Waiting

***

‘If only you’ve totally forgotten me and do not look back anymore, everything would be easier for me.

But the wall of forbearance that I’ve built up for years, had just crushing down once you called my name again in the same way.’

He will come…

He will not…

He will come…

He will not…

A young man kept chanting in the silence of the night while drew a circle with a broken twig on the ground. He was crouching down near the old-school entrance, the primary school that he used to attend back then. His other hand was clenching an old diary securely to his chest. The diary he used to story everything to his Yunnie, back in the olden days. He kept looking up at every passing car light that approaching his way, hoping the person he was waiting for would appear. But none of those that had crossed the road were the one.

With the help from Yoohwan, his long-lost best friend, Jaejoong had managed to escape from those skilled-bodyguards that were guarding him at the airport and...Changmin.

Another fresh tears slithering down his cheek but he quickly wiped it off with the back of his hand, as the thought of the man wafted through his mind. That man had lied to him all these times, also his father. He had fully regained another part of his memories after found the old diary, accidentally, when he was searching for iPod in Changmin’s luggage when the man was away on call with someone important from his work. Everything happened just in time. It seemed the man was desperately keeping the diary away from him and even to carry it along with him was a big mistake. The diary had finally returned back to its owner.

Now, he remembered…

What the man named Jung Yunho had really went through while trying to raise him back then, alone.

The man had sacrificed his young life just so he could give him undivided attention, love and make him live like a normal kid should. Trying hard to make sure he get a proper education like others, even the young Jung Yunho that time had ignored and was not clear about his own future.

As the harshness of their life pushing them to the edge, almost strangling them, the elder of the two had no choice, but to shove the little brother out of his life. So, the younger one would have a better life when he had a choice to do so, and happened to have a bright future ahead.

Jaejoong knew all the things that had been story about his childhood life all these times by his father and Changmin were all lies, since the fact that was told to him were all contrasted with the sudden clear memories he had regained from the diary, mostly about his real mother. There was no single picture of her had ever shown to him. But the thing that made him mad and frustrated now was the fact Changmin actually knew the truth all along, since the man had kept his diary and yet was hiding everything from him. His heart clenched painfully against his chest, when thinking he had been deceived all these years by his own father and the man, whom also his cousin. That was enough to break his trust toward those two, whom he mostly loved and cherished. He didn’t understand what the real motive of them hiding the truth from him was.

He was actually planning to keep quiet about him regained back the memory of his past. But seeing how the things were right now, seemed everyone keeping the lies, he couldn’t pretend anymore.

[15 years ago…]
 

“Now, you want me to just accept the kid as my son?!” A Japanese woman around her forty shouted at the husband.

She was so filled with rage at the moment, after her husband brought home a little boy out of nowhere and now telling her the kid was his son with his ex-wife that he left, back in Korea.

“Listen Keiko, I don’t want to make it worse for the boy. Whether you accept it or not, Jaejoong is my son. That’s the fact that you can’t deny.”Kim Seung Woo said resolutely.

“So, are you telling me that you choose the kid over me?” Her voice quavered with uncontained rage. It had been five years they got married and the fact she couldn’t give the man a child making her felt even more sensitive and mad when the man suddenly brought in the kid from his previous marriage. All of her efforts to win the man’s heart and be the most important person in the man’s life, where she could have some control over him seemed futile just by the boy sudden existence. The boy that resembled the woman her husband ever and still loved was the biggest threat to her.

“You are leading this argument to nowhere. You know I won’t abandon the kid.”

“Then you should let him die with his mother in that accident!” The resentment she held laden in her voice as she shouted.

“Enough!”

A hard slap landed on her left cheek, at once quieting her from kept arguing.

“If you still mentioned about this matter, then I don’t have a choice but to let you go. After all, we both know that this marriage is wrong from the start. If only your father didn’t force me to and gave up all his share in my business, I would not leave Haneul and marry you. And I know you agreed because of my money. So don’t let me start it. Because you’ll be the one who’s going to regret. Whether you like it or not, sooner or later, I will bring Jaejoong out to public as my son.” Seung Woo said firmly.

Only if he knew the one that incurred all the grudge the woman kept toward him was the innocent little being afterward.

Whenever he was away, having an outstation, his wife would lock the boy in the old warehouse at the back of their house and received all kind of abuses. But she always made sure to not hit the boy on the spot that was visible to the eyes.

Sometime the boy had not given a food for a day, only able to drink water to keep him awake and breathing. And sometimes he was beaten without a reason. When the maids trying to help, she would threatened them and few were fired and sent away out of the city, to shut them from saying a word about the crisis that happened in the household to outsiders. Not much people know about the boy existence in the house.

Not enough with the suffering she inflicted on the boy, she had even plotted a kidnapping, in order to get the child killed; since she couldn’t do it directly. She had hired few men to take the boy away and left him somewhere. But her plan had always met with failure since Seung Woo would do everything, using his power, money and influence to get his son back safely; without knowing his wife was the mastermind behind the mess.

Every day, the little Kim Jaejoong was abused by his step mother after he was taken to Japan. There were few times where he managed to flee from the house, but with no direction, he almost got into an accident one time. That was when Seung Woo decided to home-schooling him, instead of letting him out. Since he thought the boy would run away whenever there was a chance to.

The boy’s traumatic and aloofness state that became worse made Seung Woo getting worried without knowing anything that happened to the poor kid. He grew weary, thinking his love could not overpower the love and comfort the kid was seeking from a certain younger man that was not related to him at all. And to hear the boy kept calling the same name every single day after his separation with that certain person, he felt tortured.

Those tormenting days ended when finally he found the reason behind the boy untreated-behaviour disorder. It was that day when his business trip was cancelled in the last minute, and he decided to spend his time with his precious son by taking the boy out.

As he was reaching home that day, he spotted the thick smoke came out from the backyard of his house. There were an ambulance and police cars surrounded the house. Still in confusion, he rushed to the house and saw what the firefighters were doing to save his warehouse. The old warehouse was in flames.

Looking at his surroundings, he only spotted his maids crying and trembling on the ground.

“What’s happening here?” He asked one of them, thinking it was an accident that rarely happened and glad it was just the old, abandoned warehouse that located a bit far from the main house.

The answer he received just a shook of head from the maid who seemed lost her energy to answer him at the moment.

“Where’s Keiko?” He asked his wife whereabouts.

“Madam has been out for a while now…” One of them answered this time, while holding her sob and looking terrified.

“And Jaejoong?” Seung Woo asked again, even though he knew the boy must be locking himself in his bedroom as always; but still he just wanted to make sure that his boy was out of the danger. But his expression swiftly changed as he caught the maid was looking at each other in dismayed. One of them started crying out.

“We try to help, but we can’t do anything! It’s too late and the fire already spread!”

“What…” Seung Woo turned pale now and had a look of terror, as his sense strongly told him something wasn’t right. Then he heard one of the firefighters shouted out.

“There’s a boy in here!”

Now, everything down upon him, slowly he started to get the real picture of what was happening. Feeling