CHAPTER 3

 

 

Dhelcee stood by the door of the morgue and watched the men in front of her cry their hearts out.  Seokjin was beside his older brother’s cold body and Taehyung was in between the cold metal stretchers his parents were laying on covered with a thin white sheet. She could hear Taehyung talking to his parents’ apologizing to them for not stopping them for leaving the house.  Seokjin silently cried while his hand was on top of his brother’s head.

 

Jimin just stood a foot away from his parents’ bodies and stared at them with no tears.  His eyes were blank as he just stood there.  He was not crying like the other two.  Dhelcee wondered what was going through Jimin’s mind right now.  She walked up beside him slowly she drapes her arm around his shoulder, “Jimin?”  He still remains silent and still did not budge.  “Don’t you want some closure with your parents?” She felt Jimin shiver under her arm, “What’s wrong?”

 

“I don’t want to remember them this way.”  He says quietly still staring at their cold bodies, “I want to cherish my memories of them alive and not like this.”

 

Dhelcee turns Jimin to face her and takes both of his hands into hers, “Jimin, no one is forcing you to do anything. If you want to keep your distance then we’ll let you be.  I like your idea of cherishing the moments of your parents when they were alive. I know it’s going to hurt as the days go by but hold onto to those memories and it’ll bring you happiness.  Remember you have us now as your family.” She squeezes his hands, “Noona will take good care of you and Taehyung.” She pulls Jimin into an embrace and that is when he breaks down in tears.  She comforts him by rubbing his back and telling him to let it all out. I hope Jimin and Taehyung find the peace in their hearts after we bury their parents.

 

 

--------------------------

 

 

They held the Park’s and Kim’s family funeral together and relatives of both side attended the funeral.  Seokjin greeted every relative that came to the wake of his older brother, Seokju and his wife Jiyoon.  Dhelcee stood by Jimin’s side as he greeted his relatives.  She could feel the awkward and cold atmosphere with Jimin’s relatives.  She promised him she would take care of him so she did not leave his side throughout the funeral.  She checked on Taehyung when he was left alone by Seokjin.

 

“Tae Tae?” Dhelcee approached Taehyung who was quietly sitting in the corner of the room.

 

“Noona…” Taehyung covered his faces with his hands, “I’m tired of pretending to be strong in front of all these people.  I admire Uncle Jin for his strength to face our relatives. I can’t do it anymore.  Please let me stay here until it is time to bring our parents’ to the burial site?” He removes his hands away from his face and pleads with his eyes at Dhelcee.

 

“Tae, I’ll try my best to have you stay here but if Jin says you have to come join us.  You’ll have to come okay?” She cups Taehyung’s cheek, “Rest for a while here.  I’ll be with Jimin.”

 

“Thank you Noona…you’re such a caring noona to Jimin.  I feel bad I can’t comfort him right now.  The pain is unbearable and I know he is feeling the same way too…” Taehyung covers his face once more.

 

Dhelcee pats his head and leaves him alone in the corner away from the crowd.  She looks for Jimin who is by Seokjin’s side looking down at his feet, “Jimin, are you okay?”

 

Jimin’s head snaps up at her voice, “You’re back.”

 

“I had to check on Tae Tae.  He wanted to be alone.” She places her hand on his shoulder then looks over at Seokjin, “Jin? Can you hold off on your relatives with talking to Taehyung? He wants some alone time but he understands that when you call for him he will come out from his hiding corner. He’s just in the room across.”

 

“I understand how he feels.  I’ll go talk to our other relatives for a while and soon we’ll have to go to the burial site to rest their cremation at. I’ll be back D.”  Seokjin presses a kiss on Dhelcee’s forehead before leaving her and Jimin alone.

 

Dhelcee removes her hand from Jimin’s shoulder, “Do you want to go talk to your relatives? I’ll stay by your side.”

