A/N: Everyone!!! I’m BACK! :D I know I have no words to apologize for making you wait sooooooooooo loooooooooong … from now on, I’ll try to update at least once in every one or two weeks … This update is about the revelation of Hyesung’s past … so no interaction of RS here… *bows* maybe this chapter is boring but believe me… I need this chapter to go on… and I also think my readers need to know about Hyesung’s past now… ^^ Please enjoy and tell me what your thoughts are… Love you all!

Rubbing his temples while letting out a long sigh, he threw himself to his poor bed from which he still got the faint body warmth of Hyesung. He

almost smiled but did not succeed and only another deep sigh coming out from his chest.

Everything had happened so fast and it was like his brain was still in a processing stage with all those overloaded information that had flowed in a

flash. With his eyes still closed, the scenes from a few minutes ago flashed back.

“He’s a poor kid … Eric-ah … He’s been through the worst nightmare that I’ve ever known …”

The soft yet sad voice of his nuna was still echoing in the back of his mind. He had to admit it was quite dramatic to meet his cousin again in

this coincidental state. Minyoung Nuna was one of his favourite cousins since childhood and since she was quite older than him, she always had

that motherly image to him.

But, since he had gone to America for his studies and Minyoung Nuna had got married to a decent guy which owned an orchard in Jejudo, they

kind of lost contact for a while. That was why both of them were too shocked to see each other in an unexpected place.

The staircase of the apartment building of him and Hyesung.

 After getting Hyesung falling from the stairs and being unconscious, they carried him to his own bedroom, swallowing the questions first.

Being a nurse for nearly 10 years before marriage, it was not a difficult task for Nuna to cleanse the small cut on Hyesung’s head and dress it

thoroughly. After all those  actions in silence, they finally decided to let him sleep with a cold towel on his forehead to make his temperature

go down.

Exiting the bedroom, he just followed Nuna to the table in the kitchen since both of them had already understood that each owed an

explanation to the other. Minyoung Nuna poured him a glass of water and also one for herself before taking a seat. For him, Nuna knew

Hyesung’s apartment too well and she even knew which things were in which places.

“Eric-ah … Long time no see … You are fine … right?”

Nuna’s words just woke him up from his thoughts and he absentmindedly nodded back.

“Of course … You must be fine … You’re the good kid that I never need to worry … I heard you came back … Sorry for not contacting you soon …

Eric-ah …”

As a reply to Nuna’s words, he just mouthed “It’s ok” with a soft squeeze on her hands. Then, the silence fell again and as soon as he shifted

his position to ask a question, Nuna got the first hand.

“Think you’re also living in this building … right?”

Nodding again with a weak smile, he just sipped the water, deciding to be the listener first.

“It seems like you care about Hyesung … and … Well … actually … I kind of relieved knowing … my nice little brother is in the same building with

this poor kid … I know … Hyesung seems a little weird … but trust me … he’s a good kid like you …”

The reference “Poor kid” to Hyesung made his curiosity soar higher and he gave the questioning stare to his petite cousin.    

“I know now you’re thinking so hard about the relationship between me and Hyesung … and I think I need to explain to you …”

From keeping her stare at the glass she was holding, she looked up to his face, breathing out a soft sigh.

“I met him 10 years ago … while I was still working as a nurse … He’s a patient … of course …”

He waited her to go on talking while looking at her kind of calm expression. But his eyes still caught the slightly trembling lips of his nuna.

“He’s a poor kid … Eric-ah … He’s been through the worst nightmare that I’ve ever known …”

A tang appeared in his chest after those words from Minyoung Nuna. Finally. Finally he was about to know that nightmare of Hyesung. He was

right all this time. He knew Hyesung must have a terrible incident in his past to make him the current him full with insecurity.

“What kind of nightmare?”

After all these moments of being in silence, he finally let out his voice.

“Eric-ah … you remember that I called you a lot in your middle school years to nag you not to go out …? And you still can recall that story of a

boy I told you …?”

With those words, his breath stopped for a moment and in a flash, a piece of memory hit him suddenly. The memory he thought he had

already forgotten.

“Don’t tell me … Hyesung … Hyesung … is ‘That’ kid … 10 years ago …?”

He saw the lips of Nuna quivering a bit before she gave a weak smile to him.

“Guess you still remember this … What a good memory you have …”

Despite of Nuna’s a little laugh at the end, he did not feel like laughing or smiling at all because his brain already had recalled that incident

about a boy that his Nuna told him. And the next second he heard those words from Minyoung Nuna, he subconsciously held his breath.

“Yeah … He’s that kid … Hyesung’s the kid who got abducted and abused by a e … 10 years ago …”

He buried his head into the pillow as if those thoughts would disappear if he did like that. But of course, they did not.

Now nearly all those puzzles of Hyesung got completed and finally he found the long awaited answer that had been eating his soul recently. But

strangely, hedid not feel relieved as he had thought he would. Being far from relieved, he could feel his heart being heavier and heavier second

by second after knowing the answer.

Maybe because only now he fully realized how deep and painful of Hyesung’s scars were?

