[M] Chapter 26 (1/1)

Mr. Son and Gikwang arrived at the Yangs’ house a few hours later, after making sure the children all had something to eat and telling the maids to look after them well in their absence. The children waved happily to Gikwang and thanked him again, too. Seungho opened the door as soon as they knocked and welcomed them into the house, explaining that the doctor and her husband were both at work.“I think they’ll be back soon though, if you want to wait.” the teenager said apologetically.“It’s actually you we wanted to speak to.” Gikwang smiled softly. Seungho looked surprised.“Me? Is this about owning the orphanage? Because I am forever in your debt for that.. Just to know that those children don’t have to live in the hell Seunghyun created anymore makes it easier to breathe. I want to see them as soon as I can!” he babbled, grinning. Gikwang chuckled.“They’re desperate to see you too! We’ll sort something out so you can visit as soon as possible.” He promised, smiling. Mr. Son coughed and gave the younger man a pointed look, signalling for him to get to the point. “But no, that’s not why we came here. I think we should sit down to talk about it..” Gikwang said nervously. Seungho’s expression changed drastically, his eyes big and his smiling lips tucked into a worried line.“Nothing too bad, right?” he asked anxiously. Gikwang shook his head.Seungho led them into the comfortable living room and flopped down on the end of the sofa, clearly so settled in this new house that this was normal. Gikwang perched on the place next to him and Mr. Son went to the kitchen to get them some water to drink.“So, what’s happened? Are the children alright?” The teenager questioned furtively, looking at Gikwang with the most intense look he had ever given.“The children are fine, I promise. But I was sorting through the files in Seunghyun’s old office to get some information on how to look after each child and so we could process your adoption. I found something out that you definitely need to hear.”“On my file?” Gikwang nodded and looked at his wriggling feet.“In the personality notes it said that when you first came to the orphanage as a toddler, you were very overprotective of your younger brother-” Seungho’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped.“That can’t be!” he interrupted. “My brother.. my little brother didn’t make it. Our mother died when she had him and our father killed himself shortly after. I can’t remember them at all and I never really knew either of them. I always looked after my little brother, though. But when we moved to the orphanage, I never saw him again. He was a sickly baby and he died- I’m sure of it. I don’t even remember his name or what he looked like. I can’t have been overprotective of someone who wasn’t there.” His voice was insistent, but seemed desperate, as if he was trying to convince himself more than anybody else.“Seungho, I know it’s a huge shock and I know it makes no sense, b-but the file had your brother’s name on it. The institution separated you because you were so protective. I think they thought you would try to escape or do something against the system if you knew. They put you in different rooms and kept you away from each other as much as they could..” Gikwang tried.“No! No, I would have remembered him being alive. I would’ve looked after him, I would’ve-“ The teenager was getting more upset with every word, his eyes filling with tears.“You were a toddler yourself, Seungho. You were too young to have been able to do anything about it. None of us knew. It wasn’t just you that didn’t know he was alive. If me or Doojoonie had known we would’ve told you and done everything we could to get you two back together-““So.. we know my brother? He lived alongside us? Is he still there?” Seungho asked, ignoring everything else. His voice was pleading. Gikwang nodded seriously. “Please.. please tell me this isn’t real.. I was sure he was dead.. so sure..” The teenager choked, his eyes closing. Gikwang took his hand in his and looked directly at him, his huge eyes full of pain.“I would never lie to you. Not for a second. He’s alive and I know for a fact he isn’t sick and hasn’t had it any worse than any other child in there. Him being alive doesn’t make you a bad brother. It’s the evil bastards who took him away from you and wouldn’t let you be near each other. You were both children, it was inevitable that with all the space and time you would forget or just accept that the other was forever gone. You can’t blame yourself.” He spoke gently, but in a way that Seungho could understand it was from the heart. The teenager took a shaky breath and looked dead into his hyung’s eyes.“Who is he, Kiki hyung?” he whispered.“Yoseob..” Gikwang replied, his eyes welling up. Seungho blinked at him, not quite understanding what he was hearing.“Y-Yoseobie? Little Yoseobie?” he stammered. The man nodded.“I could barely believe my eyes when I read it.. I just can’t believe that none of us suspected. I hate the institution even more than I did before for this. It’s unforgivable.” Gikwang grumbled, blinking back his tears and scrunching his fists into balls.“I.. all that time I’ve m-missed out..” Seungho stuttered, his eyes streaming. “I know h-he’s always had Hyunseung by his s-side, but the fact that I don’t even know him that well, that I-I never took the time to look after him when he needed me.. My poor little brother..” he felt like he wanted to smash something, break something into tiny little pieces so that it didn’t just have to be his heart that was shattered. The anger hurt him, tore him up inside, because that was his little brother who he thought was dead. He felt it was his responsibility to keep Yoseob safe and protect him from the dangers of the orphanage, but that he had failed not only himself but Yoseob too.“But you were there when he needed you.” Gikwang pointed out. “You were there for all of them when I wasn’t around and you made sure they were all ok. The whole reason you became sick in the first place was because you were sticking up for Yoseob. That has to account for something, Seungho.” He reminded him, squeezing his hand harder in support.“It wasn’t because i-it w-was Yoseob that I stuck up for h-him though.. I did it because I knew that’s what D-Doojoonie or you would have d-done..” Seungho admitted, sobbing.“It doesn’t matter why you did it. You did it and you saved him from being sick and took the fall for him. That’s commendable. You couldn’t have known he was your brother. If you had known, I know you would’ve been by his side at every waking second. The fact that you were overprotective of him when you were a toddler just shows how great of a brother you were then and how great you would most definitely have been if you had been given the chance. It’s not your fault they didn’t give you that opportunity..”“I know that, but it d-doesn’t make me feel better. I treated Cheolyong, Cheondoong and Changsun better than I treated Y-Yoseob. That’s so awful.” Seungho sighed. He really felt terrible knowing that he didn’t pay enough attention to the one person he should have.“This whole situation is so unfair.” Gikwang agreed, holding his arms out and pulling Seungho into a hug, holding onto him while he cried guilty tears. When they pulled away, Seungho looked at him with his red, puffy eyes.“Does Yoseobie know?” he murmured. Gikwang shook his head.“We thought I should tell you first…”“I have to tell him. He can’t go for the rest of his life not knowing he has an older brother. I’ve missed out on too much time with him already. I’m not letting him go again. He needs to know I’m here for him now. Maybe the Yangs’ will even adopt him too!” the teenager said hopefully, knowing that it would be strange at first, but excited at the prospect of being able to make it up to the younger boy. Gikwang smiled a little.“Maybe they will. Let’s not waste any more precious time. We should plan how we will tell him now and do it later on today. We have to do it properly so that he doesn’t freak out too much.” Seungho nodded in agreement. Gikwang gave him another quick hug for reassurance and then they got on with working out what they were going to do. Mr. Son helped out too when he came in to hand them their water.  A/N: here you go~~ sorry I keep forgetting to update.. aigoo.. *extra hugs and massive cookies"