1. Sehun
Four Seasons"Love is sometimes denied, sometimes lost, sometimes unrecognized,
but in the end, always found with no regrets, forever valued and kept treasured"
Sehun wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock beeping obnoxiously next to his ears. He rolls over to his side and groans in annoyance as he slams on the snooze button, just a few more minutes. His eyes remain closed while he lays in the comfort of his bed, only for the peacefulness to disappear from the sound of his mother’s voice.
“Sehun honey! Are you up yet?!” Sehun threw the blanket off of his body and got up, rubbing his tired eyes groggily before answering his mother.
“Yeah, I’m up! I’ll be down in a few!” He turns around to shut off his alarm quickly before it rings and gets ready for another day at school. Sehun grabs his neatly pressed uniform on his way to the washroom and hangs it on the door to get prepared. He brushes his teeth, washes his face and changes into his uniform quickly. Taking one last glance in the mirror, Sehun makes sure that he looks presentable before he heads downstairs. He is greeted by his mother’s back as she warms up his breakfast.
“Morning mom.”
“Morning honey, breakfast will be done soon.”
Sehun pulls his chair out and sits down while he waits for breakfast. He looks outside the window as a result of his boredom and realizes that it snowed last night. He’ll have to shovel the snow before going to school today. Sehun is broken out of his daze when his mother sets his plate of bacon and eggs in front of him. The microwave rings at this moment, like always; his mother makes sure to get him a cup of warm milk to go with his breakfast during the winter.
“Thanks mom.” His mother smiles softly at her son and watches him eat his breakfast. Her baby is growing up so fast, in four months’ time he’ll be eighteen already.
Sehun notices that his mother isn’t eating her breakfast and looks up at her with his eyebrows pinched together. “Why aren’t you eating?”
“Hmm? Oh nothing, it’s fine.”
“Um… okay then.” Sehun shrugs it off and finishes the rest of his breakfast quickly. He excuses himself from the table and makes his way upstairs. He opens up his closet and scans for his winter coat, gloves and earmuffs. He’ll have to shovel the snow quickly if he doesn’t want to be late for school. After getting dressed Sehun goes downstairs and sees a note on the table.
“I just got a call from work, there’s an emergency at the office so I had to leave right away. I’m sorry that I can’t drive you to school today, here’s twenty dollars to take a taxi. You shouldn’t walk in this weather.”
Sehun crumples the note and tosses it into the garbage can; he lets out a heavy sigh before going outside. Whatever, it’s not like he hasn’t gotten use to this already, when is she not preoccupied with work?
After Sehun finishes shovelling the walkway on his own, he notices how most of his neighbors have a father to shovel the walkway together with. It must be nice to have a dad. Sehun shakes the thought out of his head and hurries inside to put his shovel away. He puts the twenty dollar bill his mother gave him into his pocket and decides to walk to school instead; nobody takes a taxi to school.
When Sehun finally gets to school, he grabs a seat in the back next to his friends and spends most of the day talking to them rather than to take notes. He really couldn’t care less about school, he got by with decent grades and that’s more than enough for him. If he could he’d drop out and dance all day, maybe if his mother was willing to get him some dance lessons he’d be better than that Kai kid in his class.
Once the time for lunch finally came Sehun and his friends ran towards the cafeteria, they’re starving. Sehun was scarfing down his tuna sandwich when his cellphone began to ring. He fished his phone out from his pant pocket and clicked answer.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Is this Oh Se Hun?” The cafeteria is extremely loud and his friends are currently staring at him curiously so he decides to step out to the hall for the time being.
“Uh, yeah that’s me, is something the matter?”
“Ah, yes actually. I’m your mother’s co-worker Cho Jung Hee and I’ve got some news for you. Your mother came rushing back to the office due to an abrupt business meeting today and got into a car accident. Sh-” Sehun didn’t even listen to the rest of Junghee’s sentence. He sprinted to his locker and threw his jacket on quickly. He ran out to the streets and waved for a taxi, walking to school and keeping the twenty dollars was definitely a good idea.
“Seoul hospital please.” Sehun twirls his fingers nervously in the backseat of the cab. The moment they reached the hospital Sehun paid the taxi driver and dashed towards the entrance. Only when he gets inside does he realize that he has no idea where his mother is. Sehun takes his phone out of his pocket and calls the Junghee.
“Hello?”
“Hi! Sorry about earlier, I was just wondering where my mom is right now.”
“Oh! Sehun, ah yes, you didn’t even let me finish talking and you didn’t answer my call after I tried calling back! What I wanted to say was she’s in room 103 and to not worry. She didn’t sustain any serious injuries, her ankle is fractured and she has a slight concussion but it’s no big deal. The do-” Once again, before Junghee could finish his sentence, Sehun hangs up on him and makes way to room 103.
The door to his mother’s room is open but he knocks anyways, after knocking lightly Sehun goes in and lets out a sigh of relief. His mother is sitting up on the hospital bed and talking to his aunt right now. She looks completely fine other than the bandages around her right ankle.
