The two finished their walk back to Shinhye’s house in silence with nothing but the sound of branches brushing against each other from the force of the wind to ensure Shinhye that she herself had not become deaf. She couldn’t so much as hear Yonghwa’s breathing, and though he was naturally quiet, this magnitude of it scared her. When they got closer to Shinhye’s house, her foster parents were seated on the doorstep as if they had been waiting for a long time. Awkward tension started to build, but Yonghwa’s pacing continued to bring them both closer. When they were of hearing distance from each other, Shinhye noticed something wet sparkling in her foster father’s eyes—tears.

            “Yonghwa,” His husky voice sounded a little shaken, but a proud smile was glued to his face, “We should have told you sooner but—“

            “I know.” He interrupted, catching Yongguk by surprise.

            “Son,” He continued regardless, “You grew up handsomely.” His compliment did not even fish out a smile from Yonghwa who had lived his entire life in dejection. What was he supposed to do? Suddenly open up to them as if they had never abandoned him? And for what reason? He couldn’t bring himself to feel even remotely happy. Shinhye saw in his eyes that they were empty. There was no sense of reunion at all.

            “We’re sorry,” Sunhwa sighed apologetically with tears welled up in her eyes as she pulled Yonghwa in for a hug. Sunhwa’s hugs were always the most comforting, filled with the love she had and hope in the younger generation. Whenever Shinhye felt upset, Sunhwa’s hugs always helped make things better, but even more surprisingly though, Yonghwa pushed her away. Immediately after he turned away to leave, he gave a lasting glance of grief that spoke to Shinhye’s heart. Sunhwa and Yongguk watched as he exited along the concrete pathway that linked to the sidewalk. No words could describe how broken his leave had left them. With not so much as a glance backwards, he continued down the street until their eyes could see no more than a small black speck absorbing into the darkness.

            “Let’s go inside…” Shinhye insisted, putting her arms around her foster parents as she ushered them back into the house. Something red caught her eye, nudged between the hinges of her front door. She pulled it out, seeing a beautifully blossomed red rose, presumably newly trimmed with a white note attached. When did it get here? She slipped the note off the stem and opened it, immediately dropping both the note and flower onto the cement.

            “What’s that?” Yongguk wondered after seeing Shinhye’s awestricken expression and picked it up to see for himself. Sunhwa looked over his shoulder to glance at the note and gasped. On the white sheet of paper was three characters, 정용화, written in black with a giant red x as bloody as the petals of the rose crossing out Yonghwa’s name. This made Shinhye wonder if Minhyuk had been here recently? The thought of someone so mysteriously dangerous being so close to parents whom she nearly considered her very own made her shudder.

            “Do you think this is a threat?” Sunhwa mumbled her question into Yongguk’s ear and then bit her lip nervously. Yongguk squinted at the red rose which lay motionless on their cement doorstep, and with one stomp, it had been crushed, the petals ripped from the stem that bore them. His right foot swept the petals off the doorstep and he crumbled the note in his hands.

            “It very well could be, but what they want I’m not so sure about.”

@}--,--'----

            The next few days of school felt like the most painful to Shinhye since the school year started. The ignorance she received from Yonghwa was starting to cripple her, so much that Hyomin feared leaving Shinhye alone for even one class. She still foolishly always looked forward to music; always so sure that Yonghwa would be there like he always was with his chin resting on the palm of his hands as he stared out into the sky, face glowing under the morning sunshine. For the past few days though, he hadn’t showed up in class. Was he just avoiding her? Hyomin claimed to have had seen him in the hallways a few times this week, and she even put down her pride to try and chat but he’d brush her off with a lighthearted ‘I’m busy’ and continued on his way like the jerk she always believed he was. Only for a brief time period did Hyomin even try to change how she saw him just for the sake of her best friend, but now he was crossing the line.

            Secretly though, it killed Yonghwa just as much to have to do it, but he didn’t know what to think anymore. Did Shinhye actually not know, or did she just not want to tell him? He felt so entitled to know everything, after all, it was his family, his history, and his right to knowledge he’d been deprived of. That frustrated him the most, and though he could barely accept that such kind hearted people could have done something so cruel to their own son, he thirsted to know more. He finally understood why orphans would go through so much trouble and even put their life on the line for such a crazy goose chase, but now he was that very orphan.

@}--,--'----

            The next day he decided he would skip school altogether and visit Sunhwa. In pursuit of a better understanding, he hid all his emotions away and went straight to Shinhye’s house after he was sure she had left for school so that they would not have to meet. No one answered the doorbell, and after the fourth ring, he decided to check the backyard. There she was, sitting on a bench wrapped in a long, violet colored scarf with a mug of hot tea in her hands. He stared at her for a while, the face of a mother he had never known, when she looked up and caught sight of him. She nearly choked on her tea.

            “What brings you here?” She asked curiously, unable to contain the delight she felt after she believed that Yonghwa would never want to see her again.

            “I need to know some things.” Yonghwa began, eyeing her as she took another sip of hot tea. Her smile was innocent and untainted, just like Shinhye’s.

            “I believe you need to know as well.” She agreed, trying to sort what to tell him first. She never wanted her son to be entangled in the mess that she believed she ultimately created, but now it was too late. Even Kang Minhyuk’s been deeply sewn into their dark history, there was no way Yonghwa could go on living obliviously when his very life was in danger.

            “Let’s start with why you left me, and we’ll branch from there. Tell me everything, and don’t leave out a single detail.” He said demandingly but with a soft voice that could not offend. She took a deep breath, readying herself for a long history lesson as Yonghwa prepared his mind for the truth, no matter how painful it would be.

A/N: Okay this chapter was kind of boring, sorry XD But I needed it to build up for a mass revelation of information next chapter. I decied to write this before studying today, but now I have to go beat another 6 hours of studying before I can decide whether I want to write another chapter x] Hope this chapter will leave you with a few guesses until it's all revealed in chapter 16.