Daehyun’s POV

[Flashback]

It was 8:00 in the evening. The mere memory of a stranger standing on our doorstep was still etched in my mind. My mother often read stories that ranged from fantasy to thriller. This was one of those stories she softly whispered to put me to sleep, wherein a strange man came to take away little children who disobeyed their parents.

The entire neighborhood welcomed the bleak darkness. Along with it came the character from the story I’d been dreading the most. Had I been a bad kid? Did he know I slept late yesterday?

Mother paused the television to see who was knocking at this very hour. I brought my knees closer and buried my head. A soft hand patted my head.

“Don’t be scared. I’ll read more stories to you about bunnies and horses,” she was almost the epitome of a calm person despite the fact that there might be someone lurking around. She stood up and walked at a slow pace towards the sound.

I was not just scared. In fact, I was deeply terrified of what the man was capable of committing. There was news surfacing around about a prisoner who broke his way out of jail. The prisoner was known for his heinous crimes of kidnapping children who didn’t make their assignments. Or that was what I remembered as told by our teacher.  

At first, their voices were muffled. I could barely hear what they were talking about. It continued for almost half an hour then mother suddenly raised her voice. I was stunned. Her voice reverberated inside our tiny house.

“Do you hear yourself? The kid is still young!”

Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. Those were the mantras I kept repeating as the voices grew horribly louder like a thunder during uneventful storms. You never know when they would be coming. All of a sudden you would just find yourself taking comfort in whatever nook you found.

“You don’t have the right to deny me my kid! Please! My wife and I have already decided to adopt the kid and take care of him,” the man pleaded.

I didn’t know what to make out of the word, kid. Who was this man to us that he could say such terrible things?

I could hear my mother sobbing. “Please don’t take the child away from me. He’s my only family.”

When I heard my mother crying, I told myself I hated this guy. I loathed the stranger who made the woman who took care of me for six years cry. He was even more horrible than all the bad guys from the books combined. He was terrible because he made my mother cry.

“Don’t you see? The kid has no future here. He will grow into a man incapable of things he could have achieved had he stayed with me. Please try to understand your situation here. You are denying him a future that can make him even more successful than what you think. Will your conscience take it?”

Their voices dropped back to almost silent, and I didn’t catch the rest of the conversation. The door closed and the sound of the car’s engine revving up was all I could hear. It slowly faded until the only sound left was the loud thump of my heart.

Later that night my mother told me about the man. How I’d be leaving for a while to stay with that man. She said he was my biological father. I should have been happy finally knowing who he was, but I wasn’t. I fought and cried, but she knew what to say.

She always knew.

Later that night she read a story about a man who drowned himself in the vast ocean. He was found by a mermaid who led him to a kingdom full of treasures. He was so blinded by the chest full of gold offered in front of him that he soon forgot his life above the sea.

He never came back.

He never would.

The next morning, the stranger who I’d never consider my father returned. He was with several other men wearing the same black uniform. My mother gripped my hand tightly. Soon I’d be out there alone, away from her comfort.

One of the men who wore a black outfit took my bag. It was just a small bag. I didn’t have that much to pack since I didn’t have that many clothes. We were poor.

Mother bent her knees and leveled her face with mine. Her face was filled with sadness and despair. I could sense her trying to fight back the tears. “Daehyun, everything will be fine. It will just be for a while. Just bear with it for some time and we will be together again.”

I nodded. I cried so hard last night there was nothing left today. My eyes were dry. I was tired.

“I love you. I will always send letters and visit you if I can.”

But she didn’t.

I walked to the car without ev