 

Jimin looks around and sees a few of his relatives looking at him then turning their heads away, “Um, I guess I’ll talk to a few of them…” He says sadly.  For him, everything he is doing today is forced to fake a conversation with relatives that do not want him.  He does not understand why they do not like him.  They have the same blood.  But he does remember over hearing a conversation of his parents’ that they did not like their family because they are well off compared to their other relatives.  It’s not like his father was stingy with his money he did help out his uncles and aunts the best he could but some of them abused his kindness.  In the end, all the help his father did ended up as nothing.

 

“Let’s go?”  Dhelcee breaks Jimin’s train of thoughts and together they headed toward his relatives.

 

 

 

--------------------------

 

 

 

Seokjin parked the car in their garage. He turned around to look at the teens, “This will be your new home. Let’s go inside.”  He opens his car door.

 

Taehyung and Jimin also got out of the car. Dhelcee was the last to get out and followed behind the teens as they entered their home.

 

Both teens never been to Seokjin and Dhelcee’s new home.  They’re mouths gaped open at how beautiful the house was structurally designed without even stepping foot inside the home. They were just standing by the entrance area and could hear Seokjin telling them which their slippers were to wear inside the house.  The boys quickly took out their shoes and changed into their slippers.

 

Taehyung was the first to step in after following his Uncle Jin then Jimin stuck close to Taehyung side as both of them scanned their surroundings. 

 

“All your things are up in your bedroom.  Since you two are stuck like glue, you’ll be sharing a room together and you guys have your own bathroom inside the room.” Seokjin loosens his tie, “I bet you two are so tired. You guys can shower and rest.  Or are you guys up for some late dinner?  I’ll make something for you two.” He looks at Taehyung then Jimin, “Feel at home here. We’ll talk about house rules and everything tomorrow or even the following day.”

 

Dhelcee steps in and joins the boys, “Shall we give you guys a tour of our small home?”

 

Taehyung coughs, “Dhelcee noona?  What small home are you talking about? This house of you and Uncle Jin is bigger than me and Jimin’s home combined.” He and Jimin start laughing.

 

Seokjin and Dhelcee look at each other and both smiled.  They made the boys laugh for the first time since they took them from the orphanage. Dhelcee takes Seokjin’s hand, “Well this place is both your home and you need to know your way around here. Come along now boys.”

 

“As you can see we have a huge living room. It’s a good place for our guest to hang out and even have family bonding here.” Seokjin drags Dhelcee along with him and the boys trail behind the couple, “Here’s the dining area and the kitchen is right over there but we have a divider so we can pull that if ever we have guest and we want to hide the kitchen. Let’s head back toward the living room.”

 

Dhelcee now speaks up “Pass the living room area there’s a guest restroom and also a den room. Jin and I share that office if we take home our work. Let’s head up stairs.”

 

Jimin raises his hands, “Noona? How many bedrooms do you guys have?” Taehyung nudges Jimin to put his hand down.

 

Seokjin laughs at how the two best friends act, “We have four bedrooms up stairs. One master bedroom, you two have one room with private bathroom and the other two rooms don’t have one.  So, there’s a bathroom across those two rooms. Going up time!”

 

Dhelcee releases her hand from Seokjin and goes up the stairs first then Seokjin and the two best friends are giddy to see their new room. Once they reach the top floor and the couples move aside for the boys to see. Yet again, their mouths drop open like a fish.

 

“You guys have another living room area upstairs? And there’s a big flat screen TV with…” Taehyung covers his mouth as he points at the game consoles.

 

“There’s a time limit for playing with those and Jin here knows the rules so same goes for you boys.” Dhelcee firmly says with her arms crossed. Boys and their video games. “Our room is right over here by the stairs to our right.  So if you guys plan on sneaking out we’ll hear you guys so don’t you dare sneak out.” She teases.

 

Jimin cracks a smile, “Why would we do that?”

 

“You never know.  You guys might find pretty girls in this neighborhood and want to go out with them late at night. Which I do not allow.”  Dhelcee crosses her arms, “I’m a strict parent over here.”

 

Seokjin laughs, “It’s our first time being parents and your acting all strict already?”  He pinches Dhelcee’s cheeks and he gets hit by her, “I bet you guys want to see your room now. Right this way!”

