Chapter Nine: Forgive and Forget

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Noona! Wait! Yah!" Jonathan cried as he chased Hyerin. "Noona!!!"

"Jonathan, I want to be alone for a while, okay?" Hyerin softly said as she tried to sound as calm as possible. She even tried smiling. "Look, just... just leave me be, okay? Can you do that?"

"Noona, I want to talk with you. NOW."

"Not now."

"But, noona-"

"Listen, you know how terrible I am when I'm angry, right?"

"N-nae...?"

"And we all know that everyone hates that, right?"

"Y-yes...?"

"Good. And I hate it myself. I just need to steam off a bit, then we can talk, okay? I'll just let my anger out."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, sure."

"You promise that you'll come out and talk with me after you let out your anger, noona? Do you promise me that?"

"Nae. I promise, Jonathan." Hyerin nodded with a reassuring smile. "I promise. Now, if you excuse me..."

"Nae, and please, try to let it out as gentle as you can without breaking anything, can you do that?" Jonathan reminded.

"Of course I can." Hyerin smiled as she walked inside the room. "Okay, I'll be going now."

"Sure."

With the young girl leaving the scene, Jonathan went back to the scene where Hui Ying is. As expected, Hui Ying was crying and their "fathers" were trying to stop her from doing so, but of course, continuously failed. 

"Hui Ying." Jonathan softly called out, enough for the younger to hear.

"Oppa!" Hui Ying cried as she hurried to run towards Jonathan, struggling free from EXO's hands. Once she grabbed Jonathan, she hurried and hugged her brother.

"There, there, everything's going to be fine." Jonathan said as he patted the younger's back.

"Where's Hyerin?" Chen asked.

"In the room." Jonathan answered quickly. 

"Aish, we angered her enough, didn't we?" Luhan asked

"She's ill-tempered. She can get angry easily, it's nothing to worry, appa." Jonathan smiled. "She's... just like that, it's a part of who she is."

"Will she be okay?" Xiumin asked.

"Of course she will be. She just... needs to let out her anger."

"She's not breaking anything in our room, right?" Kai asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

"What? Of course not..." Jonathan nervously laughed. "Eh... at least not."

"Said something?" Suho asked.

"Nothing~"

Seeing that Hui Ying was still crying in front of him, Jonathan shifted his eyes from the younger girl to everyone in EXO. "Appa, can we talk?" he asked as he eyed everyone of them. Of course, all twelve nodded and quickly, they all headed to the living room.

With everyone gathered, Jonathan and Hui Ying sat down along with the twelve. Hui Ying refused to leave Jonathan, well, after being scolded by her fathers, of course the young girl would be terrified of them. "Okay, so... what is it you wanted to talk about, Jonathan?" Suho asked.

"About our noona's actions." Jonathan quickly replied. "I'm really really sorry for her actions. She just-"

"Part of who she is." D.O finished. "Yeah, you kind of told that earlier, Jonathan."

"N-nae. And... I just want to explain the reason of her anger to you all to avoid misunderstanding."

"Because we shouted at Hui Ying?" Lay asked.

"Well... yes." Jonathan nodded. "But... that's somewhat a result of her past."

"Past?" they all asked in unison.

"Nae. Hyerin-noona had a really terrible past, appa."

"Terrible past? Her?" Chen blinked.

"Well, spit it out, what is it?" Baekhyun asked.

"Well-"

"Oppa, we promised unnie not to tell anyone, remember?" Hui Ying reminded as she tugged Jonathan's arm a little, enough for the young boy to shift his attention on her. "If we tell them, she'll be really angry!"

"You're right." Jonathan nodded. "But... c'mon, they're our appas, right? They are my and your appas, so they are noona's appas too. It's okay to tell them, I guess."

"But... we promised."

"... Well, we did."

"It's okay if you don't wanna tell." Kris smiled. "I mean, we're not forcing you or anything, it's okay. We respect the fact that it should only exist between you three."

Seeing that Kris was about to stand up, Jonathan stood up and cried out his name, making the older guy quickly sit. "Mianhe.. I raised my voice." Jonathan apologized.

"It's nothing, you just surprised me." Kris laughed.

"I'll tell." Jonathan mumbled.

"Hm?"

"I'll tell. I'll tell noona's past."

"Oppa-! We can't!" Hui Ying softly cried.

"Mianhe, but they are our appas, and they have to know everything about us. Our past, our informations, everything. They are our family now, right?"

