been one year old she had confessed that she had had an affair and wanted to break it off with MinSoo to live with the other man. They had planned to move from Gongju to Seoul and, of course, TaeGoon and JaeJoong had to come with her. It had crashed JaeJoong's childhood and since this day he and SooJi hadn't had a good relationship. When HaNeul had been born, the daughter of SooJi's affair, JaeJoong had told MinSoo that the so-called father had dumped his mother and that actually he was the one taking care of his younger siblings. JaeJoong had been twelve back then, but in MinSoo's eyes he had appeared to be a young adult of 18 years.

“You're right, we've been too young. But it is a mistake I want to live with,” SooJi muttered, smiling softly when she remembered the feeling of holding JaeJoong for the very first time. “I know I'm a horrible mother, but you raised him a wonderful young man.”

“Was that a compliment?” MinSoo chuckled. The two were after all a kind of friends.

“You could say so,” SooJi giggled. “Anyway, I'll tell JaeJoong that you called tomorrow morning.”

“Do that. I wish you a goodnight then,” MinSoo replied and ended the call when SooJi wished him the same.

With a deep sigh SooJi stood up and switched off the light. She halted in her movement though when she stood in front of the door to her bedroom and looked to the left. She walked over to JaeJoong's room and silently opened the door. He was indeed fast asleep, his luggage discarded on the ground together with his clothes. A loving smile lay on her lips when she watched JaeJoong nuzzled into the cosiness of his bed. She sat down next to him carefully, streaking a black strand out of his peaceful face.

She sighed softly. “You won't like the news I'm going to tell you tomorrow,” she whispered to herself, palming JaeJoong's cheek gently. An apologetic smile lay on her lips before she pecked JaeJoong's temple and slowly rose from his bed.

Once she closed the door of JaeJoong's room behind her, she heaved a deep breath and strolled over to her own. She knew that there was a hard week lying ahead of her once she introduced JaeJoong to a kind of information the teenager wouldn't like at all and would probably push him away from her just a little bit further. She was actually scared to tell him, that during the two months he had stayed at his father's place, she had married a man younger than her by seven years and someone whom she had met just twice before.