With the pieces he remembered faintly, there had been an infamous case 10 years ago, when he was around 15. It had been all over the news

and the parents from the whole nation had kept their children in front of their eyes due to this case.

A 15 year old boy getting abducted for nearly 2 weeks …

No contact from the kidnapper and no news of him for 2 weeks ..

He still remembered how he and his classmates had had all those ideas on that boy’s whereabouts. It was natural for them to take interest on

this case sincethe missing boy was at the same age with them. It had been the primary topic to talk about among the students until the police

had found him back again in the kidnapper’s apartment.

That had been all he knew through newspapers and news on TV. The details had never been released for the sake of the victim since he had

been still the minor. Only the fact that the police had arrested the culprit was known to the public and after that, that shocking incident had

faded from people’s  memories gradually. And that was exactly how he also had forgotten that incident until now.

But now with the missing pieces from Minyoung Nuna, the puzzle had been completed …

“Actually at that time … Hyesung was submitted to the hospital that I was working … but from the request from his father and the police … all

the doctors and nurses said nothing about this to anyone … I still can recall that little poor boy lying lifelessly on the bed … although he was

wide awake … and with all those marks … cuts and … bruises on his body …. I can’t still forget that thought I had … seeing him for the first time

…  ‘I really want to kill that e’ … That’s what I thought …”

“Pedo … phile?” With a frown, he could not help but disturb his nuna’s talking with his question.

“Yes … It’s that crazy e that kidnapped Hyesung and … abused him in all kinds of ways for 2 weeks ... physically … mentally … and well …

ually …”

At that moment, he realized what Nuna wanted to mean when she had used “those marks, cuts and bruises on his body”. In the time without

even himself knowing, he had already bitten his lower lip as a sign of his piled up frustration and sorrow for Hyesung. Without knowing the

reason, he just felt the pain from the place where his heart existed, imagining all those miseries that had happened to Hyesung at that such

young age.

“And the worst thing is that e didn’t just popped up and kidnapped him … He tried to get close to Hyesung beforehand … as a guy that

had just moved into the neighborhood … making friends with him … And of course he got the trust from him easily … Hyesung was a lonely kid

who’s alone all the time at home … With his dad working all the time and his mom being passed away already … That bastard took advantage of

it and … after getting close to Hyesung … he kidnapped him for his pleasure … That bastard …”

At the end of her words, he noticed how Minyoung Nuna’s voice wavered. It seemed that even till now his cousin could not forget that

incident. He decided to take her hands in his to give a soft squeeze while waiting her to go on.

“I became one of the responsible nurses for Hyesung and you know what … Eric-ah? I heard all his whimpers and cries when he’s having

nightmares … every night … His begging to that man … who he called Hyung …”

At that point, one mystery was cleared up for him. The question of why Hyesung had fainted after calling him “Hyung”…

Hyesung had been begging him … mistaking him as his “Hyung” … in his panicking state … thinking that he would harm him like that guy had

done to him 10 years ago …

“It took a year for me to get a short response from him … and we finally got close … bit by bit … Since he got betrayed by someone he trusted

… he rarely interacts with people … let alone letting them get close to him … even til now … after all these years … I think I’m the only one that

keeps in touch with him until now … and knows where he lives … besides his family lawyer …”

“Where’s his dad? He should live with him together … not alone like now …”

His sudden question caused a weak smile on his nuna’s face and she went silent for a moment without saying anything. Finally, he heard a soft

sigh from her, followed by the answer he unexpected.

“His dad passed away … after 2 years of that incident … by sudden cardiac arrest … He may be blaming himself for Hyesung’s incident and ….

Seeing his only child acting like a lifeless broken doll … all those stress and sorrow … finally … seemed to get him … Although his dad passed

away … he left some properties for his son … and now it’s under the management of his family lawyer … That’s how he can live without working

… avoiding all the possible interactions with people …”

Silence crept in again and he did not know what to say more. For his nuna, it was like she was already exhausted with all those long monologues

and explanations to him. But, then, suddenly, a question flashed in his mind.

“But I don’t think ‘Hyesung’ is the name that I heard back then … cause it didn’t ring any bell to me …”

“We made him change his name … from ‘Pilkyo’ to ‘Hyesung’ … to give him a new start … That’s why you didn’t realize it …”

He just nodded as a reply since in his mind, it was too messed up with all those things he had just understood.

“Eric-ah …”

He was taken back from being lost in his thoughts by Minyoung Nuna’s soft voice.

“Please understand Hyesung … He’s a poor kid with a deep scar … He’s afraid of people … especially men … He keeps thinking that if he shows

his face or his skin, other men will take advantage on him again … because that’s what that e guy told him … that he really liked his

pretty face … He’s afraid of trusting people again … and that’s why he keeps distance from others … Please … can you understand him? Don’t

take him wrong … He’s like a broken doll … after all …”

Minyoung Nuna’s words before he had left Hyesung’s apartment kept echoing in his mind. Since Nuna was going to stay until Hyesung got well

again, he had just left in case Hyesung would get panic attack again after seeing him in his own apartment.

He closed his eyes wishing to get some sleep but all in his mind was that guy …

That once broken doll called Hyesung …