Chapter 1: The Beginning

2010 February

     Cameras flashed everywhere and men in black suits bustled into the funeral room, all shaking hands with Jieun's father.

The television near the entrance broadcasted outside of the funeral room with the headlines Kim Hyun-Ju, Wife of the Chairman of Hansung Co. passed away. The news anchor nonchalantly spoke about her mother holding the second-highest stock and the impact of her death on the company, but not a single comment on condolences.

Jieun glanced at his father who shook the hand of every businessman in the room and was so busy to greet them.

"I'm sorry for your loss Chairman Lee," a familiar voice came from above. 

"Thank you for coming," her dad replied weakly. 

"That poor thing, she's only 16."

Jieun looked up to see Director Park staring at her. But in his face, Jieun could not find a single hint of sadness in his face. 

"Jieun, you should go and eat something." Her dad crouched down beside her and tucked the hair behind her ear. "You've been here all day."

"None of them look sad," Jieun spat. "They're all after Mum's stocks."

"Jieun," her father murmured under his breath. "Now is not the time."

"Aren't you sad Dad?" Jieun croaked and let the tears fall. "Mom is dead. She's... dead."

Her dad sighed and stood up, looking down at his weak daughter. 

"Go get some sleep," her Dad said quietly. "You need some rest."

"Mom is dead Dad," Jieun stood up and blurted. 'She's never coming back and you're going around shaking hands with everyone. You're not sad you just want to take hold of Mom's stocks before somebody else in this FRICKING ROOM DOES!" 

Jieun's scream gathered a crowd and before her Father could say something, she ran out of the room with tears streaming down her cheeks.

     Jieun ran out of the building and her legs collapsed to jelly.

She had cried so much she had no more energy left to cry, but if she didn't cry the mess inside her heart would kill her. 

She collapsed on the entrance steps and began crying her heart out, hoping that her mother would come back.

"Jieun," a familiar voice called her.

Jieun looked up but her vision was covered with her tears. 

A tall silhouette walked towards her and knelt before her, wiping the tears off her eyes with his thumb. 

It was Myungsoo, her friend since Kindergarten. 

     He dropped the huge backpack on his backpack and wiped his face and neck drenched with sweat from running. Still panting, he hugged Jieun and pat her back.

Jieun's cries muffled in his embrace as she continued to cry mercilessly. 

"I'm sorry I'm late," Myungsoo said quietly. "The Train from Busan was delayed." * It takes 3-4 hours to get to Seoul from Busan.

"What do I do Myungsoo," Jieun sobbed. "My mom is gone. How am I supposed to live now?!"

Myungsoo hugged his friend tight, crying alongside her.

--

     Jieun and Myungsoo walked into the funeral room together, past all the reporters and news anchors who focused their cameras on Jieun as she walked back into the room. 

Public visiting time had ended and only close friends and family remained in the room.

Myungsoo bowed down to her father and stared at the funeral portrait of Jieun's mother for a very long time, silently.

"Myungsoo you're here," her father greeted him. "It must have been hard coming all the way from Busan."

"Not at all sir," he said. "It's only right of me to be here."

Jieun watched as Myungsoo paid his respects to her mother and stared at her father sitting beside his mother's portrait, powerless. 

As her Grandmother and Grandfather started crying over their daughter, Jieun saw her father silently swallowing his tears, trying his hardest not to cry. Watching her father broke her heart.

     At that moment she realized that Adults feel pain, too. It's just that adults keep it bottled up. They were just busy being adults, and they just acted strong due to the pressures that came with their age. 

Jieun knew how much her father loved her mother; she knew that was real. 

Her eyes were like a holed silo. Tears wouldn't stop leaking out of her eyes.

She sat beside her family and cried alongside them, staring at the portrait of her mother. 

This was the first time in 6 years the entire family had gathered together and this moment of shared heartbreak felt so real. 

Jieun was so drowned in her sadness that she had never thought about what would happen in her life after.

She wished that this period of mourning could go on forever because she didn't want to let go of her mother.

In this moment of mourning was the only time where crying her heart out was justified. 

Months after her mother's death, people would tell her,

"Losses happen. They say that losses are all a part of gaining experience. Just consider this loss as a good experience, and forget about it already."

It was at that moment Jieun was no longer who she used to be.

She became an Adult-child.

An Adult-child is just one without complaints. It's just that they've acclimated to the world of adults, and they've grown used to the illusions around them. Nobody cares for the sadness and the scars of an Adult-Child, because they're expected to swallow their miseries.

But an Adult-child is just that, a child.

She believed that the loss of her mother would bring her and her father closer together.

But her expectations shattered when her father remarried 6 months later.

Hi 

I'm back after so many years (I think 5).
Yikes. Due to the Corona Virus and all this self-quarantine madness, I thought about this piece and I came back to it because I wanted to continue it again.
The original members are the same but there has been a little change in the minor characters and the introduction of a few new characters.
But the storyline will be the same as the old version, but with extra details and tweaks.

Thank you all for reading.