 

They pass two rooms down a hallway that is on their right and there was a bathroom across from one of the room to their left.  They reach the end of the hallway and find a door on their left.  Seokjin opens the door and turns on the light, “Welcome to your new room!”

 

Taehyung runs into the room and jumps on the bed on the left side near the window, “This is my bed!”

 

Jimin also runs in and jumps on top of Taehyung, “My bed too!” He puts a lot of weight on top of Taehyung who is trying to fight him off, “This bed moves? Wow, I love this bed!”

 

“Get off of me Jimin! Go to your own bed” Taehyung finally pushes Jimin off of him.

 

They both look around and notice they have a lot of space in this room. It was still plain only beds, side bed table between their beds and two desks across from them. They noticed a walk in closet to the right.

 

Seokjin interrupts their inspection, “You noticed the walk in closet huh? The bathroom is back there and your things are all in the walk in closet. It’s pretty big so you can put both your clothes in there.”

 

“Uncle Jin, are you sure this is a bedroom? It feels like it’s a master bedroom with the large space we have here.” Taehyung tilts his head looking up at his uncle.

 

“Actually, I had it designed this way just in case our children grow up as teens they’ll have their own personal bathroom. I wanted to have two boys in one room. Well, now I have instant two teen boys to use this room.” Seokjin rest his chin on Dhelcee’s shoulder and stares at Taehyung then Jimin.

 

“I’m sorry…” Jimin says sadly. 

 

“Why are you apologizing?” Seokjin lifts his head up.

 

Jimin looks down at the ground, “You and noona just got married and are planning a family and then you have us to take care of. This room was supposed to be for your future children and not for me and Taehyung.”

 

Taehyung suddenly feels guilty and agrees with Jimin, “I’m sorry too.”

 

Seokjin shakes his head, “You two better not think that way.  We’re a family now.  By the time our future children turns into teens you two will be in college so don’t worry about it okay?”

 

Dhelcee turns around and pinches Seokjin’s ears, “Yah! Stop with your planning ahead. We’re going with the flow right now. As you can see our focus right now is our teenagers. Baby will come later one day.”

 

Seokjin rubs his ears, “I’m just stating the truth.” He makes kissy face at Dhelcee and the couple hears gagging noises behind them. They turn around to find Taehyung and Jimin pretending to throw up, “One day you’ll find love and not think this is gross.”

 

The two boys burst into laughing fits.  Jimin was the first to speak up, “We’re only 16 years old.  Nothing is serious in our age when it comes to relationship plus it’s a waste of time.” Suddenly his face turns sad as he remembers his parents’ loving faces.

 

“What’s wrong Jimin?” Dhelcee looks at him with concern.

 

“Nothing, I think I want to shower now.” Jimin stands up from his bed, “Thank you Noona and Uncle Jin for adopting me.  I’ll be a good boy and not give you guys a headache.”  He gives a 90 degrees bow at the young couple.

 

Taehyung hops out of his bed and pokes Jimin’s , “You’re too formal!” He grabs Seokjin and Dhelcee by their necks and gives them a group hug, “I LOVE YOU GUYS!”

 

Jimin takes revenge and kicks Taehyung’s hard making him slightly push the couple backwards, "Come on, lets’ take a shower.  Uncle Jin said he’ll cook us something after we shower.”

 

Taehyung releases his grip on the couple and smiles at them with his rectangle smile and the two teens run off toward their bathroom.

 

Seokjin and Dhelcee both rub the back of their necks. Dhelcee pulls her husband out of the room and together they walk down the hallway, “Aigoo, I’m now going to live with three men under one room. Too much testosterone.  Plus we have Jjangu who is also a male.  I need a girl in this house or I’ll die.”  She says dramatically with a heavy sigh.

 

Seokjin kisses Dhelcee’s neck, “Don’t say that my angel! We’ll have our little princess that will lessen the testosterone in this house. Now, let’s cook our teens some delicious food.”