This Is How A Park Show His Love. Sunjay

Chapter 14

It feels gloomy. Like in a lonely, dimly lit alleyway. No matter how hard he yelled for them to find him, they never did. He senses that the darkness is drawing him in further and deeper. There he is dragged to the floor and made to kneel in front of the grasping hands. He can only observe the faceless people, touching and twisting his body that he loses all sense of control over himself. It doesn't take him long to come to the realization that it's all worthless. Against them, all of his efforts have been pointless. He is helpless in the face of powerful, cruel hands. He thus gives them free rein to behave as they please. He's too weak against strong and unforgiving hands. And so he submits his pride and dignity by letting them treat him however they choose. Leaving him buried in a sense of shame and unworthiness.

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Sunoo woke up with a headache. He lay on the floor, grabbing his own head to ease the pain, trying to let it fade away before he tried to stand up. But the moment he attempted to move his lower body, he was struck with a sharp agony that made him stiffen in his stance. He shut his eyes as he forcefully grasped his thighs while attempting to deal with the discomfort. After some time had passed, he attempted to stand up again. He doesn't give a damn if it hurts; all he knows is that he needs to get rid of all the soiled stains. He needs to take a shower since he can't bear the feeling of the sticky substance that has been coloring his skin. Particularly when it brought to mind the worst period of his life.

With that, he finally managed to get himself to stand up and carefully make his way to the restroom. His stride was shaky as he moved slowly. He continued his steps, doing his best to avoid falling. He feels pain with each stride. His bruises, which were dispersed all over his body, felt sore and tender; stinging discomfort accompanied every movement he made. When he eventually entered the bathroom, he headed straight to the shower, avoiding his own reflection. He was aware that he was unable to face himself at this time. Turning on the shower, he let the stream fall on him as he washed off all the grime and stains.

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"Sunoo! Come down and eat your dinner! Mrs. Kim has been calling for his son to come down for the last 10 minutes.

"What's wrong with him nowadays? He was never like this before." She sighed as she prepared their dinner table.

"I'm sure he's just not that hungry. That's usual for a kid his age right?" Mr. Park voiced out his thoughts for his wife to consider.

"No, something is different. He rarely goes out of his bedroom nowadays, except when he goes to school. Even so, when he came back, he went straight to his bedroom." An audible sigh can be heard coming out of Mrs. Kim's mouth as she sits across the table.

"You think he's mad?"

"Over what?" 

"I don't know. All of this is pretty new to him."

"What? This marriage? No, you've seen him before. He was completely fine with it. He loved you, remember? Now it feels like he doesn't want to see our faces anymore."

Mr. Park couldn't help but agree with his wife's statement but decided not to say anything. Maybe it's just a phase. But he also thought that it was weird that it only happened right after they came back.

"Have you tried asking him what's wrong?"

"Of course I have. But he didn't want to say anything to me!" She voiced her frustration at their dinner table.

He looked over to his left to see his son, Jay, who had remained quiet throughout their whole conversation and whose only focus was the meal on the table.

"You know what's wrong with him?" He suddenly asked Jay.

Jay tried hard not to choke on his food because of his father's sudden question. "What? No! I mean, I don't know. Isn't he always like that?" He tried to play it cool. "But it's not like I'm that close to him to know everything about him. You should ask his friends instead." He tried to reason with himself.

His father eyed him suspiciously. "You better not have anything to do with this."

Before Jay could refute it, Mrs. Kim suddenly intervened. "Nevermind, I'm sure it's not him, dear... I'll try again with Sunoo, okay? He's my son after all."

"Don't say that; he's our son now, okay? His well-being is now my priority too." He said that while stroking his wife's hand.

She smiled at her husband's comfort. Finding relief in his words

"Thank you... I'll try to ask him again next time."

"Sure, I'm sure it's nothing."

"Okay, I'm done with my meal." Jay stood up from his chair, finding himself unable to be part of the whole conversation anymore. "Thank you for the meal." He said that before leaving them at the dinner table.

He climbed the stairs, stopping himself at Sunoo's room. Unable to contain his curiosity, he opened the door slightly to see what Sunoo was doing. There he was, lying on his side on his own bed, not really doing anything. It's been like this for weeks. He had noticed that Sunoo had been awfully quiet with everyone, and the only time they were going to see him outside his room was when he went to school. Did he even eat? Jay doesn't even remember if he ever saw him eating after that event.

He closed the door quietly and went to his own room. Maybe it's better this way. He thought. His friends were right; it turns out Sunoo, in fact, doesn't have the guts to tell anyone about what had happened to him. As a matter of fact, he can see that Sunoo is trying his hardest to conceal everything from their parents, except for the fact that he raised some suspicions due to how quiet he's acting, but that's beside the point. He wondered if one of them was the fact that he'd only been wearing long sleeves and pants for the past few weeks. To cover the bruises on his body? Those are going to take quite a long time to recover, right?

He exhaled as he threw himself on his bed. He had been very anxious that Sunoo was going to tell their parents about what had happened—especially his father, specifically what HE let happen to Sunoo. But the way Sunoo is acting indicates that he is not able to do that, to Jay's surprise. It looks like he's been saved after all. His plan had worked, and there are no repercussions on top of that. Things couldn't get any better, right? Now he just needs to deal with his friends non-stop questions about Sunoo. Everything, including how he was, whether or not he had voiced anything out, how he was acting, etc. All of which have been met with the usual answer. Jay has been sounding like a broken record while trying to answer their questions. Because there's been no progress, Sunoo has been quiet but, at the same time, doesn't complain about anything to their parents.

He closed his eyes. Letting his mind wander over what had gone by over the past few weeks, which had gone in a direction he didn't expect it to go in. It's been strangely easy for him to go through, except for a few uncomfortable instances. But that's about it. He had been trying his best to avoid Sunoo, and so did the latter. He wondered how long the younger boy would act this way or if he was going to stay that way forever. But then again, who is he to complain? Isn't this what he wanted? For the younger boy to quiet down and stop his antics?

Strange enough, Jay has also adopted the new habit of sleeping early these days. And before he sleeps, he will always catch himself thinking about Sunoo. Despite the fact that he rarely sees him now, he's all he can think about. He had noticed that Sunoo had been occupying his mind a little bit differently than before, and an unfamiliar emotion had been creeping into his heart ever since that day he decided to destroy Sunoo's innocence—a feeling he never really thought he would have developed for Sunoo—the sense of guilt and remorse.

Slowly, he lets his mind wander again before sleepiness takes over.

Sunoo...

Sunoo...

Sunoo...

Sunoo...

Sunoo...