Luminous • Jisung

51 • Past

friendly choking™ 

• Chapter 51 •

"Once upon a time, in a land far far away--" 

Jisung rolled his eyes, interrupting the older one. "Are you narrating a children's book?" 

Renjun smiled timidly before he looked away. He knew he wanted him to be more serious and straight forward about this. But it was hard for him. 

However, when Jisung came to him and asked him to have a serious conversation, also mentioning what Cho-a had said, he couldn't say no.

He wanted to decline, but he really couldn't.

Taking a deep breath, Renjun looked back up at Jisung before he began explaining. 

Of course, he barely remembered what happened in the first few years of his life. He was too young to understand, even too young to remember. 

So he started from where his memory allowed it...

His father wasn't around much. One week here and one week there. He juggled his life between two worlds and Renjun wasn't even aware of it. 

Of course, he noticed the fights between his parents. Of course, he noticed how his mother slipped into sadness and loneliness in her husband's absence. 

He was old enough to notice it - but too young to understand. 

Shortly after his sixth birthday, his father moved out. It left the boy wondering what happened. His father was gone, his mother lost all affection for him, his world got greyer by the day. 

Was it his fault? 

He didn't understand. 

His mother shifted the resentment she felt towards her husband onto her son. Tired, disinterested, broken - she asked relatives to take care of the boy. Just for a little while. 

But a little while turned into weeks. 

And weeks turned into months. 

Those relatives felt obligated to take care of him. They felt responsible for him - but not quite responsible enough. And so they pushed him from home to home, always making him leave just when he started to get too inconvenient for them.

Life went on like this until the day where he understood that

no one there wanted him.

So he ran away. He packed a small bag that was still almost too big for that little boy. He put everything he had inside it before he left to find his father.

He searched for days. Days that got repetitive. 

At night he teleported into hotel rooms or empty houses where he slept. In the mornings he left and spent the day by aimlessly wandering through the city, no clue where to go or what to do.

It was mere luck, a coincidence, that after a few weeks, Renjun found a face in the crowd that seemed so much like home.

It was mere luck that he found his father - in front of a kindergarten, waiting patiently for his wife and daughter so they could walk home together.

Renjun stood at the other side of the road, holding his own hands, gripping them tightly as his bottom lip started quivering.

His father seemed happy.