"Sometimes late at night our memories sneak out of my eyes and roll down my cheek." Aliza Grace—
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No one knew his age, so they guessed about three months when he arrived. At first, Minho did everything with him to keep the baby safe. His little brother.
The caretakers thought it would pass, kids were like that. They took a liking to a certain thing for a while and then forgot about it completely. Besides, it was the first time the little boy got attached to any of his 'brothers', he'd always treat them all the same.
It was different with Jisung. It had been ever since they found him.
Minho spent day and night next to the baby's crib, playing with his plastic plains and his stuffed animals next to him, showing the boy everything he knew at his young age, loving when the baby laughed and tried to play with him.
Minho was who taught Jisung his first word unintentionally, surprising everyone one day when the baby first mumbled 'Minmin' between chuckles. The kid had been proudly showing Jisung around the orphanage, stopping everyone he would cross paths with to let them hear how his baby was saying his name, no less. It was one of the few times Minho spoke to someone else besides his Noona.
After he first started talking, Jisung had learned another few words here and there such as 'plain', 'cat' or 'teddy', picking up terms from everything Minho would tell him about. The older boy would always say how smart Jisung was to other people, prideful, he started talking more just because of Jisung and his progress and the caretakers were beyond happy.
The only moment the boys were appart were during Minho's 'meetings'. He would hold onto his Noona's hand tightly, chewing on his own two fingers gently as he waited in discomfort for the doors to the usual office to open. Always, a smiling man and woman would turn their heads to look at him enter.
"Hello, buddy." one of them would say. Minho's frown would never leave his little features.
They would talk, sometimes more, some others, less. "Are you going to be Sunggie's mommy and daddy too?" he would ask. A single question, ten simple words.
"Well, we were hoping to be just your mommy and daddy, honey." they'd always reply.
His frown would deepen and he would return to biting on his fingers. "But Ji needs a mommy and daddy too."
In the end, not him nor Jisung would get adopted.
One of those times, he came back to a caretaker praising a giggling Jisung, standing on his own two feet, trying to walk towards one of Minho's toys. He cried that whole day because he missed his baby's first steps, and Minho had been there for all of Jisung's firsts. Two strangers had taken away this one.