“Ah, Sehun honey you’re here!” Sehun walks over and greets his aunt quickly. Now that he’s actually here and sees that his mother is okay he feels that he should probably go. There isn’t anything for him to do that his aunt isn’t better in anyways.
“Uh… Yeah. Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Were you worried? You look like you ran a marathon!” Sehun’s mother chuckled while he cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Yeah, but now that I know you’re fine I should probably go back to school.” The smile on Sehun’s mother’s face fell, she was hoping that he could stay for a little bit but school is important.
“Mmm, right, you wouldn’t want to miss too much of your classes. I’ll be discharged tomorrow afternoon so I’ll see you then alright?” Sehun nodded his head and bowed at his aunt again before turning away.
“Bye mom, I... hope you get well soon.” Sehun left the room hesitantly, missing the soft expression displayed on his mother’s face after he said that. Sehun has never been very good with expressing himself.
Despite the fact that Sehun told his mother he’d got back to school, he decided to call it a day and go home early. He set his backpack down at the front door and headed straight for his room. Sehun changes out of his uniform and puts on a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. He plugs his IPod into the dock and proceeds to practice some of the dances he came up with a few days ago. It isn’t until his stomach complains from hunger that he stops dancing. He turns off the music and falls onto his bed, panting from how exhausted he was. He waited until his breath returned to normal then got up and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Sehun opens the fridge and looks around to see what he can make for dinner. As Sehun scans the contents of the fridge he realizes that there isn’t anything that he’s capable of making without burning the house down or giving himself severe food poisoning. Sehun gives up on trying to make real food and decides to settle with some good old fashioned ramyun.
After eating the ramyun he made, Sehun takes a quick shower to wash off the sweat produced during his long dance session. When he finishes his shower, he takes the dirty clothes and brings them to the laundry room only to see baskets filled with his dirty clothes. Sehun looks up at his mother’s daily plans and realizes that today is when she usually washes his shirts. He takes another glance at the growing pile and grabs the basket, how hard can doing the laundry be? Well, apparently to Sehun, doing the laundry can be rather difficult. After what seemed like hours, Sehun finally manages to figure out the functions of each button and successfully washes his pile of dirty shirts. Feeling especially accomplished, Sehun takes a break and relaxes on the couch of his living room. He turns on the TV and flips through the channels before finding something interesting enough to catch his attention. Sehun’s eyelids begin to grow heavy as it gets later; yawning Sehun shuts off the TV and makes his way to his room, falling asleep the moment his body reaches the bed.
Like always, Sehun wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock. He slams on the off button and sits up from his bed. Sehun is feeling confused since his mother hasn’t called for him but remembers that she’s still at the hospital. He then proceeds to get ready for school but forgets where he put his uniform after getting home from school yesterday. Irritated, Sehun looks around his room before spotting his uniform hanging off of his desk. He reaches for it right away, his grip hard, releasing his irritation on an inanimate object. Once in the washroom, Sehun gets ready for school swiftly, after putting on his uniform though, Sehun’s eyebrows furrow at how terrible he looked. His uniform is filled with creased lines and his tie is awfully wrinkled. His stomach then grumbles in hunger and Sehun decides that he’ll have to iron out the creases after he makes breakfast.
Opening up the pantry instead of the fridge this time, Sehun looks carefully, his eyes landing on the box of pancake mix right away. That should be easy to make, all he needs are some eggs and milk really. Sehun pulls the box out of the pantry and reads the instructions carefully. After mixing the batter, he sets a pan on the stove and turns it on. Making the batter itself was simple and relatively easy for Sehun but actually cooking those pancakes were a different story. Sehun ended up making a mess and burning half the pancakes he made before he finally made an edible piece. Sehun tries his best to clean up the mess he made and puts the less lethal looking pancakes on a plate. He pours himself a glass of milk and puts it into the microwave, he’s not sure how long his mother usually puts it in for but three minutes should be okay right? Sehun puts his plate onto the table and grabs a seat. He then digs into the breakfast he made, mentally patting himself on the back after tasting the last batch of pancakes he made. Not too bad. While eating his pancakes, Sehun completely forgets about his milk until he hears a loud crashing noise from his microwave. His eyes widened and he rushes over, opening the microwave door to see spilt milk and a broken glass cup. Face palming himself, Sehun shakes his head as the realization hit him. He shouldn’t have used a glass cup.
Once he finished cleaning up the mess he made, and pouring himself another glass of milk, finally finishing his breakfast in one piece. Sehun looks up at the clock and panics when he sees the time. He only has twenty minutes to get to school. Sehun throws his jacket on quickly, completing forgetting the fact that his uniform looked atrocious and that his walkway has yet to be shovelled. Sehun, slips into his shoes, swings his backpack over his shoulders and sprints his way to school. The bell rang seconds after Sehun, passed the front gates. He hurries to his locker and shoves his jacket inside, taking his backpack with him to homeroom. Laughter from his classmates was heard when Sehun stepped into the classroom, Sehun was confused at first but after getting seated in the back he understood why they were laughing. His morning was so chaotic that he forgot to iron out his uniform. His tie looks like he rolled it into a ball fifty times before putting it on and his sleeves were creased and sticking up.
