nytis
"hello?" a petit lady with a black veil attached to her head opened the door.
"sister dami!" chan called out, waving excitedly. a smile broke out on the lady's face.
"chan! is that you?" dami pulled the boy into a hug, "it's been too long, is that jihoon and seungcheol behind you?" she beckoned the other two over, "all three of you have changed so much since your last visit! come in, come in! the children have been waiting for you!"
stepping into the building, the boys were greeted with the faint smell of clover flowers. the walls of the building were still a beautiful pale blue and the chatter of kids could be heard everywhere.
"did you hear? seungcheol and his brothers are coming today!"
"what today?! i thought it was tomorrow!"
"i wonder what gifts they brought this time!"
"i'm gonna see them first!"
"no, me!"
"my, i can't believe how much you've all grown," another woman wearing the same sort of outfit as dami appeared. her face was lined with wrinkles but it still had a bright smile. children peeked out from behind her back, some whispering excitedly and others straight up yelling and waving at the three boys.
il ryuji, the head of the orphanage welcomed the boys warmly. she pulled all of them into tight hugs, stopping when seeing the fading bruises on jihoon's neck. "lee jihoon... getting into trouble again?"
"sister ryuji," jihoon said, bowing his head, "i was nothing big. i'm glad to see you and everyone else well. we've brought some treats for everyone." jihoon laughed and handed her the basket of cookies and the flowers.
"you three are too kind," ryuji said, taking the gifts. "we'll gather all the kids in the hall, that's where we'll hand them off to you. let me tell you, some of them are beyond excited." she smiled and glanced behind her back.
"we're glad that we can bring them a little extra happiness, even if it's just for one day."
all kinds of children stayed at clover field. all of them having different stories and reasons for being here. jihoon looked at the different kids all gathering in the hall. some on crutches, others on wheels, some children running around with missing limbs while other sat around signing with their hands.
jihoon could almost see himself in the crowd with chan running around him and seungcheol chasing after him. seeing everyone gather brought a feeling of nostalgia.
"see? that's seungcheol and his brothers! i told you they would come today!"
"look at that big bag he's holding, i wonder what's inside..."
loud clapping, silenced the noisy group of kids. "today we've got special guests! for all the children who don't know, these people are choi seungcheol, lee jihoon and lee chan. they're here to accompany you today!" dami's words received a bunch of different reactions. some cheered, others clapped while other kids were indifferent.
"cheol, why don't you.." jihoon nudged his head towards the bag seungcheol was holding. placing down his crutches, seungcheol took a seat on a chair and held up the bag.
"voila! i present to you my magical bag of wonders!" the children snickered at seungcheol.
"there's no way that bag is magic."
"it's magical?"
"he's a wizard!"
"i spent lots of time making these," he said to the curious children gathering by his seat. "so i hope that you all like them." finally opening the bag, both jihoon and chan looked over his shoulder as well to see what he made.
it turns out that seungcheol spent his days at home, carving and making little wooden toys for the children. there were even some soft toys inside the bag as well, nonetheless all the toys inside were made from scraps of wood, metal, grass, fabric. anything seungcheol found lying around.
the eyes of the children glimmered all of them reaching out for the ones that they liked. chan and jihoon grabbed a small bunch and handed them out to the kids that couldn't make it to the hall, such as the sick children stuck in their beds and the little babies still in their cribs.
"seungcheol! do you remember me?" a little boy with a gaped tooth smile ran up to him.
"of course i do sho," seungcheol ruffled the boy's curly brown hair. "still hitting squirrels with pine cones?"
"no way! i stopped a year ago when you told me it was bad."
more children gathered around seungcheol, some poking at his crutches other running around his legs.
"let's go outside!"
"yeah! cheollie you're it for tag!"
and like that, seungcheol was dragged outside by a group of kids. jihoon and chan laughed, "he's gonna be so tired after today." chan said, chuckling. raising the books in his hands, chan looked at the rest of the children. "who wants to hear the story about the big bad wolf?" just a few simple words like that, resulted in a large swarm of kids crowding around chan.
now all that's left was jihoon. there were already plenty of kids that crowded him as well. "jihoonie!" a young girl sitting in a wheelchair came up to him. her upper body was like any other girl but below her waist, two stumps were there instead of legs.
"serin," jihoon said, "you want to go drawing again?"
the girl nodded her head, "i'm learning how to draw flowers and i want to show you my drawings!"
jihoon smiled fondly and grabbed the handles of her wheelchair, "let's go then." the boy looked behind him at the other kids and waved his hand, "come with us!" the kids nodded and clambered to their feet. running after the two excitedly.
"jihoonie, can you tell us stories too?"
"we love your fairytales!"
"and the funny stories about seungcheol!"
all these children growing up without parents, spending their days in the same old building. i can't give you much but if i can make you smile for just a day then, i'll do it.
"you just wait, i've got plenty of stories about seungcheol to tell."