"N-nae."

"And they adopted us, right?"

"Nae."

"They took the responsibility of being our fathers, right?"

"Yes..."

"Then they should know everything, Hui Ying."

"A-arraseo, arraseo. But... won't unnie get mad?"

"She won't, I'm sure of that." Jonathan smiled as he ruffled the younger's hair. "She won't since she can't."

Seeing her brother's reassuring smile made Hui Ying sigh and agree at the end. "Arraseo, arraseo... okay, I'll tell now."

"You see, it all started when we were younger. Noona was ten years old back then, I was eight and Hui Ying... well, two years old." Jonathan began as he tried remembering the thought. "You see, back at the orphanage, eversince we arrived there, we were bullied, even noona. We were bullied for years."

"Kids there never accepted us. They looked down on us, bullied us, mocked us. Our imo knew about it and tried stopping them, but those kids were two-faced. When imo is there, they'll act all good, but once she's gone, they turn into nothing but merciless people! They won't leave us for even a second. Though they were that of our age, and some, maybe a few years older, they looked down on us."

"Why is that?" Sehun asked.

"Our different races." Jonathan answered. "They're a bunch of god-damn racists. Just because I'm half Canadian and Hui Ying's half Chinese... they looked down on us."

"A bunch of-! They just didn't-!" Kai cried.

"They did." Jonathan nodded.

"Son of a... those... those-!" Chanyeol scowled.

"Yah, calm down." Baekhyun sighed. 

"Then, what happened?" Sehun asked.

"Well, they continued doing those things, and even until we ran away." Jonathan continued. "They never stopped. Usually, I was the one picked on. Not only because I was a boy, but because of my pacifist nature. I don't fight back using my fists, I fight back by using my head, but... I can't. I hate violence, and so does Hui Ying here. Hyerin-noona would always be the one to protect us. We grew up being protected by noona.

"She hates being looked down. She hates being treated as someone helpless... as someone who can't defend herself. She might look sweet and innocent, but that's just her appearance. Her appearance is nothing to who she really is. Noona is a complete bad-, she'll easily kick your butts once you piss her off. That time, she even learned martial art techniques on her own to serve as her defense against those bullies. She easily learned those techniques for some reason, and she easily used these. 

"There was this one time, and probably one of the worsts. We were confronted by this older guy and tried picking up on me as usual. Hyerin-noona protected me and they got physical. For some reason, noona won. Imo knew about this and punished both of them for starting a fight. Some of his 'gang members' confronted us and began shouting at us. Hyerin-noona learned about this and fought them again, and of course, got punished once again. 

"Hyerin-noona never left our side. She said she'll always protect us 'till the end. She fought anyone who messed with us. One time, noona's valued possession, a porcelain angel figurine was stolen by those bullies and broke it. It made noona snap and beat him up, until he lost consciousness. She was really scary that time, and soon, we discovered that the bully did it as revenge to us. That figurine was with her eversince she came in the orphanage, and is really rare to find. She treasured it the most, and now, it's gone. It was her only memory of her 'family'."

"That's... horrible." Tao commented.

"Nae." Jonathan nodded. "That incident just now, it reminded her of that. Noona knows that feeling."

"Unnie hates it when someone picks up on us, and since she's ill-tempred, she'll quickly snap when we get shouted by someone." Hui Ying added. "That's the reason of her actions lately."

"Wow, never knew..." Xiumin sighed.

Everyone was casted in dead silence. Who knew that Hyerin, an innocent looking lassie, is someone they never expected. Then, just then, a rather loud noise surprised the whole EXO.

"Blast it! Blast it! Damn it! Argh, so annoying!!!"

"What the heck was that?!" D.O cried in shock.

"Wha-?!" Kai yelped.

"What was that?!" Tao cried.

Jonathan simply sighed as a faint smile crossed his face. Hui Ying simply giggled upon hearing the rather loud noise from a room nearby. Noticing that the two were secretly smiling and giggling, Suho managed to ask the reason why.

"See for yourself." Jonathan giggled as he stood up and leaded the whole group to where Hyerin is. There, with a little opening, the twelve peeked inside, just to find that Hyerin was actually "beating up" a stuffed toy to release her anger. 

"Wow, she's scary." Kai gasped.

"Totally." Tao nodded.

"Take note, we are never messing up with her. AGAIN." D.O whispered.

"Exactly." Jonathan softly giggled.

