The door opened with a loud thud, causing the beautiful woman in her mid-forties to turn around sharply, slightly starled by the sudden sound. She smiled and put down the knife she was using in cutting the ingredients she's going to use for the meal she was cooking for her family before walking up to the person standing on the front door who was removing his shoes and placing them on the rack. "Welcome home, Ryeowook-ah," She greeted the said young man, giving him a small, warm hug.

Ryeowook hugged her back, grinning at the smell of food cooking. "Thank you, Umma." He greeted his step-mother back, fully entering their apartment and going into the kitchen with Mrs. Kim to help her cook their dinner.

Food was ready and they heard a familiar sound of a roaring engine, a car parking in front of their house. Mrs. Kim opened the door to welcome her husband and her youngest son home, giving each of them sweet kisses on their cheeks. Jonghyun, her youngest son was literally bouncing towards the kitchen, abandoning his parents to go jump on his older brother and boast about the new dinosaur toy figurine their father bought for him.

"Look, Hyung! Appa bought this for me! I still have to get the other two kinds of species, and my Jurassic Park collection can be completed!" She can hear her son's small voice squeal enthusiastically from the kitchen and she laughed, setting the dining table so that they can have their dinner.

To her, life couldn't get any better. Someone can actually say that she's leading a simple, yet happy life with her own family. She has a hardworking and faithful husband, a kind and caring step-son who accepted her whole-heartedly, and a five year-old son who brings laughter and happiness to their somehow perfect family. But regardless of all this, she felt rather incomplete. She tried reflecting and looking at herself. She's happy now, all contented and in a very stable situation. And one can say that she's a good mother, raising a family like the one she has, because apparently, we have to admit that a complete family can be rarely seen these days. But had she been really good enough to be called a mother?

"Yeobo?" She was suddenly pulled out of her own reverie as she felt her husband's strong hand on her shoulders. Mr. Kim had a worried look on his face, his expression clearly told her that he wanted to know whether there's something bothering her. She realized that she stopped doing her task, her hands gripping the plate tighter than she wanted it to be. She smiled at him, reassuring him that she's just fine. She's been spacing out a lot lately, and she was thinking of telling her husband the truth.

--

Ryeowook was getting ready to sleep after drinking a glass of milk from the kitchen. He was already wearing his oddly cute blue pajamas with equally cute little giraffes printed all over the garment, wanting to jump on his bed after a tiring day in school and at the park, and at a new friend's house. With the feeling of his cheeks burning, he smiled like an idiot upon recalling the memory, his hands encircling the metal doorknob of his room. However, he stopped on his tracks and his smile faltered, a sound of someone crying echoed through the hallway. He opened the door of his parents' bedroom quietly, avoiding waking them up. He squint his eyes to get a better vision of the pitch dark room with only the moonlight illuminating the figure lying on the bed. He took notice of his father's sleeping figure. He was alone, his step-mother was nowhere to be found. Maybe she was the one who was crying.

He closed the door as quietly as possible, tiptoeing until the sobs became clearer for him to hear. The sound of the painful sobs took him to the guest room. The door of the said room was slightly opened, maybe that's why he was able to hear her dreadful sobs. He opened the door wider, creating squeaky sounds and there, on the bed, he saw Mrs. Kim crying, her back facing him. Her shoulders were shaking violently, and her breathing was uneven, as if she was having a heart attack. Ryeowook walked up to her and gave her a back hug, a silent comfort he knows can ease whatever pain she's feeling. He rocked her back and forth like he's lulling a baby to sleep. Mrs. Kim took care of him for the past five years since she got married with his Dad. He had seen her as his real mother since his biological mother died of cancer ten years ago. He loved her as much, and she treated him as her own son.

"Umma, you can tell me why you're being like this..." Ryeowook said, only to cause Mrs. Kim to tighten her grip on her step-son's arms.

Mrs. Kim slowly shook her head, her sobs slowly dissipating. "You wouldn't understand, son..."

"I will," He promised, his soft voice sounded so sincere.

She looked up at him, her tear drenched face showed sadness and pain, and a wave of emotion Ryeowook somehow couldn't decipher. Her eyes were red and puffy, and the young man in front of her had to fight the urge to cry, too. "I... Ryeowook-ah, I have something to tell you..."

"What is it, Umma? Just say it,"

"I... I have two sons I left five years ago to marry your Dad..." Her voice cracked and tears slowly made their way down her cheeks, her shoulders were shaking violently again. She covered her face with her plams, sobbing against it and she felt her son's arms wrap around her slender frame again, her back in vain effort for comfort.

Ryeowook didn't know what to do or how to feel about the sudden confession. He looked down and saw a picture frame with a photo of Mrs. Kim with two boys. The older one hugging her and the younger, whom he supposed was about two years old by the time the photo was taken sitting on her lap, their faces showed bliss and completeness. Ryeowook was so sure that the two boys with her on the photo were painfully familiar to him. He can't be mistaken.

Silence filled the room with Mrs. Kim's slowly subsiding sobs being the only thing audible. She told Ryeowook why she did that and all these years, she'd been feeling miserable without her sons living with her, unsure of how they're living without her and their father. Her oldest son was only older by Ryewoook for about a year or two, and the said young boy made her feel like her son's with her. She wasn't able to give her own sons the love a mother should give them all these years, so she did everything to make Ryeowook feel loved and cared so as to at least, she was feeling less guilty and miserable by taking care of the son of the man she loved. But it wasn't the same. Every single day since she left them all alone, she worried about them, wondered if they were able to eat at least three meals a day, or if they were able to live in a decent and comfortable house. But she didn't have the courage to go back to them and tell her husband the complete truth because she felt afraid that Mr. Kim won't accept them and won't love her as much as he loves her now.

She told Ryeowook everything because she knew the young man would understand and she wasn't mistaken at all.

--

Ryeowook bid good bye to his parents and his younger brother, ready to go to his University classes. What happened last night between him and his step-mother was still fresh in his mind, and seeing Mrs. Kim's sad eyes didn't help either. He was relieved that his father didn't seem to know something at all, though.

He decided to go for a walk since he left home an hour earlier, heading to the cafe located just a few blocks away from home and from the University he was studying in as music major. He pushed the cafe's glass door open, only to see a familiar man behind the counter, arranging various sizes of paper and plastic cups. The man was wearing a black cap which slightly hid half of his face, a white polo shirt and a pair of cream-coloured slacks, and an apron draped around his body with the name of the cafe imprinted on it that somehow reminded Ryeowook of a name of a fairytale about a witch getting children for her food by having her house filled with sweets.

The man behind the counter looked up, and with a smiling face he greeted, "Good morning! Welcome to-- Ryeowook-sshi!"

Ryeowook chuckled, admiring the cuteness of the other. He appeared to look like a child waving enthusiastically at him. It's in the genes, he thought as the man reminded him of Donghae. "Good morning to you, too, Yesung-sshi."

TBC.

A/N: It was short! *bawls* I'm not satisfied. Wahuhuhu. So, what do you think? :) And I finally decided to make this a mini-series. This might have 3-4 chapters more, I don't know. It depends. XD It's been a long time, huh? Lol. XD