“What are you doing?” Baekhyun’s voice was serious. He leaned closely to close his laptop. 

Minseok stood up. 

“Should I be the one asking you that instead? Who are you? What do you want from me?” 

Baekhyun remained silent. 

“You.. you and Joohyun..” Minseok stuttered. 

“Yes, she is my half sister. She is my sister. And she’s gone. She’s gone because of you. She left us because you broke her. She couldn’t take it”. Tears were starting to fall from his eyes. 

“That night when you didn’t show up. You sent her a message saying you can’t make it anymore and you have to marry someone, right? You didn’t even have the balls to call her nor see her. How dare you Kim Minseok!” His voice raised. 

“Then your mother called. She arranged for child support. Joohyun couldn’t bear the pain. She couldn’t bear everything. I picked her up and comforted her at home. Mom and dad still hadn’t knew that time. Joohyun was crying every night. Until one day, she had blood. She lost the baby. She became devastated. She..” Baekhyun just sobbed. 

Minseok’s eyes glued to a sobbing Baekhyun. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. His mother. His mother was the one behind everything. He couldn’t believe all these revelations. 

“Baek.. Baekhyun.. I am so sorry. I looked for her. I really did. I fought just to be with her. And believe me or not, I didn’t send her a message at all. It.. it was my mom. I felt asleep that night while looking after my dad. My mom.. my mom used my phone without me knowing. I called Joohyun multiple times but her phone was dead. I visited her place but she was no longer there. I looked for her. But one day I just found out she’s gone. I mourned too much, Baekhyun. It was all my fault”. Minseok started to cry. 

“Please go. I don’t need to deal with all of these”. Baekhyun pleaded. 

Minseok was still crying up until he reached his car. He tried to process everything and he couldn’t believe his mom. His mom who he trusted. That was why she offered to hire Mr Park to find Joohyun because her conscience can’t take it. He felt disgusted. He felt upset. 

Just when things went okay, this happened. He just took out a deep breath and fanned himself. 

He directly drove to his parent’s house after pining. 

                           xx

“Son.. I am so sorry. We were just thinking about your future. That was years ago so we wanted to make it up to you. Please forgive me”. His mom revealed. 

“She ended her life because of your plans, mom. You were not thinking about me. You were thinking about YOUR own future, NOT mine. I’m tired mom. That’s why you were so lenient towards me after Miyoung left. Your conscience ate you out. I’m disgusted. I can’t believe you did this”. He lets out a cry. 

“Minseok. Please, hear us. We know we’re wrong but please let us heal you”. His dad stood up. 

“I am already too broken to be healed, Dad.” He sighed then continued.

“From now on, please remove me from all of your family transactions. I know you raised me and I’m thankful. But this is already inhuman. I could not bear this. I can survive on my own and my business. I don’t want to get connected to you anymore. I’m not your son anyways right?” He weeped. 

“Minseok!” His mother starts to cry. 

“I have to go”. He rushed towards the door. 

“This is all my fault. I was too selfish that time. Yong, what do we do?” Byul cried. 

“Let’s just give him time. He was too overwhelmed with all the details he’s found out. Let him cry for now. And we’ll take it from there” The husband calmly replied. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Minseok still reported to work on Monday. His thoughts were still blank and his eye bags were dark. 

“Hey, everything good?” Jongdae asked as he enters Minseok’s office. 

“I’m fine. Just tired” He lied. 

“Are you sure?”

”I’m not.”

”Do you want to talk about it?” 

Minseok then cried so hard and spilled everything to Jongdae. This is the first time he told someone about his past besides Miyoung. 

Jongdae looked so concerned and comforted Minseok well. 

“Min, I’m so sorry you get to go through all of those.” He hugged him. 

“But Baekhyun, whatever his intentions were, I can say he genuinely liked you at some point” He added. 

Minseok just sighed. 

“Thank you Dae. I felt better after letting out all the pain and frustration.” 

“Whatever your next plan is, I’ll support you. And don’t hesitate to call me should you need help, ok?” Jongdae assured him with a smile. 

“Thanks, Dae. Don’t worry about me. Just get back to work, ok?”

”I’ll just be in my cubicle. Call me when you need anything, alright?

”Sure I will.”  

Minseok got the courage and pulled out the clips Baekhyun got for the project. 

His tears fell again when he saw a video taken by Baekhyun stating the whole history why the NGO was formed. Baejoo NGO. It was derived from Joohyun’s name. Baekhyun made the NGO for his sister. And he intentionally approached Minseok for revenge. He was ready to slap the reality in this project. He was about to expose false accusations towards Minseok. 

He wanted to feel anger but he can’t. Baekhyun was also a victim of his mom’s tactics. Baekhyun didn’t exactly know the truth. 

He collected himself and decided to call the man.