Taeyong hugged his son tightly, who for once didn't voice a sound of complain, hugging his father back. "But even if we both are sorry towards you, we don't regret anything. As in the end you are the most beautifull part of our story. Never forget that,okay?"

Mark felt a big lump in his troat and he burried his head into his father safe embrace.

Taeyong sighed, ready to tell a long a story. "You see..."

“You see I met your dad when I was very young…I was still a middle school student, not even 16 years old when I first bumped on my way to class with the new transfer student. At that time, I had never loved anyone and never dated anyone. Your father was the first person who made my heart beat so crazy that I taught this was love at first sight.” Taeyong smiled, with a bit of melancholy in his voice as he remembered their first meeting. He looked at his son who was leaning into his right chest, his head up to look at his dad, all ears to him. “The first meeting the sparks flew, but I had a very angry Math teacher waiting for me so we parted ways so quickly without even exchanging names. But two days later a new guy entered the dance troupe I always joined every evening, and I thought that fate wanted us to have a chance together. I had zero dating experience but your father didn’t mind my shy attempts at flirting and somehow we were dating a week later.”

Taeyong wanted to sink in a hole when he remembered all those lame pun lines he made an all those times Ten caught him staring at him (not so innocently) during rehearsals.

“I was very happy. Your father made me more confident, more bold,…He made me dream and somehow I finally felt a sense of completeness in my life.”

Taeyong sighed: “Back then, things were so simple. I didn’t even know about his family and they didn’t know about us too. He was but a mere transfer sunbae and I didn’t know about his background.”

Mark looked at his father with a question dying on his lip but he didn’t want to interrupt his dad’s story.  What did his father mean with “a mere transfer sunbae” ? Thinking about it, Mark really didn’t know a lot about his father. Not that he had the occasion to do so. But he truly ignored if he had a family on his father side or not, like his dad who only had a former brother-in-law as a family member.

“A year passed easily and your father decided to prolong his transfer. We were both deep in love, and very naïve. I truly fell deeply in love with your father. Too deeply. And now that I think about it maybe that was the starting point where everything went wrong.” Taeyong tightened his grip softly on Mark. “You see Love, when you love too deeply it is not always a good thing. Sometimes it is even a not healthy thing to do.”

Mark frowned at the statement and Taeyong smiled at his reaction.

“It is okay to love deeply if both of you are feeling these feelings together. But like I said we were so young. For me, who was an orphan that only had a noona to rely on since I was little, it was true love. For your father, it started as a“crush”.  A crush people have when they are young and sometimes they develop it to love. But that love is not deep and does not stay long enough.”

Taeyong looked in his eyes and strangely Mark couldn’t find any sign of hurt in his daddy’s dark eyes.

“Your father loved me. But not the same way as I. And without knowing it, I burdened him with my love. Your father couldn’t bear to hurt me. In his way he loved me more than enough. But the me back then was an orphan who craved for love and who’s world turned around him. I didn’t even had plans or ambitions on my own. Everything was around “us”. So when my sister lost her battle against cancer my world crumbled and I clinged to him as if he was a lighthouse in the dark.”

Mark looked at the dark eyes of his father, seeing the usual sorrow he had whenever he spoke of his sister. Mark always saw a picture of her, that was standing in a frame on the desk, whenever he came in to his father’s bedroom. There was also a picture of her in Uncle Doyoung’s bureau. She resembled Taeyong greatly and Mark felt pity he had never seen her.  

“All I knew back then, was that I only had your father left.” Taeyong softly continued.

“And your father knew that. It was another weight of burden that he couldn’t bear to refuse. I was so into my world that I didn’t notice your father’s feelings. I even made a very selfish demand.” Taeyong smiled, a sincere smile and he asked his son; “Guess what it was?”

Mark was startled at the sudden question. Confused he shook his head as he didn’t know what kind of selfish demand his dad could have possibly asked.

Taeyong smile deepened. “It was a very selfish demand. But it was the same demand that leaded to the best and most beautiful thing I ever had.” Taeyong planted a kiss on his son head.

“You.” He softly whispered.

Mark’s cheek were tinted bright red with embarrassment at his dad cheesy words, but to say that his heart wasn’t melting in love would be a big lie.

“You see, when my sister will arrived, I learned that she had taken off some of her eggs to freeze, before she started her chemo. In her will she donated me those very eggs, with a letter; its’ content was her very last words to me.” Taeyong felt silent for a bit, remembering the hard time he had reading the letter that had been 3 pages long.

“She knew she wouldn’t make it. Being the only one at my side since the day we lost everything she wouldn’t let me go in life alone. But since she had to leave, she would leave me with a part of her. She also wanted to give a last gift, the possibility to have a child with my lover.”