Hours later, Hyerin finally got out of the room, just to see that the twelve guys were slacking in the living room. Jonathan and Hui Ying seemed to be actually getting along with the guys as if nothing even happened.

"Oh, noona!" Jonathan smiled as he saw the teen exit the room. "All good now?"

"Y-yeah." Hyerin nodded as she faced the whole group shyly. "Er.. this is awkward."

Seeing that Hyerin refused to get any closer to the group, Jonathan finally decided to make a move. The younger decided to approach his sister, a sweet yet worried expression curling up his face. "Are you all good now? Is the anger gone?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah, I think." Hyerin nodded. "I'm still... I don't know how to approach the oppas."

"Just approach them, that's it."

"Not that easy, dude."

"What?"

"I shouted at them and pushed Kris-oppa, of course it won't be that easy!"

"Trust me, it'll be okay." Jonathan giggled as he held his sister's hand. "Come on, let's approach them together."

"Arraseo."

Upon seeing that the young girl is approaching them, EXO simply put up a rather reassuring smile, just for the sake of it. They really didn't know what to do or say. "Um... look, I..." Hyerin began.

"Let me cut you off there, Hyerin." Xiumin began. "We're the ones sorry. We should've known. We shouldn't have shouted at Hui Ying lately. We should've known how you see things after all those years being bullied and such."

"Hu-huh?"

"Jonathan told us everything." Chen said. "On why you acted like that. We understand. Of course, being bullied and mocked for years would definitely turn you over protective of them."

"What?!" Hyerin cried as she beamed at Jonathan. "Wait, you told them?!"

"Well-" Jonathan faltered as he rubbed his nape.

"Come on, don't worry." Suho smiled. "We're a family now, right? No secrets should be hidden now. We're your fathers, you're our kids."

"And we truly understand your situation, Hyerin." Kris smiled.

"Okay... so, you're not like, mad at me?" Hyerin asked.

"Why would we?" Xiumin asked. "If there's anyone who should be mad, it's you. We shouted at Hui Ying and totally forgot about your background. We should know better."

"No, I'm not supposed to be angry." Hyerin softly said. "I shouldn't have pushed Kris-oppa lately. I did something wrong, and actually, I shouldn't have been angry. The way I acted lately is actually... rude. You adopted us and that's how I acted. You should be the ones angry, not me."

"Aigoo, come here." Kai said, which the young girl quickly obeyed. 

"Look, everyone made mistake, correct?" Suho asked.

"Nae." Hyerin nodded.

"So, that means no one should be angry. We did some wrong things and those mistakes were meant for us to learn to."

"Learn from your mistakes, remember, unnie?" Hui Ying said as she sat on Tao's lap. " Those mistakes will serve as our guide for the future things to come, for us not to commit the same mistake again, right?"

"Now, I myself am starting to doubt if you really are eight years old, Hui Ying." Hyerin chuckled. "But, yeah, you're right. We should learn from our mistakes."

"So... are we good now?" Kris asked as he offered a hand to the young girl.

"Of course." Hyerin smiled as she shook Kris' hand. "We're all good, oppa."

With that, EXO and Hyerin finally came to a resolution. Forgive and forget. Forgive each other, and forget that hatred ever existed in them. The mistakes that they made, those will serve as their reminder next time.

Let not a little misunderstanding ruin everything.

They are a family.

They are one.

Despite their differences...

They are one.

And that's how supposedly the day came to an end. After knowing more about Hyerin and understanding who she exactly is, EXO will strive to be closer to her. There were no secrets anymore, and quite no reason to keep one too. 

The bond will start to be formed.

That bond that later on will be strong.

The bond of family.

EXO, Hyerin, Jonathan and Hui Ying...

They are one...

"So, who wants snacks?" D.O asked.

"Us!" they all replied loudly, just to be followed with a small laugh. EXO hurried to the kitchen to get the "snacks", while the three followed later on.

"Say, Jonathan." Hyerin softly called out as she beamed at the younger. "About that thing you told the oppas..."

"Oh, are we still there?" Jonathan nervously laughed. "C'mon...noona~"

"I'm innocent!" Hui Ying cried out as she innocently looked at Hyerin.

"You told them something they shouldn't know, right?" Hyerin asked, a smirk curling up her face.

"N-nae..." the two nodded.

"Aw, come here you little rascals!" Hyerin laughed as she s her arms around the two. "Come on, let's get some snacks."

"Sure!"

"Yay~"