“Dude, what’s with the look?” Sehun flashed his friend a quick glare.
“Don’t ask.”
After a long day at school Sehun finally got home. He unlocked the doors and stepped inside of the house. He expected his mother to be sitting in the living room and watching TV or something but she wasn’t. Weird, isn’t his mother supposed to be home by now? Sehun looks around confused.
“Mom, I’m home!” He waits a few seconds and doesn’t get a reply so he assumes that she’s just late. Oh well, she’s only on time for things like work anyways. Sehun places his backpack down and goes straight to the kitchen. Feeling exhausted from his long day at school, Sehun grabs the cereal. He should play it safe. Sehun finishes his food and sets the bowl in the crowded sink. He should probably wash the dishes but Sehun decides that he can always do it later; he’s got quite a bit of homework to do today. Sehun picks his backpack up from the floor and goes to his room. He takes off his uniform and changes into a simple t-shirt and pajama pants. Sehun takes out his textbooks and notes and puts them on his desk. He spends the next few hours doing homework and soon falls asleep from both exhaustion and boredom.
It’s one in the morning when Sehun wakes up; he opens his eyes and stretches out the kinks on his back from sleeping on his chair with his face buried in his homework. While stretching a blanket falls onto the floor, his mother must have come home. Feeling thirsty, Sehun walks out to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He gulps down the contents and sets the cup into a sink which is now empty. Guilt washed over Sehun at this moment, he should have done the dishes earlier, his mother’s ankle is injured so standing over the sink to do the dishes must have been painful. Sehun then heads back to his room and notices his uniform hanging on his door, ironed neatly. The guilt Sehun felt only continued to increase but he’s too tired to fully wrap his head around it. He crashes onto the bed and falls asleep right away.
Once again, Sehun wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock and to the smell of pancakes. He presses the off button and shoots up from bed. Grabbing his uniform, Sehun gets ready quickly and heads to the kitchen.
“Sehun honey! Ar-”
“Morning mom.” Sehun interrupts his mother and notices a look of surprise flash on his mother’s face.
“Oh, you’re up and all ready to go already.” Sehun didn’t know if he should be amused at her reaction or feel offended at the fact that she’s surprised he’s up earlier.
“Yeah, uh, how’s your ankle?” Sehun sits down and looks at his hands instead of his mother while asking her the question.
“It’s fine, I’ll be better in no time.” Sehun nodded his head in acknowledgement and waited for his mother to finish making breakfast.
“I saw the pans in the sink last night and figured that you might want pancakes for breakfast.” Sehun’s mother set the plate down along with a glass of warm milk in front of him. He stared at the food and felt tears well up in his eyes.
“Sehun honey, what’s wrong? Do you not want this? Did something happen at school?” Sehun shook his head frantically at his mother’s questions and grabbed a fork. He took a giant bite out of the pancakes his mother made as the tears finally fell from his eyes.
“Sehun, you’re crying! Tell me, what’s the matter?!” Sehun swallowed his food and looked up at his mom.
“Mom, I’m sorry.” Sehun’s mother’s eyes widened at her son’s apology.
“Sorry? For what?”
“I’m sorry for being a terrible son.”
“What?! A terrible son? What makes you think you’re a terrible son? You’re the best son I could ever ask for, you’re perfectly fine! Sehun honey, stop crying, you’re making me feel uneasy. There’s absolutely nothing for you to be sorry about.”
“Bu-”
“No buts come on. Let’s get your face washed up, you can’t eat breakfast looking like that!” Sehun stared at his mother while she got up from her seat.
“Mom, just let me finish talking first okay?” Sehun’s mother looked at her son skeptically but nodded and sat down anyways.
“I’m sorry for taking you for granted. I’ve been so caught up with the fact that everybody else I know has both parents with them that I didn’t realize all the things you’ve done for me. I would get angry whenever you leave for work or whenever you missed my dance performances but now I finally understand how hard it is for you to not have husband. I’m not the only one missing someone important in my life, you are too and I just failed to realize that. After spending the day without you at home, I realized all the things you do for me to make my life easier. I’m such a let-down; there wasn’t a single thing that I could do right on my own. I’m sorry and I love you mom.” Sehun put his head down and stared at his hands, this is the first time he said those three words to his mom since he was five and he felt really awkward as those words left his lips. He didn’t know what else to say after that so he just remained quiet, waiting for his mother to reply. Instead of words though he heard his mother’s seat move as she got up and wrapped her arms around Sehun.
“Don’t feel sorry Sehun. I did those things because I wanted to make your life better and to fill in the empty spot your father left behind after he passed away. It’s only normal for a mother to take care of her son. No more crying alright?” Sehun nodded and hugged his mother back. “I love you too Sehun, don’t you ever forget that okay? Omma loves you more than anything else in this world.”
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