Mark slowly took the information in; he had always known he was related to his aunt in a very intimate way, as his uncle Doyoung sometimes called him “his son”. It also explained how come he resembled his dad but was the biological child of his father.

Taeyong smiled with a hesitant expression on his face, looking for his son reaction.

But Mark simply nodded. To him, it didn’t change anything. His dad was is dad. As for his biological mother…Well Mark was glad she wasn’t a surrogate mother (like Jeno’s), who he would never get to see.  She was a good person who had loved his dad dearly.

It was a pity he could not get to know her personally, but his uncle Doyoung had told him so many stories about her when he was little (which made now sense) and he could always look at her pictures in the big album his father and uncle each had.

Taeyong hugged his son; he had always feared the moment he told his son he was his biological uncle…that something would change. He had been so afraid of that change, but it turns out like Doyoung said, he had just overthinked it too much.

After he released his son, Taeyong coughed before he continued: “So like I said… I received her will, and after being so broken of her death I didn’t think twice as I asked you father: “Let’s have a family togheter.”. I had breached so much steps which would first occur in any relationship. But for me, your father was the one. It would be him and no one else. I was 17, I would graduate soon, and I had no ambition no dreams other than to spend my life happily with him. And after my sister death, the promise of having a part of her still with me…It was so alluring. To have my own family, back again.”

Taeyong sighed. “I was pretty love sick wasn’t I? Your father was less enthusiastic then I was. But seeing my broken state he didn’t deny it straightaway. He tried to reason with me, and that was the first time I learned about…his family situation. To say it didn’t affect me would be a lie. But the mere thought of losing your father…It made me so weak, and your father saw it.

After a lot of arguments which always ended with me crying, your father gave in. He tough that maybe starting a family with me would reassure me, to the point that my love wouldn’t be overbearing anymore. And that maybe…If he couldn’t love as I did, maybe he could if we had a child together.”

Taeyong ruffled Mark’s hair fondly. “That was the best decision we both ever made.

Even though we had to confront his family first. We were both naïve and somehow convinced them by marrying in secret. Your uncle Doyoung and Winwin were the only witnesses. And when they knew your father would be the one giving his seeds, they somehow tolerated us being together…for the moment.”

Mark immediately didn’t really like his father family. He wondered what kind of family they were but he really wasn’t hoping to meet them.

“And shorty after, my wish came true and you were born into this world.” Taeyong smiled, a very genuine smile as he looked at Mark, teasingly saying; “You were the most beautiful and cutest baby of the hospital. So tiny and cute, always grabbing my pink finger, crying when you were not I my arms and…”

“DAD!” a very flushed Mark groaned, not bearing this to continue.

Taeyong laughed.

“You should have seen your father. A total mess every time you just smiled at him. He never cooed enough and never took pictures enough to his liking. And when you cried he ran like a made fool, lost at the sight of what to do to calm you down.”

Mark’s body tensed a bit at the mention of his father.

“I never showed you your photalbum did I? They are full of your dad’s and uncle Doyoung’s picture. Theey had so much they ended up fulling three thick albums!” Taeyong chuckled at the memory. Mark only hoped those books somehow got lost but he had a feeling he would see them very soon.

“He was the one that came with your name. “Let’s call him Mark. Mark as he marks the connection between you and your sister, between you and I.” and he asked me to give you a Korean name.”

Mark’s tense body trembled a bit. Taeyong smiled.

“I was very happy with that name. I like it’s meaning and I considered you as the bright star of my heart; So I gave you the name Minhyun, “Min” from “gentle” and “Hyun” from “dazzling”. Our own gentle star.”

Mark buried his head into his father chest, as he heard him talk about him with so much love; half embarrassed, half wanting to return his father love back. Taeyong smiled, knowing his son well enough and he planted a gentle kiss on top of his hair.

“As you can guess, we were both very happy with you. And its indeed because of you that your father endured. He stayed for 5 years at our side, even though he did not love me in a romantic way anymore. But I failed to recognise the fact that he tried his best to make “us” work even though it didn’t make him happy. But he forsake his happiness, afraid to hurt me and not wanting to destroy the family we had.” Taeyong sighed again for the countless time during this story.

“In a way, if I hadn’t forced my love on him in the beginning, so much that it burned him tired, maybe…We would have gotten our happy ending. But we were both young back then. My fault was I felt too deep. And his fault was that he loved me in the wrong way: he cherished me but not in a romantic way. And his fault lied in the fact that he was not brave enough to tell me.”

Taeyong looked at a very confuse Mark. “Love is a complicated thing. And so are adults.”

He  smiled. “In the end he tried. I didn’t understand it at that time but he was in pain too and he struggled too much to continue. But he tried. And at that time he met his special someone. Forcing yourself to love someone and forcing yourself to love someone else are two different