Lead Me To You

Reaped Apart

Strip away something, especially something that hides the true nature of a thing, means to remove it completely.

The sun had set minutes ago, Jonghyun was alone in his huge penthouse, searching answers about himself. What Lea said, was true. Every single sentence of it.

He needed to find himself again. He had not been able to breathe, its been years since Hana left him. He had to learn to let go and moved on, slowly.  He had not been letting himself a chance to fall and be in love. He fiddled the ring that was still stuck on his finger.  And its that long period of a time, yet he still had not been able to move on. He was blaming on himself.

"I have to let go." He slumped himself on the sofa once again.

He nodded to himself, as if giving himself the motivation he much needed right now. The silence of the night was very much soothing. He stood up, walked up the steps towards his luxury of a bedroom and took a much needed shower. He was about to toss away his mobile on his bed, when he saw a text.

"I hate you, Jjong. I really do."

He stared at the name of the sender. He admitted, Kibum had every reason to hate him. He tossed the phone and headed for the shower. Even the warmth of the water, didn't manage to soothe his fuzzy brain. He had been in there long enough, when he heard Lea's voice.

"Are you in there?" Lea leaned against the entrance of his room.

"Yes, Lea!" Jonghyun shouted.

"Mom is here!"

He dried his ears, did he just heard the word Mom. He had alot of thoughts running in his brain. The elder woman, dropping by at this hour. He hurriedly wrapped a rope around his body and dashed out of the bathroom. Lea was long gone.

As he walked down the steps, he heard Lea's and mom's voice.

"Mom." He moved towards the sophisticated elder woman. "What bring you here? Where's dad? He was looking around for his dad.

His mom didn't answer, instead she threw a little envelope containing sonograms. Her eyes said it all. Jonghyun moved towards the table and took the little envelope dated sometime back. Lea gave him a blank stare. The two women waited.

"She was pregnant on the day she died." Mom's voice sounded so broken. "Did you ever know about that?"

She was too broken to talk. Lea had questions too. But she was saving them for later. She watched as her brother opened the envelope with his now shaking hands. What he saw was enough. A letter came along with it.

J,

I want to keep this little human that's growing inside me. I want to be a mom. Its every woman's dream. Even if you oppossed to the idea, I am still going to keep this little human.

You clearly said before we got married, you didn't want to have a child as yet. You wanted to stabilize yourself. And we argued about this often, everytime I brought this topic up.

Our marriage was perfect in your eyes. But not in mine. That's the truth. And why I am not telling you about my pregnancy, you have the answers. All of it.

We met, we fell in love. But little did we know about each other dreams. I am more of like your trophy wife. We held hands, looked at each other's eyes with so much love but behind my every smiles and laughters, I hid my broken parts. I am putting up the poker face. The mask.

With the smiles you brought me, I never thought that you could caused me so many tears.

I am broken and bend, the very moment you denied one of my dreams, I knew you were not my happily ever after. This little human will be my only companion til my death, never yours to keep. But mine.

We were the forever but didn't last. You turned the page but I burnt the book.

Not yours,

H.

His eyes got blurry, the tears, the pain that he felt came right back harder. He kept the letter back in the envelope. His lips quivered as he tried to find the right words to say to the two women who were waiting. His mom didn't even look at him. He knew he had hurt her real bad this time. This wasn't the way to find out.

"I... d..didn't kn..know." he shook his head.

"Y..you didn't know? You're her fucking husband! God!" Lea was never this pissed.

The elder woman didn't even utter a single word. Her actions spoke for itself.

"She ....

"She what, Jonghyun?! What?!"

Jonghyun kept quiet. How he wished he could just disappear right now.

"I am the selfish one! Damn it!"

The elderly woman stood up, "I read the letter. You, son. You deny the rights of her being a mother. You wanted to build your dream but not hers. I am disappointed in you." The elderly woman stared at her son. "Here's the truth. She could have been saved, she would have been alive."

Jonghyun turned.. "what did you mean by all that?"

"She planned her timely death." The elderly woman looked at him again. Cold.

Lea hugged her mom.

"Who gave you all these images and infos?"

"She chose to be anonymous."

"Tell me, mom. Please."

"I have said enough. She was the one Hana had been confiding in."

"Why now?"

"Find Claire Park."

With that, her mom picked up her expensive Birkin bag and walked out of the penthouse. Lea shut the huge door, after her mom disappeared into the lift.

"Truth hurts, don't they." Lea leaned on the wall. "In order to make peace with yourself, you have to find the truth, even the dirtiest of truth. You would never find peace until you make peace. Time to fix all these pieces." Lea walked quietly back into her room.

He felt helpless, yet he stood up and dragged his tired body to his room. He felt ashamed of himself. Ashamed and disappointed.

"Hana." He sighed.

He had been tossing and turning in bed. His mom had mentioned a name. Claire Park. He grabbed his mobile and search for the woman. He couldn't retrieve any single data about her. Who is she?

It was close to midnight, and how he wished he had someone to talk to. He felt alone. In the big size room, all he had was himself.

.........

.....

"TILL WE MEET AGAIN."

~n